do we need semi-auto rifles
02-01-2008, 07:43 AM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Heaven IA USA
Posts: 2,597
RE: do we need semi-auto rifles
If you wanted to pursue it even farther you could ask the question, "Do wereally need to hunt big game with rifles period"? I mean there is always a bow.... Then we could continue and say do we really need to hunt big game at all?
It isn't a matter of need as I see it. I don't own a high power semi anymore but maybe someday I will. This type of thinking starts us down a very slippery slope. Keep chipping away at the 2nd Amendment and eventually you won't be able to own that bolt action you love (of course being from Canada that wouldn't apply).
It doesn't matter what other people use tohunt their game as long as it is done legally and ethically I wouldn't be critical.
It isn't a matter of need as I see it. I don't own a high power semi anymore but maybe someday I will. This type of thinking starts us down a very slippery slope. Keep chipping away at the 2nd Amendment and eventually you won't be able to own that bolt action you love (of course being from Canada that wouldn't apply).
It doesn't matter what other people use tohunt their game as long as it is done legally and ethically I wouldn't be critical.
02-01-2008, 07:47 AM
#3
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 679
RE: do we need semi-auto rifles
ORIGINAL: Antler Eater
If you wanted to pursue it even farther you could ask the question, "Do wereally need to hunt big game with rifles period"? I mean there is always a bow.... Then we could continue and say do we really need to hunt big game at all?
It isn't a matter of need as I see it. I don't own a high power semi anymore but maybe someday I will. This type of thinking starts us down a very slippery slope. Keep chipping away at the 2nd Amendment and eventually you won't be able to own that bolt action you love (of course being from Canada that wouldn't apply).
It doesn't matter what other people use tohunt their game as long as it is done legally and ethically I wouldn't be critical.
If you wanted to pursue it even farther you could ask the question, "Do wereally need to hunt big game with rifles period"? I mean there is always a bow.... Then we could continue and say do we really need to hunt big game at all?
It isn't a matter of need as I see it. I don't own a high power semi anymore but maybe someday I will. This type of thinking starts us down a very slippery slope. Keep chipping away at the 2nd Amendment and eventually you won't be able to own that bolt action you love (of course being from Canada that wouldn't apply).
It doesn't matter what other people use tohunt their game as long as it is done legally and ethically I wouldn't be critical.
02-01-2008, 08:00 AM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Heaven IA USA
Posts: 2,597
RE: do we need semi-auto rifles
thank you for the input ....here in CANADA the goverment will pass a law soon [to remove all semi- auto] i don't know why but that is the case..
Thank you for the civil reply. I was afraid you would think my words were attacking you personally which was not the intent.
It is scary to think a government would make laws like that. Very Frightening.
[
]Good luck...
02-01-2008, 08:06 AM
#5
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 6,471
RE: do we need semi-auto rifles
do we realy need semi-auto rifles for HUNTING big game ...i got rid of mine and now only use bolt-action .. [one shot ,one kill]
02-01-2008, 08:26 AM
#6
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: The Republic of Texas
Posts: 12,040
RE: do we need semi-auto rifles
So, do you work for T/C? Because the obvious ultimate question is "do you need anything other than a single-shot? (one shot, one kill...) Where exactly are you going with this? Since we don't NEED semi-autos for hunting, why not allow them to be banned? Frankly, it's nobody's business what is in my gun safe (and the 2nd Amendment isn't about what we need or don't need for hunting).
A few other lines of thought...
Do we really NEED Corvette Stingrays? The speed limit is 70, why do we need cars that will do 180 mph? Perhaps the government should ban all engines that aren't 4-cylinders...
Do we really NEED beef? We can get all the protein we need from chickens. And chickens don't create nearly as much methane as cattle, which is a green house gas that causes global warming...
Do you really NEED a 3000 square foot house, when you could live comfortably in a 2000 square foot house, and use less energy for heating and cooling and less resources to build and maintain the house?
How far do you want to take this?
A few other lines of thought...
Do we really NEED Corvette Stingrays? The speed limit is 70, why do we need cars that will do 180 mph? Perhaps the government should ban all engines that aren't 4-cylinders...
Do we really NEED beef? We can get all the protein we need from chickens. And chickens don't create nearly as much methane as cattle, which is a green house gas that causes global warming...
Do you really NEED a 3000 square foot house, when you could live comfortably in a 2000 square foot house, and use less energy for heating and cooling and less resources to build and maintain the house?
How far do you want to take this?
02-01-2008, 08:33 AM
#7
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 679
RE: do we need semi-auto rifles
ps .no i don't work for T/C ..i retired 5 years ago ..worked 30 years for general motors ..i started hunting at the age of 16 and i am 63 now ..i have hunted small game ,and big game deer, bear, caribou and moose .all i want is some input ,i knew i was going to kick up dust with my posting ..
02-01-2008, 08:48 AM
#8
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: West Liberty Iowa USA
Posts: 124
RE: do we need semi-auto rifles
In this day and age few people "need" a gun for anything. The point is, It is your right to own one, as long as you are a law abiding citizen of the USA. On that subject there can be no lattitude, since once you start limiting peoples' rights, where would you stop? I don't own a semi auto rifle at this time, but I wouldn't want my right to do so taken away.
02-01-2008, 08:50 AM
#9
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location:
Posts: 6,357
RE: do we need semi-auto rifles
In a word . . . yes. There are certainly situations where having a semiauto is needed.
For example, my hunting partner injured the ligaments in his left wrist in an on-the-job accident. After two surgeries, the final word is, the wrist is not going to get better. My friend has had to change his work from driving trucks to something that does not require him to grip with any more than 5 LBS of force. What kind of a restriction is this? When I squeeze a bathroom scale with both hands, I can get the weight up to 180 LBS, 90 LBS per hand. I am not an exceptional physical specimen and I don't work on increasing my grip. Thus, 5 LBS gripping force is a pretty severe physical limitation. My friend has had a hard time using his pump shotgun this year during the duck hunting season. He has concluded that he will simply have to dump the pump and buy an auto shotgun.
It strikes me that, given this experience and condition, that my friend may have a hard time operating a bolt action rifle. Maybe operating the bolt quickly requires one to put a very solid grip on the fore end of the stock with the left hand while working the bolt? Thus, unless my friend is content hunting big game using a single shot, he may need to move to a semi-automatic big game rifle if he want to take timely follow-up shots.
Yes, there is a need for semi-auto rifles for big game hunting. It always torques me off that people ask these kinds of questions. Because I don't have one, it ain't needed seems to be the level of thinking involved. Sorry if I am jumping your case, heinz57, I have just heard this kind of thing from the gun control crowd, for example my sister. "Well, you don't NEED an assault rifle! Therefore you should have no objection to voting for John Kerry!" Sorry, please don't presume what I do or do not have a need for in the way of assault rifles. I bet if I lived in one of the poor districts of New Orleans having a semi-auto "assault rifle" with a 30 round clip might have given one a warm, comforting sense of well being in about September 2005 when looters were running around stealing stuff.
After reading other posts on this thread, heinz57, I see you are NOT advocating banning semi-autos, but just asking a question. Given the context -- Canadian government moving to ban all semi-autos -- the question appears larger than your original question. The question, more to the point, is "do we need semi-autos for hunting?" As I explain above, my friend very definitely DOES need a semi-auto for duck hunting. Duck hunting very definitely relies upon fast follow-up shots -- either to kill an injured duck or to execute a double (I shot a double on Gadwall last Saturday evening, yay!). My friend simply cannot operate his pump shotgun any longer due to his wrist ligament injury. He went hunting with me Saturday night, shot about 6 times, and the pain in his wrist from operating his pump shotgun prevented him from going out with me to duck hunt again the next morning as had been our plan.
This issue of physical limitations comes up in a number of contexts. One of the things that was linked with the "assault weapons" ban here in the states was a pistol grip on the rifle was "bad" or a sign of a banned weapon. For a time I had a wrist injury that prevented my wrist from flexing without some pain. Gripping a standard big game rifle around the grip just behind the trigger and flexing my wrist to place the gun into shooting position against my shoulder involved flexing my wrist to a painful degree. While thankfully this wrist injury has passed, it occured to me at the time that a pistol grip stock would avoid this particular wrist flexing operation to shoot my gun.
For example, my hunting partner injured the ligaments in his left wrist in an on-the-job accident. After two surgeries, the final word is, the wrist is not going to get better. My friend has had to change his work from driving trucks to something that does not require him to grip with any more than 5 LBS of force. What kind of a restriction is this? When I squeeze a bathroom scale with both hands, I can get the weight up to 180 LBS, 90 LBS per hand. I am not an exceptional physical specimen and I don't work on increasing my grip. Thus, 5 LBS gripping force is a pretty severe physical limitation. My friend has had a hard time using his pump shotgun this year during the duck hunting season. He has concluded that he will simply have to dump the pump and buy an auto shotgun.
It strikes me that, given this experience and condition, that my friend may have a hard time operating a bolt action rifle. Maybe operating the bolt quickly requires one to put a very solid grip on the fore end of the stock with the left hand while working the bolt? Thus, unless my friend is content hunting big game using a single shot, he may need to move to a semi-automatic big game rifle if he want to take timely follow-up shots.
Yes, there is a need for semi-auto rifles for big game hunting. It always torques me off that people ask these kinds of questions. Because I don't have one, it ain't needed seems to be the level of thinking involved. Sorry if I am jumping your case, heinz57, I have just heard this kind of thing from the gun control crowd, for example my sister. "Well, you don't NEED an assault rifle! Therefore you should have no objection to voting for John Kerry!" Sorry, please don't presume what I do or do not have a need for in the way of assault rifles. I bet if I lived in one of the poor districts of New Orleans having a semi-auto "assault rifle" with a 30 round clip might have given one a warm, comforting sense of well being in about September 2005 when looters were running around stealing stuff.
After reading other posts on this thread, heinz57, I see you are NOT advocating banning semi-autos, but just asking a question. Given the context -- Canadian government moving to ban all semi-autos -- the question appears larger than your original question. The question, more to the point, is "do we need semi-autos for hunting?" As I explain above, my friend very definitely DOES need a semi-auto for duck hunting. Duck hunting very definitely relies upon fast follow-up shots -- either to kill an injured duck or to execute a double (I shot a double on Gadwall last Saturday evening, yay!). My friend simply cannot operate his pump shotgun any longer due to his wrist ligament injury. He went hunting with me Saturday night, shot about 6 times, and the pain in his wrist from operating his pump shotgun prevented him from going out with me to duck hunt again the next morning as had been our plan.
This issue of physical limitations comes up in a number of contexts. One of the things that was linked with the "assault weapons" ban here in the states was a pistol grip on the rifle was "bad" or a sign of a banned weapon. For a time I had a wrist injury that prevented my wrist from flexing without some pain. Gripping a standard big game rifle around the grip just behind the trigger and flexing my wrist to place the gun into shooting position against my shoulder involved flexing my wrist to a painful degree. While thankfully this wrist injury has passed, it occured to me at the time that a pistol grip stock would avoid this particular wrist flexing operation to shoot my gun.
02-01-2008, 08:51 AM
#10
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 679
RE: do we need semi-auto rifles
ORIGINAL: kirby375
In this day and age few people "need" a gun for anything. The point is, It is your right to own one, as long as you are a law abiding citizen of the USA. On that subject there can be no lattitude, since once you start limiting peoples' rights, where would you stop? I don't own a semi auto rifle at this time, but I wouldn't want my right to do so taken away.
In this day and age few people "need" a gun for anything. The point is, It is your right to own one, as long as you are a law abiding citizen of the USA. On that subject there can be no lattitude, since once you start limiting peoples' rights, where would you stop? I don't own a semi auto rifle at this time, but I wouldn't want my right to do so taken away.