We have company for the Fourth. One of the step-daughters and her boyfriend. They were walking around the place and spotted a rat going into one of the "Garbage" cans I use for horse feed. This is not exactly an earth shattering unique experience mind you, but their being "City Folk" had them concerned. OK, so I was not happy to have my morning coffee interrupted, the rat had to pay. I have a variety of suitable tools for such problems but have really developed a liking for my Ruger Single-Six fixed sight "Vaquero" type. I never really have thought "why do I take this pistol" , I just do.
Anyway, with my audience followlig a respectful distance behind, I "kicked the bucket" as it were. They were correct there was a rat. At this point let me mention that this had all the significance to me of, say, putting a dirty plate in the sink. Not an "event" , but the two were, for some reason entertained, I guess. Rat runs, countrygun shoots, "A rat writ, wrote for a rat and this is lawful service of same" 'Bang" R.I.P. Rat.
The funny part you are waiting for is that, until the "audience" mentioned it, I had not noticed, the rat was about 12 feet away, heading for 13 at a high rate of speed, I didn't even bring the pistol to eye level. I , of course, acted casual about it, but it dawned on me that I didn't often, "Draw a fine bead" when rat shooting with that pistol. I hit, at close ranges, on rats or any small target, more often than not and I had never noticed I wasn't bothering with the sights. Even in it's scaled down version, Col. Colt's design is a natural pointer. I have done quite a bit of practicing such shooting with DA revolvers, and some autos, but I had honestly not noticed that I was doing it "naturally" with the SA. This is of course what I was trying to deliberately cultivate, with mixed results, with other designs.
Of course I admit to doing some hipshooting with my big bores but it is just that "practice" since I don't get in showdowns on Main Street very often anymore. I was just surprised that I had slipped into the actual practice, on a silly little level, without even noticing it.
Silly but I thought I'd share the experience.
Funny "Single Action" event this morning
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In fact, I had something akin to that happen one time.
Now, to preface the story, I don't mind yard work at all... But the planting of all those "annual" flowers in the flower box that borders my driveway - well that is not my thing. My job is to keep the yard under control and properly squared away. That frilly stuff is for my wife to do if it is to get done - or at least that is what I think in my head but don't dare say out loud. (My dad once told me "son you can be right or you can be happy, but not both.) So I spent the better part of a Sunday afternoon putting 96 petunia plants in that flower box, with the wife overseeing the job. (Again, I had to keep in mind what my dad had told me.) Not a lot of work, but I would rather have been working on a gun or cranking out rounds at the reloading bench.
Well, Monday morning I get up and 36 of the 96 plants are G-O-N-E gone! Oh boy... I was so hacked off I was ready to declare a sick day and seek revenge against the stinking deer that had done me this great injustice. Should I use a slug, or hit it with the old .30-'06? Ah... The heck with that... What about setting up a trip wire with a canister of 4f powder on the other end? Naaah - that might crater the ground, and my septic tank was right under that spot... Dang it! What to do to get that deer??? Well, since I couldn't make up my mind, I went on to work. I stayed hacked off all day, plotting my revenge on that deer.
That afternoon, returning from work, I stopped at the top of the drive way to get the mail... I looked down at the flower box to discover the biggest, fattest, cottontail rabbit I have ever seen. But no wonder... The long eared eating machine had been grazing the salad bar all night and half the day. He had taken out another 14 petunia plants! "Oh, your mine you son of a %&^(#$!" I proclaimed as I put the truck in neutral, cut the engine, and reached into the console to get my Glock 21 loaded with 230 grain Federal Hydroshoks. "You just stay right there and I will be with you in a couple of seconds." I took my foot off of the brake and slowly, almost silently, rolled down the driveway. He saw me and jumped off the edge of the flower box into the yard, but did not run away... I knew he was right there hiding behind the outside wall of the box. I silently opened the door of the truck and crept up on Mr. Cottontail, Glock 21 at low ready. When I popped my head up over the edge of the box, he took off at a run that would have made Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit look like he was nailed to the ground. All I know was that I swung the Glock up toward the rabbit and the Glock spoke. Mr. Cottontail suddenly moved laterally about 2 feet and decided to rest on his left side. "Holy Cow! Did I just make that shot without sights?", I was thinking to myself. Then my neighbor from across the road came over to see if I had scored a hit. He had been watching me the entire time. He walked over to the rabbit and flipped him over, only to discover that there was a huge hole in his left side, the result of the exiting 230 grainer. "Dad gum, Mike... I've never seen anyone shoot a running rabbit with a handgun before... Never seen one with his left side missing like that either", he said. He spent the next week telling all of our neighbors about my run in with the rabbit and how I corrected the situation.
I hadn't really thought about it, but I guess my dad's method of teaching me to point shoot really did work all those years ago. He had me practice with a Daisy BB gun modeled after a Colt SSA. "Smooth is fast, son. One smooth motion until you are on target, then fire. Just keep working at it and it will come to you." He was right. I've only had this sort of situation occur to me one other time, and it was on the first shot I ever fired in an IDPA match (that I was chastised into entering - I was only at the range to sight in a rifle.) I blew the center "A" out of the target before I ever brought the 1911 up to eye level. I heard the match coordinator come out with an explitive after that first shot. I completed the course and was proud to hear at the end of the day that I had placed 1st in the stock auto pistol class. There is something to be said for teaching yourself or your children the art of point shooting. I feel certain that I would go to a "point shoot" first shot if I was in a "think fast, shoot fast" situation, and I think it would be an advantage for me.
A long time ago, one of my now deceased uncles had a new Bearcat. He did what any young fellow with an SA did in the 1960's--fast draw and point shoot.
He asked out a pretty girl who loved the outdoors for a squirrel hunting date. He drew and point shot a moving fox squirrel at about 20 yards. She was impressed. She later married him, they had three kids and a long marriage.
It pays to practice :-)
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