doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Long shots, Lucky shots & Lies

I often wondered who that other hunter was that day...I covered myself with leaves and Laird almost stepped on me.

Chuck H., it was then too, and for many years before that.

KB: There is some historical basis for saying the reason America and Canada developed differently was that Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamiltion were a few men short and stimied by weather when they made a move against a key British position two centuries ago. The real question is whether Canada would be any different today had the French not lost the Battle of Quebec--yet won the war of words. C'est la vie!

A good read on te topic is America: A Citizen's Guide by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (of The Colbert Report, and Canadian, I think). While a humourous account of American governemt in action (or inaction), there are numerous sidebars by one Samatha Bee explaining how Canadians are different. According to Samantha, "The story of America's independance from England is very well known, but did you know that Canada was once part of the British empire? It's true! We Canadians threw off the same British yoke as you, only we took a more leisurely route to liberation. In fact, you might say we've been 'declaring' our 'independance' for more than 200 years. Kind of...I'm sorry if this in any way seems like I'm bragging."

My wife Nancy and I have spent the past 36 years knocking about in our various sailbosts, living in an international community of like minded long-distance sailors on both sides of the big pond. Consequently most of our friends are non-Americans, and of this group, Canadians predominate. Socializing in the netrual venue of the Carribean six-on-and-six-off is quite different from taking a quick jaunt just across our mutual border. My observation of Canadians is that the Anglos and Americans are almost indistinguishable except for an occasional flaw of diction: "Ooot and abooot" via Toranto; Cha-kah-gah and "Dah Bears" from our second city; and the usual east coast afflictions of "Baastan" and New Yaak." And, of course, references to the "Great White" are lost on newbie American sailors.

The Quebecois are a mixed story; some fly the Quebec flag to the exclusion of the Maple Leaf, much to the consternation of Anglos and some French Canadians who do not wear their langauge on their sleaves. And often much to the consternation of the French nationals who actually have a Cabinet-Level department that perscribes usage that's legal, and there's even a National holiday to celebrate the French language.

In other words, true Frenchmen... OK, and Frenchwomen...wait, Frenchpersons Huh? I'll try again: Frenchmen and Frenchpersdaughters hear Canadian French as somewhat like Splanglish--neither fish nor fowl. To quote Samantha Bee on the topic: "One neat thing about Canada is that all our government business is conducted in both French and English, because a small minority of Canadians, called 'Quebecious,' never wanted to learn English, and we thought it was rude to ask them to. But the good news is that everyone has to learn French! Though actually, it's not really French, it's a regional patois that actual French people despise." Again, this is the Canadian counterpoint in a book about America authored by a Canadian. I'm not making this up!


Yet from my view, most Canadians are more like Americans than one would think, especially when removed to a mutually foreign port. I recall back in the early 1980s when our kids were aboard and they were our socializers; their friends' parents became our friends, and sometimes the kids would have to interpet for their parents who could not communicate in English. This blew me away; I had thought the language thing was completely political, but today I think all our French Canadian friends are up to speed on the language that greases the skids everywhere. Or so it seems, and thus Canadains have more or less morphed to the American template, just as we, too, have lost our regional distinctions. The thick Southern Drawl is history.

I'll give the parting shot on the differences between Canada and America to Samantha Bee. She describes the Canadian media as being different in-so-far as the CBC is government funded to produce public interest programming--sort of like our PBS. The difference is the lack of non-government programming and the "Canadian Content Laws" to: "...protect our essential 'Canadian-ness,' which we usually define as listing the ways we aren't American...[but]...honestly, looking back, I don't think the differences were substantial enough to justify this essay." And I agree, EDM

EDM

Lucky

Almost 30 years ago I was forced to shoot a Brown Bear. It was charging and I had no where to run, not that I could have outrun him anyways. I had a Win. 270 with a 3X9 scope cranked all the way up to 9X. Dumb. First saw him at less than 60 yards away and he was already charging straight at me. Spent five or ten minutes it seemed trying to find him in the scope. Another five minutes to figure out that I was looking at his eye. One shot and he dropped at less than 30 yards with the bullet entering just to the mid-line of his eye and exiting out the rear of his skull. Truth is that the entire event may have been six or seven seconds, but it seemed like much more. Traded the .270 later as every time I shot the gun it brought back bad memories.

Had I had more time, I should have tried for a warning shot to break the charge, but I did not have time enough to think about what I should or could do. I saw, mounted, pointed, focused, pulled the trigger and shook for more than a half hour later. Scared does not cover my feelings at the time.

Long shot, Luck shot,

While a teen, I was out crow shooting with my buddy. We had no luck that morning and spotted a crow way across a field. With my trusty .22, 2 X 7 scope, I calmly called a shot at over 250 yards. Held four feet into the stiff wind and had over three feet hold over. Shooting the cheapest bullets that I could afford at the time. One shot, two or three seconds later the bullet seemed to make a solid thunk and the crow fell over stone dead. Made my buddy walk over and get my bird. We had a bet for a six pack of beer and back in those days that was like gold.

There's lots there for some good talk about what makes Canadians Canadian and Americans American, Ed. The thought that appealed to me was whether Canada would be any different today had the French not lost on the Plains of Abrahams. On the evidence, if Napoleon had been astride the continent from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico, it could have been a different North America today.

Your thoughts miss an important point, though: Americans fought their bloodiest war to keep their country together, and the French exhausted thermselves with countless republics, communes and emperors. Canada sort of muddled through with moderation, a sense of proportion and compromise to keep their country together, one of the oldest and most stable democracies in the world.

As the world's second-oldest federation, Canada has been a less disruptive force in world affairs than most of the European big nations, with a system of government that endured while theirs did not, and a record second to none in defending its values when fascism, with the most skilful and powerful military in history, started throwing its weight around.

Canadians are a different people, of both French and English descent, from Americans, historically and from your own observations among your Canadian friends in the Caribbean. Canada sees a greater public role in protecting the vulnerable and innocents of society. A tenth the population of the US, it has no overseas ambitions but honours its military commitments.

As for Quebec, which is defined by our federal government as a nation within Canada, it's the second-biggest French-speaking TV and radio production centre in the world, and its people a cultural jewel. Canada's multicultural policies are under strain, as they are everywhere, but envied by the world. French is an official language. Immersion courses in English Canada can't keep up with demand.

And, finally, there's our independence, Ed. We live next to a giant but we don't do lying low. We have a different system of government. When our prime minister loses the confidence of the Commons, he's out. They say we're polite and dull. All I know for sure is that all across Canada it's a white Christmas this year. Merry Christmas, to you and Nancy, from Nancy and me.

Thanks a lot!

I knew a guy in Canada that only lOst three ducks in his whole life....

Joe, I'll bet there are many gunners who've done as well shooting only over decoys with retrievers in their blinds. Good dogs make the difference. Ask any grouse hunter how many birds they've lost with a dog. If you were to ask me, it's zero, zilch, none. I won't hunt without a dog. Watching a dog do what he lives to do is more than the shot to me.

Last year I was invited to join friends to hunt ducks and was surprised that there wasn't a dog among them. I didn't shoot. Three crippled woodies escaped up a small brook enclosed by alders, brambles and thorns. Their loss wasn't mentioned in later conversations about the hunt. It was disgusting. It's not sport to me. Nor would I think to you.

Regards, King. And season's greetings on this special day to you.

Joe, I don't know what kind of gunning you're doing in Tennessee but an analogy of shooting from a blind around here, particularly on snowy days, would be like hiding behind the fountain or reception for the mallards to walk out on those plush red carpets in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel. Not quite, of course, but chances of a crippled bird getting away from a Lab are immeasurably less than a mallard getting out those doors.

King,

I am either awestruck by your record of losing only 3 ducks in a lifetime of gunning, or when something seems to good to be true, well you know.

Any reasonable person knows, and acknowledges that in gunning for any fowl, birds will be mortally hit, and show no sign of it, and be completely unrecoverable, to no fault of the sportsman.

You my friend, have wounded and lost more than three ducks in your lifetime, dog or none. You cannot reasonably think that if you accidently killed more blacks on the morning mentioned than meant with your volley, that you have not also been the fault of a stray pellet into an adjacent duck in a flock to the one you later plucked.

And it is ok.

FS