SA 5.9 Takes A Hike...

Today was my off day, so I spent the morning at the office studying. About noon my wonderful wife suggested we go ahead and eat lunch and that I not return to the office! So after lunch I grabbed my beloved SA 5.9 and headed out to a church members place to do a little walking and looking for hogs, etc. About 2 miles into the woods it began to rain... hard! Now of all the things I've done with my M-1's, I've never taken even one of them out in the rain. There I was way down deep in the woods, wading along in about 8 inches of water and the thought occurred to me, "It was made for this." So I decided to just keep walking and looking... unfortunately I saw now hogs.

Upon arriving home I started to attend to cleaning my rifle. But I had to tend to a few matters with a church member. Then my brother dropped by the house. He was on his way to a job site down state so my wife and I prepared supper for him. It was a pleasure to see him enjoy himself. We served him a huge ribeye that we had grilled last Friday. Then my wife wanted to go walking so we took walked our normal 4 mile route.

Finally tonight about 8 p.m. I finally got back home and was able to see to cleaning and drying my rifle. What amazed me is that in spite of being in a heavy driving rain for well over one hour, when I took the rifle apart, there was very little moisture to be found. The wood inside was dry. The metal was nice, clean and dry. I had expected to find a mess. All the Lubriplate that I had applied to the metal was still in fine shape. It now sits on the table. Tomorrow I'll put it back in the stock. I may even take it with me while out visiting church members. Some of them really appreciate a nice rifle. And occasionally we've even been known to fire a few rounds at old scrap harrow blades.

I know that this is not a tale of daring do... of big game shot or a match won. But I thoroughly enjoyed simply walking along in the woods with my rifle. Even the mosquitoes were not able to spoil things. And I learned something. With a pair of good fitting boots, some crackers and a canteen of water, a M-1 and a clip of ammo one can have a pretty good time walking around and looking to see what comes up. Sincerely. BruceV.

Walking through the woods and not firing a shot can be just as satisfying as scoring a kill. Would do us all good to take a walk through the woods with the M-1 to bond with the past.

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Originally Posted by albud3

Walking through the woods and not firing a shot can be just as satisfying as scoring a kill. Would do us all good to take a walk through the woods with the M-1 to bond with the past.

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Amen to that!:thup:

wish i could around here, theyd have swat on my *** faster than a jackrabbit

Having wanted one for years I finally got myself one about a year ago. I love that thing. I take it with me often when I go walking in the woods. I don't know what it is but it just fits perfectly into my hands and feels like it belongs there.

The neat thing about the whole afternoon was that I walked about 1/2 mile down the road to the point where I entered and later exited the woods. During that walk folks passed me going in either direction. No one seemed to be the least bit concerned that I was walking down the side of the road with a rifle on my shoulder. Like Louise sang, "What a wonderful world!" Sincerely. BruceV.

There's no need for daring do when you are having that much fun with family . My church members don't quite understand me as it is so I don't tell them that when I go out to the hillside to pray , many times I have a rifle with me .
I haven't had the Garand out for a real long walk in quite a while . I hear the next county over lost a bunch of pigs and they are starting to have a feral population there . I don't know how fast they migrate but the county line is less than fifteen miles from here . Maybe the Garand can get a work out soon huh? :lol:

Jack

Some of the best, most well received sermons I have ever preached from the pulpit have been developed as I sat in the woods on a deer stand using my rifle stock for a desk while I wrote on whatever scrap of paper was in my pocket. In just a few minutes I will be on my way out the door to visit a few shut-in church members. I will have my M-1 w/ me because I think one of the men will appreciate getting to look at it. Who knows, we may even find something to shoot. Sometimes the ministry of the Gospel is helping a man come to Christ as Savior and Lord. A Gulf War vet came this past Sunday morning professing his faith in Christ. Sometimes ministry in Christ name is feeding hungry people. Last month we fed 488 people at our little church. Sometimes... ministry in the name of Christ is something as simple as walking along with a rifle or shotgun listening to a man talk.

i did something like that one time. i didn't see no hogs neither.

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http://www.marzone.com/7thMarines/A190711.jpg
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the rifle didn't shrink much.
:)

Help me out here I am just a city boy. Are these hogs dangerous? Tasty? Is there a season for them? Just something to shoot at?

In our area the hogs are considered a nuisance/pest species that is legal to hunt throughout the year. Many of them are not large bodied, weighing maybe 60-70 lbs. Any hog that runs over 150 lbs. is a nice animal. Some of the men in my area own hog operations. I've seen the size of hogs that they tell me are market ready... usually around 200 lb. or more. Compared by apparent size to those market ready hogs, the ones that I have seen in the woods and standing down in the ditches while on my way to the nursing home are at least equal if not larger.

I do not consider that hog hunting is "dangerous." However, if you are out in the woods hunting at the edge of night in heavy cover, maybe you might have a problem. I have used my M-1 w/ either Lake City or Greek HXP M-2 ball, a retired police M-12 Winchester riot gun (w/ buckshot), a cutdown Krag in .30-40 and a M-94 .30-30 Winchester. My brother preferred a 1894 Marlin in .44 Magnum and a 6" S&W .44 Magnum M-29. Hit through the boiler room, they all fall down and die. Hit wrong, they run.

That having been said, when one gets out of the woods and goes down into the swamps, things can change. I have seen a number of very large hogs shot, shot incidentally while out hunting deer. One in particular was large enough that his head hung out the tailgate of a shortbed pickup truck. From the appearance of the teeth that such hogs carry, one of these animals could most certainly seriously injury anyone or anything to which they decided to direct their attention.

I wouldn't shoot anything just to shoot it. There are plenty of targets for target shooting and plinking. But in my state, there is no season on hogs. Thus one can hunt them throughout the year. In my pastoral visitation, I have often carried either one of my 03-A3's or my SA 5.9 in the car along with a few clips of its preferred Greek HXP M-2. I would not use such ammo on deer. I keep a clip of Rem. 150 gr. PSP for such work. And on those occasions when opportunity has knocked, I have been known to tuck my pants into a pair of rubber boots and ease down into the woods ... when I have permission to hunt on that land... and see what I can do with a deer, or a hog or a turkey.

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Originally Posted by Curt

Help me out here I am just a city boy. Are these hogs dangerous? Tasty? Is there a season for them? Just something to shoot at?

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Yes, they're dangerous.
They're said to be a different taste, I don't know as I don't eat pork.
Open season here in TX and many other states, they're a nuisance and some places don't even require a hunting license to kill them.
And yes, they are something to shoot at!

Eli