That was the first insult of the day for me when I scrolled down my facebook feed Sunday morning. The mini rant was from a fellow hunter, a fellow rifleman (judging from his photographs posted--and often re posted--on his "page"), and the last person I would have thought to hold a narrow-minded view such as this .
His whole tirade seems to be about two different topics, and they are, hunting while wearing camouflage and hunting with an AR 15 type rifle. Of course, I respectfully disagree with this observation and here's why.
Camouflage:
Since he mentions deer hunting when describing how stupid hunters are for wearing camo, I'll start with my feelings on the subject.
Does a deer hunter need camo to "hide" from colour-blind deer? Of course not. Hundreds of hunters used to take to the field in good old-fashioned, red-checkered Woolrich coats and jeans. The redder they were, the better and safer.
In my experience, the best way to not scare a deer was to not move like a human and not to look like a human almost regardless of colour. The camo I like makes me look like a headless, armless blob....with a rifle. Burlap does nicely as a poncho.
Another tactic is to be in a tree stand, out of the deers' usual line of sight. And as long as you don't jerk around alot, or silhouette yourself, you're in a fine position to connect with a deer. Up in a tree, high enough, and you could wear anything at all. Want to hunt in a day-glow pink jumpsuit? Have at it...your height off the ground is your camouflage.
So are deer hunters jerks and stupid pathetic looking J-ASS-es for wearing camouflage? No, and the reason why is because most of us don't just hunt deer. We hunt many other animals that aren't colour-blind and would definitely notice a blue-jeans wearing human stalking around with a firearm.
Turkeys can see your uncovered, light-coloured hand from a hundred yards away if you so much as move it to check your watch. Dove can see your pie face turned skyward as they think about landing on the power line above you. Ducks know what a human looks like even with camo on, but blending in will always give you a chance to get closer if you're on the peak and sneak method of hunting. You can duck hunt without camo of course, but guess what, you'll be sitting in a blind which is, of course, camouflaged to hide you.
A hunter who gears up for ducks or turkeys or geese or crows may only have to shell out the universal green once to hunt many different types of game. And let's face it, part of the hunting experience is the ritual, the litany of doing something that lets you say inside, I do the same thing every day of every week, but not today! Today I'm not wearing the everyday husks, today I'm going hunting!
In my state of North Carolina we even have to wear blaze orange that is visible from 360 degrees around your person. Most of the time, among the guys I hunt with, that means a cap of fluorescent orange. Wearing such would seem to negate any advantage of breaking up your outline that camouflage gives you, but remember, deer are colour-blind--most hunters are not. Everybody that ventures into the woods from September to January first ought to get a blaze orange cap and wear it.
Calling deer hunters who do wear camo jack asses is narrow-minded and divisive. Doing so does nothing to support the sport of hunting or make a case for hunting without wearing camouflage. Sure, in parts of Africa it is considered terribly impolite to wear camouflage, but last time I checked, I wasn't in Africa. Hunting from an SUV, like they do in Africa, isn't really what I'd call hunting anyway.
AR 15:
Sure, most AR 15s are chambered for the diminutive 5.56X45MM/.223 Remington* cartridge that was designed as America's combat round for all enemies foreign and domestic. As the cartridge first came out in the sixties, the little .224 caliber bullet could have been considered a tad on the light side for deer. But today, the newer bullet constructions and different twist rates in barrels have made this cartridge just fine for deer and deer-sized animals.
With proper shot placement this gun and the .223 cartridge will hunt. And the rifle's light recoil make it a fun experience to practice practice and practice from the bench at the range. It stands to reason that the more one shoots and practices with a rifle, the more proficient one will be at getting the bullet to go where the shooter wants it to at any given (sensible) range.
Now, since the AR 15 is a civilian version of our nation's primary infantry rifle, it shares a very distinct and nifty trait with the M 16. They were designed to be handled by men of varying degrees of intelligence and thus designed for easy maintenance. Pull a pin out of the receiver and the rifle hinges open for easy cleaning. Tap the hinge out as well and the rifle comes apart into two easy pieces!
The bolt, forearm, barrel and sights pull away into what is commonly refered to as the "upper" and the trigger, hammer, mag-well, and safety controls drop away into what is commonly referred to as the "lower". The lower is the part of the rifle with the serial number--for all its wisdom, the U.S. government considers this the "firearm". This is the part you can't buy without a background check from a licensed firearms dealer.
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| THIS is the "rifle"! You need an FFL Dealer to buy one in a store! |
But what does that mean? Well the benefit is that once you establish your ownership of the lower, you can buy several different uppers in several different cartridge configurations! Think your .223 Remington-chambered upper is too wimpy for deer? Fine, just swap the upper for one in something "bigger" like (right off the top of my head) 6.8 Remington SPC, 6.5 Grendel, 30AR, .450 Bushmaster, .204 Ruger, and even 9MM Parabellum.
Each upper can be removed with its own optics in place meaning that when you swap uppers you needn't worry too much about a change in "zero". And that means, one rifle becomes a handful--a golf bag of rifle barrels to tailor your AR to the quarry you're after. Try that with a regular old, wood-stocked Model 70 Winchester and it ain't happening.
So an AR 15 isn't a hunting rifle? Nonsense--it might be the most versatile platform out there for folks who only have room in their houses and wallets for one or two rifles. If hunting is about getting outdoors, killing game humanely, and enjoying the company of others, then there's no reason to assume people that do hunt with an AR are idiots.
wanna Shoot Ar 15s wear military spec gear.. GO join THE ARMY! the pursuit of game is NOt some hobby for Joyous weekend Would be warriors--I don't hang out with many hunters who don't already know that no matter their weapon of choice. Some of us even wear camouflage.
By the way, NO, civilian AR 15's are not "automatic" or selective fire weapons like the M 16--that's a negative and incorrect media bias that's streamed from the airwaves constantly. Yes, they can be had with high capacity magazines, but most of us hunters get by without.
The bottom line is, why would a fellow hunter disparage us like-minded folk when, in his own words ..Hunters already have an image problem with the non -hunting public.. In my mind, we hunters ought to be supportive of each other. We ought to be courteous to each other. And above all, we ought to work to inform the non-hunting public why we think the privilege we all share as hunters is so sacred to us. Educating non hunters about what we do, how we do it, and the weapons we use would go a lot further to remove misconceptions about us than back-biting and infighting.
If you hunt with me, I don't care what you wear as long as it's legal. I don't care what you hunt with as long as it's legal and you're proficient with its use. And i don't care what type of game you take, as long as it was fair chase, and you harvested it humanely which means the killing was quick and as painless as possible.
Hell, I don't even care if you know when to use the word whom or know the difference between their, there, or they're!
*Yes, there are pressure differences between the 5.56 NATO round and a .223 Remington round that make them not quite interchangeable, but I'm just making a point. SAAMI specs wouldn't let you blow up your M16 by firing Winchester PMC .223 Remington ammo.
