JWP475 - I'm just a youngster - only 66. Not a tree hugger, but in all my years in the woods, there were critters I would not shoot, and birds of prey were high on the list. Just no reason. I disagree with a lot regarding Keith, but I'm a strange kind of guy - I don't like Glocks, and I don't own an AR. During my years of offshore fishing, including as a licensed charter captain, I was exposed to a lot of "fishermen's claims" - but I always carried a scale on my boat. I might be the only one on this forum who has shot a bunch of sharks with a .44 mag - but none at long range.
I really, really like handguns, but pretty much all of my shooting is connected to hunting - either sighting in or load development, if not actually hunting. I came close to buying a property last year that belonged to a couple who were both retired SWAT officers - the wife a sniper - and they had a 1,000 meter range on the property - would have certainly done some long range shooting had that deal gone through. By the way, those folks were getting out of LR rifle competition and going to skeet shooting, because of the difficulty of finding suitable ranges for meets.
Mike
