A double barrel 10ga. For me. I know my dad's vote would be his 30.06. He made the mistake of backing up his shoulder with a nearby tree once. (Only once!) That kind of mistake hurts for a long time. He said it was worse than when a mule kicked him. Blinding pain, and he saw colors he had no names for.
An unemployed Jester, is nobody's Fool.
the only real difference between a good tracker and a bad tracker, is observation. all the same data is present for both. The rest, is understanding what you're seeing.
