I am going to have to disagree with you a bit here. I think having a single shot forces a hunter to pick his shots more and be more cautious.
I hunt with an Encore pistol in .30/06 as my primary hunting weapon. I have to slow down & pick my shots. More people do that and there would be more one shot kills. Too many people (notice I did not say all) simply pray & spray.
Actually it forces YOU to be more careful. Having a single shot does necessarily force folks who are clueless or inexperienced to be careful.
My opinion is that having a quick second shot ready is essential for ethical hunting. Most times I hunt the deer is down before I can rack another in, but I still go through the drill and reload, reacquire, and make the determination whether to shoot again with the crosshairs on the animal.
Now, that's me, my prejudice, my opinion. It comes from a couple of things. First and foremost was the advice my old-fart hunting buddies gave me when I started hunting deer. I can still remember old John ( he'd been in the Bulge) telling me, "You shoot, and you keep shooting until your sure he'd dead." I remember how the Marlboro started twitching in his hand. John obviously had issues on the subject, but I took him at his word. From there, it morphed into a general desire to put the animal down and keep it down. If one didn't do it, I was perfectly happy to put in another.
JJHack was another influence. I first ran into him on the old AllOutdoors.com. JJHack talks about Golfer's Syndrome: a PH term for a guy who shoots once and then puts down his rifle and watches, expecting the game to go down. That's the sort of thing I don't want telegraphed to the unknowing masses, and that is the sort of thing a single-shot rifle can encourage in inexperienced hands.
Your hands? Joe, with the hardware you described and the way you write about using it, you are the least of my worries.
Ken, as always, I truly appreciate your appreciation.
