I'm back.
So, the years passed and I continued hunting here and there, and eventually wound up retiring. Moved to the banks of a river in a region about 40 miles from Ocala, FL. One of the first things noted was the presence of hogs in the front yard, rooting up my lawn. That was the day I discovered how lethal .22 CB shorts were when properly placed. Pop and flop, 38 yards. It's buddies squealed and ran. Little time passed and the overseer of a state preserve noted my shenanigans. He invited me to thin the herd in the preserve at will, and only restricted me to RF guns due to the proximity of residential properties. Time passed and somewhere around 150 hogs kicked the bucket. A large boar was the only one that had to be shot twice, mostly because I was not familiar with fact that hogs have two skull layer in the back half of their noggin. Live and learn. I shot a few with a 10/22 as well, but found out something odd. Where the CB shorts would fully penetrate a skull or neck on smaller hogs, the LR ammo would not. They died, but it took awhile for me to understand that the CB's did not tumble but the LR ammo did. Hmmmm....
I neglected to mention that I had, before I retired and a little bit after, pursued the game of clay busting with zeal. I learned that many who do so had not yet figured out how important proper geometry and use of scatterguns. Here's a clue. If you mount the gun as if in a hurry and after the fact are not looking at a bead nested in the receiver groove, the gun needs fit adjustment. Clue #2: Shoot your shotgun with both eyes open and assuming it fits, ignore the "sight picture". Shoot instinctively, every time. One of the last times I hunted with dad was up near Tallahassee on a private game farm. I took the Ithaca that dad had purchased for mom circa 1960 and killed 42 quail without a miss. He made a comment I'll not forget. "You're chitthot with that gun!" Reckon so....
