Referring back to the original post.....taking of waterfowl [cranes] with a rifle is a federal violation....just thought I'd throw that out!
True. It is.........and it is (violated). I suppose 'why' has a lot to do with stray bullets falling from the sky. I'll tell you this, I'd much rather have the falling slug be one of those puny 45 grain bullets than one of the "slugs" that kids sometimes make from a shotshell by cutting the plastic case beneath the shot cup. At least on the old lead shells, one could send the whole forward half of the shell out as a unit which, I'm told, worked pretty well on occasion to slay some really high fliers. I never figured that was real good for a gun pressure-wise. I do think it says something about the Rem 870, so popular among local folks, that I never heard of such a slug blowing one up. I do know I keep that little bit of slug making info filed just in case I ever need some bear slugs and don't have them.
For those who think that hitting accurately with a rifle at 100 yards from aboat is amazing, you obviously have never seen the methods used for hunting seals in the river (Yukon). There, they use spears which are launched by the aid of a "thrower" which gives extra leverage to one's arm. Those spears are 3-4' long and are launched up as much as they are horizontally. The suggestion of such a method being successful sounds ludicrous until you actually see it happen. It is truly amazing. After the first spear finds its mark, it usually isn't long before the animal is finished. It may not sound like the most humane method in the world but it seems to have a higher rate of recovery than a firearm method. The first such seal kill I saw by this method involved several adults and youth. Ironically, it was a 7 year-old boy making his first seal kill who managed to get the first spear in that animal. Seals are good food if a bit different in taste than other mammals. I would, however, challenge anyone to find better tasting liver in any animal- equal, maybe, but no better. There's also nothing quite like dry fish that have been put up in seal oil - and that's a positive comment!
Yes, there is sometimes waste and this is true in seal hunting if you consider a lost animal to be waste. That also sometmes happens in trophy hunting and some probably recall such a thing being mentioned in these pages to even an animal so large as a moose. Certainly, it is fair to say that Native people do not encourage or esteem the wasting of or those who waste game. Quite the contrary.
