Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why so much tactical stuff?

Well then, good luck getting rid of Trudeau ! Wish we could do the same with Hitle.... woops...um, Cuomo.

This is a bit off topic, but I keep reading how hunter numbers are steadily declining in the US. I am sure that it is true compared to the overall US population, but it seems odd since every year there are more and more hunters in the woods. Every bend in a Forest Service road seems to have a camper and UTV trailer these days during the general deer/elk seasons. Draw odds for hunts gets poorer every year too, even in units where tag numbers do not go down.

Please don't take this as nothing but a complaint. All a guy has to do is step a few feet off a road or main trail to be by himself during the season and I rarely fail to notch a tag if I put effort into it, but it is something I often wonder about. This last season, I climbed way the hell up to a peak in the Wyoming Range during the general deer hunt and counted something like 150 campers in the valley below and all the people around them had orange on. I saw plenty of deer and got a good 4x4, but I have a hard time understanding how hunter numbers are getting lower and lower. When I was a kid we'd see maybe 2-3 camps along those kind of Forest Service roads.

For what it is worth, in WY, MT and ID at least, I rarely see an AR in the hunting woods. Lots of people coyote hunt with them, but not deer/elk.

In my day kids wanted to be Cowboys, Indians or Daniel Boone. I wonder how many mass shootings have been done with a muzzle loader, lever action or even a bow. Bet not too many recently.

Black guns though fun to shoot don't do anything for me. I gave up the gun rags quite awhile ago.

Hunting license sales hit their peak at 1.4 million in NY back in the early '70's and are at approximately 700,000 now.

I sit here wearing my camouflaged boxer shorts underwear. I really need to go shave and do something useful. But I look cool, therefore AM cool.

A set of camo boxer shorts arrived as mystery gift from someone, I suspect from one of my boys as a joke.

They know that I roll my eyes at the expanding places sellers think of the put camo. IMO a camo flashlight is a liability anywhere outside of combat.

The fashion side of camo seems to be peaking, but the tacticool gizmos and attachments for anything shooting related is zooming. I snort at some of it but don't begrudge the seller for making a buck on things people will buy. I don't have to buy it, and once in awhile something useful or even appealing turns up.

Too many people think that they can buy skill via gear, rather than putting in the work to earn/develop those skills.

Some people buy quasi-race cars to drive on public streets where they can't legally drive them at speeds that come anywhere to their potential.

Some people buy quasi-sniper rifles/gear and deceive themselves into thinking that if the circumstances were a little difference they could be like Chris Kyle.

One thing that some people do that gripes me is when they steal honor by pretending/claiming to be something that they aren't, like all of the fake SEALs, Force Recon, and Rangers who are floating around. Even worse, at least IMO, are the people who falsely claim to have been awarded medals for valor.

Where I am , all shooters are hunters, they might branch off a little afterwards.
If I didn't hunt, I would keep a 30/06 for around the farm and that is about it.
This wouldn't matter where I would live and that would never, ever be in a town or city.
My point here is we went from reading Jack , Elmer etc under the covers with a flashlight as a kid, That conjured up ideas about getting into the backcountry and hunting. ( luckily I could)
Maybe I am just a Geezer now but I like a good story and more traditional stuff.
I don't understand a modern expensive haircut or the drug Crisis.
I will take a Budweiser- they support Rodeo and fit my budget.

I'm 60 and my next purchase is going to be a DPMS G2 AP4. I want to use it for deer and hog hunting as I'm using ground blinds more and more. A short barrel carbine in .308 is just the ticket.

I wear tactical pants as casual wear because they are comfortable and familiar as I was an infantryman and infantry officer. I like cargo pockets to stuff things in that would crowd a hip pocket.

While I don't buy into all of the tactical gear some of it is useful.

As far as the younger generation, if it gets them into shooting and hunting, I'm for it. My daughter's boyfriend bought an AK. I have taken him hunting a couple of times. He wants to deer and hog hunt with it. I said sure you can. I mounted a scope on it last night and we are going to the range soon to try it out.

Since he got interested, now my daughter is interested in shooting again.

I'm keeping an open mind as I get older and if we don't, we risk our sports dying out IMO.

I've often pondered that "why so much tactical stuff ?" question. As an old fart I figure it's just not my generation. Then I think about all the young folks now that were exposed to all kinds of video games growing up that featured firearms. Tactical firearms to be exact. There's probably not too many traditional looking firearms out there in video game land. But then; what does an old fart like me know about video games ?

Dateline 1929: Two old timers sittin' round the woodstove wiping down their Krag-Jorgensons they got from the DCM for $2.50! Just like they packed in the Phillipines 25 years earlier. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Couldn’t help it!

Well first of all, the only market driven by Canaduh is the sale of pocket pussies.

Second, the United States has been at war for 20 years. Books, magazines, and online reading reflects accordingly. That tends to make military schit more popular.

I think the statistic of hunting being on the decline doesn't necessarily show the big picture.

We might have lost some of the "fudd" hunters which padded the numbers, but the 12 million or so hunters we have now are rather dedicated. They are willing to spend big $$ on good gear, travel to hunt, and put in a great deal of effort.

The shift to "tactical" is nothing but good for freedom loving Americans. In my opinion, every american who owns a tactical style rifle, can shoot even semi long range, and who practices is nothing but good for us and our freedom. We are truly an armed nation.

If people are inspired to own quality rifles and practice shooting, how exactly is that a bad thing?

.............................................. Amen to that, except there are so many in this country who also denigrate and belittle and insult those who enjoy shooting and / or hunting. So that they may fundamentally transform us into a truly unarmed nation...... Because guns are just bad and why does anyone need a gun ? Or that antiquated 2nd Amendment ?

I've been guilty of characterizing tactical shooters as wannabes and really that's not fair. Yeah there are bad apples in the tactical crowd just like there are bad apples in every group of shooters. They stand out in any group. I've had to temper my attitude toward tactical shooters after spending time with them at the range and having several of them working for me. Most are not bad guys. Just like most guys who prefer blued steel and walnut are not bad guys. A sure way to divide the shooter groups is to always characterize tactical shooters as wannabes. Most of them are good guys who like ARs and tactical shooting.

It's all shooting and I'm good with it. I'm not a tactical gear junkie, but I use a lot of "tactical" guns because they are the best tools for what I do.

I do a good deal of hunting (mostly with bolt actions) but am limited here in Oregon by the availability of tags. I can only draw mule deer and elk tags every other year for example. I do some hunting out of state but still it's not a regular event.

On the other hand, I can and do shoot most weekends in various action shooting matches. This is where I put the most rounds down range. I shot a pistol match and a 3 gun match for about 400 rounds total this weekend. This is all with semiautomatic firearms since that's how the games are played. In my case that means Glocks, AR-15's and semi auto shotguns. It's great fun and keeps my shooting skills sharp.

I think we should be happy that people are interested in shooting regardless of the style of guns they use. And I'm an old guy.

Tacticool guns exist to amuse me.

The youngsters take them to the local range in droves. They can't hit anything they aim at. They give their buddies a poke by pointing out the old fart (me) with the flintlock is out shooting them. I don't enjoy the lateral blast from the flash suppressor when they sit at adjacent benches. Mindless fools they are. Sufficiently annoyed I will pull out the .45-70 or if uber annoyed, the .416 Rigby and pop a few caps. They leave, I laff and carry on.

Well aren't you just the bad a$$ at the range.. give me a ph ucking break..

Maybe you old decrepit old ph ucks need to go a service rifle match.. you probably stop your bitch fest.. once you see what can be done with the much hated AR15..

Always interesting to see how the sides choose up on the Fire.

Personally, I like all rifles, which is why I own a bunch of different types from flintlocks to AR's.

Just the other day I went to the range with three rifles, and the selection made me realize (doh!) that I JUST LIKE RIFLES!--

Brand-new Bergara B14 Ridge in 6.5 Creedmoor, with a 3-15x dialing scope.

Pre-WWII German SxS double rifle in 9.3x74R.

My oldest tacticool rifle, an 1866 trapdoor Springfield .50-70, dated 1866, the first year the Allin conversion was used.