Farm Fresh Blog

I'm not a Gun person. I have guns. I believe in having guns. I believe in the right to bear arms. I believe in the right to arm bears. (grin) I believe a gun is a tool, like a hammer or a pocket knife. It is neither inherently good or bad. It simply is. I believe in pot hunting. If you're hungry, it's hunting season. If you've got three kids to feed, it's hunting season. That said, I also believe if you kill it, you damned well better eat it. Unless it's a personal threat to you or your livestock (including dogs) I don't believe in shooting it.

I like small shotguns for snakes, and a small .22 rifle for varmits (coyotes), but I've never had much use for big rifles. The men in my life have them. They need to reach out and knock down big things, like hogs and deer, and in Other Half's case, man.  I don't really need that kind of fire power, and am not enamored with the idea of possessing that kind of fire power just to say I have it.

Some people love guns. Other Half loves gun. To him, guns are currency. He sells guns to buy more guns. Although he has a few personal favorites, most guns in his collection have a price. Son is the same way. When the Zombie Wars come, my warriors will be prepared.

For me, guns are a personal thing. My duty weapon is a Smith & Wesson 40 caliber. It's nothing fancy but I like it. Most folks have switched to Glocks or Sigs or anything but a Smith, but that gun has saved my butt countless times, and I appreciate that, so I won't switch to something else just because my gun is out of fashion now. It has never jammed on me. It has never had an accidental misfire. It's a steady and reliable gun. When my work mostly involved running felony warrants and narcotics, that gun was pointed in earnest at someone EVERY night. It was the reason I didn't leave work in a body bag. I greatly appreciate that.  I trust the gun. It may be just a tool, but I trust that it will work. I've handled it long enough that it's a part of my muscle memory. I don't have to think about how to use it.

Unlike Other Half, I don't buy and sell guns that I like. I feel that to be truly proficient with a gun, it should be an extension of your arm, and to have that, you've got to carry it a lot, and use it a lot. The gun must be a part of your muscle memory.

I tell you all this to answer the question as to why buy a gun I could borrow from my husband - because I want it to be MINE. I could have borrowed it, (I prefer the word "steal"), but I would rather own the gun outright.  After several hog sightings on the ranch, it's apparent that we have quite a bold wild hog population.

I've sighted two large sows with eight piglets twice, and we have numerous pictures of them on the game cameras. A sow with piglets is a dangerous creature.

My handguns cannot bring down one of these sows. I now need a rifle, and I want it to be MY rifle, not something he will sell with a promise to loan me something else. I want MY OWN GUN!

The AR-15 has a stock that adjusts for my arm length. It's light, accurate, and easy to carry. It doesn't have much kick. Once I decided I needed one, it was just a matter of getting it, but they aren't cheap, and I didn't want to plunk down the cash. He was gonna spend the $1300 on the blind and feeders anyway, and I was gonna spend the $1300 on a good AR-15. This was a solution we could both be happy with, and it saved us $1300.

Look closely at the tusks on this sow. That's why I need the AR-15.  Country men love to tell tales of how brave their dogs are when tackling hogs.  I listen politely as they recount the bravery of Brutus the Wonderdog, then I ask them what became of Wonder Brutus.

"Oh well, a hog finally got 'im. But we got that hog!"

Yeah. The long and short of the story is always, "Some hog killed the brave dog, but the dog didn't die of his injuries until after we killed the hog."

Alrightie then. I plan for my version of that story to go like this:

This little piggie went in the freezer.