Posted: 12/15/2007 4:06:00 PM EDT
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So as the sun was going down and it was getting dark, I was putting a new battery in my tractor. I just had finished, and started it up to run a minute or two. So as I was looking off into the woods about 250 meters away, I saw movement that turned out to be one guy in camo, two guys in light blue coats. I shut the tractor off (mistake) and they stopped walking and froze.... I squatted down to present a smaller outline, but I was wearing a white t shirt that stood out against the bare dirt where I'd been working. They must have saw me. When I hunkered down, they quickly dissappeared into the woods... So I began walking quickly to where they were. I knew if they ran I would hear them crashing through the leaves, limbs and brush. I heard nothing which told me they had probably laid down and were waiting.... So there I was with no firearm. I normally don't carry my 1911 when working in the field. I called all my neighbors, none had been out walking. There are no kids/teenagers within miles of me. I am isolated on many acres of broken woods and farmland. So here I sit wishing I had an An PVS 5 or 7. |
You boys need to take some notes and talk to your lawmakers. Here, all land is posted by law. No signs or warnings required. |
You Big Dummy!
I'm a Citrus grower here in Central FL. and I NEVER go out in the groves without at least a pistol and I've got 1 of those plastic rifle cases for ATVs mounted on 1 of my tractors. Ya never know who/what you might run into now days out in Groves & woods down here these days.
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I imagine that trying to defend yourself in a open field with a handgun would be a nightmare. |
I'm really ashamed of that part. I had bush hogged, so there was no concealment and the only "cover' was the engine block/wheel wells of the john deere. I had no covered/concealed route to where they were. I'ts normally going to be like that in an open field, so a scoped brush buster would be the answer I suppose. |
Roger. You know what's funny, all my neighbors work in whatever they got on, red plaid, any old work shirt. I'll be the first guy who thinks about earthtones when picking work clothes. I think I'll throw away every white t shirt I own and just work in the old army brown shirts. Honestly, no one around here has a rifle scabbard on their tractor. There's only one more guy that carries a handgun with him and he's not a farmer. So bottom line, I have had a paradigm change and have learned some hard lessons frommy mistakes. You know, this is tough because just because you see three guys 200 meters away duck into the woods doesn't mean I can use deadly force. I can't be glassing them with a scope either as that woudl give them the argument that they were in fear for their lives and shot me. |
Considering where they were they'd have a tough time making that argument. Also, at 200 yards with a .22 Mag rifle are you SURE it wasn't a woodchuck you shot at? 
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