Campy,

Sounds you had a great time outdoors today...if we could all be so lucky to live where you do, and have the great outdoors right at our backdoor.

KF

Hmm, maybe it's a dumb idea, but I like to keep a round chambered and use the safety in situations like that.  

Is that a weird thing to do?  

What kind of .22 were you using?  

I wish I had rolling feilds of critter infested grass near my house.  Damned progress!

Don't feel bad Campy, I'll tell you what happend to me a month ago.

We were out camping with the unit and I brought my .22mag bolt gun.

We say a small hog about 200 yards out so I was sent out to tak care of him.  I took of wide and stalked him for about 1/2 staying down wind etc.
I get a shot, he spins around and stops.

I run up on him without re-cocking the rifle. I see him and he looks like he is digging. I am about 5 feet from him trying to figure out what he is doing, he looks up (I see his entrails laying everywhere), the thing barks like a dog as it comes right at me hopping like a rabbit.

I start to back pedal while trying to work the bolt.  I trip over my own feet and fall on my ass.  The ground hog is still comming after me as I try to push myself away and work the bolt.

I hear a noise and see my buddy back towards the camp site with an e-tool over his head in full charge.  He screams "Hold on buddy, I'll save ya".  

I manage to kick the ground hog away and chamber a round, it runs to its hole as I put a shot into it at the last possable second, just as my friend gets there making sound effects with the e-tool.

About 5 minutes later everyone else got there to see a huge mess while we are rolling on the ground laughing at our own stupidity and me getting my butt kicked by a 4 pound ground hog.

I was given a new award for this combat action.

The first ever, Ground Hog Assault Badge.

Yeah yeah yeah, I only told this story because I like you guys.  I still catch hell over this everytime I see the group.

Lessons learned, have your next shot ready, don't stand there and let it attack you, and mostly, when being attacked, don't sit there and laugh about how stupid you look at the moment.

well Bob at least you weren't hunting with a .177

yep you can easilly see out to 1,000 yards+ without any problem

Bob, if you really want to do some serious varmit-cong hunting next year....I have a demilled RPG7. I'm sure we can rig it up to work again.

GROUNDHOG at 2 O'CLOCK.....WHOOOOOSH....BOOM! "damn, you got insurance on your barn, don't you?"

Quoted: DAMN Oooobbberr... thhhhat is the funniest f'n thing I have ever read!

that is pretty funny....hey, Ober I thought you germans have a machinegun supressing the enemy when you advance on a objective.

Ok, where was the ground hogs medal?  That thing had it share of grit!  You should have given it some sort of honorary burial or something.  

I doubt most of us would have the balls to charge at someone with a gun after having our entrails blown all over!

The unit commanders MG-34 was out of commision as usual. I do not pick up my ZB until Thursday!!!!!!

I'll give that little ground hog a ton of credit, he was almost totally inside out and still counter attacked, only to run off when my buddy got there (after a 200Y run).

My coupe-de-grace was pure luck as it was aimed and just happened to hit him as he went into the hole.

He deserved to live for all the fight he had in him.  My medal is only a reminder of my constant defeats at the hands of foes that are not my equal. Some time I'll tell you about the 71 year old Russian who really whipped my ass in hand to hand when I tried to take it easy on him.  No, my unit does not let me forget about this.

Alright, here goes.

About two years ago we were fighting Russians. After a long hard day of kicking their commie asses we had them backed up to the very last bunker.  Our commander ordered 2nd squad to put harrasing fire on the bunker, and 1st squad (the squad I am in) to flank the bunker and infiltrate the trench leading to the rear opening.  We worked our way around with myself, and my XO. (the same friend of mine who did the 200Y shovel charge to save me from the ground hog)

Being the smallest two, we were ordered to close on the bunker and toss in grenades.
We got up to it, but the damn thing had a back door that was locked from the inside, so we tried to beat it open with our Mausers.

All of a sudden, the door caves in, and several stunned Russians just stand there totally shocked by us being there. Being so close, I dropped my Mauser and grabbed a rubber knife I keep in my tunic. I charge before they have a chance to react, I lunge at the closest Russian who happens to be old enough to have fought for the stinking tsar. As I thrust the knife at him I stopped an inch or so before it touched him. (he was old OK, I am trying to go easy on him)

This old bastard grabs me by the chin strap on my helmet and my belt and shoves me backwards into my buddy who was charging right beind me.  We kock him down and run right over him.  The old man pushes me out of the bunker like this until we get outside where he promply throws me back down a 20 foot deep and wide ravine that protected the front of the bunker.  I hold on to him the whole time thinking that if I go down, he is too.  Well, as soon as we hit the bottom he grabs an e-tool, hits he on top of the helmet, and pulls out an 1895 Nagant revolver and shoots me point blank.

He stands up and says, "son, you took it easy on me because I was old, never under estimate your opponant".

The entire battle had stopped to watch this little fight go on. After that we called it a day.  I tried to explain to eveyone that I really had "killed" him first, but since no one but the old man saw that part, everyone remembers seeing me get whipped by the old man.

The more I tried to explain, the worse it got, so yeah, I got my but kicked by a 71 year old man.

it's no wonder folks get hurt reenacting, they take this too real.....point blank fire with a nagant revolver....even if it is blanks the flash that comes out of those will put a whammy on you.

I don't think I would trust someone coming at me with a 91-30 with a 17 inch bayonet.

Bayonets are NEVER permitted to be on a rifle or out of their frogs for that matter. When in that situation, I just tap the guy with my rifle and say "Bayonet".  

The Nagant revolver loads are very light for use in WWI re-enactments where close in fighting is common.  He still shot my belt buckle to be on the "safe side". Any other gun and I would have been mad.  It still wasn't that safe though.

Still, as Campy has said to me a dozen times - We do violate every single rule of gun safety.  You just have to be "safe" when doing it.

I have seen two people die doing this hobby. I even had one of them die while I (and a couple other guys) were trying to carry him back to the ambulance 200 yards away. The snow was so deep and the terrain was so rough, it took us too long to carry him the distance.

My first battle, an SS segeant was holding his helmet up yelling to us that "there are mortors on the field, helments will be worn at all times." He then put his helmet on his head and 1/2 a second later a mortor hit him. It deflected off his helmet and broke his shoulder. If not for the helmet, it would have been his scull.

The only serious injury I have taken was a pelvis knocked 3 inched out of place when we came up on a bridge that was being "blown" by engineers, we didn't see the large pile of fire works until they went off, I was knocked into he stream below and a few others landed on me.  

Hell, my unit commander had a hang fire on a Panzerschreck (German bazooka) and looked down the tube to see what the problem was. Turned out that the peoblem was the trip to the hospital.  You would think West Point would teach them better than that.

It can be a very seious hobby.

damn.....well I won't be joining any reenacting units, that's for sure. ;)

It can be dangerous, but I have only hi-lightd the worst sinerios since I have been doing this. (1995)
My sergeant damn near beat one of our guys for a serious safety violation, and we have kicked out several memebers for stupid acts.

Hand to hand is mostly reserved fo pulic battles anymore, and safety is a far bigger issue. Now as XO of first squad and ranking senior Corperal, I also have an hand in eeping thingd safe. I do not even allow our squad to drink alcohol withing 12 hours of a battle.  We were the only sober people there the night before bulletfest (yeah, I know you wouldn't have known that the next day during the event).

I guess the biggest thing is that toy just have to get used to pointing a weapon a someone and pulling the trigger, and having that done to you.