Bullets
If you disapprove of guns and don't like hearing about them, skip this post. This started out as an arty post about some photos I took a long time ago and expanded from there. Just sayin'.
I grew up with guns. My dad and two brothers all hunted; dad taught them to shoot in addition to being a gun instructor for local kids in town. My brother Paddy taught me to shoot. Guns were commonplace around our house but they were not treated as toys, and although I found them intriguing I was wary around them. Still am.
I was never interested in actual hunting for game (one needed a license for that and although I went shooting for what luckless creatures did not require a license to hunt – crows, magpies, rabbits and gophers – my live hunting career was short lived. I enjoyed the challenge of hitting what I was aiming at, but ultimately felt guilty about the killing part so I stuck to target shooting after a short career in 'varmint huntin'.
Ducks, geese, pheasants, antelope and deer were all on the roster and finding a mound of dead birds in the basement ready for cleaning, or an entire deer carcass, skinned, in the front porch was not unusual. We sometimes ate what the men brought home although I don't think mom or my sister ever really liked the taste of game. I never liked any of it either, for one thing it tasted weird to me plus if ducks or geese were on the menu you invariably encountered lead shot in your meal.
Gun culture in Swift Current at that time centred around hunting and target shooting. There were no gun controls of which I'm aware and no political element such as we have today.
Below: arty shots of Paddy's hands and bullets. (I think the proper lingo is cartridges). I'm annoyed and puzzled why I cropped the image on the left so tight and did not centre it. Paddy can actually make bullets – it's called reloading -- for pretty much any kind of gun.
Me, circa late 70's in Lund, BC. with Lois' boyfriend's .22 handgun. You could shoot off your front porch in this area.
below: Paddy at the Port Alberni shooting range and me, probably using a C-7 military rifle. 1970s.
Below: Yes, that is an AK-47, the weapon of choice for Viet Cong and North Vietnamese fighters. This was taken during a tour of Vietnam in 2017. Ever the enterprising capitalists, the Cu Chi Tunnels attraction offered the rubes a chance to shoot an AK-47. All the bullets you wanted to pay for at – ready?– ONE US DOLLAR PER BULLET. (for the record, I went half'ers with one of the fellows on the tour – 15 rounds each. Five shots to hit the target – harder than it looked – and for a couple of thrilling seconds, ten rounds on full auto). The gun was attached to the ledge (so as to prevent any unfortunate little accidents). Despite this I still found the weight and kick of this weapon to be formidable.
