The firearm of choice for deer hunters is generally a rifle, but in more populated rural areas, rifles are outlawed. Hunters there are allowed to use shotguns, and many do so with good success.

Since both are lethal weapons, why are shotguns allowed in these areas, but not rifles?

Hint: the answer lies in the first line of a traditional cowboy song.

ThinMan

I think. Makes sense to me.

but...the only cowboy song I could think of was "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys"... doesn't make sense to me at all....

I could think on it awhile yet. Everybody is still at church....

None of the cowboy songs playing on the jukebox in my head are appropriate to this question.

Nell

Annette

All the Elmer Fudds around here are out in full force - I can hear them off in bush. Lots of trucks on the side of the road, etc. Police closed part of my road home one night last week, as there were hunters shooting after sunset - a no-no here. They found a 70-year-old hunter in severe distress, who may have been the shooter. He died later in hospital - guess he was doing something he loved. The deer here are also rampant. I saw a huge buck - 10 points?? - on the side of the road the other night - if he'd moved onto the road, I would not be typing this! Maybe we should hire hunters to shoot both them, and the over-abundance of Canada geese, to feed the homeless and the food bank people.

Nancy.

1. Oh give me a home/where the buffalo roam
2. In a cavern, in a canyon/excavating for a mine
3. I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee
4. From this valley they say you are going
etc.

Don't know the answer but we could have a sing-song. :)

Libby

Having dumped the ballistics expert, like the others here I think it's that shotguns have a smaller range. I'm guessing because instead of forcing one projectile a long way, it's sending lots of shot a short way, so you don't actually have to be a sniper to get a deer. Except maybe shotguns do "bullets" too, in which case having a smaller range means it would also have to be a smaller powder load or whatever they call it. You know, less gunpowder.

There's a piece of land-trust land near me, in between a subdivision and a business, where they only allow hunting by cross-bow. That may be more for the noise factor than safety, cross-bows scare me!

Funny, Libby. I'd forgotten how many I know-like #3 and 4. Shall we all step outside and begin?

Shotguns, when used for deer hunting, generally fire a bigger and slower projectile called a slug. See numbers 39 and 40 in the picture. Its range is a lot shorter, though it is known to carry through brush better than high-velocity rifle bullets.

So who needs testosterone?

for Janie, Cynthia, Annette, BBH, Nancy, and Stagerat.

Thanks for playing, y'all.

TM

Have a wonderful week.

Cynthia

TM

Nancy.

Nancy.