Wednesday
Sometimes it takes awhile to get around to a story. I was in Huntsville, Alabama in November 2008 and talked my friend and fellow NSS board member Greg Allison into playing hookey from the meetings for part of an afternoon so I could take some of my own photos of the remains of the DCX rocket. When he told me about his classic Kentucky long rifle, I realized this was a photo op extraordinaire for.... REDNECKS in Spaaaace!!
Three things you do not do in the South. You don't mess with a southerners dawg, his pickup truck or his spaceship.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
Don't even think it. He'll shoot off your left at further than you can even see a squirrel.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
Now there is a great title for a series! I'm just not sure you could solve every problem by shooting it, though! Still, a redneck family, lost in space in an alien spacecraft that crashed on their land- yes, it has possibilities!
Posted by Nuke Gray at January 20, 2010 02:47 AM
Yep. You're not a gen-yew-ine redneck unless you have a disabled vehicle in your yard surrounded by long grass. Of course, usually it's a rusty pickup.
Posted by Richard Thomas at January 20, 2010 02:56 PM
Interesting question. In more modern terms I'd use a .22 rifle myself. Some use 30.06 shotguns but then you've got to clean out all the lead shot. I can remember my mom doing that for some of the neighbor men. But the Kentucky Long Rifle was the primo hunting rifle of its time and almost certainly would have been used for squirrel as well as other things.
Posted by Dale Amon at January 20, 2010 04:24 PM
Thanks dale. All I can say is that I want a bloody go on one, Now!
But given UK gun laws, some hope. You will be stuffed to go shopping for and air pistol soon.
Posted by RAB at January 20, 2010 08:46 PM
30-06 shotgun? You don't know what you're talking about.
Posted by Larry at January 20, 2010 11:42 PM
Mea culpa. My only excuse was that I have had almost no sleep and been working around the clock (not to mention just doing an international flight) so the mind is not working so good. I should have typed 'some use the 30.06 or shotguns'. The missing 'or' makes all the difference.
in my neck of the woods some people did use shotgun on rabbit and squirrel as well as pheasant and turkey. I know cause I watched mom cleaning them when I was knee-high to a grasshopper.
Posted by Dale Amon at January 20, 2010 11:59 PM
No te preocupes. My response came out a little harsher than I meant it to be. You were right, though, about shotgun pellets. I've bit into plenty of them at the dinner table. Not pleasant.
Posted by Larry at January 21, 2010 05:38 AM
Dale, do they breed grasshoppers big in your birthplace? Maybe those were Bugs from Starship Troopers! Rednecks have saved the world, already!
Posted by Nuke Gray at January 21, 2010 06:10 AM
"He'll shoot off your left at further than you can even see a squirrel."
Your left what?
Posted by Rich Rostrom at January 21, 2010 07:39 AM
.30-06 for squirrel? You guys back east must have some hellacious tree rats. Mon Dieu, when I think .30-06 I think of elk!
I know a few blackpowder enthusiasts who love using a .32 Kentucky long rifle for small game. I've been meaning to try it, just for the sake of doing something a little different for once. Nothing wrong with the .22 in every true American childhood, but sometimes the old ways are worth playing with.
And the photos are nothing more than a manifestation of a statement by the Fount of All Cinematic Wisdom: you don't mess with a man's vehicle.
Posted by Sunfish at January 21, 2010 10:29 PM
