New ways to maintain readiness

By TED NUGENT

Happy, my beloved, gung ho Catahoula hunting partner, was maniacally raising cane, barking and howling like a hound possessed at the base of the old Live Oak tree.

Scrambling into position and raising my suppressed Ruger 10-22 into readiness, I had no doubt whatsoever that my reliable hunting sidekick was snorting ultra-fresh limbrat aromas, and I could almost taste the imminent fricassee in the air.

Momentarily, Sadie, my yellow lab girlfriend and her big sister Coco, the world’s greatest hunting German Shepherd, chimed in and the flying

Wallenda acrobat bushytail had no choice but to slither tight against the limb in its desperate and futile attempt to avoid the bloodthirsty foursome below on our mission from God.

I don’t really know how, but my old 74-year-old predator eyeballs zeroed in, way, way up there, on a miniscule patch of russet fur that didn’t quite belong against the dark oak bark, and through the ancient riflescope, I confirmed the tiny ear of my target.

Down He Came

Without a hint of hesitation, the 3-power, 4-plex crosshair found the barely visible quarter-inch of forehead attached to the little ear, and with a subtle crack of the .22, down came the rodent of the canopy, plummeting earthward where Happy caught it in a mad-dash flicker before it hit the ground.

I don’t know about you, but such simple wildlife “triggertime” adventures are as thrilling as elephant hunting in the wilds of Africa, or even elk hunting out west. And lucky, lucky me – I do it literally every day in one form or another, developing a connection with my trigger finger that pays off in extremely gratifying marksmanship fun.

Fun At The Range

I also dedicate a few minutes each day at the reactive firing range with my daily carry handgun as well as various new and old rifles and other firearms, just to make sure I accomplish not only one of my favorite things in life, gun fun, but also the increasing priority to be capable of neutralizing the ever-increasing runaway skyrocketing violent crime as engineered by our embarrassingly failed justice system here in the once great U.S. of A.

I like to keep up to speed with new guns and the always developing firearms technology, just to make sure I can knowingly and effectively handle any gun that may come into play under always unpredictable circumstances.

When it comes time to pop a squirrel or cottontail for the hounds and the pot, or just increasing my timing proficiency and accuracy at the range, I think we can all agree that constantly honed comfort, control and effectiveness with firearms is and always will be one of life’s greatest challenges and joys.

LASER TRIGGERS, TOO

Not everybody has small game hunting opportunities right out the backdoor like I do, but back when I didn’t have such luxuries, I was always able to improvise, adapt and overcome, and find a place to touch off some rounds.

Add to the excitement, beyond live-fire training, that new technology that allows us to shoot our guns with non-projectile, non-report laser products right in our living rooms, which goes a long way toward accomplishing the most important aspects of firearms control and confidence through repetitious functional handling. Go for it! There is a plethora of gun fun opportunities available to us these days, and before those magic days afield return next fall, those days will be that much more fun if we become one with our firearms and with the “triggerfinger” that determines the moment-of-truth magic that is the “aim-small miss-small” shootist dream.