I posted a reply to a thread in the Deer Stalking General part of our Forum on "sage words" from an old stalker. But I promised that I'd start a thread in Off Topic for other "sage words" that I hope won't be ridiculous but supposedly believed to be true and based on fact. In the hope that other members might say "Yes it's true" or "No that's tosh". And also contribute their own "sage words".
Here's my four:
1) If you shoot a pheasant (or duck or goose) "in the beak" the head and neck would be knocked back and the body would fly on. So killing the bird, in mid-air, by in fact breaking its neck. In all my years I never picked a pheasant that on landing had its neck so broken. So myth or is it truth?
2) If you shoot a (high) pheasant the shot stuns it, as it were, in mid-air and in fact it is the fall and subsequent impact with the ground that kills it. Well, that's what I believe. More myth or based on fact as Payne-Gallwey believed? I think it holds true for other feathered game too. Any opinions?
3) Never run over a snake in a open topped car. My Aunt Dorothy told me this based on her experiences in South Africa. The risk is that the wheels flip it up and it into the cockpit of the car and the snake isn't very happy about it. My Nigerian wife adds don't do it on a bicycle or motorcycle either for same reasons.
4) Never fight a boxing kangaroo. Another Aunt Dorothy advice. They actually don't box you but kick, at you abdomen, with their lower legs and that can disembowel you or at least cause quite bad injury to your stomach area.
So, 1), 2), 3), and 4). Truth, tosh or tommyrot? And what have you in "sage words"? Gun related, stalking related, game related, life related? Not cut and pasted from the 'net but from personal or family lore...
Here's my four:
1) If you shoot a pheasant (or duck or goose) "in the beak" the head and neck would be knocked back and the body would fly on. So killing the bird, in mid-air, by in fact breaking its neck. In all my years I never picked a pheasant that on landing had its neck so broken. So myth or is it truth?
2) If you shoot a (high) pheasant the shot stuns it, as it were, in mid-air and in fact it is the fall and subsequent impact with the ground that kills it. Well, that's what I believe. More myth or based on fact as Payne-Gallwey believed? I think it holds true for other feathered game too. Any opinions?
3) Never run over a snake in a open topped car. My Aunt Dorothy told me this based on her experiences in South Africa. The risk is that the wheels flip it up and it into the cockpit of the car and the snake isn't very happy about it. My Nigerian wife adds don't do it on a bicycle or motorcycle either for same reasons.
4) Never fight a boxing kangaroo. Another Aunt Dorothy advice. They actually don't box you but kick, at you abdomen, with their lower legs and that can disembowel you or at least cause quite bad injury to your stomach area.
So, 1), 2), 3), and 4). Truth, tosh or tommyrot? And what have you in "sage words"? Gun related, stalking related, game related, life related? Not cut and pasted from the 'net but from personal or family lore...
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