He only carried 2 shells on his hunts.

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In the Nick Adams stories, Nick says, "My father only gave me three shells a day because he said that would teach me to hunt and it wasn't good for a boy to go banging around."

I love that but had not remembered it in a while. Thanks.
 
Call me what you like, but when I go into the woods and we only have black bear, feral hogs and coyotes, but I always have a minimum of 10 rounds of ammo above what the mag holds. Also when legal I have a 610 S&W 10mm on my side. On a side note, my nephew's cousin came by to get my opinion on how to kill this buck he knew about, he was parking in the same place and I think the buck knew when the door shut what was about to happen, I told him to park 1/4 mile away if he could and walk in. I saw him about 2 weeks later and he said I got a shot at him, he had forgot his box of shells and had 1 laying in the floorboard of his truck. I said I figured you did know to bring some shells with you. You can't fix stupid.
 
In central state backwoods Maine hardware and gun stores sold bullets by the each. Local residents bought one or two to harvest their deer.

When in high school, I hunted with a buddy who only had 5 shells for his 30-30 Marlin and heard him shoot all five in the woods when I was standing on a small powerline about 150 yards away. After about two minutes, I yelled to him, "Did you get him?". He yelled back "NO!" I then yelled, "Which way did he go?" The answer came back, "He's right here, looking at me!" The buck finally wandered off and neither of us saw it again. (He'd looked right over the rear sight and put the front sight on the deer.)
 
When in high school, I hunted with a buddy who only had 5 shells for his 30-30 Marlin and heard him shoot all five in the woods when I was standing on a small powerline about 150 yards away. After about two minutes, I yelled to him, "Did you get him?". He yelled back "NO!" I then yelled, "Which way did he go?" The answer came back, "He's right here, looking at me!" The buck finally wandered off and neither of us saw it again. (He'd looked right over the rear sight and put the front sight on the deer.)

This makes me feel so much better about life in general. You should tell this story every year.
 
Most years I only use one shot. But I always have extra. This year the deer was moving through brush and trees. Two shots were deflected. I did manage to thread a shot into his lungs. About a half hour later a partner and I went to gut him and he jumped up a ran. We found him dead but my shot was a little higher than I thought. That was the only chance I had. I don't think much of hunters using single shots. Or anyone not prepared for any possible problems. But then I am a combat vet and like to be prepared. You can see my favorite weapon in the pic. Belt fed M-60.
 
In central state backwoods Maine hardware and gun stores sold bullets by the each. Local residents bought one or two to harvest their deer.

I'm a Maine Native, born up in "Stephen King country", Aroostook County. I still vacation there, often, and I would like to point out that, IME, by national standards, most of my fellow "Maine-uhs" are a couple pebbles shy of a full pile, myself included.

I don't know about anybody else, but I usually hunt with plenty of extra ammo.
 
I had another friend, Nelson, who worked for MeDOT with me who'd shot at deer every year, but had never gotten one. He lived in the small town of Fayette, about 10 miles West of Augusta. He also had a Winchester 94 with open sights. He was a good hunter, but missed shots at deer every season and had never killed one.

It was obvious to me that he also was looking over the rear sight, so convinced him that a receiver sight would cure his problem. Our office trailer for the street reconstruction was behind the small shopping center near the Capitol and one day we bought the Williams 5-Dollar receiver sight and a higher front sight at a local gun shop and the next, I brought my Dad's old drill press with his 1/2" heavy-duty B&D drill mounted on it. I removed the bolt on the rifle and drilled/tapped the receiver, installed the 5D and front sight, then went to Capitol City Range and sighted it in for 50 yards. After I sighted it, in he fired offhand and made about a 1 1/2" group in the center.

The next day was Saturday and he went hunting in the hardwoods near his house. A nice doe came running by and he shot, but it kept going, so shot again. The deer went down with one shot in the heart and one in the neck! He was some proud when he told us the news on Monday!
 
I remember taking a buddy squirrel hunting with me one day and when we got out of my car he watched me put 4 boxes of .22WMR in my pockets.

"You really think you're going to need 200 rounds to squirrel hunt today?"

"Nope."

"Then why carry all that extra ammo?"

"'Cause if squirrel hunting sucks today, we're going over to my cousin's property down the hill and do some plinking. I'm not going home without doing some shooting... I'm here for the fun of it, too!"
 
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