David E. Petzal - The Gun Nut

“The police are the ones coming to get the guns. I know they don’t like the job much either, but since there are so many funny laws now I guess they just have to go ahead and do what they have to do.

“I must let you in on a secret unlawful thing I did. I took the guns I liked best and buried them down in the field behind the barn…I just couldn’t stand the thought of having them melted down or thrown in the ocean. I saved a few to turn in, and I hope that does the trick. It seems that you can get away with a lot of pretty bad crimes, but if they catch an honest man with a gun he hid away, out of sentiment, it goes pretty hard with him.”—Gene Hill, The Day They Took My Guns

“By and large, today’s deer hunter is not a skilled hunting rifleman. I say hunting rifleman in the effort to make a clear distinction between the hunter and the target shooter, for there is a marked difference. The majority of these men are not hunting riflemen of any marked degree of skill even after a lifetime of deer hunting.”—Larry Koller, Shots at Whitetails

“My God, Warren, why are you taking a cannon like that?”—Larry Koller to Warren Page, on the phone, when Page said he was taking his 7mm Mashburn magnum on an antelope hunt. Larry thought the .250 was just about ideal for deer, and couldn’t see why anyone needed anything bigger than a .30/06 for anything.

“In summing up the reasons why the magnum cartridges are the best choice with the right load for shooting all classes of North American big game under varied hunting conditions…the answer is quite simple: If you need the extra velocity they afford for longer sure hit ranges, you have it, or the extra punch they pack for heavy animals, you have it; if you don’t need it no harm is done. I have always been highly skeptical of the word overkill." –Bob Hagel, Game Loads and Practical Ballistics for the North American Hunter.

“Don’t step in the leopard s**t, bwana, it’s terrible stuff.”—Abie Du Plooy, PH, in Zambia, 1987. I was shooting an antelope a day to provision a leopard tree for the next safari, and the cat was pooping up a storm. The next safari never did get the leopard, but ever since, wherever I am, I’ve tried to avoid stepping in leopard s**t.

"David, my lad, if you ever get a shotgun that throws good patterns and puts them exactly where you point, you never, ever sell that gun. You shoot it until it falls apart in your hands." --Gene Hill, to the Gun Nut, 1985