shooting wolves with a Mini-14 from a running snowmobile

[fulltlt]

I was at the local gun shop today just shopping around and this guy comes in and asks to look at a rifle they had on display. It's a Mini-14. The guy knows absolutley nothing about it. The clerk is telling him how to operate it, how to load it, how many rounds it takes etc. The guy then asks, "Could I fire this with one hand?" He's right handed apparently as he holds it in his right hand and trys to see how it would feel firing it one-handed. The clerk kind of shrugs and says I guess. Then he says he needs it to shoot wolves while he's driving on his snowmobile. The clerk looks at him kind of wierd and asks, "While you're driving?". The guy tells him yes that what he wants it for. I didn't get involved in the conversation. Should I have?
First of all I think it is highly illegal to do what he is comtemplating. In Michigan where I do a lot of hunting, wolves are a protected species. Shooting any game from a moving motorized vehicle is not legal either. I can't picture driving a snowmobile which has the throttle on the right hand handlebar and trying to fire a Mini-14. Is it best to just stay silent in cases like this or speak up?
It's not my store. I'm just another customer.

I hear the wierdest stories at the gun shops.

 

[ATeaM]

"Is it best to just stay silent in cases like this or
speak up?"

No, what you need to do now is find out where he is doing this, pick up one of the many dead wolf carcasses he leaves on the trail, and then ambush him with your bolt action but make it look like the wolf is shooting the gun ! Trust me, this worked for a friend of mine in Australia .


On a lighter note, A couple of weeks ago I was picking up a gun at a local shop when some idiot next to me was examining a .50 bolt action joking about how he was gonna make it his "chopper" gun. He was speaking real loud so everyone could hear him asking, "How many rounds would I need to take out a helicopter" and "How come no one had used these against the police helicopters before?... what a f#cking idiot !

 

[Brian Gibbons]

Bite your tongue ...

Many folks may disagree, but I personally would keep my face shut in such a situation. If the fella can't figure for himself the inherent hazards of such actions then I doubt that he would be capable of understanding any explanation of "why it's dangerous". I have always felt that the most difficult thing to explain to someone is something that is blatantly obvious ...

 

[Kharn]

Darwin works in many mysterious ways, sometimes he announces his plan of action to the world before adding his special little dose of chlorine to the gene pool.

Kharn

 

[Blue Duck357]

Likely he was just rying to impress the clerk and anyone within earshot (while looking like an idiot). Did you happen to notice if he actually bought the Ruger or was he going to "look around a bit".

 

[ronin308]

Personally I would speak up...okay imagine your family is sitting in the living room watching a football game or whatever, and all of a sudden 15 55gr 5.56 rounds rip into your home because some guy about 1000 yards away is shooting at wolves from his damn snowmobile! All legality aside, this is a HUGE safety hazard to anyone that may live adjacent to this man's property. I sure wouldn't want my fiancee to bite a bullet just because some a$$%#$% wants to shoot wolves illegally from his friggen snowmobile! I would call the game commission

 

[Art Eatman]

Most of these gunstore commandos are just popoffs, babbling idiots.

If the Mini-14er actually bought, I might note his name from the yellow sheet, and MAYBE, not definitely, pass his name along to a local game warden...Dunno. But if I later saw some news article about a wolf killed by somebody from a snowmobile, I definitely would then drop a dime on him.

Art

 

[E. BeauBeaux]

Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

IMO that guy removed all doubt.

 

[Keith Rogan]

I think the idiot has been reading about Alaskan "Wolf Hunting", where the Inuit on the snowmobile rides down a wolf and blows it away with his trusty Mini-14. This sort of "rural myth" is analogous to the land-and-shoot airborne hunting of wolves, where in legend our hero in sets his Piper Cub down next to a pack of wolves, jumps out and mows them down while they stand there glaring at the big bird which has descended from the heavens...
I'm sure something like this has happened somewhere, sometime, but wolves are generally too smart to stick around anywhere near a noisy machine of any kind. If it was that easy wolves would have been wiped out long ago in Alaska.
In many years of hunting and trekking around of the wolf-richest country in Alaska I've only seen one wolf on the ground - one! In some places you'll hear them every night - sometimes two or more different packs calling back and forth, but when the sun comes up and you're out there glassing for caribou you just don't see them because they know you're there and will move miles away to avoid you. This is in open tundra country where you can see for miles, so I highly doubt anyone is going to run up on a pack in thick Michigan forests.

 

[BAB]

ATeaM,

I think I know who that friend of yours is...been in a few movies, hasn't he? I think I saw that he did a recent one set in L.A. or something.

 

[Gunslinger]

I may bring a unique perspective to this.

Since Terri and I own a pure bred gray timber wolf...or perhaps, more appropriately, I should say she ownes us I would have to ask what exactally the wolf/wolves had done to provoke him.
I would then explain that if hunting anything we wished were legal his life expectancy, as an idiot and menace to society, would be greatly diminished.
But then, even though I'm not what anyone could call a PETA person, I am rather partial to wolves after having had one sleep in bed with me every night for the past two years.

 

[Gunslinger]

Oh and as a PS....

I'm waiting on the state conservation people to call me back this afternoon about regulations and have an appointment with a man in the morning to look at a bear cub needing a home.

Well, I never claimed to be normal.....

 

[JimFox]

Snow go shooting

Having spent some years in Artic Alaska where some hunting is done from snow-goes I'd have to agree that folks in their house 1,000 yards away are in more danger than the game being shot at. S**t happens to wolves as well as humans, but for the most part I think the wolves would be safe - should Rambo see any.

Gunslinger - Wolves are social animals - and singly they can adapt as members of a family (pack) but they are not domestic animals. Neither are Bob Cats, Cougers, Foxes, Racoons, nor any of other numerous carnivors that have been brought into occassional human association.

A bear ain't a wolf, ain't a couger, ain't an ocelelot, ain't a coon, ... Keep that in mind and operate according to the hard wired reactions of the species.

Good luck with the bear cub. Little suckers are damn near as inquisitive as coons. Unfortunately they are more muscular.

 

[DC]

The guy is a putz. If he isn't just talk, he is most certainly a disaster gonna happen to someone or himself.

Out here in my turf, he would be "encouraged to move along".

 

[neal bloom]

How unfortunate that the actions of a person like this will give all of us a bad name. If he does in fact kill a wolf from a snowmobile, all firearm owners will be blamed. In all probability he is going to hurt himself or someone else. Again all responsible gunowners will be branded because of his stupidity. People like this only hurt the cause and take something from us. A lot of people work hard to maintain an image of trust and responsibility. A 'gunstore commando' like this only causes harm. You were probably right in keeping quiet. Anybody crazy enough to try and shoot something from a moving snowmobile might be easily provoked. Turn him in to the police and the game warden afterwards.

 

[Backwoods]

While I agree that the would-be wolf shooter is an idiot, I would be more concerned if I heard someone trying to buy a .50 rifle "for shooting helicopters". Especially given the recent interest by the anti crowd in banning "Long range sniper rifles. Henry Waxman(democrat from ?) had people calling gunshops asking about .50 BMG rifles and what ammo would shoot through an armored limosine. The scary part is that there were people who gave them advice on which ammo penetrated better! This guy sounds like an agent provocateur(sp?) trying to cause trouble for all of us or someone too insane to be sold any kind of weapon in the the store I used to work at. The boss would have ordered a jerk like that off the premises with instructions not to return, he always said he was in business to make money and not to shoot every gun owner in the foot by dealing with fools like that. Other peoples opinions may not agree!

Don in Ohio

 

[Art Eatman]

Backwoods, I agree in principle about the doofus and the .50. In my experience, though, the sort of idjit who babbles such nonsense probably won't ever have enough money to acquire the gun--and the first time he ever shoots one will likely be the last.

I think I'd worry more about the quiet type who buys the components for a .50, never really says anything, but gives you a bit of a nervous feeling...

, Art

 

[Keith Rogan]

Gunslinger.

I too own a female gray wolf that has slept next to my bed for the last, gosh... seven years? A wonderful, gentle companion, though the first year or so were hard on the furniture.
Hunting wolves from a snowmobile is legal in Alaska and the Mini 14 is the rifle of choice for many Native Alaskans. Alaskan residents don't even need a special tag to shoot a wolf, it just comes as part of the general bag on the license. Still, wolves are almost never targeted by hunters because they are just too slick an animal to pursue. I'm sure an occasional wolf has been shot from a snow machine (perhaps a sick or injured animal, something like that), but most wolves killed by hunters are simply incidental - a mischance where a wolf blunders into the field of view of a moose hunter.

Still, every time wolf "control" or "protection" comes up as an "issue", the image of a Native on a snowmobile shooting up entire packs is bandied about by the "protection" side.
I'm sure this is where our idiot friend in Michigan got the idea he could zoom around and "surprise" a pack of wolves - from some PETA inspired "documentary" on Alaskan wolves.

 

[Gunslinger]

Always good to "meet" another wolf owner/person. I know what you mean about the first year or so. This is my second one and they were both horrible the first six or seven months. We took this one to obedience school and she loved it and did very well. She is now the perfect lady albeit still very, very shy around stangers.
We also have five Chow Chows.

 

[Keith Rogan]

Mine is also shy about some people, while with others she'll just march right up and be friendly. I have no idea why she differentiates between people.
I've corresponded with a number of people who own pure-bred wolves (as opposed to hybrids), and there seems to be two things that make the difference between them being a good companion and a problem.
One is that they need to be raised in the house rather than in a kennel - to complete the bond with a family.
The other thing that seems to be very helpful is to own well behaved companion dogs because wolves tend to follow the behavior of their "pack".

You seem to have both things covered as do I.

Over the last few years I've been taking "George" out hunting as a pack animal and she's adapted to that role very well. She lets me know when bears are around by puffing up and "insisting" we go another way. And she behaves perfectly when I spot deer - she just lays down and watches while I stalk (mountain hunting), and then comes up when I shoot. She can carry about 50 pounds of boned out meat in her pack and she really enjoys doing it.

I've owned dogs all my life but this is the best one - the smartest, most helpful, etc. They seem to train by actually understanding what and why you want them to do things rather than by simply learning a habit by reward as regular dogs do.