Gonna have to check out for a couple, gotta do a news release on yesterdays arrests.

Hey Andy, how you doin this early in the a.m.

I read your post about the sling ammo. MAYBE golfball size on the sling and .38-45 or maybe even 50 cal for the slingshot, depending upon the weight of the stuff when it was done.

I messed with a bolo many years ago. I made mine with 2 3oz sinkers. My reasoning was you could throw it and if needed you could use it by holding one end and it would extend your reach by 3ft. Even that 1 3oz weight would not have felt good if it hit you.

I always wanted to mess with a 3 line one, but never got around to making one. I think it would have been fun to play with.

Hey Mag, earlier you said you like sniping. Well, have you got one of these?

The Proverbial "Snipe Hunt."

In the rural South, and perhaps in other parts of the country, there comes the time for "The Snipe Hunt." Most all young boys are handed a gunny sack, a light of sorts,sometimes a whistle, and are taken deep into the woods to hunt Snipe. It's a right of passage and something which must be done alone.
The snipe hunt by tradition is a rather simple affair. Legend has it..the snipe is nocturnal and is best hunted at night when it leaves its snipe nest. Webster defines the Snipe as a member of the Sandpiper family, but to this day no one has ever really seen a Snipe, much less captured one. At least to my knowledge!! (By the way, the
fact that there really is long-billed bird called a Snipe has almost nothing to do with this
ritual hunt.)
You never shoot a snipe -- not with a gun, slingshot, or bow and arrow. You just catch
them in a gunnysack. Sure it seems rather odd, trying to catch a bird with a gunnysack,
but look at it this way, its another fun activity like chasing down a greased pig, or any
of the other peculiar things guys in the country call fun. I have to admit I was "grown"
before I learned the truth about "Snipe hunting," because when we moved to the city,
there it was again. At camps in the summer, Snipe hunting was at the top of the list of
activities!


Some of you may have had this experience during your younger days, because the Snipe
hunt is a time-honored initiation rite. At the beginning of the camping period, the counselors
gather all of the first-time campers around a bonfire at night. After explaining the basics of
the "hunt" they lead them into the woods, build a campfire, hand them a burlap bag and
flashlight, and tell them to hunt for Snipe. Armed only with flashlights and burlap sacks for
retrieving their quarry, the new campers are sent out into the night. As soon as they are out
of earshot, the counselors and veteran campers/snipe hunters sit and wait, laughing, for the
confused rookies to return empty-handed.


It was a bit different in the country. A boy is taken into the woods armed with a flashlight
and sack, and told that if he makes the "Snipe call" just right, the Snipes will run into the
gunny sack. The one taking him on the hunt tells him he is going to move away and try and
run the Snipes towards the boy, so he can fill his sack full , and be deemed a successful hunter.
Needless to say, after making a few "Snipe calls", they disappear, leaving the boy alone in
the woods with only his sack, light, sounds of the woods, and a very vivid imagination!

Sometimes one could be provided with a "snipe call" for lack of a better word. I remember
when my cousins, Edwin and Junior first started the snipe initiation with my brother, he was
told he had to learn the "snipe call." I can't begin to put the sound into words, but he went
about for a week practicing this sound, eagerly awaiting the perfect night when they would
go snipe hunting. This sound was suppose to draw the snipes to you. This was after we
moved to the city and the woods were across the street, and down a dirt road, where we
weren't allowed to play.

Well he finally got the call down pat and off they went, not telling Mother or my
Aunts where they were going. Of course I knew but I was sworn to secrecy. And I knew
better than to tell, because if I did my brother would "frog" both my arms.
Oh how I hated that!! Only a kid from my era would know what a "frogged arm" was like.
But trust me on this..it wasn't pleasant.
And so I waited. I was so anxious to see a sack full of snipes, because I knew Bubba
was good at everything he did, so this would be no challenge. And besides he could
do the "snipe call" so well. But I never got to see any snipes! All that returned
was a very perplexed looking Bubba and Edwin and Junior laughing until they surely
must have lost their breath. And later when I asked my brother what it was all about,
all I got was, "Just forget it. You're too little to know." TOO LITTLE TO KNOW!!
That really piqued my interest!! Being the inquisitive little kid I was, I kept after
him to tell me all the details. "Well tell me just a little bit. I'll figure out the rest."

Needless to say, I went to bed with two "frogged arms."

To this observer, the fun escapes me. But all who participate seem to revel in
laughing at the poor soul left "holding the bag." And all who have endured it seem
to remember it with fond memories. Looking back, I guess I should be glad all I had to do was churn!

You might be in redneck country if your school library has a dozen of these on the shelves.

AND you know you're in the wide open West if you see one of these

Oh man, been a sweaty 30 minutes. I got a call that there was a man at a house holding 2 people at knifepoint. They then said the knife was gone (don't know what happened to it) but the guy said he had a gun in his truck and he wanted another guy to meet him to "finish it".

Well I notified a couple deputies and they went screaming over there and as usualy happens the guy is gone when they get there. They're still looking for him at this time, and he is know to be violent and carry a weapon. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll pass out and no one will get hurt. It's happended that way before.

349,871 posts, and this makes 2