And shooting pigs in pig-sties and taking selfies with road-kill suggest to me that we really do need to be very cautious and concerned about the 5% who are into guns here.

o Sung wu,

"ONTHEBEACH, I'll need to retire immediately in order to take a bucket load of medication if, as it seems my humble writing style has deteriorated so badly, as to appear that I've been unwittingly allured and beguiled by those people of the GREEN, faaaarrr left !"

Never fear....otb is the master of odious innuendo.

He employs it in place of respectful and balanced debate.

Cossomby,

"Dear onthebeach,

It is amazing how you jump to conclusions."

As above.

o sung wu,

If I have misinterpreted you and since you say so that is proof enough, I apologise. On review I estimate that much of my replies to you could and ought to have been directed to others instead.

Dear onthebeach, You wrote:

"It is blindingly obvious is it not that anyone who would go onto a property illegally is first a criminal. That the said persons were ignorant and committed other offences is rather predictable where they already had scant regard for the law and others."

There has been a long-standing problem in western NSW, especially with 'Mexicans' (Victorian hunters) who don't think it is illegal to go onto properties without permission.

Actually, for a long time it wasn't. Most of the country is Western Land Lease, and roads and farm tracks across the leases were considered public access roads - lessees could not lock gates. This changed about 20 odd years go, but there is still an attitude, especially by Mexicans, that no-one really owns the land and anyone has the right to go onto it. Indeed, many unfenced public tracks do still go across WLLs and it's no big deal to stop and walk around. Shooting without permission is another thing, but the 'freedom' of access means that it's easy for one to merge into the other.

On the other hand crime is on a steep increase through the area. You can't talk to a landholder without hearing stories of thefts, both stock and farm equipment, but in fact anything that's not nailed down(eg a pile of old bald tyres, the doors of a fuel stove!) High security fences are springing up all over, and in some areas what used to be a pleasant rural drive is now like travelling through a series of jails.

And on that topic, another genuine, non-creative anecdote coming soon.

Hi there BAZZ & HASBEEN...

BAZZ...what an interesting account of your Father's experience during WW l ! And how the Aussies taught many of the Instructors how to shoot properly. And the Yanks how to remain alive. I guess with living in the bush one would learn a lot of very useful skills, none of which more useful, than accuracy with a rifle. The fact those two German soldiers who assisted your Dad to return safely to his own lines, showed how heartily sick of war and the bloodshed they were also ? From all I've read and seen of the first World War, the casualties were enormous. Just the other day, I heard the figure of 9 million souls were killed during that war, 9 million, truly horrific figures ?

HASBEEN...As usual you speak a lot of common sense. Much of what you say of the possible Japanese invasion, I've heard repeated many many times before, so it must surely have legitimacy. In another thread you spoke of Bows ? Re-curves, compounds and the deadly crossbows ?

I've got a great deal of respect for the humble bow, I've seen an autopsy (death by misadventure), as a result of a compound bow ? The dedicated 'hunting' arrow, nearly completely exiting out the victim's back, killing him relatively quickly, according to the pathologists. It had been again 'reset' for Court, after which I tried pulling back the bow string. Initially the resistance was quite hard, then as I continued back pressure, it became very easy indeed !

Moral of the story, as you'd know, don't muck around with 'any bow' despite a learned Counsel for the victim's parent's, trying hard to invoke, a civil 'unlawful killing by negligence' lawsuit, upon the victim's former friend ?

Of course your statement apropos the 'Cross Bow'. Most have enormous power, they equate them more accurately in ballistic terms. The arrow or 'bolt' can quite easily tear right through the human torso, including minor bone structures. Describing such as 'ballistic resistant distortion', usually means absolute lethality for victims ?

Cossomby all your stories are just that, stories
You people make me sick! Get guns off the ordinary Australian like me? Well done! Your main complaint is someone actually enjoying themselves
Now I have to listen to some cowardly copper in Sydney start whining about the criminals have to stop shooting each other. Well we all know he is talking about Arab crime families heavily into drugs and protected by the police. Perhaps we could suggest the coppers leave honest Aussies alone and concentrate on not only crime gangs but the top cops who protect them.
You anti hunters why don't you have a go at these criminal gangs instead?