//I hunt on the upper reaches of the eastern slopes of the Dividing Range where gullies are often deep and steep and the valleys are even better.
My preferred shotgun is lighter than the Adler.
Tramping over that country is good exercise and helps to keep me a fit 81 year old.//

I go bushwalking in similar terrain. There are people in my bushwalking club even older than you. They manage to stay fit and vital by tramping over that country, but they don't feel it necessary to carry a gun and shoot at stuff. So with all due respect, I think it is probably the bushwalking and not the shooting at stuff which is keeping you fit. In which case, the shooting at stuff is a pointless and unnecessary expense... unless you can get free ammo with a Senior's Card. It's a bit like paying for a gym membership but only going there to use their treadmills: walking is free.

//You owned a water pistol?
Shame, one of the nastiest kinds of firearm that there could be,
if ever restrictions were necessary then they should be severely restricted.//

Do you have rabies? Do you melt when you get splashed with water like the Wicked Witch of the West? What's with the hydrophobia? A bit of water isn't going to kill you, you big Jessie.

A metal projectile being propelled at considerable velocity through your body is a different story. The immediate damaging effect of a gunshot wound is typically severe bleeding, and with it the potential for hypovolemic shock, a condition characterized by inadequate delivery of oxygen to vital organs. In the case of traumatic hypovolemic shock, this failure of adequate oxygen delivery is due to blood loss, as blood is the means of delivering oxygen to the body's constituent parts. Devastating effects can result when a bullet strikes a vital organ such as the heart or lungs, or damages a component of the central nervous system such as the spine or brain. Common causes of death following gunshot injury include exsanguination, hypoxia caused by pneumothorax, catastrophic injury to the heart and larger blood vessels, and damage to the brain or central nervous system. Additionally, gunshot wounds typically involve a large degree of nearby tissue disruption and destruction due to the physical effects of the projectile. Non-fatal gunshot wounds can result in serious disability.

Hi Is Mise, I understand as a hunter, you may hold a dismissive attitude towards human life, as you definitely do when it comes to the lives of animals. As you have little regard for animal suffering, you may posses a similar attitude when it comes to human suffering from gun shot wounds. Thanks Toni for the run down on the effects of gun shot wounds.

To quote from the christian bible;

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways."

I would have thought at 81 you might have caught on by now, but then again some of us are slow learners.

I don't know anyone in The Greens who condones the traditional way Torres Strait Islanders cruelly hunt dugong and sea turtle. I would prefer through education that indigenous people could still carry on their traditions but in a humane way.

A story, I have another story for you.

My partner "T"s uncle Marshall was one of the last Maori in the north of New Zealand who hunted kiwi ( the little flightless birds, not the people, ancestors done that), might have been the last. Back in the 1960's at about your age uncle Marshall was out in the bush trapping kiwi's, he took them home, boiled them up, and ate them. One day the coppers turned up at his bush property and said "Marshall C you gotta stop hunting kiwi, we've had complaints, and its the law now, no more kiwi hunting. Seems Marshall grabed his old gun and wanted to shoot the coppers, protesting "I've hunted, and ate kiwi since I was a boy and you ain't gona stop me now." According to "T" the coppers didn't arrest him, took his unloaded gun off him just told him to cool down and "no more" then left. She suspects uncle kept hunting kiwi, on the quite, until he died aged about 90.

Toni,

Good description of gun shot wounds, that's why when hunting feral animals or animals for food I always try for brain or heart shots with a rifle and the shot gun is only used or rabbits, hares and foxes; with those soft skinned animals the spread of shot ensures that they die instantly.
Shooting is humane whereas the Greens endorsed option of using 1080 poison on ferals is inhumane causing lingering death and unintended kills of wildlife.
By carrying a gun on my tramps I get the opportunity to eradicate feral pests and to also collect fresh meat for a few cents, important consideration for us pensioners.

On water pistols and their danger.
Ink and urine are two annoying substances that may be propelled from them; however urine from an AIDs infected person might be more than annoying.
Vinegar or one of the more liquid sauces are disabling when the eyes are hit but incapacitation is temporary (usually).
Turpentine, kerosene and petrol have more lasting effects and if used in conjunction with a cigarette lighter have the capacity to destroy life or seriously injure.
Paint stripper is another very dangerous liquid and can cause blindness and even death when squirted from a projector, such as the common water pistol.

Why aren't the Greens and GCA demanding the immediate banning of the freely available injurious liquid projectors?

Paul,

The Greens endorse Indigenous hunting, therefore they endorse the practices used and to endorse hunting for one race and condemn it for others is racism.

Leftists' denialism is only to be expected when they are confronted by their 'wobblies', half-truths and the unforeseen negative consequences of their social experimentation.

Behaviour is the only guide. It is noticeable that in Queensland the Labor government (and their supporting Greens sidekicks) headed by Annastacia Palaszczuk MP for Inala and with leftist womyn in Police, Attorney-General and other relevant senior ministerial positions did NOT choose anything like the mandated cruel indigenous hunting practices (as protected by Native Title) as priorities for action.

What did the leftists in Qld choose as priorities? The answer is their very first priorities along with protecting grubs like Billy Gordon,
http://tinyurl.com/billygordon
and the shocker of a Police Minister, Jo-Ann Miller,
http://tinyurl.com/Jo-Ann-Miller
were to deep-six the previous government's successful Queensland's Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment (VLAD) Act, the anti-bikie legislation, and to lower the age of consent to anal sex.

Yet this report from 2014 and many before that along with court appearances, prove that the scourge of ICE and other drugs and the weapons violence that goes with it, are down to bikies and other criminal gangs,

http://tinyurl.com/gangs-illegal-guns

Greens and other leftists have the gall to blame the many thousands of reputable, law-abiding, licensed citizens for the offences and behaviour, including DV, of the lawless, drug-dealing, violent ferals that they, the Green Left in particular, are always defending with rationalisations and protecting.

G'day there TONI LAVIS...

I'm in no way being facetious when I say don't discount the harmful effects occasioned by some idiot with a child's water pistol? A uniformed colleague of mine had a matter involving several year12 male and female students, from a well known public school who thought it would be a great 'end of year' lark to take water pistols to an end of year, school get together.

A couple of the girls decided to load theirs with a mix of water and some cheap perfume, and unknowingly saturate the backs of any and all targets with this offensive mix.

Several of the boys took theirs a bit further, and 'load' theirs with sulphuric acid, taken from one of the School's laboratories and (thankfully) diluted with water. In the mistaken belief, that it would do no more harm, save stain or slightly damage, clothing of several of the year12 female students. However, I'm not entirely sure what effect pure undiluted sulphuric acid would have, on a cheaply made, plastic water pistol?

Consequently some of these unwitting targets, as well as having parts of their clothing stained, suffered from serious (reddened) skin irritation, accompanied with protracted stinging. The origin of these rashes was only discovered because one of these 'intellectual giants' couldn't keep his mouth shut ! Evidence was later deduced, that had any of these concoctions entered an eye, permanent blindness could have resulted. There's no explaining the utter injudiciousness of some young people!