Kitty

[Pat]

Sorry I don't have pix to share on this sighting... A few minutes after I left the hosue this AM my wife spied a large kitty on a pond dam in our "extended" back yard. It is about 400 ft from our back porch so her perception of size might not be too accurate. She is quite familiar with the breed and had seen one of them before when we were back packing. That sighting was at a distance of about 75 ft.

She thinks this one was a juvenile and not of full grown size but from her description, I'm not sure it wasn't an adult.

They are known by various names: Panther, Cougar, Mountain Lion, whatever.

I bought some target ammo for her .357 Mag S&W 5 shot hammerless revolver today. We will be having some remedial "point and shoot" training for her. I bought hard ball .38 for practice (economical.) Standard load for concealed carry (or back yard protection) is extra high velocity jacketed soft nose or hollow points and too expensive for a "few" hundred rounds of training. Of course I picked up similar for my .45ACP (well, I do have to set a good example, don't I?)

When she saw it she grabbed the 7X50 Nikons for a closer look. I wish she had grabed her digicam instead.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[MarineJAG]

Too bad there are no photos! My wife also is trained to use a 357... she guards the farm with it when I'm away on business (playing in the big cat box). What is a hammerless revolver? Wouldn't mind seeing a pic of that.

[GaryM]

MarineJAG Here's a link to a Model 360. As you can see there is no exposed hammer. It still has a hammer of course, it's just shrouded so it can snag on anything as it's being drawn from pocket or purse. I can't say for this particular model, but on some the shroud is shaped in such a way that the hammer can barely be grasped in order to cock it so that single action fire can be acheived.

The one I linked to happens to be made of a combination of Scandium Alloy/Titanium/Stainless Steel, accounting for the 12 oz. empty weight.

And thanks for your service in our defense!

[Pat]

marineJAG, I'm sure there are lots of pix of hammerless revolvers avail on-line. My scanner is down so I can't scan it in. Just laying a pistol on the flat bed scanner takes a decent digital photo of it. Look at thte S&W airlight

Of course there is some sort of mechanism for striking the firing pin or the equivalent thereof, it just isn't external so you can't thumb it back single action style. It is double action only, a minor negative for precisioin shooting but self defense IS NOT PRECISION SHOOTING. There are super plusses to the hammerless action. This pistol is what I call a COMA GUN as it can be operated successfully by a person in a coma, almost. Of course there is no safety or other operating controls of interest until after you have fired your five.

There is one operating input. Squeeze the trigger and it shoots, squeeze again and it shoots again, this can be repeated up to five times before you have to have any other operating knowledge, like opening the swing out cylinder to eject the empty cartridges and reload.

This style revolver is the ultimate in reliability in a repeating arm, they just work. There is no hammer to snag when pulling it from concealment. It comes with a built in safety lock should you be inclined to stick the key in the keyhole and render the weapon inoperable, we don't do that but we don't have to worry about kids finding it. It is extremely light weight and therefore more likely to be carried and you know how it goes... the available weapon, however flawed, is much much more valuable than the best "RATED" weapons in the world that are locked away or at another site or not along with you or...

It has a short barrel and doesn't achieve maximum efficiency/velocity from the hi-vel soft nose or hollow point super hot .357 mag "carry" loads but the flames spouting from the short barrel are pretty heavy duty and are a deterent in themselves at close range. The short barrel yields a rather short sight base so pointing accuracy suffers. Of course, we don't think MOA is a requirement for self defense carry.

Mountain lions do attack and occasionally eat people. We knew a guy at our lab who was attacked and narrowly escaped after hours of Mexican standoff with a mountain bike as the only defensive weapon. Same locale, a lady jogger was eaten. This used to be one of our favorite day hike locations and we never saw a cat there ourselves.

The chances of a cat-wife confrontation may not be that great but I want her to have something to defend herself with besides a stern glance, just in case.

Oh, I found a picture with a google search... Here tis... Frame is Scandium and cylinder is titanium for a light weight package. Barrel is 1 7/8 inches.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

On Vancouver Island there are infrequent cougar attacks on people. More than one person has been killed.

And on another note of interest it is assummed wolves killed a young man in Northern Saskatchewan this past summer/fall.

Egon

[Pat]

Gary, As you probably gleaned, my wife's .357 is the scandium frame titanium cylinder unit with no external hammer.

It is NOT (unfortunately) one of the units that you can access the hammer, with some effort. There is no external access to nor evidence of a hammer. Being able to access the hammer, even with some difficulty is a nice feature but not having it is an extremely unimportant shortcoming for short range personal self defense purposes where MOA is not required just center of mass +/- several inches.

Being able to cock the hammer for a lighter trigger pull on the first shot is "nice" but for a point and shoot self defense piece NOT a big plus. Us old target shooters have a lot of habits that are detrimental to self defense or close combat success.

Gary, have you run into any old habits that you need to unlearn in your new shooting sport?

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Packed dogs sometimes do what wolves are accused of. Wolves get credited with a lot of attacks. It is in our mindset, especially after reading jack London. In reality there are virtually no documented wolf killing human events for the north American continent. If the case you site was proven it could be a first or nearly so.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

It

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />


Ontario man believed killed by wolves in Saskatchewan
Last Updated Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:35:09 EST
CBC News
RCMP in Saskatchewan are reporting the first human death attributed to wolves in North America in more than a century.


[/ QUOTE ]

Egon

[GaryM]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Gary, have you run into any old habits that you need to unlearn in your new shooting sport?

[/ QUOTE ]

Probably two things Pat.

One is drawing from a holster to shoot. Until the "games" like IDPA and others became popular in recent years, no one at a range, other than LEO, ever drew and fired. All weapons were laying on a rug in front of you.

The other is what's called "indexing". Laying your trigger finger along the side of the frame outside the trigger guard until ready to fire.

I'll admit to a ND many years ago though. About 37 years ago in fact. Never try to lower the hammer of a SA revolver while in a moving power boat. [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

No one was hurt and I've not had any since.

[buck21]

seems bear attacks are now what you have to worry about in ontario now thanks to harris o well all we can do is hope they stop and take legal action i guess [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] if you go to www.ontariofederationofanglerandhunters.com you can see afew articles about them some deaths too sadly [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]