Sarah Palin's bad shooting: Maybe it was a good thing.

[RamboLiberal]

Quite a bit of discussion last week on Palin's bad shooting. When it was mentioned Sarah was carrying a varmint rifle I wondered what caliber. Well here is the answer. And still amazes me Saran has daddy load and work the bolt on her rifle for each shot.

Since Alaska former, half-term Gov. Sarah Palin appears to be among everyone's favorite topic of discussion these days, here's something for hunters to talk about:

The so-called varmint rifle with which she shot at and repeatedly missed a caribou in TLC's "Sarah Palin's Alaska'' was a .225-caliber Winchester. Given that, were the misses a bad thing or a good thing?

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The .225 Winchester is a big sister of the .223 Remington, which is generally considered underpowered for hunting whitetail deer. A really, really big whitetail buck is about the size of the small caribou cow Palin shot. There is considerable debate among hunters about shooting deer with any of the .22-caliber center-fire cartridges, of which the .225 is one.

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This said, however, it must be noted the semi-automatic Ruger Mini 14 rifle is popular in the Alaska Bush, and the Mini 14 shoots the .223. The cartridge has been used to kill a lot of caribou. It is also somewhat notorious for wounding losses.

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Palin obviously knew enough about the recoil problem to inquire about the "kick'' of the rifle she was handed after giving up on her .225 (a childhood rifle, like kind a father would buy a daughter?) after all those misses.



http://www.alaskadispatch.com/voices/medred/7805-sarah-palins-bad-shooting-maybe-it-was-a-good-thing

[RamboLiberal]

1. Please lord if anyone shoots at me let it be Sarah Palin. Amen

That short prayer came to me as I watched the fourth episode of her faux-reality show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska," which had our half-term governor and former vice presidential candidate blasting away at a hapless and seemingly not very bright cow caribou somewhere in the Frozen North.

Palin, a likely presidential contender in 2012, was joined in the hunt by her 72-year-old father and a family friend. She had all the looks of somebody who has not spent much time in the woods or put in time behind guns, especially those she was using in the hunt.

Instead of coming off as a mama grizzly, she appeared tentative, uncomfortable, unprepared. She looked like what she was -- TV talent. It made me remember a song that author and journalist Harry Hurt III penned at the Pipeline Club in Valdez as we unwound every day while covering the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Most of the doggerel -- I cannot recall the tune -- is a blur of Jack Daniel's and fatigue, but its title has stuck with me, "She's an indoor girl in an outdoor world."

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But the story is in the story. All but Dowd seemed to miss the boatload of delicious allegory about Palin's life and politics wrapped up in the episode. It was Palin on the hunt; on the hunt always. First, it was small-town politicos in Wasilla who befriended her, then GOP Chief Randy Ruedrich, then Frank Murkowski, who appointed her to a cushy job, and finally, a shot at Barack Obama. Older white men carrying her guns, loading them and handing them to her, advising her, telling her when to shoot, showing her how to do the job. Letting them do the work. Out of her element. Indoor girl in an outdoor world. Missed shot after missed shot after missed shot. Blaming someone or something else when it all goes south. Killing a scrawny little caribou to sell the image. Jumping the ship of state after only two disinterested, unengaged years, going for something bigger. Out of her element. Peddling the lie. The mama grizzly. Sarah the Sniper.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/12/11/1599846/always-on-the-hunt-palin-shown.html#ixzz182DUUoaI

And that's from Alaska! Quite a number of comments on the story agree that Sarah is a faux hunter.

[Bandit]

2. I noticed the title of that episode was called "Sarah is a good shot".

I wonder what it takes to be a bad shot? :shrug: I just can't believe someone could be so proud of being so ignorant and incompetent..

[walldude]

3. LMAO... Really? They called it a good shot?

Yeah what a huntress she is. She stands there while someone checks, locks and loads her gun for her, then tells her how to shoot it. I'm wondering where the footage of the crew nailing the Caribou's hooves to the ground is, I mean this is TV, they had to make sure she hit it. :rofl:

[Pavulon]

4. You think a "sporting lady"

would use a benelli R1 in something with more power and a recoil system to suck up kick.

[Ikonoklast]

5. Woah, they let that be legal?

I wouldn't try any game that large with anything less than something in the .30 calibre range, at least.

Like the article said, too many wounded animals with a smaller caliber, still strong enough to get away even after being shot, but later dying of their wounds in the bush sonmewhere, never to be found.




Oh, and Sarah Palin knows little about firearms.

That whole 'Great Huntress' thing is complete and total bullshit.

[opihimoimoi]

6. She is a TOWNIE trying to appear COUNTRY.....a poor thing in my book....

She is now a GRIFTER

[Shallah Kali]

7. bah. My itty bitty Mom hunted .44 rifle

told her about the 1/2 gov.'s gun and she was appalled that someone would shoot a big animal like that with such a small caliber because it's less likely to kill the animal. it would run off and die slowly :(

[Erose999]

8. The fundies are just making excuses for her. They don't see that she's a bad spokesperson for the

outdoor lifestyle, and that she's a lying grifting hypocrite playing them all for fools.

[Cleita]

9. Also, Caribou can be considered a species at risk

even though Alaska has plenty of them because of a low human population, I believe. I worked in an area in the northwest where the forest service was trying to introduce them back into the USA. Hunting them was forbidden. I don't know if the re-introduction was successful as I haven't been back there since then.

[sammytko]

10. She didn't load her own weapon??

What kind of outdoors big time huntress is she? And anyone who is about to fire a rifle would wonder about the recoil, so that doesn't make her special.

I have a marksmanship medal with the M-16. I really loved my M-16. And since I was Air Force, we only fired once a year.

I thought she was the type to be out there hauling in all kinds of big game - the big wuss. All talk and no action.

She probably didn't even clean it afterwards.

[Dappleganger]

12. That was my first thought too, why isn't she loading her own?

Unless she barely knows how to shoot, which would make the most sense. OR she didn't want her fingernails to get messed up (and yes, I'm guilty of that when dh comes to the range w/me, I get him to help to spare the nails).

[sammytko]

13. I like pretty toenails, forget the fingernails. I'm always getting my hands dirty!

I prefer a rifle cuz my hands are too small for a handgun. I qualified on the M-9, but had a hard time keeping it steady.

My hubby gave me a .22 handgun, so that should work for me. I want to get my CHL this coming year.

[Dappleganger]

14. Good for you!

I got my FL CCW at the beginning of this year. My husband gave me a 3" springfield xdm 9mm for xmas last year, and a little ruger lcp .380 for birthday. I sell on craigslist a lot and in this city you can't be too careful (Jacksonville). I started on a .22 Browning Buckmark just to get the hang of it and still enjoy using it regularly for target practice.

[Paladin]

11. Well, There You Have It.

The current pin-up girl for the country's gun rights movement doesn't have any idea that an antiquated .225 Winchester "platform" (so much sexier a term than "cartridge," right, Gun Enthusiasts?) is woefully underpowered for bagging a poor caribou. Hell, with the last two brain cells that he evidently has left, even Ted Nugent knows better than that.......