DECLARING WAR ON PORCUPINES Don Miles
talked with other kids at school (I was in the fi rst or second grade at Grace, Idaho, elementary), and they also had heard porcupines could shoot their quills. So when my dad spotted a porcu-
I
pine in a small clump of chokecherry bushes and invited me to come shoot it, I wanted nothing to do with it. I didn’t want quills shot into me, and I couldn’t fi gure out why he wasn’t getting hit with quills even as he tried to coax me out of the truck to shoot the varmint. We had been hauling hay, and on
the way out of the fi eld Dad noticed the porcupine in the brush. Mom and Dad had with them in the truck a Remington 22 single-shot rifl e that had belonged to my grandpa. That old 22 still has grandpa’s cattle and sheep brand – 3 parallel bars with the middle one being the longest – engraved with a fi le into the barrel and the stock. With that rifl e in his hand, my dad
was patiently coaxing me to get out of the truck and come shoot the prickly danger to our cows, sheep, and other farm animals. I felt genuinely afraid and refused to leave the sanctuary of the truck. Luckily for me, my dad was very patient, and the porcupine moved very slowly, especially through the thick chokecherry bushes. Dad must have thought I was
afraid of the gun, so he explained that the gun was safe, that he would help me, that I had nothing to worry about with the gun. But I wasn’t worried about the gun at all, only fl ying quills. Dad asked me what I was scared of, and I wouldn’t tell him. I guess I was ashamed of being frightened of shooting quills, but I was. Finally Dad assured me he would
hold the gun in front, help me hold it to shoot, make sure nothing would happen, and I would be OK. In my young brain, I reasoned that if I was behind Dad, since he was bigger than me, when the porcu- pine shot quills, I would be safe and he would be hit – not me. So I agreed. I got out of the truck and followed behind him very closely, making sure he was in the line of fi re from the quills, not me. After we shuffl ed close enough,
was certain porcupines could shoot their quills, because I had
Dad told me to line up the back sight with the front sight and then line up both of them with the porcupine’s neck. Once all three were lined up, he told me to squeeze the trigger as slowly as I could. He told me to take all the time I wanted, because the porcupine was moving very slowly. I took what seemed to me min- utes but probably was several seconds to line up the sights and the animal’s neck. I took longer than I should have because I was trying harder to stay behind Dad and the gun than I was trying to line up the sights. I did not want fl ying quills to get to me. Dad was so encouraging and patient through all of this. Eventu- ally, however, I got the sights and neck aligned and pulled the trigger with my fi nger as slowly as I could.
I have read all about how shooters
never feel the kick when the shot goes home. Well, for me, I was small and felt the kick of the gun, though it didn’t hurt and didn’t bother me. And I still feel the kick of guns, whether the shot goes home or not. On this occasion, I didn’t linger
thinking about the kick, because Dad was so happy with me and the shot. He told me I had hit the animal right where I should have. I was surprised no quills were flying around, but I was quick to jump back into the truck anyway. Dad walked right over by the animal, which was still on the other side of some chokecherry bush trunks. He looked it over closely from a few feet away and returned to the truck. When he turned
This rifl e is a Remington Targetmaster 22, Model 510A, with a 25-inch barrel. As you can see, the brand my grandpa carved into the stock was correct, but the brand in the barrel had a couple of miscues with the fi le. The brand is there, but so are a couple of lines from the fi le where grandpa slipped as he was carving. The barrel in this gun is long enough that if I shoot 20-grain subsonic bullets, they get stuck in the barrel. I must ram them out with a cleaning rod.
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