Off Road Dreaming

[Crissa]

Last time I had to euthanize an animal - a raccoon that had fallen from a tree - I had opiates on hand to quiet it before turning it over to animal control (they want to test certain animals for diseases to track it in the county).

It's not something you should be doing as a recreational hiker or offroader,

-Crissa

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[SwampNut]

Cool story. I don't carry opiates. I would hope most of us don't, actually.

 

[Crissa]

Cool story. I don't carry opiates. I would hope most of us don't, actually.

Why? They're far more useful than a gun. They're prescribed - just for humans - at 142 million times per year in the US.

-Crissa

 

[Deleted member 3316]

Cool story. I don't carry opiates. I would hope most of us don't, actually.

Yep, that’s a bit weird…
I’ll posit that as socially destructive as they are, opioids have a more legitimate role in a functional society.

Firearms in most cases are about legitimate as sex dolls. (And likely emotional surrogates for them)

Isn’t this thread supposed to be about off-roading?

What trip are you going to take your Cybertruck on?
Would a camouflage wrapped Cybertruck make a good hide?

 

[SwampNut]

We lost our son to an opiate overdose a few years ago. And two neighbors' kids. I don't know anyone who's been shot, and I've used a firearm to stop a criminal from probably killing a woman. In my world, well, you can see what prejudices and biases I've learned from experience.

When I wheel in my CT (or anything) I am always armed. I also have fire extinguishers, tools, recovery straps, a monster first aid kit, etc etc. Plan for all eventualities. Carry the tools. Better to have and not need...

 

[Zabhawkin]

I have never lived in a big city. The closest was the eight years in Sunnyvale. I lived miles outside of town on the coast. I went to university outside Prescott, AZ. I have never been an urban person. I need the quiet and the wilds.

You aren't going to come across livestock to put down when going recreational offroading or hiking.

-Crissa

Each one of those including the city you live in now when you include the surrounding cities have over 100k people. My entire county has a population of 25k.

Every trail I have hiked and off roaded on were also open range for cattle.

I have seen far more people harmed by opiates than by firearms.

Even though I disagree I respect your opinion, and I hope you can respect mine as we live in very different areas .

 

[SwampNut]

I have no problem with an intelligent discussion about the relative merits of any tool as opposed to the dangers it poses. I only bristled at the obviously false statement that a firearm is never useful. I live in a suburb attached to a major city, but all it takes is a few minutes to ride out to "limitless" open land. I've had to dispatch jackasses (not the two legged kind), defend from snakes, and even kill a calf whose pelvis had been completely obliterated by vehicle. I shot at a coyote (possibly rabid) that decided to stalk a friend's child when we were hiking from our Jeeps.

The open desert is a bit different from the suburban hiking trails.

 

[Sirfun]

We lost our son to an opiate overdose a few years ago. And two neighbors' kids. I don't know anyone who's been shot, and I've used a firearm to stop a criminal from probably killing a woman. In my world, well, you can see what prejudices and biases I've learned from experience.

When I wheel in my CT (or anything) I am always armed. I also have fire extinguishers, tools, recovery straps, a monster first aid kit, etc etc. Plan for all eventualities. Carry the tools. Better to have and not need...

Sad/sorry to hear you lost your son. One time when we were at UCLA hospital with our daughter, there was another girl sharing the room. She had brain surgery and something went wrong, and she had to be kept alive on a machine for a day or so. When the other parents had to make the decision to let her go I thought that has got to be one of the hardest things to ever happen for a parent.
Those kids are supposed to outlive us. I am very sorry for your loss.

 

[Zabhawkin]

Funny side note... I had a bolt action rifle that was classed as an assault rifle during the last assault weapon ban due to having a few specific features. (Bayonet lug, detachable magazine, barrel shroud) It only needed 3 features from a list.

 

[Zabhawkin]

I have no problem with an intelligent discussion about the relative merits of any tool as opposed to the dangers it poses. I only bristled at the obviously false statement that a firearm is never useful. I live in a suburb attached to a major city, but all it takes is a few minutes to ride out to "limitless" open land. I've had to dispatch jackasses (not the two legged kind), defend from snakes, and even kill a calf whose pelvis had been completely obliterated by vehicle. I shot at a coyote (possibly rabid) that decided to stalk a friend's child when we were hiking from our Jeeps.

The open desert is a bit different from the suburban hiking trails.

My wife and I were stalked by a pack not long ago but they never got closer than 1 ridge away. We could see them from time to time and we just worked our way back to the truck.

 

[Crissa]

Each one of those including the city you live in now when you include the surrounding cities have over 100k people. My entire county has a population of 25k.

Every trail I have hiked and off roaded on were also open range for cattle.

I have seen far more people harmed by opiates than by firearms.

Even though I disagree I respect your opinion, and I hope you can respect mine as we live in very different areas .

We do not, and you're wrong.

I live in a rural county. There are >7k people in my town. Yes, there are trails that cross cattle grazing areas here. Yes, I know people harmed by opiates and guns. Yes, more people die from opiates.

The thing about opiates is that nearly every person in the US has used them. They definitely have valid uses. But no, most people don't have access to gun - and yet they'll still kill you if you're not a user.

And yes, my experience is colored by guns. My father was wrongfully shot and killed. A girl I dated once was shot and killed.

And the vast majority of times they're brandished, it would have been better had there been no firearm there.

-Crissa

 

[Crissa]

Funny side note... I had a bolt action rifle that was classed as an assault rifle during the last assault weapon ban due to having a few specific features. (Bayonet lug, detachable magazine, barrel shroud) It only needed 3 features from a list.

That's how descriptive words work. There is a cloud of terms that are associated with, but rarely are there defining specific litmus tests. So something that has a predominant number of these terms is described as having that feature.

Think about 'is a taco a sandwich' type arguments.

-Crissa

 

[JBee]

isn’t that what their shovel is for? Surely it would be more humane to pull out a tyre iron than wait a couple hour for a shooter to turn up?

How many kangaroos have you taken out mate?

They are actually fairly dangerous when injured, and bashing their heads in with a shovel is much, much harder than it seems. You're better off digging a hole and burying them. Alternatively crushing their windpipe with the shovel, but neither of those doesn't stop them from kicking you with powerful legs, or scratching you with claws etc, let alone when they spasm irratically. Especially silly if your 100's of miles from the nearest hospital to get fixed yourself. Those things are emotionally stressful to boot, (i had one case that disturbed my sleep for a week) and I might be a big softy, but a bullet is a much faster, cleaner and overall more humane way to dispatch them. Plus how many people drive around with a shovel? Thats just freaky...

 

[Deleted member 3316]

How many kangaroos have you taken out mate?

They are actually fairly dangerous when injured, and bashing their heads in with a shovel is much, much harder than it seems. You're better off digging a hole and burying them. Alternatively crushing their windpipe with the shovel, but neither of those doesn't stop them from kicking you with powerful legs, or scratching you with claws etc, let alone when they spasm irratically. Especially silly if your 100's of miles from the nearest hospital to get fixed yourself. Those things are emotionally stressful to boot, (i had one case that disturbed my sleep for a week) and I might be a big softy, but a bullet is a much faster, cleaner and overall more humane way to dispatch them. Plus how many people drive around with a shovel? Thats just freaky...

Done it plenty of times, if they’re up enough to kick you maybes you don’t need to euthanise ‘em?

are we not talking about off roading? Plenty more people have shovels on their trucks than a rifle behind the seat… in Australia at least….

 

[JBee]

Done it plenty of times, if they’re up enough to kick you maybes you don’t need to euthanise ‘em?

are we not talking about off roading? Plenty more people have shovels on their trucks than a rifle behind the seat… in Australia at least….

Only need one good leg to kick you. If the other is broken, which is very common with car impacts down low, do you just leave them for a few days to die in the gutter?

I can agree that many off-roaders have them when they go off-road, but they aren't the primary people that hit them, especially not going down a bush track at low speed where they can get away in time and you can stop. The primary kangaroo fatalities on the hwy with higher speed vehicles without shovels. And I see at least 10-20 per trip. But I digress...

The point was that even those people that should have a tool to dispatch them, don't, because of the way things are setup to pacify those in the majority that have certain ideas of how things should be done. And of those that actually have the tools, like the authorities themselves, aren't allowed to use them for that purpose either. It's nonsensical bureaucratic hysteria.

BTW air bolt also needs you to get up and personal, which is not a good idea out bush, and costs more than the alternative.

As for thread relevance: the soft off road dream is often interrupted with the nightmares of reality.

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