Magazine Clippings

Those who know me know that I've long wanted to become a hunter. I've just never found the right mix of time, money, and opportunity. You could call me an armchair hunter, though, as I spend a lot of time in my armchair reading books and magazines about hunting. Last weekend I even tortured myself by going to the Sportsman's Expo, where all sorts of hunting outfitters had booths stuffed with impressive trophies from their concessions, leases or lands.

While I couldn't afford any of the hunts, I did walk away with something: a subscription to California Game & Fish magazine. I'd been considering the magazine for a while, but the special offer at the show included not only a good price, but a free multi-tool and pocket folder.

This evening was the first chance I'd had to sit down with the free issue I picked up at the show. Inside was a nice article by Bob Robb, a fisherman and hunter of some renown, entitled "Bear Attacks!" It seems that as more folks expand into what used to be Western wilderness there's been a lot more human-bear contact in recent years. On top of that, legislation has prevented or greatly limited hunting of the bears long enough that many of them no longer fear humans. This leads to the disastrous consequences (for one party or the other) that are the topic of this article:

Wyckoff told the press that he fired a round from his .45-caliber handgun into the bear's forehead, but the animal kept coming and got on top of him.
From beneath, he got off three more rounds before he accidentally released the pistol's clip.

Wait, he released the what?! What was a clip doing in the firearm? Wyckoff surely wasn't trying to reload the magazine with a clip while being attacked by a bear, was he?

Oh, no.

No, he didn't.

N-n-n-noooo!

OK, for you non-marksmen out there, here's the deal: A magazine is a device that is used to hold ammo and allows it to be fed into the firearm's chamber. A clip is a device that is used to rapidly charge a magazine with additional ammo; en bloc clips remain inside the magazine and are ejected when the last round of ammo is ejected, while stripper clips remain outside the magazine and ammo is pushed off of them and into the magazine.

Now that probably seems like a pretty pedantic point, but someone who makes a living using firearms and writing about them should know the difference. It's been a hot topic in the firearms community since about WW II. Editors of a magazine about firearms and hunting should know the difference. Apparently neither the author nor the editor(s) do. What's worse, a lot of folks like to point out mistakes like this when reporters make it, as it's a dead give-away that they don't really know much about the topic they're covering. For such a mistake to appear in a hunting magazine is just embarrassing.

I hope the use of the incorrect term was a momentary lapse of reason on Mr. Robb's part, and a holiday-induced oversight on the part of his editor(s). Otherwise, I have to really wonder about the rest of the content in the magazine as well.

Comments

[jim]

If you really want to see something, you should join us for the shot show next year.

It's HUGE. 10-12 miles of aisles last I checked.