50 cal machine gun??

[Gussy]

It's all over the news that indians shot a gray whale with a harpoon and a 50 cal machine gun. How do they happen to have a 50?? Illegal?? Why don't they use it on the sea lions eating "endangered" salmon??

[Scrounger]

Are these the Indians? http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/whal19.shtml The news clip is dated several years ago but it states that tribe is the only one that has "Whaling Rights" spelled out in the Tribal Treaty with the US Government 160 years ago. "White Man's Laws" don't apply too much on Indian Reservations or apparently in Tribal pursuits. The Indians have legal gambling casinos (white people can participate) all over the western states and my sister said they have liquor stores in Washington which everyone buys from because the state controlled stores are more of a hassle.

[Gussy]

I know about the tribal rights, but a .50?? They have hunted in the past with harpoons and taken treaty whales. The Indians said this was an "unauthorised" hunt. How is it they have a .50 and no mention of anything about it except it was used.

[DanWalker]

I'd be willing to bet that CNN, in it's usual hoplophobic hysteria, didn't check their facts too closely. I'd imagine the indians used one of the specialized 50bmg rifles, like grizzly and barrett make. An actual M2 50 caliber machinegun is a beast of a weapon and a real pain in the butt to muscle into a mount or lug around.
I served as a gunner on an m2 for several years, winning 2 battallion machinegun championships in 3 years.
It is my sincerest belief that if those indians had an m2 that would be ONE DEAD WHALE.
The media morons just heard the words,"chambered in 50 caliber browning machinegun" and freaked out. Someone REALLY needs to explain the difference between a cartridge designation and the weapon it's fired from, to these people.
Although, I suspect they probably already knew this and just figured the word"MACHINEGUN" would draw the morally outraged masses to this headline.
Did I mention that being within 10 feet of a media moron or a career politician makes me want to either puke or start whuppinass?

[DanWalker]

How do they happen to have a 50?? Illegal??

Nope, 50's aren't illegal.
Just AWFUL expensive to shoot. Last I checked, ammo was around 3 to 5 bucks PER SHOT.
Reloading for a 50 cost a small fortune to get set up to do as well.
If I had only known how much 50 ammo was worth.....
Back in my USMC days we'd go out around the middle to the end of September every year and shoot up our annual allottment of ammo for the year.
If we didn't shoot up all the ammo our unit was allotted for training that year, our next year's allotment would be reduced by however much ammo we had left over at the end of the previous year.
We'd spend days on end, just blazing away with our 50's 60's and SAW's, just burning through this ammo.
This was not some scam cooked up by us troops. We were told to go do it. The slang term for this was a ,"Dump Ex". Short for Dump Exercise. Basically to just get rid of the ammo.
I've even heard rumors that "some people" got bored with firing all of the ammo and just dug holes in the woods and chucked it in and buried it.

[sturf]

It's just another media lie. It was a large cal rifle.

[Duckiller]

In the great state of Kalifornia .50 BMG guns are illegal. That is why there is a .416 Barrett. Indians did not follow all of the rule of harvesting a whale with "traditional" equipment and therefore got in trouble/jail. So stated on news casts that I have heard.

[Boz330]

Nope, 50's aren't illegal.
Just AWFUL expensive to shoot. Last I checked, ammo was around 3 to 5 bucks PER SHOT.
Reloading for a 50 cost a small fortune to get set up to do as well.
If I had only known how much 50 ammo was worth.....
Back in my USMC days we'd go out around the middle to the end of September every year and shoot up our annual allottment of ammo for the year.
If we didn't shoot up all the ammo our unit was allotted for training that year, our next year's allotment would be reduced by however much ammo we had left over at the end of the previous year.
We'd spend days on end, just blazing away with our 50's 60's and SAW's, just burning through this ammo.
This was not some scam cooked up by us troops. We were told to go do it. The slang term for this was a ,"Dump Ex". Short for Dump Exercise. Basically to just get rid of the ammo.
I've even heard rumors that "some people" got bored with firing all of the ammo and just dug holes in the woods and chucked it in and buried it.

Yeh, the paperwork to turn that stuff back in was more grief than it was worth. After I got out it was worth while for me to get an 06 and 45 ACP so that those tax dollars didn't go to waste. That offset the $90 a month they paid me. Unfortunately most of the 06 was armor piercing except for the tracer.

Bob

[fourarmed]

One of my friends used to be in the reserves, and they used a local farmer's pasture for their live fire exercises. To avoid cleaning all the rifles, they took turns shooting with one rifle, and just threw the rest of the ammo away. When the farmer burned his pasture the next spring, all that ammo cooked off, to the intense concern of the neighbors. They didn't do that any more.

[Gussy]

Just came out they shot it with a 460 Weatherby NOT a .50. The news people can't get anything right.
Gus

[DanWalker]

Just came out they shot it with a 460 Weatherby NOT a .50. The news people can't get anything right.
Gus
They don't want to get it right. They're pushing an agenda. Any rational person of reasonable intelligence that takes an honest, unbiased look ,at guns and anti-gunners and the gun control hysteria will see that gun control is a crock.
The media whores are just doing whatever they can to support the insane position the liberal powermongers they worship have taken.
The whole idea is to gradually condition their audience to the idea that right is wrong and wrong is right. Hitler's propaganda minister hit the nail squarely on the head 60 years ago when he said,"If you tell a lie often enough, no matter how big the lie is, people will begin to beleive it."
It has been my experience that when I confront these types and expose the idiocy of their position with the stark glare of rational thought, backed up by factual evidence, that they just look at me like I'm nuts and usually retort with some stupid attack on me personally. They then usually look at me and ask me how can you think like that? EVERYONE knows guns are BAD. It's this liberal condescention, in the face of OVERWHELMING evidence contrary to their position that really torques me off. Lately, in an effort to control the anger that results in dealing with these morons, I've come up with an amazing mental picture. I imagine that the look on their faces they get when I rip their position apart with fact based logic and reasonable argument, is the same one ostriches have when they see something they just can't deal with and shove their heads in the sand.
Ok....I'm not gonna get riled up.
This is just a subject that elicits very strong feelings with me.

[Linstrum]

What I have to say here will get me in hot water with the journalism folks, for sure!

It is my sincere belief that the vast majority of people who take up the study of journalism in college, or wherever, do so because they are so inept, intalented, devoid of creativity, have such a profound lack of life experience out in the real world, and are so totally incapable of understanding ANYTHING that journalism is the only thing left that is available for them to study. This is because journalism has lately been specifically designed to suit that kind of person so that the left-wing leaning politicians have a mouthpiece that will promote their agenda throught the land without understanding anything well enough to challenge what the left wing promoters are lying about! In other words, only morons need apply for the study of journalism and vocation of journalist. Just look at the puke they spew forth if you don't believe me, the whale story is a good example of this!

Can you tell that I don't like journalists?

[MT Gianni]

What I have to say here will get me in hot water with the journalism folks, for sure!

It is my sincere belief that the vast majority of people who take up the study of journalism in college, or wherever, do so because they are so inept, intalented, devoid of creativity, have such a profound lack of life experience out in the real world, and are so totally incapable of understanding ANYTHING that journalism is the only thing left that is available for them to study. This is because journalism has lately been specifically designed to suit that kind of person so that the left-wing leaning politicians have a mouthpiece that will promote their agenda throught the land without understanding anything well enough to challenge what the left wing promoters are lying about! In other words, only morons need apply for the study of journalism and vocation of journalist. Just look at the puke they spew forth if you don't believe me, the whale story is a good example of this!

Can you tell that I don't like journalists?

Add to that an ego that gets fed by having your name get seen by thousands. Gianni

[Bret4207]

It's all over the news that indians shot a gray whale with a harpoon and a 50 cal machine gun. How do they happen to have a 50?? Illegal?? Why don't they use it on the sea lions eating "endangered" salmon??


How do the indians happen to have a 50 BMG? I don't know what the rest of the nations indians, whoops, "Native Americans" are like, but my local tribe has had 50's, rocket launchers, grenades etc for years. How you ask? 'Cuz they don't obey ANY laws that don't suit them. Their whole life is wrapped around smuggling drugs, guns, aliens and whatever else they can get. Trust me, I've spent more than enough time having full auto AK's, Uzis, and BMG's pointed at me. I can even tell you what tracers look as they fly over the hood of your car. If you think the US/Mexico border is open, you ought to see the northern border! And Canada, god bless her, lets in anyone they can find, except of course a Yank that got a dwi 46 years ago. Can't let those sobs in, but they'll admit darn near any low life, likely terrorist that claims refugee status. The indians make a mint smuggling them into the the States.

It's only 90% of the indians around here that give the 10% that actually work a bad name.


Rant off. I'll try and be warm and fuzzy now. And to our Canuck members, I do like Canada, it's just the Gov't that gets me.

[sundog]

Bret, you're almost right in your assessment of Canada letting in Yanks. If you can show proof of a burned draft card - the ashes - free pass....