That was wise. Reminds me of being confronted in the sage country, and whether or not I'm a govt spy, using some big wierd instrument. I just change the tone of
my voice to a slow drawl and comment... "Nice hoss ye got thar, hit reminds me of my ole apaloosy thet would get inter th oats..., blah, blah". Next thing you knew, they were your best friend.
Until last weekend, all of my encounters had been pleasant and didn't encroach on my picture-taking. But I was on the side of a stream in a state park and had just set up and focused my Chamonix on a small waterfall with a few cool looking rocks with nice leaves on top. I didn't think I was invisible or that the camera was invisible, but a guy came walking up through the stream and jumped right onto the main rock (yes, knocking off some leaves). I knew he saw me, but he really didn't seem to care that he was right where the camera was aimed. His buddy was a little behind him because he wasn't quite as fit. The second guy waded instead of trying to jump on the wet rock, so at least some leaves remained. After getting out of the way, they just walked back the direction they'd come from, but on the actual trail. Of course, by the time they were out of the way the sun and clouds had moved enough that the light wasn't quite as good. I took a shot anyway, but I think going back will be a better bet.
All other times I've been aiming the 4x5 (or smaller stuff), people have asked before walking anywhere near what I was shooting.
Never had any issues, tho people can be sometimes annoyingly too nice as they slam on the brakes, when I or someone points a camera across the road. Anyway, I do carry a spray when I go into wilds of AK....and glad I never had to use it.
Les
https://www.umarexusa.com/products/umarex-steel-storm
You carry one of these and hope you don't run into idiots with the real thing?
Unfortunately, I've taken most of my pictures in a country with one of the highest per capita murder and violence rates in the world. I've been heckled, cursed, made fun of (mostly along the lines that I "need a woman", or I need to "get a life"). I was up on a small cliff in 2004 with the Arca-Swiss taking a pano when a Rastafarian walked up behind me. I was aware of him. He wondered out aloud about what would happen if someone were to push me off the cliff. I packed up at that point. I only take pictures in my former home after scouting an area over a period of a few days to ascertain who goes there and when they do so. Although many people are curious when they see the view camera, others are not: the alien nature of the camera and the skinny dweeb operating it fuels animosity.
Don't ever carry something like that around here, Willie. The gangbangers will gun you down just to get their hands on it, if the cops don't shoot you first! Too many real guns on the streets; and even BB guns are being used on people for cruel fun. They will put an eye out.
http://www.pyramydair.com/s/p/H_N_Ex...BBs_500ct/1273
Gee Drew, I use these BB's because they don't ricochet and bounce back.
As for air powered rifles, my Uncle has a beautiful .45 that he uses on coyotes. More powerful than black powder firearms, no smoke or muzzle flash and with the integrated suppressor(silencer) the sound of the .45 slug hitting is louder than the shot. He also has some beautiful Korean .22 cal air rifles he uses to eliminate muskrats, raccoons, skunks and the like at 30-70 yards or so. Best thing with these is the accuracy and low cost of ammo.
Hard to get .22 ammo here the past few years while getting high quality pellets is easy. So - nailing pest animals or trespassers with eye shots at 70 yards or so is easy.
http://lewisandclarktrail.com/lewisairgun.htm
Lewis and Clark expedition carried an air rifle that would shoot 20 shots within 30 seconds. Every time the expedition came to a new Indian village or tribe they would march in dressed in their Class A uniforms, fife and drum playing and do a shooting expedition. A rifle with no powder smoke, no fire from powder and shooting holes in 1 inch boards at 100 yards gave an interesting demonstration. Those watching did not know how many of these rifles they had. Supposedly this helped keep the peace.
Best of all, for us - Air Rifles are not firearms.
Well, I'm actually allied to the coyotes. Figure out what my nickname at work is. The office gals even gave me a little furry puppet of Wile E. Coyote. I miss coyotes quite a bit since selling my place in the mtns, though smaller, less musical packs do form on the hill behind me here. Normally you just see lots of pairs
of coyotes here, or solitary ones. I've even worked my way into small packs and joined them for a howl, with pups right at my feet joining in too. Across the road from my old spread, the son of one of my ole cronies put up a house at the edge of their 500 acre pasture and would invite their buddies over every Sat morning. They'd drink a lot of beer and shoot a few hundred dollars worth of whatever center-fire rounds each time. The same coyote would just sit there yipping at them in front of the fence, teasing them every Saturday for hours on end. They never did hit him. That's the problem with abundant cheap beer. It's not the ammo.
Drew,
You don't have livestock or fowl. Coyotes are damn hard on them. Even worse when they gang up and send one in to lure the dogs from the barnyard. One goes out and suddenly four and more coyotes attack.
Yes, we shoot coyotes and get a few. No danger of running out of them as they grow a new crop each spring.
The .45 cal air rifle by AirForce is one sweet shooter and hits like a mule.
But, back to street hassles. A .45 1911 works wonders in discouraging those who would make threats and/or walk off with gear while I am out and about with it.
You got no idea what I done had and don't done got, Willie. I grew up with cowboys and Indians, literally. Two cattle spreads in the vicinity were half a million acres apiece. As a kid, I briefly worked for mustangers who previously ran a full million acre ranch In Nevada. That pasture I told you about was previously owned by a sheepherder, and we still engaged in cattle and sheep drives into the high country each summer using Aussies. We had two subspecies of coyotes. Valley Coyotes were the little ones, forming large high-pitched chorus packs, often of up to twenty or thirty. Mountain coyotes were much bigger, capable of taking adult mule deer, with more that TV Western deep howl, and forming smaller packs. Never ever ever do I recall a livestock loss from coyotes. Domestic dogs were known to form packs and chase sheep to overheating, so they're what got shot, not coyotes. But in that part of the world, rodents and rabbits were so abundant that they were routinely the preferred prey for coyotes. They had plenty to eat. But yes, that diet would include cats and small dogs, which even hawks, eagles, and bobcats would take. Mtn lions were also common but specialized in the abundant deer. The only farm animals that interested them were twitchy goats, not boring passive sheep. Highly animated goats are kinda like wiggling yarn in front of a house cat. Goats and even wild turkeys can hold their own against coyotes. Here on the coast the turkeys get taken by bobcats and cougars. I wouldn't mind running over one for dinner, but it's against the law. Now I realize that in different terrain like desert or the plains, coyotes might have less abundant food and be tempted toward livestock. They are actually omnivorous and ate lots of manzanita berries, but above all else preferred gophers. Cottontails rabbits were something they'd hunt in pack fashion or pairs by moonlight. For awhile I had a renter who moved up from the SoCal burbs and assumed he knew something about the country. Well, as a house present he gave his wife a little cockapoodle. Coyotes ate it the first night. With big dogs, they'd simply tease them, lure them into a chase, then circle back around and eat their dog food in
the bowl. The dogs never figured it out. Outsmarted as usual. You gotta have something like an Aussie or Border Collie for that kind of canid IQ.
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