A race horse going off at 100-to-1 odds is a "Long Shot." So is a natural royal flush, as are many other risky enterprises that don't fulfill their promise. And so is sending a pointed metal cylinder weighing less than half an ounce through several hundred yards of turbulent, moving air to strike a game animal's vitals.

Few speakers of American English realize how many of our expressions can be traced back to firearms or their use. When we say a politician was a “flash in the pan,” for example, most of us have no idea of what a flash in the pan really is.

The odds are that your hunting rifle is not perfectly sighted-in, no matter what you remember from the most recent firing. Rifles can change, for many possible reasons.

How often have I said, in bitter debates against anti-gun fanatics on radio, TV and before live audiences during the past 30 years, that “a gun is just a tool, an inanimate object like a monkey wrench, having no independent will of its own for either good or evil?”

Sooner or later, most shooters get around to trying a muzzleloading rifle. When that urge came over me, back in the ’50s, there was no such thing as a replica hunting rifle. I dug up an original caplock rifle in a hock shop in Richmond, Texas. To say it had seen better days is a serious understatement, but all the parts were there and the bore still showed signs of having been rifled at one time.

Speaking of ways to add challenge to your deer hunting (which we were, in this space two weeks ago), perhaps you’ve been considering a handgun, in addition to traditional muzzleloaders or string guns.

It is the nature of mankind to enjoy a challenge, and hunters are no different. This is why some deer hunters turn to the so-called “primitive weapons” — archery or traditional muzzleloading rifles.

Much controversy exists about which type of gun is proper for spring gobbler hunting.

It’s a fair question. When I loaded my first cartridge, back in the early ’50s, properly assembled handloads beat factory ammo on every count. The homemade product was cheaper, more reliable, usually more accurate, commonly more powerful and flatter shooting, more versatile, and could use much superior bullets for whatever the task at hand. The only things going for factory ammo were convenience and savings of time.

The hunter gripped his rifle in sweaty hands, facing the crouching lion only 30 yards away. Suddenly the animal launched his charge in deadly silence. The man with the gun knew he had only four or five seconds to stop that yellow ball of fangs and claws ... (no, wait! an African lion in full charge covers 30 yards in only half that much time. Maybe it was a grizzly ... yeah, they’re not quite as fast as a lion) ... to stop that half-ton of silvertip fury.