God, I loved smoking Luckies. Of course I've quit, hasn't everyone? They don't even make Lucky Strikes anymore, another reason to quit smoking.

Correction- on Phillip Percival's double rifle
 

It was not a .470 H&H express. England banned the std .450 Nitro express shell, for fear of the "natives" using it in the older Martini-Henry rifles. W.W. Jeffrey developed the .450 Number 2- that had all the cordite based powder capacity of the std. .450 express, but could NOT be used in those early pre-Enfield army rifles. Phillip Percival had a matched pair of those .450 Nitro Express Number 2- made to order by Joseph Lang & Son in London, in 1927. As both "Green Hills of Africa" and "The Short, Happy Life----" were written circa 1933-1934, Percival would have had those "stoppers" with him. How Hemingway put a George Gibbs Mauser square bridge custom rifle in .505 Gibbs in the hands of his fictional character, PWH Robert Wilson, is unknown to me.

One of Ruark's best known works is "Use Enough Gun" and that big bore Gibbs would certainly quality.

I think this thread proves that Parkerphiles are thoughtful,intelligent and men of discernment.As for PTSD,I can tell you that you can talk about it and then you come to the place where all the bad stuff comes back at once and you are not where you want to be.

Thank you, Mr. Delk! Please allow me to add "cultured" to that fine choice of words.

These attributes are precisely why I frequent this forum. And why Papa would have as well... had he lived to do so.

Best, Kensal

Robert, excellent way to describe PTSD .One patient once described the trauma as being like a large wave coming into shore and then it is all over you and you feel like you can't breathe and are drowning. Case in point are women in prison who have been sexually abused, usually by a family member or friend and then spend the rest of their lives trying to medicate the pain and the reliving of the event, by using alcohol or street drugs. This eventually gets them into prison where the percentage of female inmates who have been sexually abused is usually 60to80 percent.

Yes, and I read and re-read bits and pieces of Use Enough Gun often. It is a collection of Ruark's articles, the book being published after his death. I think by his heirs.

It is very possible that Hem and Ruark shared PTSD. Ruark, a sailor in the Navy Reserve in the North Sea for much of the War and we know about HEM's war experiences.

Yeah,ptsd sort of sneaks up on you. I thought it was all something that a "tough" guy would never get and then,all of a sudden,you're thinking and doing things that you would never have imagined would be a part of your life.Things that confuse and scare your friends and family.I would not wish it on anyone.I still find it hard to admit any weakness and would imagine Hemingway and Ruark would have felt the same especially in the time that they lived.It's a lot easier for people to accept "weakness" ,in all its manifestations , in their military personnel today.

I love shooting and I enjoy collecting guns. When I was young I lived in fantastic bird country and hunting with my uncles many times. Wonderful memories of great bob white quail, ducks and pheasants.

While I have usually been able to shoot, I have not been able to hunt as much as I would like, so I read stories of other hunters; Keith, O'Conner, Hemingway, Ruark, TR, many others. I subscribe to shooting magazines and still enjoy reading them. Reading about shooters/hunters is part of enjoying the sport.

Shot my Parker SBT SC today. Was pressed for time so only shot one round of 26 handicaps. I have no business shooting those, but it was fun. The Parker worked great! I broke more than I missed...that was something at least.

While PTSD exists, no arguement there, but I know that some folks are faking it for the dough. As an example, met a guy who lives down the street, a young fellow maybe mid-20's. He said he was receiving full compensation for PTSD. I asked him who he did. He replied that he had been in the navy. What did you do there? I asked. He said he had a secondary job as a sniper on ship. (I didn't know they had any.) I asked him if he had shot anyone. He said, "No, but I saw some guys shot by some Navy Seals that we had on board." I let the matter drop, but for this he got something like 130% pay for life.

I was in an RV camp two years ago. A guy walked by wearing an Air Force cap. We chatted. He said he was getting 100% PTSD for life. He explained that he was in the Air Force in VN.

I said, "Oh, were you in a bomber crew?"

"No", he said, "I was a load master".

"You loaded bombs?"

"No, I worked with cargo planes". He went on to explain that he was walking down the street in Saigon and saw a hotel blow up. "People were killed." He explained.

"For that you put in for PTSD pay for life?" I asked.

"yep", he said. "I had nightmares."

Last week my an old friend came over, hadn't seen him for decades. He'd spent '68/69' in country...Army E4. He was one of those guys who went out into the boonies and placed sensors along trails, etc... He registered the site with with the arty guys. When the little machines went off he'd order a fire mission. He'd tell'em to fire for effect until he ordered them to cease fire. He said once he ordered 150 rounds of 105. They'd shoot HE and LOM, messy stuff. Then he'd go out to the target area to see how he'd done. He said, "There'd be lots of blood trails and little piles of gooey stuff." He said he was doing an E6's job and they offered him a commission if he'd re-up, but he told them he'd had enough fun for one lifetime. He talked about his experiences at length. Of course, right after he returned, he jumped at loud noises, and shouted out in his sleep etc...but he recovered. He became a cop and then a fireman around oil rigs.

Now if there was ever a guy who would succumb to PTSD it seems to me he'd be the guy. He killed many people, often observing the rounds splash on target. He often worked alone or with one or two guys. He laughed about being scared. He fought VC until Tet, then NVA. The VC were pretty much reduced as a fighting force after Tet. This guy enjoyed telling the stories. We BS'd for hours.

Me? I was an attack pilot. The only problems I had when I returned was the lack of danger in civilian life. Everything seemed so mundane. I had trouble figuring out that even if no one was shooting at you, you must pay attention.

I am sure there are legit cases of PTSD that need treatment and deserve some additional pay, but from what I've experienced, there are a lot of frauds out there too.

I can't imagine how anyone could fake out the system they have in place to check you out. I didn't even say anything about ptsd but went in for type 2 diabetes as they think it might be a result of Agent orange. I went to 3 different medical facilities in 3 different cities and it was 6 months before I found out they had decided most of my trouble was PTSD.They checked my medical and psychiatric records,which I was not aware they did, and came up with my evaluation.I can see now that I was "losing it" but my behavior seemed ok at the time,to me only.Anyone that would fake something like this deserves to be given serious prison time. On the up side of ptsd I found that you can stay awake for days at a time and not get tired but the auditory hallucinations were the worst.