doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The Worlds Largest Army

Sorry if this is a little OT but I lifted this from Brownells website reporting on the SHOT Show. Thought it was interesting

The World's Largest Army

I bet you didn�t know this. . .

In WWII, Japan's highest-ranking naval officer was Isoruku Yamamoto. Although he was Japanese, and his loyalties were unquestionably with The Empire, he studied for many years in America, graduating from Harvard University. There is an oft-repeated (and sometimes disputed) quote attributed to him regarding the possibility of any nation taking a war to American soil:

"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."

Here is why he was correct:

America's Hunters. The World's Largest Army.

The state of Wisconsin has gone an entire deer hunting season without someone getting killed. That's great, considering there were over 600,000 hunters that got permits this year.

Allow me to restate that number: 600,000

Over the last two months, the eighth largest army in the world - more men under arms than Iran; more than France and Germany combined - deployed to the woods of a single American state to keep the deer population under control.

But that pales in comparison to the 750,000 who are in the woods of Pennsylvania this week. Michigan's 700,000 hunters have now returned home. Toss in a quarter million hunters in West Virginia, and it is literally the case that the hunters of those four states alone would comprise the largest army in the world.

And that is just FOUR states.

The total population of registered hunters in America today ranges from 23 million to 43.7 million individuals. (Based on annual data provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.) As long as the American Hunter retains his right to Bear Arms, America will forever be safe from foreign invasion of troops.

Hunting � it's not just a way to fill the freezer. It's a matter of National Security.

What better army, the army of St Hubertus.

Its 3.45 am and I am waking out the door to join the ranks.

Notwithstanding the numbers of riflemen hunters in those Yankee States, consider the numbers of Southern boys who can REALLY SHOOT!...Geo

Geo... Wasn't there a skirmish in the mid 1800 that determined that best shot issue? Your Yankee friend..Randy

George.

For more than 20 years I served with fine men and women from every state in this union. North and South, even in jest should be left in the past. It just gets people upset over nothing.

Those fine Americans I served with were not Northern or Southern, nor were they Black or White. Today in OIF and OEF they are often not even Male or Female. They are persons that one could trust their life to. They are Marines.

PS: Every single Marine is a Rifleman. They all shoot very well indeed.

The same goes for the services. It should also be for us collectors and sportsmen. We are American (United States)!

Mark
USMC retired,
US Marine Corps Distinguished Rifleman

I thought that number sounded inflated, so I checked. USF&WS data I found states that 12.5 million Americans, age 16 and older, hunted in 2006. If you add in youngsters not required to have a license, the total is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 million. That figure has been fairly constant for a few years now. Good that those numbers are not declining, but bad that we're not adding to them.

Do you folks have programs for introducing youngsters and women to hunting?
We have mentored hunts, I am a mentor and our group, Delta Waterfowl,takes boys and girls hunting (under strict supervision) ducks and geese over decoys. Other groups take them out for deer and turkeys.
In order to get women involved, there are mentored hunts for adult women exclusively, which are very sucessful. I spoke to a participant in a women's only duck hunt and she is hooked.
So we are bringing new people into the sport which is a good thing.
Mikey

I will have to agree with Geo on this concerning the battles fought between the the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac. When you travel west the difference in casualties gets a lot closer. If you study the official records and Battles and Leaders where casualties are listed, casualties are broken down only by regiment and not brigade, you can see the difference and you have to conclude that the Southern regiments consistantly shot to pieces the Northern regiments, regardless of whether they were strictly defensive or offensive actions.

You know,there are times sitting in the deer stand I have thought a women would be just the thing to break the boredom !

Mikey, there's a very successful program in the States called "Becoming an Outdoors Woman" (BOW). Involves all sorts of outdoor skills, including hunting. Quite a few high schools also now have shotgun teams under the auspices of the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP). Both boys and girls participate. Each of the clubs where I shot regularly in Iowa hosted at least a couple of the high school teams. There is a definite emphasis on getting women and young people involved in both shooting and hunting.