James, by mission I was referring to use: plinking, competition, self-defence.
I was 20 when I registered my Ruger with the Mounties and I answered Sgt. Rankin correctly that I was going to use it for target shooting. It was a different time. He looked straight into my eyes and said "If you're gong to shoot somewhere else just make sure there is no one around for miles."
I obeyed his liberal interpretation of the rules, and still do, except for when I left the pistol in my fishing kitbag at the side of road by a lake in only-me wide-open spaces. An angler found the bag and turned it over to the RCMP. When I showed up to get it, Rankin just pointed at the bag and said "There it is. Go."
At the time I was a reporter on the provincial daily living in Halifax. I built a 40-foot range, using shorts, in my basement. I've enjoyed plinking ever since. My visiting grandson said 15 years ago, "Gramps, see if you can hit this," throwing an empty 50-round .22 box into the air. It was my best-ever shot.
I live on 50 acres in the woods at the end of a 500-metre driveway. Canada is mostly wide expanses with lots of places to comfortably make moonshine or grow cannabis or make love outside of vows without a soul ever knowing. Be the man you want to be. Bandit Marchand gets away with it nearly every night before millions!
