[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 131 (Wednesday, October 3, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1790-E1791]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          TRIBUTE TO TY MARBUT AND OTHER YOUNG MONTANA HUNTERS

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                         HON. DENNIS R. REHBERG

                               of montana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 3, 2001

  Mr. REHBERG. Mr. Speaker, hunting in Montana is one of our most 
popular time-honored traditions. Each fall thousands of Montana men and 
women traverse our mountains, forests and prairies in pursuant of a 
wide range of large and small game.
  One of the greatest stalwarts of the Second Amendment to the U.S. 
Constitution is Gary Marbut who is president of the Montana Shooting 
Sports Association. Gary works tirelessly with the Montana 
Congressional Delegation to protect our vanishing right to keep and 
bear arms.
  The June 2001 issue of the National Rifle Association's ``American 
Hunter'' contains Gary's article ``A Kid's First Elk Rifle.'' It 
details the strong father and son bonding involved in his son Ty's 
preparations to hunt elk and get comfortable with the proper rifle. I 
commend my colleagues to read this article that embodies how hunting 
and family values are still very much in vogue in Montana.

                        A Kid's First Elk Rifle

                            (By Gary Marbut)

       Tyrel turned 11 last fall, which means he's old enough to 
     hunt elk when he passes hunter safety. I began thinking what 
     the criteria would be for a good elk rifle for an 11-year-old 
     boy. It would need to be light enough to carry, pack enough 
     punch to take the animal, have suitable accuracy for 
     successful 200-yard shots, and minimal recoil so as not to 
     terrify a young shooter and cause him to flinch.
       Fortunately, there are so many choices the real problem is 
     not finding something suitable, but narrowing the field. I 
     first looked at my own collection. A rifle that I've always 
     liked is my Ruger semi-auto carbine in .44 Magnum. This rifle 
     has a clear and wide little 4X scope with the old post 
     reticle.
       This seemed the ideal choice for Ty. It has a short stock, 
     much of the recoil is soaked up by the semi-auto action, the 
     .44 Magnum is enough for elk with well-placed shots, and 
     since I hunt elk with a .44 Magnum revolver, we could 
     practice with, carry, and use the same ammo. I would prefer 
     to shoot elk with this rifle under 150 yards, and I did 
     ponder the safety aspect of a semi-auto for a kid's first 
     hunting rifle. However, this rifle had one large added 
     benefit: it is the same size and shape as a Ruger 10/22, and 
     Ty could hone his shooting skills with my 10/22 and cheaper 
     ammo.
       The idea was fine until I suggested it to Ty. ``Nope,'' he 
     said. ``Nothing magnum. Too much recoil.'' Kids can be 
     notional, and I

[[Page E1791]]

     didn't want to push him. I wanted his first hunting season to 
     be something he'd anticipate and remember.
       So I started asking experienced hunting and shooting 
     friends about how they would solve my problem. What amazed me 
     was how wide-ranging the answers were. Some said to get him 
     some sort of ``oh-my-gosh'' magnum and let him learn to shoot 
     and pack it. Others advised that a well-placed head shot on 
     elk with a .223 would always take it down. And I heard 
     everything in between.
       I finally decided to narrow the field by choosing what I 
     determined was the minimum, fully elk-capable caliber. 
     Admitting a bias for .30-caliber cartridges, I finally chose 
     the .308 Win. for Ty. I found that if I looked hard enough I 
     could find a Remington 700 in a short-stocked, short-barreled 
     youth configuration, and with a synthetic stock. I had a 
     local dealer order it for me and it arrived a few days before 
     Christmas, in just enough time to slap a 6X Weaver scope on 
     it. It did look nice under the tree, and the look on Ty's 
     face when he opened it promised a great hunting season.
       Still, there was a lot of work to be done. I belong to the 
     school that believes a person should put a lot of ammo 
     through the gun they'll hunt with before they go hunting. I 
     had hopes of Ty being able to put several hundred rounds 
     through his new rifle before hunting season, but because 
     recoil had been one of my original concerns, and since this 
     youth model was lightweight, there was no way I was going to 
     subject Ty to several hundred rounds of full-house 308.
       I ended up handloading some light ``plinker'' rounds that 
     Ty liked shooting immediately. We practiced until he could 
     place five-round groups of this ammo into a two-inch circle 
     at 100 yards. Spring came around and Ty passed the Montana 
     Hunter Education class, even becoming a junior instructor--
     quite proud to be the only 11 year-old with that status. A 
     prairie dog shoot later in June allowed him lots of shooting, 
     the two of us going through several gun changes and some 
     2,000 rounds of ammo in one afternoon alone.
       Between the prairie dog shoot and other practice at the 
     Deer Creek Range near Missoula, Ty consumed almost 400 rounds 
     of his light practice ammo over the summer. The next project 
     was selecting the right ammo for his elk hunt. I tested 
     several kinds, but the bullet I finally selected as the best 
     compromise of weight, shape, cost, and performance was the 
     Hornady 165-grain soft-point boat-tail. Backed by Varget 
     powder in Lake City brass, the bullet would run out of Ty's 
     barrel at about 2800 fps and group five shots into about 1\1/
     4\ inches at 100 yards. I should say that this ammo makes 
     Ty's light rifle kick pretty good--he has never fired a round 
     of it. He's carrying it elk hunting now, and I've promised 
     him that when he shoots at an elk, he won't notice the kick 
     at all.
       Ty is 12 now, and though it is currently the second week of 
     elk season in Montana, school has limited the youngster to 
     only two days afield so far. And though we haven't seen any 
     elk, there's lots of good hunting within a two-hour drive of 
     where we live. Soon, we hope to be able to put to the final 
     test, a kid's first elk rifle.

     

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