I won’t speak for Nicks uncle, but this is definitely a thing. I know people, family even, who’ve gone hunting for turkey or pheasant with a bow. It’s definitely a skill show off thing.
Handguns are interesting in that, practically, the round shouldn’t have a huge discrepancy in stopping power. Sure there is some velocity drop off for similar rounds compared to a rifle, gas expansion transferrin more energy to the projectile due to longer time, but theoretically the rounds can be pretty similar.
However there is a big difference in a) accuracy, especially over distance and b) how big a round you really want to shoot because they can kick like a mule. Which also impacts accuracy.
But there’s all sorts of subcultures there. He might be in it for the challenge, and a deer with a handgun is certainly more challenging than the traditional shotgun and rifle rounds used.
There’s a group of people who do YouTube videos etc. and their whole ethos is to hunt using medieval techniques. I wandered into them while watching videos from those guys who demonstrate longsword combat, armor, etc. Handy for research purposes if you’re writing something along those lines. Don’t remember the name offhand – it’s in my notes somewhere.
It’s remarkably hard to hit even close targets in a hurry with a pistol. There are target pistols, of course, but they’re useless when it comes to stopping power. If someone can effectively hunt deer with a pistol, they’re rare indeed.
It’s not uncommon. I believe my father in law has a rather large pistol that he practices with and talks about going hunting with. Whether he has actually gone hunting with the pistol is not something I am sure of. I don’t really pay attention to when he takes his rifle and/or pistol.
Yeah, a lot hunters here carry a handgun as a backup when hunting deer. I don’t know anyone who’s ever had to use one for that. But, if you did run into a black bear, you’d want to be able to fire rounds faster than the hunting rifle would be able to, especially considering that you wouldn’t normally fire on it unless it was close, assuming you aren’t intentionally hunting the bear.
I have friends that used to hunt wild boar in the coast range of central California. I remember them talking about carrying handguns “just in case”. Boar can be big and mean.
We’ve got a variety of memes to choose from, eg “tired of winning”, “good people on both sides”, “covfefe”, “the best people”, “grab them by the pussy”, etc.
