If you were to go out hunting a large shark like in Jaws would you take a firearm?

Fishing for King Mackerel off of Tampa I was pulling in what felt like a big fish. Suddenly the line went slack. Thinking I'd lost the fish I reeled in the line only to find the front third of what had been a big mackerel.
Another person on the boat said he saw a six foot shadow in the water. That's a close as I've come to a big shark.
 
Hmm?

Biggest fish I ever hooked was a 250 lb halibut in Alaska. The deckhand dispatched it with a .410 Savage single shot shotgun.

Biggest sea creature I ever witnessed dead, not present for the kill, was a bow head whale in Wainwright, Alaska. I was working there one spring helping the locals start a new water treatment facility when a whaling crew brought in a bowhead! They used hand thrown harpoons and old .308 rifles to score the kill! I am sure the beast had to weigh around 5 tons! Quite the site, seeing the whole town gathered at the beach as snow-machines pulling sledge after sledge loaded with 10' x' 10' chunks of whale pulled in! Quite the celebration!

So, I think I would just use my M1A for hunting Jaws. Seems to work on whales!
 
Fishing for King Mackerel off of Tampa I was pulling in what felt like a big fish. Suddenly the line went slack. Thinking I'd lost the fish I reeled in the line only to find the front third of what had been a big mackerel.
Another person on the boat said he saw a six foot shadow in the water. That's a close as I've come to a big shark.
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Ehh, at least it was cat food. Try doing that with a nice big grouper, dolphin, snapper or yellowfin. They never eat the trash fish on my boat.
 
Back nearly sixty years ago, my FIL was in a tuna tournament. Bimini, Cat Cay, something like that. He was hooked on to a truly big one, and suddenly there was no more fight. They boated the front half of the shark-bitten tuna. It was still some 350 pounds of tuna. Somewhere around 450 pounds had gone away in one bite.
 
I have had the privilege of talking to the late great Frank Mundas who is in this picture. Also the man who inspired the Captain from Jaws. I have also been on many shark fishing trips although none have produced a 24' GW we have landed some fair size sharks. A flying gaff works better than any firearm. If very large possibly a harpoon. If I had to have a firearm it would be the slowest longest bullet I could get as they seem to have the best penetration in water.
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Ehh, at least it was cat food.
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Pretty sure the cat did get that fish.

Same trip we also got an Amber Jack, Bonito and lost a dolphin (Dorado). That last was sure a pretty fish till it slipped the hook.
 
For real fun in the GOM, fall in behind a shrimp boat when they're culling the catch. Never know what you'll hook on to. Shark, tuna, kings, ling, who knows.

And you can often swap a six-pack of beer for a bunch of shrimp and any fish they'd be throwing overboard.
 
vytoland, the problem is that if you're a surfer, a scuba diver or one who goes down for abalone, sharks often hunt YOU.
 
"the problem is that if you're a surfer, a scuba diver or one who goes down for abalone, sharks often hunt YOU":rolleyes:

if you enter the world of the shark and you look like food, then, YES...YOU do have a problem. No need to kill the shark.....YOU are the interloper....
 
originally posted by vytoland:

if you enter the world of the shark and you look like food, then, YES...YOU do have a problem. No need to kill the shark.....YOU are the interloper
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Suppose one could say the same about killing a bear in the woods. Or a wildebeest out in the bush.

Are we not entering into the bears or wildebeest 'world' by entering into the woods or bush where they live?
 
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Your problem, vytoland, is that millions of people like to swim in salt water, and ergo, to wit and therefore, sharks are a distant last place in the pecking order.
 
^^^And not only do many get into the water for pleasure...there are some that work and make their living in the water as well.
 
Top predators kill other top predators. It's the circle of life thingie.

Unfortunately for the shark it doesn't know its eating a top predator.
 
Mythbusters (obviously a reliable source) found that the the Oxygen tank explosion was busted. Wouldn't happen reliably.
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LOL! Yeah, that was my first BS flag when I first saw the move as a teen! Oxygen alone doesn't blow up like that.

People compare a giant fish to a whale, and their nervous systems are nothing alike. A whale's brain operates its body functions. They are relatively easy to kill, and can be deterred with pain. A fish has more "brains" in its spinal cord than in its head, and is more like a machine operating on autopilot and instinct than something that thinks. Anybody who has ever cleaned fish knows that they display several instinctive movements after their head is cut off. The idea that you could immobilize a large fish in time to save yourself from attack with a firearm is funny, unless its large enough to blow it into pieces. Better have a large barreled canon!
 
I don't know the specific internal effects on sharks, but 12-gauge bang sticks have been very effective for decades. I vaguely recall that the target area is around the gills. Films from back in the 1970s seemed to show DRT.
 
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