Reading the article below reminded me of when I was a teenager. I was into guns and I mean any kind of guns. Lived in NC and rambled the woods a lot in the summer. No driver's license so it was all shank's mare. People frowned on young kids roaming fairly populated areas and farms with .22 rifles on account of livestock. When I was in the 9th grade, I traded for an old single barrel 12 guage. Sound old gun but someone had cut the barrel back to about 15 inches. I doubt if it was legal. I made a sling from a strap and that old gun went fishing with me for about 3 summers. I killed many snakes with it and on the way to one lake, we had to pass the city dump. A pack of feral dogs took up there and they were aggressive sometimes. My dad worked for the prison department and when they changed out the ammo, he'd bring ragged buckshot loads home to me. Once I had a windfall of Peters Victor low brass 00 Buck that someone ordered by mistake. One encounter with the dogs at the dump and they left us alone from then on.
I wasn't the coolest guy in the mob with my sawed off as I didn't have a .22 but I was never harassed by any of the farmers on account of their livestock danger and I was never under gunned. Many times since then, I have wished for that old gun back./beagle