I must confess that I have never gone hunting, save for one memorable time when I was a child and Dad took us out rabbit shooting. Now rabbits are an introduced pest here in Australia so I guess we were just trying to do our bit to protect our native species. I don't recall being allowed to have a shot. But Dad must have been successful, because I remember we had rabbit for dinner that night. (It tasted a bit like chicken!) I don't know if this little story will help or hinder your search for the meta answer, which is what a hunter seeks. Answer & explanation: https://xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=164195#p164195
Check out "The MOAT Mini Pack of Marching Bands" here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html. US$5 gets you 7 Marching Bands which, hard enough on their own, now contain metas too. And once again there's a mega-meta!
Needed a nudge, but made it here! (My three other guesses were all variants of bargain/bargain price/etc... also had trouble figuring out to enter the plural!)
Also, the words I had tried that did not take were BEAR, BEARS, BAR, BARS. As in “that thar hunter? He is loaded for BAR!”
hoover 3s · 2024-04-19T19:45:49.293Z
Same here.
HeadinHome 🤓2:26 · 2024-04-17T02:41:56.909Z
Wow was I making that harder than it was. Sheesh. Here are my brainstorming notes: I see TIKI and PIANO but then the types of bars dried up. There is such a thing as a HOST bar (as opposed to a cash bar), and PORT barS provide protection for ships in a storm. I also see KITCAT (bars) but of course that’s spelled wrong (KITKAT, and it’s two entries).
Really silly ones: PUMA bar (similar to a cougar bar) ha ha
Bar CHALK - that stuff you powder up your hands with in gymnastics
SANTAbarbar(a)
BarLAPS (fabrics they makes them sacks out of)
GO barD - what you do when you just can’t stop writing sonnets
GRAN bars - for senior citizens only
CEL bars - what we might wish to see some politicians behind
CAT bars, TOGA bars, and BRAT bars all ought to exist, if they don’t. And by brat, I mean bratwurst.
After all that, I was just munching on some popcorn and thought “hmm…. Hunting bars, BAR hunters… OH!! BARgain hunters, because all these entries gained a BAR.” Duh.
Well I had those and BAR OAK(little music please) BAR TSO (Barstow California) and a few others. It took reading another comment that mentioned “until I read nudge 4 again” and a kick in the pants from Ben to sell me on the final answer (sold for a reduced rate I hope!)
Ugh - another big fail. I way over complicated trying to find a six-letter answer from synonyms of the “new” entries. Got particularly lost backwards down the RAB-bit hole lol.
whimsy 🤓14:07 · 2024-04-22T02:56:27.267Z
I thought backwards too for the same reason!
Sharkicicles 3s · 2024-04-18T14:49:48.646Z
Me looking at nudges:
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know.
rereads 4pause
Ahhhh, g****mit!
Very clever and a fun puzzle. And I also thought maybe Hobart was an Aussie reference :)
MatthewL 🤓8:49 · 2024-04-18T15:56:31.195Z
Saw the "bars" from the outset, but couldn't put it together without the final nudge. Nice one, Ben!
Carolyn 4s · 2024-04-19T15:44:21.513Z
I also made this way too hard by searching for other BAR words. Nice puzzle!
hoover 3s · 2024-04-19T19:48:14.060Z
Yeah, I went from HOBART as the southernmost capital thinking, hey, there was a clue about the northernmost territory. Maybe we're supposed to look for opposites!
Man how dense can I be. You TOLD me to think like me or Mikey and I didn’t. It took you pushing and another post to make me see reason (or value!) in what I had so far. Thanks Ben
Never solved -- just entered the answer after the reveal on the forum so I could see the comments. Many familiar thoughts but GAH! -- it just never got thru to me! So cute too!
PUMA bar (similar to a cougar bar) ha ha