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Joined: 04 Mar 2016 Posts: 21 Location: Norway

I guess you're right, Dale, it has been a good year Smile

After a pause from 2008 to 2011 I have become more conscious of taking the opportunities I get, even if the trips are short and infrequent. Smile

Shot a 4x5 mule deer last week with my muzzleloader. Going rifle bull elk hunting next week the day after Thanksgiving. Bird hunt whenever I can. Shoot skeet and sporting clays all summer after the fishing slows down.

Yep, still trying to do it all.

As a much younger man growing up in Michigan you could say that I "did it all." I fly fished for trout, fished for walleye and salmon, ran coon and fox hounds, and beagles, raised and trained a lot of setters and pointers, hunted squirrels, rabbits, pheasants, grouse, and ducks. Also did my share of deer hunting. Ran a pretty successful taxidermy shop for a few years. Been in Florida for 35 years and have trained Labs, hunted ducks, quail and doves. Was gold medalist a few years ago in the Florida State Games, Skeet 55 and older division. Also did a lot of rifle reloading and shooting in several different calibers. During this time I also taught special ed in high school and coached the wresting team. Retired four years ago. As my body has been plagued with psoriatic arthritis and I cannot walk very well or very far anymore, I can't hunt so I took up the 5-string banjo, became pretty good and play in clubs in the Tampa area. However, The arthritis has invaded my right hand and wrist and at the moment, can't play. I am working on it and hoping to get the hand back playing again very soon.
xvigauge

Great posts and what great opportunities many of us were afforded as youths and thru our lives. Thankful for them, this great land we live in, and for all who've worked so long to preserve those opportunities. May we never take them for granted, and always try to give back and pay forward so our grandkids and their dogs can enjoy "doing it all",too.

Joined: 04 Feb 2014 Posts: 28 Location: Atlanta, GA

I do as much of all of it as I can. I've got a 2 year old and another on the way so that limits it, but I get out a few times a year on pretty much everything. I duck hunt in December/January, trout fish in the Chattahoochee all spring and summer, bass fish on Clarks Hill some in the summer, shoot doves in September, and then deer hunt in the Fall. And I still angle for opportunities to chase a pack of beagles or redbones but those are fewer and farther in between, it seems. The only thing that I used to do a lot that I don't anymore, is turkey hunt in the spring. I still like it but the spring is just always so busy and I have a hard time getting out.

For me, between a day job, painting, gun work, family time and and hitting the uplands with my setter and the very sporadic duck hunt, I don't have much time left for anything else. I have a bayliner boat but don't use it much. I mostly gave up deer hunting with a longbow because it takes so much time and effort. I might try it again with a recurve. Gave up the compound because it was just too accurate and didn't really feel like a bow. More like a stringed rifle with all the sights, etc. I do like fly fishing and do that once in a while. I do like wading small streams after wild trout, and used to do a lot of float tubing also before I got into pointy dogs.

When young and ignorant, but for the last 25 yrs almost exclusively upland bird and hunting dogs. I have occasionally fished while deployed where I could not hunt, like Iraq and Bosnia.

If I ever retire from my secon career then I hope to duck hunt, fly fish, and actually do more with my double rifles than target shoot.

Member Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 376 Location: North ID.

Hunted and fished about everything available while growing up in N Idaho. Continued the tradition after moving to AK in my mid 20's and living there for about 17 years.

Since moving back to Idaho, most of my hunting now consists of upland hunting although I don't do as much chukar hunting as I would like the past few years, due to a hip that bothers me.

I still hunt deer and occasionally elk and waterfowl. It's hard to do much fly fishing in the summer with my current job, but I plan to get back into it when I retire in a few years.

Joined: 06 Sep 2007 Posts: 154 Location: Kentucky

I like to think of myself as an all around er but career and family kept me occupied to the point it was a weekend of deer hunting a bird hunt or two a dove hunt or two and a little fishing. I use to enjoy target and clays shooting but that has lost it luster for me? I retired the first ofthe year but my wife is having some health issues and my mother is in assisted living. It's dawning on me that there is probably always going to be something and I realize that's can be viewed a good thing as I rue the day something happens to them. It all good as I've had a lot of goods times over the years have one nice big trophy buck story a couple of trophy fish a lot of non hunt/ fish trips with the wife which are the real trophys from me . I'm good.

Member Joined: 06 Nov 2005 Posts: 328

With the drought we have had here in the desert, there is no more duck hunting. And I don't really miss it. Drought also messed up the fishing. That and it seemed every time I went out the last few years the wind blew. It is hard to fish in the wind. Rain no problem. Wind can make it impossible. Still do some deer hunting. Went and scored at elk about 20 years ago. A nice 5x5. After packing that SOB out I made a promise to God. I would never do that again. I have 4 bird dogs. So I do a lot of upland hunting. The quail hunting isn't what is used to be. But. I can usually scratch down 4 or 5 every time I go out. Dove hunting here is fantastic. I can limit each and every time out. We have had an infestation of ground squirrels in the last few years. So I bought a PCP in .25 and give them hell. Farmers/ranchers can't stand the things, so they are a target rich environment.

Joined: 16 Nov 2006 Posts: 367

and I write about it, too!

Last February a friend in my church men's group mentioned that he's retiring and bought a local weekly paper and was mussing about a local outdoor article. I asked if I could give it a try and HAVEN't looked back. [As if I really need an excuse to hit the outdoors!]