Thread: Fishing or hunting.

I love to fish but live to bow hunt 53 more days

The only thing I hunt these days are crappie, or trees to cut to make crappie beds. The urge to go deer hunting comes every year as soon as the weather starts to cool and the leaves begin to fall. I use to burn up the roads to get to selected deer woods, nowadays, I dodge the deer on my way home from work, and spook a few from my yard at least once a week when I get home in the early morning hours. I suppose a good dove shoot is the one hunting sport I miss most and would go in a second if invited to a good one.

I've never been hunting, and, if the crazy way fish take up my thinking is any indication, that's a good thing. If I could, I'd fish at least 300 days a year, and I enjoy it every time, even in the heat of summer and the bitter cold of winter. So it's always been fishing for me for around 50 years, and I hope I can squeeze in another 50, before old age begins to creep up on me...

I used to live and breath hunting! My dad started me out hunting squrriels when I was 5 years old. At that point in time, all I had was a Crossman pellet rifle and it didn't have enough power to tame the elusive tree rats. By the time I was 7 Santa Clause had brought me a youth model .410 and the squrriels were never safe after that . Some of my fondest memories as a child are hunting squirrles in the woods around my dad's house. To this day, we still hunt them a few times a year and enjoy making a Brunswick Stew every year.

I was introduced to dove hunting sometime around the age of 9 and killed my first dove with that .410. I started hunting deer with my dad when I was about 5 as well. I either sat in the stand with him or he would sit me in a little 6 ft stand on a tree right beside him. I carried my pellet rifle on those trips too and I loaded and unloaded my gun just like my dad. I didn't realize it at the time, but he was teaching me a wealth of knowlege about gun saftey and hunting saftey in general. I was 11 years old when I was given my first deer rifle, a Winchester Model 94 .30-30 and that year I killed my first deer with it. That little 4 point buck still ranks as my fondest hunting memory and I can still see him stepping out into a shooting lane in the acorn hollow I was hunting. That .30-30 was my dad's first deer rifle and he had sold it to a first cousin of his. When I was old enough to hunt, that cousin gave it back to him for me. I still have the gun and it's the favorite of my collection. I still hunt with it every year and normally kill a deer or two with it. I hope to pass it on to a child of my own one day.

I don't know why, but I've lost a great deal of love for the sport of hunting these days. I still hunt every year and enjoy it, but I enjoy being on the water more. Fishing in the late summer, fall, and early winter was unheard of in my family years ago. That time was reserved for hunting preparations and hunting. These days no one gets in to it like we once did, but we still kill enough deer each year to fill the freezers. I can't tell you the last time hamburger meat was purchased around our homes. Even though I don't have the passion for hunting I once did, you can guarantee I'll be in the woods this fall in search of a deer!!! And I'll probably be posting a few pictures on the board here if any success is had!