doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stuff you wish you did

The members of this website are by and large older.

It seems many have actually aged out of the sporting life, but still enjoy their double guns.

I am curious, (as I am running out of things to do of interest), what things the members here might wish that they had done in their sporting lives.

My bucket list keeps getting shorter and shorter. I have found myself literally making things up to add to it.

I don’t really want to go shoot pigeons in South Africa, but that’s kind of like the last wing shooting experience left on the planet for me. War in Eastern Europe undermined shooting Black cock.

I’m going to do a cast and blast on the Snake for ‘bows and Chukar, using my portable boat toward the end of this year, but that’s been in the making for years.

I’ve been fishing for steelhead, fishing for trout, ocean fishing, great lakes, fishing, walleye fishing, I’m running out of things to do. Maybe I can toss a fly at some bonefish in the Seychelles, but even that after fishing for Atlantic salmon, in Scotland is kind of ho-hum to me anymore.

I thought maybe I could ask for some of the longtime members here to point out the sorts of things that they wished they had done, just to see if , there are any things of interest that I could add to my calendar.

Indulge my curiosity.

Wish I would have kept a mill and lathe when we sold the shop.
Wish I had gone to the knob creek machine gun shoot.
Wish I had gone white water rafting
Wish I had vacationed on Grand Cayman.
Wish I had snow skied in Idaho.

64 now. I will probably do at least 3 of the 5 before toes up.

I would say you should do a tandem skydive. Skydiving is something I still do on a regular bases. Hope to have 1K by years end.

That sounds like bragging to me, Greyman. Just saying.

Africa....but I am booked to go.

You know, it’s all good.

I don’t want to shoot a pile of ducks or geese, don’t want to shoot deer, or, sand hill cranes. I get it, people do those things and absolutely love them. But my dad moved his little family off the east coast, and brought us here to Minnesota, and bought a Setter, and took me pheasant hunting. The die was cast, and while we hunted grouse a few times, I mostly discovered that pursuit on my own, with Mom’s dog, a show dog that would hunt. You could call me a specialist, I suppose, but, those are the two I really live to hunt for. They are enough.
I’d like to catch a few more walleyes and crappies, sure, but, I won’t sideline a Grouse or pheasant hunting trip to do either. If you have an English Pointer, or, another Setter, or no dog, you and I can likely hunt together. I don’t want to hunt with your flusher, no offense, working a pointer and a flusher together usually nets two flushers at the end of the day, and I work too hard to get it right to chance that.
I live for fall days with game gun in hand, and the dog in tow, in a woods or field. I’m surrounded by people who don’t understand it. I’m often alone, but, not lonely. They really don’t understand that.

Their loss.

Best,
Ted

Interesting, I’m strictly Woodcock with a Pointer ( most people call them English Pointers). A few grouse to hold us over but from Oct 1st to November 15th it’s straight woodcock. Running the covers day in and day out, hitting the flights and just working the dogs. No bucket lists for me.

I've done most of the things I always wanted to do. But some are worth redoing - better this time. It's no longer about hunting X, but rather hunting X in a certain way and place that is worthy of the game.

Shooting a whitetail is not a big deal though I will certainly do it. More important will be shooting a whitetail with a bow I made myself and maybe with an arrowhead I knapped as well. Today, killing X is pretty darn straight forward and easy, regardless of what X is. But killing X with Y, in place Z is definitely interesting to me. The Brooks Range is highest on my list, whether is for another moose or a caribou. Using a bp rifle or a bow will be part of it for certain, and self guided.

I have done the pigeons in the sunflower fields outside of Pretoria. I did one day of wingshooting after I'd gotten my animals. The shooting is constant and the pigeons generally flew just above the sunflowers. About head high. As soon as they saw me the aerial acrobatics were amazing. Very difficult shooting buy also very fun. I was shooting about the 10th of May last year. The sunflowers were drying but had not been harvested. The shooting reminded me of the videos I've seen of grouse shooting on the moors. But the birds do crazy maneuvers as they pass.

Remind me, which part of Africa?

Should be a great time. I'd be interested to know what rifle(s?) you are taking.

Not seeing a lot of “Wish I had done…”
Decades of reading the big three magazines stimulated my sporting desires.
I thought every kid imagined themselves in those pages.