doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Old legs, and smallbores.

Has anyone given a thought to the future shock of getting older and being saddled with small gauge guns and big runnin' dogs?
If your sport needs to cover lots of ground, and you hunt the deserts, tundra and steep hillsides of this land.
That light little gun(410 & 28ga.) makes things easy for now, but what about when old age starts to creep in.
What are you going to do with 'em?
That big runnin' dog is way too much for you, your bladder can't take long trips and the legs have gone south!
Whats your plan?
Mine is, and all my guns are 12s, my dogs are lazy Labs and I hunt 20 yards from where I park the van. DUCK HUNTING!

That's why they make 2" 12 bores and Clumber spaniels Lowell.

My plan is to live in the moment. But just in case I have purchase several 28's and 67's (410) for those long painful days where I hope the quail are dumb.

The funny thing is my father is at that stage now. He is a very fit 77 and he is my hunting partner. I find him reaching for the 410 more often as the years seem to add up. It's not the weight of the gun but the recoil that seems to wear him out. Now we all have a legitimate excuse to tell our wives,.... "this gun is for my golden years honey, honest!"

As I age and non to gracefully either, I've gone to smaller bores and lighter guns. Even duck hunting, went to decoy shooting only and use a 20 with TM and bismuth. Thank the Lord I stocked up several years ago. Most of the the 12s set in the safe.

when my springers start to run too big I threaten them with a clumber spaniel as a replacement. So far the threats have not worked, but I sure love those spaniels.
Steve

Most of my life, I used a 20ga. for grouse and woodcock, a 12ga. SxS for pheasant, and a Rem 1100 for heavy duck loads. Lately, the 12ga. Coggie has been spending more and more time in the safe; I still use it occasionally, just for the pleasure of it. But I have learned that the 20ga. is really all I need, and - at less than 6 lbs. - all I want in the uplands.

Last year I sold my Alumacraft Ducker, gave away my dekes and retired from waterfowling - all the gear-hauling, the bitter cold and advancing arthritis have taken the fun out of it. I still enjoy hunting grouse, woodcock and pheasant with my springer, and skeet shooting in the off months.

Now in my 70th year, I'm very conscious of the gradual erosion of my physical abilities, and every hunting season is more precious than the last. Planning for the future, I have found younger hunting partners strong enough to drag my corpse out of the coverts. And when I get too slow and feeble to shoot behind my springer, I'll get me one of them pointy-type dogs that give you time to pre-mount your gun.

Now thats what I like to hear.....your an inspiration Jack. Not that many folks that are 70 and still hunting springers. I had no idea you could love dogs so much until I found them. I'm hooked.
Steve

Guess I got directly into the group of dead hunters!
My buddy Nikolai Vereshagin - famous mammoth reseacher is 98 now.
Three or four years ago I brought him to waterfowl hunting and he got 12G Francotte, thou he got light Sauer 20G at home. I asked him why he took heavy gun and he answered Heavy Waterfowler is a must!
I'm 48 now and several years ago I began to shoot B-25 Trap heavy gun with 30" bbls. I can hit everything that moves from this gun and I thought the gun weight is about 7 1/2 pounds. At the beginning I felt this gun was pretty heavy to me and especially for walking all day, but today I don't feel its weight. We worked it out together with the gun. I began to shoot snipes over my dog with gun even.
And just imagine what my shock was, when I bought electronic scales several months ago - the weight of the gun was 8 1/4 pounds!
I'm not gonna give it up and I'm gonna hunt with the guns that really can shoot

The reason I bring this up, is that I've just gone thru a comprehensive physical - things are fine for a 59 year old fart and am on no meds.
...but one of my knees is starting to creak.
I'm not sure that hauling a 410 around an Iowa corn field would lighten the load on it.
Not to mention keeping a big runnin' dog in shape with nightly marathon walks.
Duck hunting has its nasty side, and I think keeping warm is it's only draw back.

The older active gents in the field are deer hunters....something to be said for sitting for your game.
They've traded their Parkers for G&H 250-3000s.