Took 20 years off from shooting\hunting

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Sauer Grapes

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I was wondering if anyone else has taken time off from shooting\hunting for a long period of time.
My father bought me my first 22 rifle when I was 7. {still have it} I just turned 62 Sunday. My grandfather had a farm on the eastern shore in Maryland where I spent 2 or 3 weekends a month for 20 yrs. It was more of a weekend place than an actual working farm. Horses, built in pool and 60 acres to shoot on and hunt rabbits and squirrels. And just shoot the crap out of starlings and black birds.
To make a long story short, when my grandfather became ill, the farm was sold and that ended everything I knew for just having fun with a gun, other than Pa hunting. Soon after, the pheasants disappeared, my hunting spots dried up and I pretty much just stopped shooting and hunting altogether.
My last deer hunt was 1984. Got married the following year, and the guns never came out of the closet for 20yrs. Probably once every 5 years or so, I'd pull them out and oil them and give them a wipe down.
11 years ago I joined a club near by and took up sporting clays, skeet and took up handguns.
I learned one thing when I started shooting again, my age and wearing glasses, I would never be the shooter once was.
 
Sauer Grapes said:
I learned one thing when I started shooting again, my age and wearing glasses, I would never be the shooter once was.
Click to expand...
Hah! At my age (69) and wearing glasses, I'm not the shooter I once was either, and except for a couple of years when Uncle Sam owned me, I never took any time off from hunting and shooting.
Of course at my age, I might remember being a better shooter than I actually was 40 or 50 years ago.:D
 
Yep. Haven't hunted since 1998. That's when my family split up, Dad died, and I moved to Texas and got a better job.

I quit fishing, too.

Hunting and fishing served to keep the family fed during hard times. I didn't do it for fun.

I still shoot. That's fun.
 
I shot regularly from about 8yo to 16 or so on weekend getaways at my pops family farm. After that I pretty much took a long sabbatical from firearms for the most part. Sure I shot a friends shot gun or pistol every once in a while but for the most part my interests laid elsewhere.

Fast forward to a couple years ago and I got back into firearms in a big way. Not just for SD but as a hobby.


So yeah, I took a break....
 
Sauer Grapes said:
I was wondering if anyone else has taken time off from shooting\hunting for a long period of time.
My father bought me my first 22 rifle when I was 7. {still have it} I just turned 62 Sunday. My grandfather had a farm on the eastern shore in Maryland where I spent 2 or 3 weekends a month for 20 yrs. It was more of a weekend place than an actual working farm. Horses, built in pool and 60 acres to shoot on and hunt rabbits and squirrels. And just shoot the crap out of starlings and black birds.
To make a long story short, when my grandfather became ill, the farm was sold and that ended everything I knew for just having fun with a gun, other than Pa hunting. Soon after, the pheasants disappeared, my hunting spots dried up and I pretty much just stopped shooting and hunting altogether.
My last deer hunt was 1984. Got married the following year, and the guns never came out of the closet for 20yrs. Probably once every 5 years or so, I'd pull them out and oil them and give them a wipe down.
11 years ago I joined a club near by and took up sporting clays, skeet and took up handguns.
I learned one thing when I started shooting again, my age and wearing glasses, I would never be the shooter once was.
Click to expand...
Fired my first gun at the age of 5. A S&W 66 357mag. Was my fathers service revolver. Obviously dad had to have put light 38spl loads in it as I don't remember it having a lot of recoil. From that day on I was hooked. Still am. I simply can't imagine not being able to get off work, or out of class, and go to "the range" to work on my skills. It's not quite a daily. But it's a couple days a week. Happy birthday by the way!
 
Yep haven't hunted in quite a few years. Friends moved away and favorite hunting spots, along with the game, are long gone. Still enjoy going to the range on occasion but work and other things take up most of my "free time".
 
I grew up in SW New York. Good deer hunting. Good memories. Ended up in Galv/Houston area after Army. No good hunting areas unless you wanted to pay a lease/fee. No thanks.
Moved to Maine. Been out a few times, but not allowed to hunt on Sundays. May just pay the out of state fee and hunt New Hampshire with my son. My grandson will be of age soon and I will get into it more then as he wants to hunt.
So, I haven't taken a deer since 85. 86-2003 zero hunting.
 
I gave up duck hunting when the Feds banned lead, I quit bird hunting in the 90's because of the decline in local bird population.

But at 58 I still hunt deer and turkey, over the years my hunting life has had ebbs and flows and the biggest reason I was and still am a hunter is I own my own land to hunt on.

I haven't bought a hunting license in 25 years and my hunts are less demanding but more special because I'm content to limit myself to just my property.
 
I left law enforcement in 1991, gradually making the switch to EMS. I had bought my last gun the year before, and sold it, along with another one, late in 1991 to help pay for school. I still owned maybe four handguns and four long guns. Prior to this, I had been an avid shooter, starting in 1985.

I probably didn't fire a gun again until around 2002, when a friend (a Russian man who was enjoying his new freedom here) invited me to join him at a range. After that, I may have gone by myself once more, then drifted away again.

I returned to the "scene" in the summer of 2008, buying my first gun purchased in 17 years, a Bersa Thunder, for carry, on my birthday. My wife was pregnant with our first child, I was much older than I had been once, and was thinking of family security in a bigger picture. To be honest, I don't think the run-up to the Obama presidency had anything to do with it; I was so out of touch with politics, I barely knew who he was in July of that year (I dang sure knew by November!)

That 2008 purchase spurred literally dozens since...
 
I went to college in Iowa in 1968 after growing up in Connecticut. Big culture shock. I asked myself what the heck do they do out here besides farm. Hunt and fish. I'd never hunted and I hadn't fished much in a while. My dad gave me an Ithaca 12ga. and I started hunting pheasant. I bought a 410 and then a 22lr colt rifle. Rabbits, pheasant, quail and squirrels mostly. The locals told me back then if the property wasn't posted have at it. I bought a cabin on the river and lived there until 1975. I could walk out my back door with my rifle and hunt the woods and fields for miles. When I came back to Connecticut I hunted a few times but it wasn't the same so I stopped hunting. I am recently retired and plan to relocate to a rural area more affordable and want to hunt again. My FIL recently passed away leaving some guns behind. That prompted me to get my pistol permit so we could transfer the guns legally. Now I'm shooting again at the indoor range with a couple 357's and 9mm. I plan on taking the hunter's safety course to get my hunting license again. So after 40 years, I'm enjoying shooting again. I only wish my vision was what it was then.
 
Sauer Grapes said:
I was wondering if anyone else has taken time off from shooting\hunting for a long period of time.
Click to expand...
Yes, I did. I started dove hunting when I was about 10, kept hunting and shooting recreationally until about 18. Then I went to Germany, where I couldn't have a gun, for about a year. Following that, I went to college, where I couldn't have a gun in the dorm. Somewhere along the line, I just kind of drifted away from shooting. Then, about 20 years after my departure for Germany, I rediscovered guns and how much I enjoy them.
 
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