Going Soft With Old Age Creeping On

[Jaymo]

32 minutes ago, harrycatcat1 said:

They interfere with my angina medication 💊 😤 😉😉

It was actually developed for heart problems. Then they discovered it had a certain side effect, which had a greater market and so pushed it in that direction. 

Or so I am told… 

[marsh man]

4 hours ago, Bigbob said:

When i was younger i worked as a stalker and later in life whe would go out lamping 5 nights a week and shooting every weekend and often i would orginise a couple of mates to make up a team of four for a ferreting job two weeks in advance , My son and myself covered miles lamping shooting and ferreting all the time . the wife used to say it was great we were never in ,now ive slowed down only take a deer or two a year for myself and a odd day here or theres shooting or ferretings  plenty  i dont think you loose the instinct as i fully expect to be out a lot with my grandson but you wise up and notice the aches and pains are your bodies way telling you to slow down  

I liked the sentence where you stated , the wife used to say it was great we were never in.

This for some people can be a problem as shooting can be very time consuming, although I have never had any problems and we will soon be celebrating our golden wedding anniversary , my advise would be , start off with how you intend to carry on .

We first knew each other at the seniors school where we were in the same class , when we left school we went our separate ways and met up again a few years later , when we were courting I was well into pigeon shooting and very often stayed a bit longer than I should had done if I had arranged to meet up at say eight pm , very often I got home at twenty to eight and had to rush about like a Blue **** fly , my gun was taken out of my motor but the rest was often left in and I remember one night we have had a few drinks and got in the back of the motor like you do when the bag with my net in was full up with Pigeons , these started to hum a bit so I had no more to do than get the bag out and leave them outside of the motor , anyhow , after a while I was nodding off as it had been a long ole day and started to make my way back home and dropping my wife off at hers on the way , it wasn't till the next morning when I went to clear my motor out that I noticed I had left the sack of Pigeons behind , I did go back in case they were still there but everything was gone , not even a feather was left , who found them ? , that I couldn't tell yer , but I think my wife had some idea what lie ahead 

[Bigbob]

When i first met my wife i was a stalker in the forrestry commission  i was at Rannoch Moor  came home on the friday night and left on the sunday night overtime was time in luie . I left as i thought my kids would be playing the banjo on some back water lol . Had a couple of diffrent jobs moved for less hours and more money , But with the kids it meant more time hunting as long as the money didnt come out my pocket . My son grew to be like my shadow and did everything with me and now im slowing down hs no happy . The wife didnt want me to retire as she said you will just sit about and do less i argued it would give me more time foe hunting she was right and since we retired i have seen more of the wife than i ever have i still do a bit as i said the urge to be out is as strong as ever but i pick my days no  more  ferreting shooting when its coming down side ways i was to get a new knee at 60 thats past and gone due to covid and now there saying 70 i use it as a excuse or am i wiser no hobbling about fields in pain 

30 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I liked the sentence where you stated , the wife used to say it was great we were never in.

This for some people can be a problem as shooting can be very time consuming, although I have never had any problems and we will soon be celebrating our golden wedding anniversary , my advise would be , start off with how you intend to carry on .

We first knew each other at the seniors school where we were in the same class , when we left school we went our separate ways and met up again a few years later , when we were courting I was well into pigeon shooting and very often stayed a bit longer than I should had done if I had arranged to meet up at say eight pm , very often I got home at twenty to eight and had to rush about like a Blue **** fly , my gun was taken out of my motor but the rest was often left in and I remember one night we have had a few drinks and got in the back of the motor like you do when the bag with my net in was full up with Pigeons , these started to hum a bit so I had no more to do than get the bag out and leave them outside of the motor , anyhow , after a while I was nodding off as it had been a long ole day and started to make my way back home and dropping my wife off at hers on the way , it wasn't till the next morning when I went to clear my motor out that I noticed I had left the sack of Pigeons behind , I did go back in case they were still there but everything was gone , not even a feather was left , who found them ? , that I couldn't tell yer , but I think my wife had some idea what lie ahead 

I used to lamp a small holding that had four fields round a old railway banking we used to ferret for great bags of rabbits but during the summer my son and i would lamp it and the old graveyard next door at the top of the farm road there was a big old layby and the council had put a couple of pinic benches and seats there that was our first port of call when we finished lamping , We used to gut the rabbits on a table put the guts in a black bag and pop them in a bin and drive the 30 minutes home i am older and wiser now and wouldnt do that as i have visions of someone seeing all the blood on a table and phoning the police LOL 

[SuperGoose75]

Not so much of an age thing personally speaking, as I am mid forties. In 30 years on my own and previous to that was always out with my father since a young boy. Fowling,roughshooting and fishing, and dare I say it,a wee bit of poaching for sport back in the day. In many years in the field (and I was pretty hardcore for a good part of  that) you witness so many spectacular things in nature and you grow to undertsand and respect things more over the years. There has always been something in me that loved nature and the countryside, not surprising really as I grew up and still do live in the country and had that idyllic countryboy childhood.

I have always been a couple for the pot man, as my father instilled in me to dont shoot it if you are not gonna eat it or at least give it to someone who would. I used to get a real buzz out of shooting/killing birds and at one time got really annoyed if I missed birds. For example as a young man I used to tramp the fields both high and low from dawn to dusk when roughshooting, and often would come home with nothing in the bag as I would have missed the couple of chances at cock pheasants that were flushed  (we dont shoot hen birds here) or miss the fleeting woodcock My father used to say when he heard me coming in the back door to ''hang them up''  knowing only too well the likelihood of me not having got anything was probably the case.

But later in the evening the dissapointment and annoyance of the missed birds faded and the images of all the other wonderful sights I witnessd during the day shone through. The early frosty mornings created their own magic with the hoar frost setting the scene for a winter wonderland. Then as a ''watery'' winter sun made it's apperance the scene changed as the frost thawed and the water droplets on the sloe bushes and rowan berries were visible and for a while the environment is a moist one, until the sun gets higher in the sky and drys things up and the day turns out to be a fine one, with bright blue skies with little moisture in the air. A hovering Kestrel makes an apperance, a fox is seen slipping away up the fields on the other side of the glen, a few screeching Jay's are making a noise in the thick of the glen, a few wedges of wild whooper swans fly overhead as do some skeins of geese although they are higher up, as they go out to the fields for the day. The Swans look brilliant white on such a day as they contrast against the blue skies. Flocks of pigeons are clattering about, although they sometimes are part of the bag in a days roughshooting, Im not intetested in them as it is pheasants I'm after. As I enter a wood that usually holds a Woodcock or two, a red squirrel is seen scrambling up an old beech tree,it stops and looks down at me before hopping off through the branches. These things and many more are what make a day in the field for me. Some will call these things nonsense and say that I'm rambling and rehashing the likes of my favourite shooting authors, but this is genuinely how I feel. As one of my favourite writers put- what matter if I got a shot? What matter indeed! The missed cock pheasants are soon forgotten about.

I am now what I would call a selective shooter and have been for a number of years. I let countless birds fly on unchallenged. I leave packs of duck alone when out after geese. I let many geese fly on also if I have one in the bag. Just last week I was out on a morning flight and witnessed four different birds of prey, I was watching two Roughlegged Buzzards through the glasses as a few skeins of shootable geese slipped past.  I also saw a Peregrine,Sparrow hawk and a Merlin. I went home with nothing in the bag but was happy I was there.

That particular morning I also witnessed something I have seen on more than one occasion. A distressed goose. This lone goose was flying about calling for the duration of the morning,It would not settle. It landed a few times in a field with other geese but would not stay and flew off numerous times. It was obvious this goose had lost its partner.  If you watch birds a lot they really do show each other a lot of affection. 

Im at stage now where I often reach for the stick rather than the gun and take the dog a walk on the shore and Im just as happy with that. That said if we get some proper fowling weather, I will still be out after the duck.

Things like people shooting big bags of geese for example used to annoy me, and some of the things you see online these days are not my thing at all. But each to their own. I am far from perfect and dont want to come across as holier than thou but I can justify my approach to shooting and that is a few for the pot and keeping an important tradition alive whilst it also gives me the ecxuse to get out into nature.

I dont think it is going soft at all, I would say it is more about gaining understanding and respecting other living things more. Its the natural way for humans to hunt for food, we don't really need to anymore, but we have a choice and there is nothing at all wrong with shooting,hunting, or predator control if the correct approach is taken. Just My opinion.

 

PS sorry for the long post- I got carried away🙈

Edited October 10, 2022 by SuperGoose75

[Walker570]

Age is creeping on when a phone reply says there is a 30 minute wait for your phone call to be answered by your bank.  Now I remember not much more than 35yrs ago where a phone would be answered promptly and you could book a time with your bank manager probably the next morning over coffee. Where did we go wrong.  Present day life is so impersonal.