doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Hunt like a farmer do

I think what Lowell failed to realize when he had this dream was....back in the day he's looking there were hardly any deer for the ol'farmers to kill.

Better change the post to ye ol'Rabbits.

j0j0, the dream was a mere two decades ago - a short time in the lives of ol'sods!
...but the farmhouse and barn still stand to this very day.
I'll go and see again, and pinch myself along the way!

Lowell, you may take it as gospel that farmers didn't take their lunch. They went to "have a look" and would be home in a few hours. They knew the location of their prey. In my parts, all-day gunning with sandwiches and thermos is for "sports." The rest of us are home by 9a and go to work. We sip and graze at the sport because we're surrounded by it.

Yep, when I was growing up in Amsterdam I used to get one every season in ole' apple orchard deep in the woods at Bill's Schoharie Co. NY farm. Used to wear oversized caloshes from Agway and shot 20ga Winchester Mod. 37.

HomelessjOe:

Your truck response reminded me of a story I heard at my dads wake. In the late 60's early 70's he and his foreman were at one of the farms before deer season and dad had his rifle with him. A discussion took place where dad told his foreman that he could hit one of the deer that were in the field. The foreman called him on it. Long story short dad shot the deer but they both paid the price of not being able to hear for about a week due to the muzzle blast. Neither of them would get out of the truck for as it was relayed to me because they "didn't want to spook the deer". My bet is that they just didn't want to expend the effort of getting out of the cab. The thing that gets me is that they were out of season and also in our section of NY even if it was the right season all our farms were in shotgun only areas. Thanks for bringing that memory back.

Parris

Lunch, or no lunch hmmm King? Anyways, I've always appreciated the farmer's un-hurried approach to deer hunting. If not today, tomorrow, and as you say, they know where the deer are.
No couple of days of buck fever lust...just part of what they do.
If hunting has a future, it will be on the deerhunter's shoulder - new, or old country - like 'em or not!
Last year in Missouri there 450,00 tags sold - I doubt if there's 450,00 using doubles in the wide world today.

Ducks Unlimited did a survey a few years ago of guns used for ducks and geese and SxS's were a paltry 2%. When Destry "Market Hunter" Hoffard and I shot ducks in LA pre-Katrina with our Parkers we might as well have been shooting flintlocks--the locals were amazed that such things still exist; some had never seen one.

Suffice it to say that we doublegunners were held somewhat in awe to our faces, but probably laughed at behind our backs. After all, the way these good ol' boys keep their 870's clean is to sprinkle some sand in the bed of their pickup truck and let the uncased gun slip and slide all the way home after a day's hunt. Yet even handicapped with our Parkers, it was all opportunity, and we never but once failed to shoot our 6 bird daily limit. EDM

Most Ol farmers I knew had a half-pint of George Dickel, .22 WMRF, spot light, and a bunch of deer tearing up their peanuts.

I'm seeing the same here in Nova Scotia. Few of the new generation have the same feeling for guns. Maybe it's because the old timers who died expressed their feelings differently or possibly, about their guns, hardly at all.

It seems newer gunners are indoctrinated with notions of utility, semis and pumps, bigger gauges and longer shells, low-maintenance composites and plastics, their guns less important than latest camo fashions from Cabela catalogues.

It doesn't bother me. It's their time, their turn. Maybe I indulge myself with fanciful notions of my years with poor men and their Ithacas, Stevens, Lefevers, Parkers and Belgians who related more to their guns as friends than mere acquaintances.

That time has gone.

I think it is a progression albeit rather quick for me. You start with an inexpensive pump or maybe a semi-auto, go to O/U for competition or better handling (read any magazine and they say that) and finally as you get older the SxS becomes suddenly more interesting. This does not work for everybody and disposable income has a lot to do with the progression also.