doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - 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.

Not quite what you are asking CZ but what I wish I could do is

Jump shoot ducks in Manitoba with my brother again.
Walk the Sandhills with my friend Mike again.
Watch our setters hold a covey of huns in Saskatchewan with my friend Harvey again.
Go fishing for anything with my dad again.

Those opportunities are gone now. I’ll go to the places and do those things again. But it’s who I was with that made them special.

A I have become older my wish I had done or could do list has become very short in fact it is down to four one old one from life's middle distance and a couple of resent ones.
The oldest and in its way hurts still. My Farther slipped of his mortal coil when I was seventeen, so I really did not know him as a man in the way my sons talk to me as men, he of course missed out as well.
The middle one is that I had sons though I did want a daughter. Though my wife and I did decide that we did not want to enter Baby sex lottery. But now I have a daughter in law the same age as a daughter would be with the bonus of a grand daughter.
The more up to date two, I wish I could still could drive an Automobile but with my eyesight it would be carnage , and tongue in cheek I wish I could see my last birthday again.
This is very maudlin how about a change to the things I was glad I was there or I did that!!!
I will start wit two the two times in my life when I was there when history was being made. The first time was in Liverpool during the 1960s music revolution Cavern club, those four young men with those strange haircut's and all that went with it. Though at the time I did not know that I was in the middle of history being made.
The other time was I was in Berlin the day the people of East Germany climbed the wall and the police opened Check Point Charlie to allow the flood of people in to West Berlin. I still have some pieces of that Berlin wall in my study, and just between our selves I have never been kissed by so many women ever but dont tell my wife I enjoyed it also I did know history was being made.

I am humbled by that statement, my friend, and I realize I grew up in, and live in, a nirvana for an outdoorsman. That realization is most likely responsible for my lack of desire to now travel to far away places. I just, plain and simply, love home.

Taken from our dock on the Savannah River, two miles from my home, Saturday evening.

a useful adage....no one lies on his deathbed and wishes he had spent more time at the office.

best regards,

tom

i suppose the thread has run its course. Shall we now venture into things we wish we hadn't done? Naw, leave that one alone... Gil

I realize this isn't anywhere near the thought, but we had an aquaintance who did construction. He found out he had cancer in his mid thirties, worked for a couple more years, and passed on before he was forty. Anyway, he spent every moment of spare time doing every house and yard project. He even finished up two get a round tuit hobby car projects, not for himself, but so his wife could sell them. She's saving them just in case the two girls have grandkids that might want them. He did his day job on steroids for as long as he could, no doubt it was a bucket list. Just a story is all.

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

When I was in the ANG, I wish I'd taken advantage of the weekly C5 flight from Charleston to Anchorage and back for the cost of the inflight meal.
Fish the Railroad Ranch again in its heyday with friends Allan, Clint and the late Chuck.
Fish NZ with Chuck who knew it well.
I have learned to be content with home woods and waters, making them part of my weekly existence rather than looking forward to destination fishing and hunting. Gil

If I had it to do over, I would live where a larger portion of the population hunted and shot. I just had an afternoon visit with a family member who lives down south where his boat dock is at the end of his street and his file of hunting and fishing pictures is extensive and most of it takes place within a few miles of his home, and his neighbors all hunt and fish. I actually want to be Stan Hillis when I grow up.

Now that is impressive, Bill.


There is nothing in me that wishes I had done any type hunting or fishing that I didn't do. I had dreams of Africa once, and Scotland. But, I've done enough far away hunting if I never get to go again. I'm driven to chase ducks and doves, and have spent much of my life doing so. Any of those far away "undone" places would have required, and would require, my family to be placed in uncomfortable circumstances with me being away for long periods, and I will never wish I would have put them in that situation. I guess what I'm vainly trying to express is that I go, and have gone, as much as my conscience allows me to be away from them. My wife depends on me a great deal, and I'm perfectly happy with fulfilling that need, and missing out on "great adventures".

CZ, since your thread has morphed some in these couple of days I guess I will contribute what I knew immediately when I first read your request but didn’t want to put into words. What would I still like to do?

Anything. Anything at all with our late son.

And one more quiet morning in the canoe with my last best fly fishing friend.

I accept that neither of these will ever happen again.

Hopefully most of us have known a friendship in life of such kindred thought and values and aesthetic that just time together doing what we love is the highest reward. Strangely, now, our friendship has been sealed by common loss. As we grieved the anniversary of our son’s death, word came that his son had ended his life. Two thousand miles separate us yet we’re now closer than ever. And although it was already hard for two old guys to talk over a couple of cell phones add emotion and you get the idea. But again, somehow, we communicate as never before.

So, CZ, I wouldn’t recommend either of these experiences to you but I would commend this: treasure the relationships you have.

I have spent a fair bit of time in different parts of Alaska but still want to see the Arctic coast and Brooks Range. Not interested in shooting anything bigger than ptarmigan, however.

I will do whatever my grandkids want. They want to shoot soup cans, that's what we'll do. If one of them draws a goat or big horn tag, I hope it's not too far down the road. In the mean time, we'll do the in betweens.

The point comes where it’s not one more adventure but one less. Trouble is you don’t know when that is. Enjoy them like they are your last!

Pretty simple for me. I wish had worked less & hunted more when I was in my prime & spent more days in the field with a couple of dogs that were head & shoulders above the average.

in the end, all we have are our stories and our relationships....and they are our finest treasures.

best regards,
tom

I'm at a strange point in life. Was lucky enough to decide I'm done working last year. Wife wraps up her work at the end of this week. Both in our late 50s. We are at a place where we can travel and learn about our country and the greater world. Money isn't infinite but enough if we're not idiots. Pretty happy about that. For stuff I wish I did, well most of those doors are long closed. More time with family who has passed. Silly stuff. I wish I'd gone to see U2 in Ireland when I was 20, but was too afraid of the logistics of hitching 120 miles to the airport the next day. Probably would have worked out but I was raised cautious (Dad was an actuary.) Should have seen the Dead when they played Alpine Valley WI. Wish I'd slept with Amy when she was interested, but I was in a relationship (that didn't last much longer anyway). But seriously...I hope I get out of our wonderful house, in our wonderful town and do shit. Most of which isn't hunting, sorry. Baby steps...going on Monday to pick up a motorcycle. Nothing fancy. Just a 400cc. Like I had 35 years ago. We'll see how that goes. This summer we start traveling in an RV. Visiting wife's uncle's place in Colorado after years of saying we're too busy. But enough ramble. I'll check back into this post in 20 years and see if I have anything meaningful to add.

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.

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.

My bucket list is fairly short but my wish list is not. I have a long list of I wish things. Like I wish I had figured out how to make a place for wild quail on my farms. I so enjoyed hunting them in my youth, but at the time never fully appreciated how wonderful hearing a covey sounded when flushed, or when first one and then another would start calling for their mates. Farms which held a dozen coveys, now struggle to support two coveys.

As to my bucket list they all seem to involve my kids and grand kids. I would like to shoot a couple canvasbacks with my middle son, he is the duck hunter, over a set of decoys he has carved for me. Then when I pass I will give him the decoys back so he can remember that hunt for 50 years. I would like to sit in the blind, with all my grandsons and granddaughters. Do not care if we shoot a thing, just sit and think about how happy my own grandfathers were to sit with me 60 years ago in a blind. A triple on doves with my 42. Kill another duck for my Lab. She so loves to retrieve. Just watching her makes me happy. Live and be healthy enough to take a limit of Dove at 90, like my father did with his grand kids. 15 dove, with 23 shells with a 16 gauge Fox I lent him. Darn good shooting at any age. Last time he ever hunted and I got to watch him do it. Heck I will be happy to do it at 70 or 80 if I get to go with my sons and grand kids. Like I said most of my bucket list involves the kids.

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.

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.

My bucket item, well to finally say I have enough guns. Probably never happen

Nobody here is a kid anymore.


I have a bunch of friends who have aged out of hunting, and, just a very few who still make it out. The chronic maladies are sobering, and hasten the notion that those fall days are precious, and fewer in number then before.

Best,
Ted

Brings back a few memories CJF. A daughter got tickets for Eric Clapton in Denver, she says it's a must do show. Stevie Ray's brother is supposed to be opening for him. I can remember an Alpine Valley show, and the stunning copter wreck. A few years back, my youngest daughter wore a Stones concert t-shirt I picked up at the Rosemont Horizon back in '81. Kind of neat in a way to span a few decades. On the other hand, got some new hunting grounds opening up for this fall, new adventures, can't wait.

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.

I think we all have that girl we should have....mine was named Tracey, a spitting image of Jody Foster but alas, involved with a co-worker of mine and I passed up that opportunity. I did see plenty of Dead shows, none at Alpine though. My only regret regarding that period of my life is not seeing more Dead shows. Enjoy what the future holds Chris!