doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shooting and Not Shooting

Gosh, some of you gentlemen are sure quick to turn a corner and take a remark down some unintended path.. or perhaps I was a dismal failure at a bit of truth based mirth, not that there were any real deviances excepting the part about birds off wires a from moving vehicle. Neither of the parties mentioned ever said they had done it, rather it was based on a remark one of them had made some years prior regarding difficulty levels.

Too, I hear and see all sorts of unending remarks about wild birds vs. pen raised. The ONLY real question once 'birds' or roosters are mentioned is how long until it goes off on some wild vs. penned tangent.

I'll be first to say that some pen raised birds had just as well have their necks wrung, get cleaned and packaged for consumption w/o bothering to try and get them to fly at all. Had a neighbor down the road many years ago who did just that; he liked to eat them, he'd loved to hunt them; he got old, he still liked to eat them.. so he got into the bird raising business, buying eggs and hatching them in incubators & raising them to the age of entre'. He never sold any, aside to some restaurants from time to time. No, I don't know the details, just that it happened. I even had a covey of sorts in the back on and off that were escapees from his activities and all I had in those days was a broke down barb wire back fence and hearing the birds call in his pens was a nice addition to bird noises and bird song in general for several years. If any of those birds even knew how to fly, they kept it a secret.

OTOH, I've shot flight-pen raised birds that were easily as good as any and indistinguishable from 'wild' birds and there have been occasions where we shot both. Before you ask, it is very easy to distinguish between them when the released or 'planted' birds are banded as required by law. Its much more than terrain & weather for strong pen raised birds in the field and a real flight pen is not small nor inexpensive; aside from sufficient footprint space [figure inside dimensions as 100'x300' minimum], it requires a great deal of netting and polled elevators, so the net may be lowered for both repairs and collection of birds to be utilized w/o hurting them. Too there is vermin and varmint control, need for daily fresh water, sometimes big vet bills, sometimes die-offs w/o warning that instantly accelerates the cost per/huntable bird, constant feeding expense until they are utilized &c. You'll not find many people today willing to go to the expense, let alone the daily upkeep necessary for strong flying fully developed birds & w/Pheasant you best get rid of the last of them prior to about late Feb. Because their sexual trigger is pulled by the amount [# of hours] of daylight their eyes are exposed to. That usually happens in early March and if allowed to happen prior to the roosters being used, they will fight & kill each other off until one last rooster is standing, blinders or not. So where am I going w/all this? Not far.

Wildlife is a precious commodity and virtually none of it remains w/o multiple persons and entities having invested time, sweat and monies to have wot we have today. It will require even more in the future. At the end of any day afield and on a very personal basis, it mostly gets down to, "Didja have fun?" Didja enjoy it?" Aside from wot silly stuff that happened w/dogs, friends & equipt... can you laugh at yourself?

How much did it cost? Common gentlemen(!),for many of us our real goal in life has never been much more complicated than as adults, we would like to be able to afford that same kinda enjoyment [real or imagined] that we had as kids for nothing. That shoe fits me perfectly. You may have dif. feats Likely why some scissor holes to accommodate carbuncles and where their frustration originates when they are discovered to be over two stories. Limits, ya know [math and I'll avoid it here].


Wanna talk cost? How about the first fish from a new boat? Wanna talk about reducing it? How about catching a cubic yard of minnows? Wanna talk about little expenditure for a few fish? How about a tin of sardines? If you had a new boat and had to buy a tin of sardines on the way back home after the fourth outing to say that you had any fish at all; could you laugh or would you start claiming it was a pleasure boat and too, there was the rather sensitive matter of which gender it identified with!? A placard near the head had been posted bearing the requisite wording plus "We draw the line w/mollusks; don't even think of using the poop deck!"

Wingshooting is a lifestyle. It is an anachronism in this day and age.

If someone doesn't like dogs, and is in their 70's, Well, I never have seen a leopard change their spots. So, I respect a person's decision to not get involved with them.

I can't shoot pen raised quail for less than $6.00/bird. So, for $100.00 EVERY COUPLE WEEKS, I can whack away at a good pile of them. I can't speak for the day rate along the GA/FL line.

I can speak to the enormous amount of fun that can be had for a hundred bucks. Teaching a kid, working with someone else's dog, laughing about hits and misses,
and then of course
Pan fried quail, biscuits, and gravy.

I don't ever want to equate any of that with dollars and cents. But I respect that people do.
Like I said initially, as soon as a person does, they are all done with it.

When dinner and two drinks at Applebee's costs about $45.00, I don't think going to a preserve every so often is really all that expensive.

I suppose it's all relative though.

I offered a simple means by which to cloud over a modest wingshooting budget. A prepaid debit card can be filled with little indulgences. And as the card is being filled in the off season, every deposit signifies future possibilities of fun.

But overall, I can stand by my observation and belief, that when the cost of shooting worries a man, He quits doing it.

"Outside a dog, man's best friend is a book. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read." Groucho.

Dogs are wonderful companions.
But, they don't always fit in. I've had quite a few that were re-homed because of fit problems. That's the nature of having animals.
Heck, Goldfish are a headache.

But the money anxiety isn't a problem that re-homing can fix.
It's best to not think about it too much.