Charles Graff
Moderator Emeritus
I lived in Deming NM for a few year and the wife taught at the Univ. in Silver City. This was in the mid-90s. Love that part of the cosmos.
1st attempt at BLL with alternate Lundmark Wax
- Thread starter Dug
- Start date
Thanks Charles,
yes the South West and entire Desert Plateau have an indescribable beauty and allure; not to mention its' prehistoric and historic history.
Doug
Doug,
Obssd does stand for obsessed. It has applied to me since I got into hunting and shooting when my oldest boy came to me at 13 or so, and asked if we could go hunting, like all of his friends did. Not wanting to be a total nimrod, I started reading and researching everything I could find related to hunting, so I could teach my kids right. I kinda went off the deep end, and obsessed was such a great descriptor, that we shortened it to 5 letters to fit on my personalized license plate!
The 1958 part is my birth year.
I have this same moniker on every forum that I'm a part of.
Obssd does stand for obsessed. It has applied to me since I got into hunting and shooting when my oldest boy came to me at 13 or so, and asked if we could go hunting, like all of his friends did. Not wanting to be a total nimrod, I started reading and researching everything I could find related to hunting, so I could teach my kids right. I kinda went off the deep end, and obsessed was such a great descriptor, that we shortened it to 5 letters to fit on my personalized license plate!
The 1958 part is my birth year.
I have this same moniker on every forum that I'm a part of.
obssd1958:
I think that is utterly cool!;or using vernacular from the very early 60's; far out !!!!!!
Rockydoc, I agree. My dad was a pencil pusher, Not around my paternal or maternal grand parents enough to have learned hunting let alone, SKILLs.
Doug
Charles Graff
Moderator Emeritus
I am an exception to that traditional scenario. I never met my father until I was 35 years old. I was raised by my lawyer grandfather who did not hunt nor fish. When I was a teen and old enough to do things for myself, I took up competition shooting, reloading and hunting. I had several older guys who helped me along the way.
I tried to pass it on to my kids. My son is a shooter and so is my daughter. Shooting is how my daughter and her husband met.
Last edited:
L Ross
Well-Known Member
Hell, as a kid I thought everyone hunted and fished and a lot of folks trapped too. Dad, Uncles, Grandpa here in Wisconsin, neighbors, farmers, even the male school teachers. Never ever imagined a day when anyone would deign to criticize hunting, fishing, or trapping. Deer hunting was an accepted excuse for absence from school. I feel a curmudgeonly spasm coming on.
RBHarter
West Central AR
My Dad and my Mom's Dad were avid outdoorsmen . Grampa taught me what he could about fishing . Shortly after he retired he shredded that big heel tendon away from his heel (I know what it is but I can't spell it today) , that took care of his lake wadding and creek walking . We fished a few times more later on in small reservoirs but it wasn't the same he pretty much gave it all up by the time he was 65 or so just 4 yr after his retirement .
When Dad's best friend , in probably his whole life , Dad lost the ......... I don't know what to call it . The spark was there , the fire was there but it was almost like it was work . Like he was just full filling a promise and trying to enjoy doing it without obsessing over the details . I guess if the hunt wasn't a success he felt like he had failed me somehow .
I think maybe for me I kind of part of the hunters evolution .
1 Learning the hunt , 2 filling the bag , 3 scoring the trophy , 4 the hunt for the sake of the hunt and 2 or 3 is nice but not needed , and 5 taking pride in the camps' successes .
About 10 seconds after I took that 135ish buck with Dad on top of a ridge line that's a full days walk into now was when I tipped in step level 4 . So I guess I was 14 . I learned a lot on later hunts , but I never needed to fill the bag to be successful , I never needed the take the biggest . I guess it was because I loved the hunt and being raised around folks that had already reached past the 2-3 need for conquest . That's not to say that if I was set up and 4 monsters walked out of trees that I'd pop the weird looking forky at the back believe me Rocky or Arnold would be coming home for dinner ....... unless it was one of the grands on the hunt .... I guess I'd let them whack Rocky and I'd take the little tender one so they could brag about out hunting Poppa .
The kids are spread to the 4 points of the compass now , it's unlikely I'll get to do much hunting with the grands as a result of that , the 6 girls aren't much interested anyway . Ms has a new one #8 for us , making 11 I guess actually so maybe the 3 boys will take some interest before my 3 score and 10 are spent or I break any more bones .......
When Dad's best friend , in probably his whole life , Dad lost the ......... I don't know what to call it . The spark was there , the fire was there but it was almost like it was work . Like he was just full filling a promise and trying to enjoy doing it without obsessing over the details . I guess if the hunt wasn't a success he felt like he had failed me somehow .
I think maybe for me I kind of part of the hunters evolution .
1 Learning the hunt , 2 filling the bag , 3 scoring the trophy , 4 the hunt for the sake of the hunt and 2 or 3 is nice but not needed , and 5 taking pride in the camps' successes .
About 10 seconds after I took that 135ish buck with Dad on top of a ridge line that's a full days walk into now was when I tipped in step level 4 . So I guess I was 14 . I learned a lot on later hunts , but I never needed to fill the bag to be successful , I never needed the take the biggest . I guess it was because I loved the hunt and being raised around folks that had already reached past the 2-3 need for conquest . That's not to say that if I was set up and 4 monsters walked out of trees that I'd pop the weird looking forky at the back believe me Rocky or Arnold would be coming home for dinner ....... unless it was one of the grands on the hunt .... I guess I'd let them whack Rocky and I'd take the little tender one so they could brag about out hunting Poppa .
The kids are spread to the 4 points of the compass now , it's unlikely I'll get to do much hunting with the grands as a result of that , the 6 girls aren't much interested anyway . Ms has a new one #8 for us , making 11 I guess actually so maybe the 3 boys will take some interest before my 3 score and 10 are spent or I break any more bones .......
Rockydoc
Well-Known Member
Same for me, L Ross. I grew up in the Black Belt of Alabama and I don’t remember anyone who didn’t hunt.
Is trapping a northern thing? I don’t remember anyone trapping. I assume trapping is to collect furs and the best furs are winter coats and winters in the south don’t produce thick coats. I don’t even think the best fur animals are to be found in the south.
Ian
Notorious member
My Dad's family in central Texas trapped racoons and fox for pelts from after WWII until that generation became too feeble and/or died off. Even when prices went to heck just about everybody had a big chest freezer just for pelts and periodically would cash in when prices went up a little. Lots of hunting, fishing, trapping, just bumming in the woods or by the river or lake. Crappie fishing was big, and squirrel/rabbit hunting too for the pot and for something fun to do, but that's all long past I inherited that upbringing but nowhere to do much of it now. My 10 acres barely supports a small herd of scraggly Whitetail and an occasional armadillo or fox.
fiver
Well-Known Member
my dad's Mom wouldn't allow even a BB gun in the house.
Grandpa took maybe a yearly fishing trip up to his cousins place and that was it.
Dad somehow got into doing mostly fun shooting, but guns came and went about as fast as the gas bill.
he sorta hunted, but never really did any research or scouting, more or less wander out and sit here waiting for something stupid to come past.
i shot more deer in the first 3-4 years i lived here than he ever shot in his lifetime.
if it was duck hunting i had to do the scouting and set up the decoys and blind and such, which never happened till i was about 30 or so for the most part.
fishing?
he knew a few places but mostly dunked worms on the same river, in the same place and took what he got.
i had to learn pretty much everything i know on my own, and i'm still not very good at the big game part of it.
Grandpa took maybe a yearly fishing trip up to his cousins place and that was it.
Dad somehow got into doing mostly fun shooting, but guns came and went about as fast as the gas bill.
he sorta hunted, but never really did any research or scouting, more or less wander out and sit here waiting for something stupid to come past.
i shot more deer in the first 3-4 years i lived here than he ever shot in his lifetime.
if it was duck hunting i had to do the scouting and set up the decoys and blind and such, which never happened till i was about 30 or so for the most part.
fishing?
he knew a few places but mostly dunked worms on the same river, in the same place and took what he got.
i had to learn pretty much everything i know on my own, and i'm still not very good at the big game part of it.
L Ross
Well-Known Member
A darned good friend of mine is the author of 19 books. He was a fishin' guide of the old old school, (rowing the boat and cooking shore lunch), and guided 64 years from age 14. He was also a middle school teacher and an avid reader. He inspires me and some day, (and I better make it soon), I feel like I should set down, key board in hand, a write down some of my outdoor experiences.
When I read Gordon MacQuarry or my friends books I wonder if other people would enjoy the recollection of my experiences in the woods and on the water. I always felt those situations to be so common place that no one could possibly have an interest in them. Only now, tempered by time, and the realization that so many people have lived their entire lives in an urban setting, perhaps my memories have a certain allure tucked away in them.
When I read Gordon MacQuarry or my friends books I wonder if other people would enjoy the recollection of my experiences in the woods and on the water. I always felt those situations to be so common place that no one could possibly have an interest in them. Only now, tempered by time, and the realization that so many people have lived their entire lives in an urban setting, perhaps my memories have a certain allure tucked away in them.
L Ross
Well-Known Member
Yes Rocky, I believe the majority of trapping for pelts is conducted up north. In all likelihood Illinois may well be about the southern limit of prime furs. Typically it needs to have a darned good freeze for a couple of weeks for skins to get prime. If you rush the season, even if legal, and pelts are blue when you skin 'em all you've done is wasted your time, energy, and an animal's life. Although in the case of coons, any dead coon is a good coon. Hell if it weren't for cars killing them by the tens of thousands I'd swear you'd have to kick them out of your path after dark.
Now give a boy a pack basket of mushrat traps, ( yeah I intentionally misspelled to honor and old acquaintance), a good pocket knife, and a pair of only semi leaky hip boots, and you can get him out of your hair for hours. Unless you want to be driving him to the fur buyer every other day so's he call sell the harvest in the round, you may as well gather up some bass wood stretcher boards and teach him how to skin and flesh his catch. That'll occupy the kid for more hours. "Course it's likely he'll wanna start hangin' out with grizzled old reprobates that chew Red Man, spit everywhere, roll their own cigarettes, smell funny, and maybe hear about town wimmen' more'n he should. But that is a small price to pay for havin' the brat grow up to be semi useful instead of a stock broker or some such useless life form.
Cadillac Jeff
Well-Known Member
Mr. Ross, I believe you could right that book very well!
Jeff
Jeff
I am very fortunate in that my own student population is weighted heavily with sensible people. Many of the other faculty hunt. I was very apprehensive about working in education to begin with, but in the first week, I met the environmental science prof. While standing in his doorway, I was scanning his bookshelf and I saw a LOT of books I have at home, like Stanley Hawbaker's Trapping North American Fur-Bearers. He was a mused that I was so amazed at that.
A female science prof brought pictures of her oldest daughter posing with her first deer. A student, a mousy, just-out-of-high-school girl, approached me before class and very meekly explained that she would have to miss such and such a day, and asked if I could tell her what she should look at to keep up. I told her what to read and what to do and she thanked me and started toward her seat when I added that if she brought me back a picture of a dead deer, I won't take points off for the late assignment. She got a little flustered and asked "how did you know??" It was obvious - she wore a camo coat every day and the day she had to miss was opening day.
I'm not sure I would ever find this at a university, but at a small community college in the middle of a corn-field makes for a pretty comfortable environment, created by students AND faculty.
I usually don't say that much about it because I know the administration has a "social media expert" trolling the web looking for things which are otherwise none of their business.
Charles Graff
Moderator Emeritus
I have a quirky friend that is fond of saying, "The past was another country". This is true folks of a senior age lived in another country entirely and it is well worth saving and passing that world on to other generations that who can not live there. Write the book!
Ian
Notorious member
I enjoyed The View from Trout Lake, Fishless Days- Angling Nights, and many, many other books of similar subject, written in prose style. Those books took me places I will likely never go, in a time long past, and no matter my own experiences it is always good to see the world through someone else's eyes. Write on, I say, I sure enjoy your posts and the writing style you switch to occasionally when describing your adventures.