RiverRider
Member
How I overlooked this site for so many years is something I cannot explain, but maybe in 2024 my focus will improve...weird things happen, after all.
So, I live in the North Texas area---too close to DFW to suit me anymore---and have been here almost uninterrupted since 1996. I originated in the El Paso area and grew up there, and especially the Fabens area, with a couple of brief adventures in both Tennessee and New Mexico. After a hitch in the USN I returned to El Paso for a while then finished college in Alpine. Afterward I found myself in Nevada, then Utah, then Montana, then Idaho.
I've always loved shooting. The first gun I ever fired was my grandad's Colt Woodsman Sport model, 2nd series (I now have one just like it) when I was four years old. I acquired my first rifle, a Winchester Model 47 as a gift from my dear departed uncle who was five years older than me when I was seven years old and I thought I was ready to hunt bear and deer. As a kid with no means, the best I could do was shoot an occasional sparrow or starling out in the desert...jackrabbits were scarce in the early to mid-60s. In the middle 70s, I discovered how much jackrabbits love alfalfa and how brave they are at night, and how easy they were to pick off when blinded by the headlights of 1974 Chevy a pickup. The Navy interrupted my jackrabbit slaying for a while but when I returned, my uncle (who was my mentor) and I renewed the effort. We must have killed ten pickup loads of jacks out in the alfalfa fields and up in the desert between Horizon and Fabens, and sometimes all the way down to Acala and beyond.
Over the years I acquired rifles, handguns, loading equipment, casting equipment, and even a smidgen of knowledge here and there. I killed a few deer finally, but what I have found is that I love hog hunting. Fortunately for me, I am now the uncle and my nephew grew up in our (my uncle and myself) footsteps and ended up owning a piece of ground in an area of Central Texas that produces hog like a feedlot produces flies. We have removed nearly 300 hogs from a 200-acre (approx.) piece of ground since about March of 2021 and there is no sign of the numbers letting up.
Since I retired from my long-held position in the avionics field last July, I am engaged in projects around here that I could "do later" since 2004, so I am not totally free to hunt all I want, but I go often enough to be satisfied. As the reality of the brevity of life is in clear focus these days I am also filtering out the few items from among my shooting-related acquisitions I want to keep and use, and offloading the rest. I don't want my wife to have to deal with all that when something happens to me, which *will* happen.
So, here I am. I am as active as I have ever been and I love to reminisce about places I have spent time and tell stories. I hope I do not bore anyone to death.
May 2024 be a much better year, but I think we're going to have to work at it!
So, I live in the North Texas area---too close to DFW to suit me anymore---and have been here almost uninterrupted since 1996. I originated in the El Paso area and grew up there, and especially the Fabens area, with a couple of brief adventures in both Tennessee and New Mexico. After a hitch in the USN I returned to El Paso for a while then finished college in Alpine. Afterward I found myself in Nevada, then Utah, then Montana, then Idaho.
I've always loved shooting. The first gun I ever fired was my grandad's Colt Woodsman Sport model, 2nd series (I now have one just like it) when I was four years old. I acquired my first rifle, a Winchester Model 47 as a gift from my dear departed uncle who was five years older than me when I was seven years old and I thought I was ready to hunt bear and deer. As a kid with no means, the best I could do was shoot an occasional sparrow or starling out in the desert...jackrabbits were scarce in the early to mid-60s. In the middle 70s, I discovered how much jackrabbits love alfalfa and how brave they are at night, and how easy they were to pick off when blinded by the headlights of 1974 Chevy a pickup. The Navy interrupted my jackrabbit slaying for a while but when I returned, my uncle (who was my mentor) and I renewed the effort. We must have killed ten pickup loads of jacks out in the alfalfa fields and up in the desert between Horizon and Fabens, and sometimes all the way down to Acala and beyond.
Over the years I acquired rifles, handguns, loading equipment, casting equipment, and even a smidgen of knowledge here and there. I killed a few deer finally, but what I have found is that I love hog hunting. Fortunately for me, I am now the uncle and my nephew grew up in our (my uncle and myself) footsteps and ended up owning a piece of ground in an area of Central Texas that produces hog like a feedlot produces flies. We have removed nearly 300 hogs from a 200-acre (approx.) piece of ground since about March of 2021 and there is no sign of the numbers letting up.
Since I retired from my long-held position in the avionics field last July, I am engaged in projects around here that I could "do later" since 2004, so I am not totally free to hunt all I want, but I go often enough to be satisfied. As the reality of the brevity of life is in clear focus these days I am also filtering out the few items from among my shooting-related acquisitions I want to keep and use, and offloading the rest. I don't want my wife to have to deal with all that when something happens to me, which *will* happen.
So, here I am. I am as active as I have ever been and I love to reminisce about places I have spent time and tell stories. I hope I do not bore anyone to death.
May 2024 be a much better year, but I think we're going to have to work at it!
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