Dave's  Outdoor  &  Sports  Page

Monday, April 28, 2008

Camping - Around the 1960s I started "camping".  Back then I frankly didn't view it as much as an experience with nature, as I did an opportunity to get away from my five younger siblings.  I distinctly recall camping in February and waking up with snow on me.  Neither my friends Greg Taylor and  Ben Anderson, nor myself owned a tent or even a sleeping bag.  We just slept in our clothes and covered with a blanket.  Quickly we learned to carry a trash bag (with seams split to make one larger sheet of plastic)  to cover our firewood as soon as we made camp.  Later we  began to each carry a rope (about 10 foot long) and a sheet of clear plastic to make a tent from (tie rope to two trees, drape over the plastic and weight edges with rocks). 
 

Hunting - My immediate family, cousins & all the rest of the "clan" were rabbit hunters since I can remember.  We'd awake before sun-up and drive to some site, arriving as the sun was raising. 
  Dad wasn't sure how to go about introducing his sons to carrying a gun, so for 3 years I just worked the dogs.  At age 14 I was given my late grandfather's 20 bolt action shotgun. 
  Mom wouldn't let any meat into her house that didn't come on a Styrofoam tray covered with shrink wrap!  No amount of adolescent nagging ever produced a change in her policy.  So my cousins ( 9 in their family) got our rabbits.  We'd clean them on the back porch, soak them in salt water (suppose to remove some of the "wild taste") all night, then sometime the next day our quarry would depart with my uncle.

Shooting Sports - Shortly after college I was able to purchase my first handgun.  It was a S&W 357 (model 27 or 28).   I loved to developed various handloads for it at Jonathan Hinson's (a friend) house.  Within a year I was able to get my own reloading tools.  The S&W was eventually traded away on something else; I don't recall what.  In 1982 I attended police basic training and learned allot about handgun shooting.  Once I transferred to Athens City PD and received regular training I became interested in shooting at FOP, PPC and ISPC matches.  

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