My kids aren’t involved in all the things a kid can take part in, but they still keep my wife and me pretty busy. With the activities they do, though, combined with all the commitments Amy and I have, summer sort of got away from us. Now it’s fall, and that means getting the kids back in school and an uptick in the things I need to do for the day job, all at the same time I’m trying to make plans for a hunting outing or two.
So in the bits and pieces of free time I can find, I’m doing what I did in college the night before finals – cramming. This type of cramming is a lot more fun, though.
Back in school, I stayed up late into the night with a textbook in front of me, trying to figure out what a derivative was and what you’d use it for, or conjugating words in one foreign language or another. Not a lot of fun.
Cramming for hunting, though, is much more enjoyable. Yesterday, I set up my 3-D antelope target, and I spent most of the day shooting at it from different ranges and angles. I got to where I could hit it in the vitals nearly every time before I lost and broke all my arrows.
Then I went down to the hilly part of our place and took some shots with the rifles. I shot a few times from the rifle rest, and I plunked a couple bullets right where I wanted them. When I tried some off-hand shots, I realized it’ll take a whole lot more practice before I should even think about attempting something like that with a live animal on the other side of the scope. But after 10 or 12 boxes of ammo, I got to where I was hitting pretty well when I had a good rest.
I’m sure I’m not the only one having trouble finding time to get ready for a hunt. Get your practice whenever and however you can get it. Hunting season’s already started, so there’s no time to waste.
