My handle is "allenday" because my name is Allen Day......
I just turned 49, and I'm a fourth-generation Oregonian who grew up on a family-owned farm, and I farmed there for some years myself, then gradually began a career in real estate development that has led to business in a number of venues, and in a variety of states. I'll never retire because I like what I'm doing, and because I have a lot of energy and I don't like to sit still.
I started my hunting career as a 12 year-old boy going after varmints on the farm, then I bought my first real big game rifle, which was a Remington 700 ADL 30-06, in 1972 and I still have it in my collection to this day. Using that same rifle as a base for learning, I began to handload at age sixteen, and I've loaded tens of thousands of rounds in the years since. I've owned close to 300 rifles (not counting handguns and shotguns) in the days since I bought that first '06. At one point I owned a large collection of pre-64 Model 70s, and I also contributed to Roger Rule's book, "The Rifleman's Rifle", and I'm listed in the credits.
But my real passion is big game hunting, and I started out on blacktails, mule deer, and elk here in Oregon, then I gradually started to branch out to other states. To date I've hunted in twenty states and eight foreign countries, and I've taken hundreds of big game animals from Alaska to Tanzania and back.
I've been in three of Mark Sullivan's African hunting videos, as well as his book, "Death and Double Rifles", at least one of Bart Lancaster's Canadian hunting videos, and it's been my privilage to be on "Outdoor Life" magazine's 'Gear Test Team' (rifles and shotguns) twice.
Today, my real gun interest is custom-built hunting rifles (HUNTING -- not "safe queens") and custom 1911 pistols. I've gotten rid of the bulk of my gun collection and use a pretty basic battery of custom rifles for most of my hunting. I have found that most of the arguments for or against various cartridges are generally a waste of time. I put my time and energy into big game hunting, and into time at the range, shooting. That's where my real passion lies, and that's just about all I have time for these days.
I usually hunt between six and eight weeks a year, although family and business obligations have pared that back over the last couple of years............
AD
"The placing of the bullet is everything. The most powerful weapon made will not make up for lack of skill in marksmanship."
