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What do you do in your off time? What are your hobbies? Working with guns & shooting constantly can get to be a job. What do you do to get away from it? I thought some of you might be into things like gardening, horses, photgraphy, etc.

Since my stroke paralyzed me five years ago, I have enough to do just trying to stay alive and to keep myself and the house in some kind of order. My other activities include acquiring more books, etc, for the Powley Center library. The problem is that everything that I do takes me longer than it did when I was normal.

I'm reading, some � laboriously, since one eye is paralyzed and the one that I can still use has a lot of pesky floaters and cataracts � mostly history and a very few select novels � and I'm "home schooling" myself with a growing collection of textbooks on algebra, trig, geometry, calculus, statistics, thermodynamics, anatomy, physiology, physics, etc (stuff that I don't remember as well as I'd like to, from university courses that I didn't completely master fifty years ago). I do a lot of crossword puzzles � one right after another, sometimes � in a collection of old crossword-puzzle books that I buy by the lot.

When I get my new TV and player hooked-up, I'll be studying a course in Spanish via DVDs.

And I'm working on several gun books and a few magazine articles. Now and then, I get down on the floor and frolic with Chiki ("Cheeky," four pounds of long-haired Chihuahua.) Getting down on the floor and getting back up are projects in their own right, these days. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Normal people are more likely to be doing other things to keep themselves awake and occupied. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

wyojoe

I'm not a famous...or infamous gunwriter. I have written a few features and hope to continue, but it's not a profession for me. My hobbies are guns'n hunting, taking photos and hunting, shooting stickbows and hunting. Now, at age 51, after a lifetime of chasing bad guys, I am a full time college student again, so time in the woods or at the range has been severely restricted by chemistry, algebra and anatomy classes. I learned how to shoot'em. Now, I'm learning how to put them back together.

Dan

We used to garden a lot, but both my wife (who is also a writer) and I gone so much traveling anymore that we pretty much converted the garden into stuff we don't have to plant every year: raspberries, fruit trees, rhubarb, etc. Though we do put in a big tomato patch every year still.

I do enough photography on the job that it doesn't qualify as a hobby either. But we do enjoy doing wildlife photograph about as much as hunting anymore, especially elk in Yellowstone during the rut.

We are trying to fish more, since we don't write about it anymore. Did more this year than in many, and it was fun.
We also like to go bird-watching in spring.

In many ways, however, the "job" is an awful lot of fun still. Eileen caught a little lung infection recently and had to lie low for a couple of days. One morning while we were finishing breakfast she asked what I was going to do that day. I said, "Work on the mule deer story this morning, then handload and go to the range this afternoon." She said boy, that sounds like fun! And it was! I still love my job, after all these years.

John Barsness

It is a lucky man or woman who can make that statement after many years spent toilin' in the same berry patch. Congrats on the career choice and a job well done.

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I've gotten to the point that I just don't do jobs that I don't like and never did. Had an old customer call recently about doing something for her. When I told her I no longer do "that", she said well, you used to. Said yeah, I also used to be able to outrun small dogs and children too, but had to give those up as well.

Thanks!

Sounds like you are doing all right. It's nice to be able to choose and like the jobs. That always meant more than money to me--a good thing, considering the profession I ended up in!

JB

Somebody once said, �Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.�

It�s almost true. I love my job, it�s the pace that�s wearing me out. This is not a nine to five job and one true thing is, if you are going to do this gunwriting thing you have better love it because it will occupy most of your waking moments. To earn a living at this a freelancer won�t have much free time left over for anything else. I am fond of saying that there is nothing else on earth that would cause me to work this hard for this little money.

Right now this back thing has me down and running slow. I had a film crew in here from American Rifleman Television yesterday for a marathon session and today I can barely sit up. I am scheduled for a moose hunt next week and I am wondering how I am going to pull it off when most days I can�t even stand up straight. (I am thinking about titling an article about my ill-fated elk hunt, �Brokeback Mountain.� What do you think? Well,. . . . maybe not.) By the way, in reference to the question on another thread, horses are a lot more dangerous than bears. I have been around both a fair bit and horses have hurt me several times, but the bears have never drawn blood. I do believe in showing respect to both for what they can do to you. I actually knew and hunted with the Montana guide that John told about being killed by his horse. He was as addicted to horses as I am to guns. If he can be thrown and killed on a benign summer pack trip, nobody is completely safe around those godless beasts. It has nothing to do with what you think you know or how good you think you are, the unexpected is what will kill you. With horses the unexpected is to be expected.

But, to address the question asked here. On my �days off� which are few, I usually shoot in a competition of some kind, or go hunting without a camera or notebook. How�s that for a busman�s holiday? I like Cowboy Action Shooting, except for the costume Nazis. In fact, once you get past dressing up like the Village People and the silly nicknames, it�s as much fun with firearms as I have ever had. I also like action pistol and sporting clays, although with a shotgun I am just not talented enough to be competitive at the level I would like. I am gearing up for three gun and expect to give that a try next season.

Other than that, I read a lot. All kinds of books from trash to the classics. I figure a man can�t have too many guns, knives or books. Every horizontal surface in my house is covered with piles of one or the other. I fish a little, water ski a bit and when I need a day to recharge, I watch movies. I enjoy arguing politics, sipping good bourbon and listening to music. I am sure it doesn�t need saying here, but for clarity, rap ain�t music.

It probably sounds boring to most of you guys, but I have a great life. I do what I love, and that�s not just the guns and hunting, I actually like writing and photography. I have tried a lot of things in my life, scuba diving, hang gliding, motorcycle racing, snowmobiles, muscle cars, martial arts, fly fishing and a much longer list that I won�t bore you with. Some hung around, some were just a passing fancy, but it always comes back to guns and hunting. I was just lucky enough to find a way to pay the bills with them.

Bryce

Bryce, Amigo �

(Maybe these belong under "Writers, post your tips.")

� When your outfitter starts to saddle-up a horse for you, insist on a mule. (Especially in the mountains.)

� When you ail, hunt.

I used to get flu every fall. Went hunting anyway. Walked away from the flu. Army doctors in World War Two noted that soldiers who lived in fresh air 24-7 were invariably healthier than those who lived in barracks.

Sincere sympathies on the back problem � the problem that plagued me with constant agony for many, many years. Now I'm paralyzed, weak, and wobbly, but no back pain unless I try to stay on my feet too long. (Fifteen to thirty minutes, say.) A short sit-down takes care of it. But with nothing between my pelvis and the chair but a thin layer of sensitive glove leather, sitting is painful too unless I have a thick layer of foam on the chair.

I'm glad that you face the prospect of getting over your back problem without such a drastic "solution" as mine. (Just as I'm about to say that I wouldn't wish any of my agonies onto anybody else, two or three people immediately come to mind.)
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With four kids, a bird dog pup and the best wife in the world, free time is a scarce thing around here. I use some of it to keep my pen in the ink well now that I'm on the business end of the magazines. I also garden some, recently took up kayaking so I can hunt ducks a little more easily on the local river, and I help out at the local Izaac Walton League. Put in 15 years as a volunteer firefighter in my spare time, but even with all the training involved, there's a little too much risk for this devoted father of four to have as a past time.

Ken

I can only imagine the frustration you are experiencing these days and I try to understand the difficulty when the active life you have always taken for granted has been suddenly taken away. I admire your courage and perseverance in the face of adversity. I hope that you are well enough that I will see you at the SHOT show again this year.

As for your advice. I will hunt I am sure. It takes a lot to keep me home. I am scheduled for some test this week and the only thing that might keep out of the woods is if they uncover some problems that will be aggravated by travel or hunting. I think I just took a good beating and that I need some time to get over it. Hunting season is too short not to go and Advil is a performance enhancing drug that I use in copious amounts to insure I get my share of field time.
My son drew a moose tag here in Vermont and when I get back from Newfoundland I am taking him hunting here. I had planned to pack out any success in pieces, but I guess I�ll look at some alternatives as I don�t think I�ll be backing any moose quarters here or in Canada this year.

One last point for those who only see the glory in this job. I am hurting enough that I want to lie on the couch, watch old movies and sip some Woodford Reserve. But, to succeed at freelancing, as you know, often requires ignoring what you want. I have just finished a handloading column and am starting a feature that�s already past due. If the back holds out I�ll need a few more hours in this chair before I can indulge myself without too much guilt.

Hang in there my old friend; the only way to win is to keep fighting.

Bryce

Almost forgot...one of the other things I do in my spare time is call Bryce to hear his latest misadventure. Somehow, the little trifles in my life don't seem so bad after talking with him. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Heal quickly my friend.

Scott,

As you know, with getting bucked off the horse, setting my shop on fire and that unfortunate �adventure� with the tequila, September was a busy month! We have some catching up to do!

Bryce

The thing that all of us who know Bryce know is that he will keep on truckin'.

I also tend to read a lot. Usually have at least 2 books going at once, a downstairs book and one to fall asleep by. Variety is pretty wide, running from good "crime" fiction (when I am working too hard, to help my mind relax) to history to various technical texts.

Like Ken, will probably keep on working as long as the fingers will type. Here's to you!

One time, many years ago, my friend Ron Spomer I sat and listened to a part-time, but well-respected, hunting writer talk about how he got all his work done. He was employed full-time at a desk job for one of the Midwestern game departments, and like a lot of such employees I suspect he got a lot of side-work done on the job. I do know that several personal letters I got from him were on game-dept. stationery and paid for with game-dept. stamps.

But what stuck out was this 40-hour-a-week employee, with all benefits paid, saying he did his freelance writing during the periods when most of us would be watching TV in the evenings. Ron and I went up to him afterward and informed him that the reason we worked 70-80 hours a week was that so we wouldn't have to work 40-hour-a-week jobs (and, these days, so that we can pay for our own health insurance, retirement, etc.).

We get other "benefits" from the job, but being able to quit at 40 hours or relatively cheap group health or a company pension ain't among them. Not bitching, mind you. Just pointing out differences between jobs.

JB