Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What's the "funnest" job you ever had?

THat's where I developed an intense interest in guns (I already had an intense interest in women). I got to shoot alot of trap and skeet, and in off hours we'd screw around and shoot in front of the trap houses, on our knees, upside down guns. We also would load foam ear plugs in cut down .410 cases w/primers and plink around the clubhouse.

We'd get bunnies down to the range once in a while. Mostly had to deal with corporate retreat types putting everything on expense accounts. Had to watch out for drunks who never handled guns before...That was interesting for a 17 year old.

I also pulled Skeet for Bob Sturgis and his wife (founder of Gander Mountain) pretty regularily. He was a great skeet shooter, prefering a 1100 20 gauge. Nice Guy.

Flight engineer on C-130's flying low level routes was the best but flying on them was always great. Flying low level in the fall when the leaves were full color and when everything was covered with snow was my favorite.

Dredging for gold during the summer months...

bull riding was a blast, not much of a living though. I did my fair share of being a saddle tramp, punching cows. fighting forest fires was a blast and paid real well. the Navy was exciting but not what I would call a "fun job" all around.

I'd have to say being a dad is the funnest job I have ever had

Macks Sport Shop Kodiak Alaska. Got to handle guns all day long, talk fishing and hunting and have conversations with people from all over the world. The locals were great folks and I got to work with some really great people. The discount screwed up my paycheck from time to time though!
I got to meet and talk with Chuck Adams too.

Head Projectionist in a Movie Theatre(Totem Theatre in Anchorage) did it thru High School. The Manager, every thurs night we would have to watch new print, would bring in about a case of beer and we would watch them, all the while putting the beer away.

Heck, almost everything I've ever done was fun to some degree.

List toppers, though, have to be:

Flying jets for the AF. Getting paid to zoom around the sky in jets.

Flying combat. Honest. Being in sole control of lives, saving some and taking others while being shot at is the ultimate excitement.

Launch commentator for space shots. Describing the launch events for a worldwide audience in your best "FM" voice is a blast - even if you are anonymous.

Announcer in strip joints. Done just for fun, but it was that! No pay except for all the beer and skin you can handle.

Voice talent for commercials. Anonymous again, but somebody does all those commercials you hate - and it pays REALLY well.

Writing. There's something both immediate and permanent in having your name in a byline.

[quote=SamOlson]Pouring concrete is fun.

I'm calling B.S

I used to put the padded arm on for the police dept so they could send their dogs at me.

I didn't get paid, rather saw it as community service. Was only bit twice, pretty neat fun...boy was I stupid.

Fun job was working in the trauma center at UAB. Never a dull moment. A definate rush holding another life in your hand.
Strangest job I ever had was playing the piano in a funeral home from bout age 12 to 18.

The best part was all the young chicks coming up to the booth to bring me snacks. Yummy!

And you are a Mormon? Did the Church know about that?

Whatever makes you think I'm Mormon? Living in Utah?

I lived in Mississippi, but it didn't make me Baptist; I lived in Texas but it didn't make me Methodist; and I lived in Florida but it didn't make me Jewish. I even lived in Vietnam for a year, but amazingly enough I'm not Buddhist, either.

Yes! I thought one had to Mormon to live in Utah. Much like in the old days one had to be Catholic and Irish to live in Butte Montana.

Funnest job? Shooting critters and getting paid for it. A zillion prairie rats, quite a number of coyotes and lotsa deer. But then, after the fun was over, I always owed some manufacturer an article that highlighted their product. That was not so much fun, but if you're gonna dance, you gotta pay the fiddler

Suckiest job? When I was working construction between my sophomore and junior year in college, I worked on a floating restaurant in Portland. The River Queen, if you know it, at the base of Spokane Street on the Willamette River.

Anyway, one Monday morning, I showed up for work and the below-decks sewer line had suffered a catastrophic failure. Two full days (and nights) of diner's piss, schit, tampons and toilet paper filled perhaps eighteen-inches of the entire hull of the boat.

At the first ladder down, four of our construction crew of six simply quit the job and walked away. The smell was beyond belief; it was a HOT August and the stewing schit ... Well, you get the idea.

The boss enlisted the help of several neighborhood indigents, promising them booze or something. No normal person would ever do this work. The smell, the danger of infection and the risk of passing out in the intense heat and falling in the schit was simply too high.

Our orders were to bring the crap in five-gallon buckets to the deck and quietly slip it into the Willamette River. I'm thinking that it was illegal, immoral and against every sanitary rule in the book.

So, that's what we did.

It took forever, but we finally got done about midnight.

They closed the restaurant and let us work in peace ... If scooping up heavy five-gallon buckets of schit-piss-tampons, scrambling up two below-deck ladders and pouring schit overboard, only to repeat the process numberless times, can be called "working in peace."

I was hungry for college money, so from midnight until six in the morning, I washed the inside of the hull with some kind of piney-smelling stuff.

I pulled my normal 7 AM to 5 PM construction job of welders helper that day. I was a tired puppy that night, but I'd made a significant amount of money and it went a long ways towards paying for the next year's tuition.

*Caution: Rant*
(As an aside, neither Karen nor I ever accepted any money from our parents. We were married, we bought a home, the one we still live in, and we went to college. I friggin' worked and made it happen. Modern kids should have that drive and ambition ... It made me sick then and it makes me sick now to see folks who believe that they are "owed" a living and an education) *Rant over*

It was only after the schit had been removed, the hull had been washed down and ventilator fans had exchanged air that the welders could replace the sewer pipe. Apparently, there was a concern about methane gas or something.

I never, never swam in the Willamette River again.

Steve

I dunno. It was either flying combat, crawling in the mud during incoming, blowing stuff up, treasure diving or ATC. Never got paid directly for drinking but it was right smart fun now and then.

I've been really lucky that I have never held a job I didn't like.....didn't like some of the people I worked with/for at times.....but the jobs were great. I've done a lot of different things over the years because I refuse to move to a city and you have to hustle to make a decent living way out in the country. Unfortunately, the "funnest" jobs never seem to pay very well.

Highlights include:

Counciler at Boy Scout Camp: At 15-16 this was the perfect job. Get to live in a tent, in the woods and only "work" a few hours a day teaching woodscraft, archery, rifle, watercraft skills and go on hikes and teach survival skills. On top of that I got free food and a paycheck!! It didn't hurt that the camp manager had two daughters (age 15 and 16) who thought I was "dreamy". If he only knew what I taught them those summers!

Bullrider: I was very young and it was a blast, but I quickly realized I wasn't Donnie Gay. Stll paying for the abuse of my body then.....35 years later.

Pro Baseball: Very low level minors so pay wasn't enough to live on without another job when not playing ball. Still it was a dream come true fo a while.....just wish I'd had enough talent to make it a career.

Gunsmith: Way too much fun, but discovered that a rural, small-town gunshop didn't do enough buisness to pay the bills no matter how good you are. Stll....guns and "work" in the same sentence and being your own boss.....doesn't get any better than that.

Sports and Outdoor Editor for newspaper and radio: Actually stuck with this one for more than 5 years even though the pay was not outstanding and the hours were very long. I was also the lead photographer for the newspaper and radio news website.
Picture this....I'd drift into the office whenever I felt like it, then go to the lake to fish with the local pros or cover a tournament. During hunting season the area I'd get to hunt with various outfitters and guides. In the evenings I'd go to the High School, college and sometimes area pro (if one of out "local" boys was playing) ball games, sit in the pressbox or go down to the sidelines/bench with a camera. Went to at least 10 state championship games each year!!! Sometimes I'd have a photo shoot at local events (photographers have LOTS of fun....you'd be amazed at what women will do when in front of a camera being shot by a "pro" (during and AFTER the "event"). Too bad it didn't pay so well....had to give it up eventually. I was a "celebity" and everyone in 7 counties knew who I was and wanted me to be at their events and parties!!

My Number 1 job (considering the time and my age)......
Varmit control: When I was 8 or 9 years old an uncle hired me to protect his fruit trees and pecans. I would sneak into the trees at daylight with my .22 and was paid $.03 for each Bluejay and $.05 for each squirrel I brought to the house at dark.......and HE SUPPLIED THE AMMO!!!!

Been a pretty good life. Even now things are pretty neat. I work two weeks at a time, then get two weeks off......and make more money than at any job I've ever held. And even when "working"....I seldom do more than 10 hours of "real" work in a two-week period. The rest of the time I watch satalite TV and play on the computer.

Funnest Job: Gunner on river assault boat in Mekong Delta 6/69 - 6/70. Had my own M2 50 Cal BMG, Mod 37 Ithaca 12 Ga., M-16, M-2 Carbine, S&W Mod 10, and all the ammo I could shoot up. Also, had access to a 20 MM cannon, a 60 MM mortar tube, M-79 and M-18, and M-19 grenade launchers. All the grenades I could throw and all the flares I could shoot.

It was also one of the worse jobs I have ever had. Try keeping all that stuff cleaned and operating in Monsoon rains and 100% humidity day after day.

That ain't all you were pullin'.

Funnest job, driving show cars from the inspection lot to the show area.

It was all down hill from there.

While I'm not sure if it's the "Funnest Job" or not but but I had a ball one time south Of Moses Lake, Washington at the Potholes National Wildlife Refuge rounding up Renegade Cows that had escaped from approved feeding area to forbidden feeding area and herding them back to where they were supposed to be on horse back.

Probably the worst job for me was shoveling the last stage of alpha after the cows got through processing the alpha at a feed lot with 20,000 head of cattle, now that's not a pretty sight or a glamorous job at all. Don't even ask me how I know......