hunting vacation vs new gun
- Thread starter mainecoon
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Captcurt
Member
Better go while you can.
I have dreamed of a sheep hunt or an African safari for years. Read everything that I could get my hands on but never had the time or money to pursue it. Now at the age of 64 I am not physically able to climb the mountains or hike for 12 hours a day. If you are well heeled and can afford a dream hunt you better do it now. Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.
I have dreamed of a sheep hunt or an African safari for years. Read everything that I could get my hands on but never had the time or money to pursue it. Now at the age of 64 I am not physically able to climb the mountains or hike for 12 hours a day. If you are well heeled and can afford a dream hunt you better do it now. Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.
Sav .250
Member
Of the two........hunting trip . Have to think on the ...where though.
wankerjake
Member
Go huntin'!
Jim Watson
Member
Go hunting.
Age, habitat loss, and restrictive laws will make hunting traditional game more difficult as time goes by.
Age, habitat loss, and restrictive laws will make hunting traditional game more difficult as time goes by.
urbaneruralite
Member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2007
- Messages
- 473
Trip.
der Teufel
Member
Experiences v. Possessions?
There has been quite a bit of study that indicates experiences bring more long-term satisfaction that acquiring possessions.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090207150518.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/10/happiness.possessions/
Google 'memories versus possessions' and you'll find a lot more.
There has been quite a bit of study that indicates experiences bring more long-term satisfaction that acquiring possessions.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090207150518.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/10/happiness.possessions/
Google 'memories versus possessions' and you'll find a lot more.
rogerjames
member
Yep, except for my dirt bike I got when I was 6, most all my best memories have been from places I went and things I did, not things I had or have.
armedwalleye
Member
Its all about the hunt. Go if you can. The gunshop will still be selling rifles long after you get back.
splattergun
Member
Taking a hunting vacation 'wherever I want" would probably also require a new gun. I don't have a .375 H&H for griz in Alaska or Cape buffalo in Africa. So a new gun would be part of the trip cost.
But strictly either/or?
Go hunt!
But strictly either/or?
Go hunt!
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earlthegoat2
Member
For me, ammo to practice for the hunting trip. The rifles are covered.
I'd go for the trip.. Imagine this, you are on your deathbed, the light is fading, which of the following memories would you rather have flash before your eyes:
1 - a rifle sitting in your gun safe. One that you shot a few times.
2 - Sitting halfway up a ridge in south-east Montana, gazing up at 10 billion ice cold stars set against an onyx black sky as you wait for sunrise. When surmise comes the sky streaks yellow and gold and fire-red as it crests the mountains to the east and floods this valley with the purest golden light you've ever witnessed. And in that golden light a mature mule deer is driving a small herd of doe through a coulee, pushing them further into the hills where he would normally tend to them all day.
As he passes the base of your ridge you get light by shedding gear. It's freezing cold out, but where you are going you don't need any extra weight. After you get light, you drop off the ridge, slip into the coulee behind them, and begin closing the distance.
Your breath is quick, not from exertion at this point, but from adrenaline. Quietly you close, slipping past sage brush at the bottom of this 20 foot coulee like a high desert ghost. Your breath crystalizes and hangs on the air in the cold, but you don't feel anything, you are focused.
You scan constantly for any animal that might alert on you and spook your primary target that just climbed out of the coulee 100 yards ahead. The wind is with you and you are making good time, they have no idea you are coming.
in a few moments you climb out of the coulee onto an expansive sage brush flat in a valley so gorgeous it's like God made it just to show off. You peak over the lip before you climb out and the buck is still there, facing away and calm. Your lungs are pumping, the arteries in your throat feel like they are going to explode. This is it, the next 10 seconds will decide if the last year of planning, practice, and work, succeeds of fails. You deploy your bipod before you creep over the lip, then you ease out of that coulee like a rattlesnake. Nothing sees you. You are proned out now and at just 70 yards you can't believe how stable the crosshairs are.
It's time. Safety off, your chest inflates as you breath in deeply, you slowwwwwly let half of that breath out, the buck turns his head and you try not to look at the rack...squeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzee the trigger slowwwwwllly...let it surpri..BOOOM!!! Thunder races and echoes off every wall in this frozen valley. Birds take flight that you weren't even aware of. Doe scatter. A rabbit pops out of the brush and runs.
In one moment...one crystal clear, perfectly consolidated moment in time...you have LIVED life. Life has just burned a memory into your brain that you will never forget. As the buck dropped out of your scope and into the sagebrush you don't even move. You stare through the scope at an empty scene that just a moment ago held a mule deer buck and six doe. Trying to take it all in, you just don't want the moment to end.
As you catch your breath and snap out of your momentary trance you rack the bolt, engage the safety, come up to both knees, and see antlers rising above the sage brush. You look around and again can't help but be awestruck by your surroundings. End of story.
So...which memory do you want? Me? I'd go for a hunt...life is about living. I have enough guns and don't have near enough hunts (even though I hunt a lot). I used mule deer in this example but it could be anything...a pheasant hunt, a fishing trip, it doesn't matter...I love it all.
1 - a rifle sitting in your gun safe. One that you shot a few times.
2 - Sitting halfway up a ridge in south-east Montana, gazing up at 10 billion ice cold stars set against an onyx black sky as you wait for sunrise. When surmise comes the sky streaks yellow and gold and fire-red as it crests the mountains to the east and floods this valley with the purest golden light you've ever witnessed. And in that golden light a mature mule deer is driving a small herd of doe through a coulee, pushing them further into the hills where he would normally tend to them all day.
As he passes the base of your ridge you get light by shedding gear. It's freezing cold out, but where you are going you don't need any extra weight. After you get light, you drop off the ridge, slip into the coulee behind them, and begin closing the distance.
Your breath is quick, not from exertion at this point, but from adrenaline. Quietly you close, slipping past sage brush at the bottom of this 20 foot coulee like a high desert ghost. Your breath crystalizes and hangs on the air in the cold, but you don't feel anything, you are focused.
You scan constantly for any animal that might alert on you and spook your primary target that just climbed out of the coulee 100 yards ahead. The wind is with you and you are making good time, they have no idea you are coming.
in a few moments you climb out of the coulee onto an expansive sage brush flat in a valley so gorgeous it's like God made it just to show off. You peak over the lip before you climb out and the buck is still there, facing away and calm. Your lungs are pumping, the arteries in your throat feel like they are going to explode. This is it, the next 10 seconds will decide if the last year of planning, practice, and work, succeeds of fails. You deploy your bipod before you creep over the lip, then you ease out of that coulee like a rattlesnake. Nothing sees you. You are proned out now and at just 70 yards you can't believe how stable the crosshairs are.
It's time. Safety off, your chest inflates as you breath in deeply, you slowwwwwly let half of that breath out, the buck turns his head and you try not to look at the rack...squeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzee the trigger slowwwwwllly...let it surpri..BOOOM!!! Thunder races and echoes off every wall in this frozen valley. Birds take flight that you weren't even aware of. Doe scatter. A rabbit pops out of the brush and runs.
In one moment...one crystal clear, perfectly consolidated moment in time...you have LIVED life. Life has just burned a memory into your brain that you will never forget. As the buck dropped out of your scope and into the sagebrush you don't even move. You stare through the scope at an empty scene that just a moment ago held a mule deer buck and six doe. Trying to take it all in, you just don't want the moment to end.
As you catch your breath and snap out of your momentary trance you rack the bolt, engage the safety, come up to both knees, and see antlers rising above the sage brush. You look around and again can't help but be awestruck by your surroundings. End of story.
So...which memory do you want? Me? I'd go for a hunt...life is about living. I have enough guns and don't have near enough hunts (even though I hunt a lot). I used mule deer in this example but it could be anything...a pheasant hunt, a fishing trip, it doesn't matter...I love it all.
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T.R.
Member
I admire many new rifles but would rather hunt than collect more firearms. I recently booked a wild hog hunt with Whispering Hollows in Pennsylvania. Hoping to have a great time and come home with much meat.
TR
TR
Hunting trip to Africa with H&Hhunter.
CraigC
Sixgun Nut
Definitely experience over possessions. Unless the possession enhances the experience. 
Bush Pilot
Member
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2007
- Messages
- 2,397
I've been in your position before, TAKE THE HUNTING TRIP. Also, do it while you're young enough to physically handle the rigors, the mountains get steeper the older you get.
oneounceload
member
Since life is about experiences and memories, the trip gets the nod without question
Make that Argentina or Uruguay and you'll be safer.....
Call my friend John, he'll take care of you:
http://bestwingshooting.com/
Patocazador
Member
The trip for sure ... but a good hunting trip will cost quite a bit more than almost any gun so it's probably more like .. "hunting vacation vs. 2 or 3 new guns."
gamestalker
member
I have enough guns for the moment, so I would have to go for the hunt of a life time.
My hunt of a life time would be to do Wyoming for the big 3, antelope with optional doe tags, mule deer, and elk, that would do it for me. In fact, I would consider selling a gun if it got me my Wyoming hunt.
GS
My hunt of a life time would be to do Wyoming for the big 3, antelope with optional doe tags, mule deer, and elk, that would do it for me. In fact, I would consider selling a gun if it got me my Wyoming hunt.
GS
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