I’m making plans to head back home this evening after spending a couple days hunting wild hogs and deer on a 4,500 acre piece of outdoor paradise situated along a 4 mile stretch of the Brazos River. No big bucks or ‘good eating’ wild hogs were harvested so far on this outing, nor is there the normal campfire banter with friends. Circumstanced dictate that I hunt alone this time and, the experience is one I highly recommend, at least occasionally, for everyone that loves spending time in the outdoors. There’s something very satisfying about being self sufficient in an environment that has the very real potential to be unforgiving.

About this time each year, many of us that enjoy spending time on the water fishing or in the field or woods hunting decide we need to make a few changes in the way we operate. Looking back over the past 12 months, I can find many areas in my outdoor activities that would bode well with a little ‘tweaking’. There are many little things that can be done to increase the ‘fun’ aspect of an outdoors experience and lessen the work; after all, hunting and fishing does require a good amount of spent energy. Sportsmen detest calling this ‘work’ but when one is in his or her upper fifties, as is yours truly, it’s time to take stock and hunt and fish a bit smarter than in those early days when there was a bit more energy to expend.

Hitting a fast moving target, be it made of clay or feathers, is a daunting task that has challenged shotgunners since the day someone first discovered that lead pellets pushed by a charge of powder was the proper means for shooting flying targets. I’ve been shooting scatterguns for fifty years and can truly state that I still don’t have it figured out. The concept is simple; begin your shotgun swing behind the bird or clay target, push the barrel past the moving target so that the shot column and target arrive at the same place at the same time. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?