quote:
Eureka! Comes the dawn! Until I checked out the better schools and the cost of attendance. Sold off the fly gear. Now I bank fish with spinning gear and catch a shitpot full of fish!
Fly fishing is the golf of fishing.
You know, I have to agree with that
. When I went out to WY last year, some fly guys looked at me like I was some kind of neanderthal, but I was catching as many fish as they were with my little spinners, and I had way less money into it (and a lot less weight to pack in!).
I also bass fish. I'm a fair weather fisherman...I fish when it's warm, and they're biting, and I use cheap spinning gear. And you know what? I catch a lot of fish! My buddy is one of those guys who can go out in March when there's still chunks of ice in the lake and still catch fish...but who really wants to do that? It's cold and it's miserable, and the bite is slow. He's got more money in rods and tackle than I do in cars, and a loan on his boat...and he enjoys it and is really good at it, so good for him, seriously. Me, I'm happy to wait till June and float around lazily in my little 30 year-old john boat and catch 'em when they're easy, and it's fun to relax and be out on the water.
When it comes to guns, I try to be balanced. I like to be able to shoot everything I have, and tell myself that everything in my safe needs to have some kind of practical purpose. I don't own anything that hasn't been shot, but some of it admittedly doesn't get shot very much. And I am probably heavier on the "acquisition" side than I am on the training side overall. I spend a lot on reloading components, though, and try to get out and shoot at least once a week.
Part of the problem that I have is that I enjoy a wide variety of different guns. I appreciate the mechanics, and enjoy learning how they work. And some of the stuff I like isn't necessarily the most practical from a duty or defensive perspective. As a result, my shooting time gets spread out across a lot of platforms. Over the past 2 years, this has gotten worse, because components have gotten expensive and hard to find, so I've been saving most of my defensive calibers and shooting the ones that "don't matter" so much, like cowboy guns and mil-surp.
If my shooting priorities were 100% practical, I'd own 3 guns...a P320, and 870, and an AR, all my ammo budget would go to feeding those, and all my range time would be dedicated to them. I've been down that road in the past, and while you will see results, it's tiring and kinda takes the fun out of it once it becomes more work than a hobby.
You've gotta find that balance. I have been trying to get into some classes lately, but my work schedule coupled with COVID has made that very difficult. I'm hoping I can work something out to get to at least one or two before the end of the year...I'm annoying my boss because I keep pushing, but it's because I feel like it's important. I'm also planning to try and get out some with the instructors from some other local departments and try to pick up on what they're teaching, so hopefully I can glean even more from that.
But I'm still gonna shoot other stuff for fun, too, and probably buy a few more...just because it's fun and I enjoy doing it.
