Significant Others?

[roy reali]

I enjoy that thread here about how important hunting is in your life. I would go all the time if I could. I know if I ever win the lottery my wife will probably leave me, but I won't know about for at least a couple of weeks.

Speaking of wives, girlfriends, significant others, how understanding is yours regarding your hunting activities? Be honest!

My wife is pretty fair about it. She doesn't hunt or shoot much, but she rarely bitches about me going. I'll tell remind her the night before as I get up and leave long before she is awake. I tell her were I am going for safety's sake. When I return, other then asking me if I had fun, no other questions. The next day I'll take her on an outing because she was so nice about it. Maybe that is her secret plan all along.

So, those of you involved with someone else, how nice are they about your hunting trips? I want to espically here from guys with nonhunting spouses.

[hogdogs]

The only thing my wife has put her foot down about is "NO MORE DERN TICKS IN MY BED...!!!"
Really, she don't say nothing at all about when what where or why I hunt.

Brent

[SKULLANDCROSSBONES65]

G'day. hmmm, on my last wedding anniversary (19th) I had a phone call at 4 pm to see if I wanted to go shooting for the night. OH said I could go, and she even made me a couple of Vegemite sandwiches to take for dinner.

[Bigfatts]

My wife goes with me most of the time. She has never gotten to shoot anything other than squirrels so this season we are hoping to get her a shot at a hog. They have been few and far between the last couple seasons because the company that maintains the WMA I hunt has been trapping them before season opens.

[bswiv]

While it's now closer to 30 years than the 21 referenced in this article every word still rings true. You can search a few of my posts and get a feel for how things rest today. I've been as fortuinate as can be in life.

More important thought is the basic premise, a primise that I'll admit I did not understand at the time due to being blinded by hormones to the point of being able to see only long thick hair and soft round........well you know how it is when you're a teenager........I couldn't think logically.

But the premise is this: That love and committment are to be buttressed by a commonality of intrest, at least to some degree. Love ( Lust actually. ) is not enough for that will cool with age, but a appreciation for common intrests will last.

Sadly these things only become visable as the hair goes gray, which to some extent explaines the devorce rate.

==================================================


A second date in the great outdoors
You remember your first, what about the second?


By BEN WILLIAMS
Special to The Record






Here's a quick quiz for the married among you.

Where did you go and what did you do on your second date?

That's right, your second date.

Everyone remembers their first date and much significance is generally attached to it; but how many remember their second date and how significant was it?

Take a moment and try to remember what you learned about your future spouse on your second date. That is what dating is all about, learning.

Dating is about discovering another person and there is no better place than the outdoors to bring out the "real" in someone.

For our second date, Louann and I headed off in my old International Scout with my father's 14-foot skiff in tow. Our destination the Guana dam.

My intent was to launch on the Intracoastal side and after castnetting some bait, to work a few of the shell bars in the area in search of a trout or a red.

Actually, if I was truthful, I was praying we would just catch something so I could be the successful male hunter-gatherer and she could be the impressed female. It was a brisk fall morning, bright and clear with the promise of a warm afternoon and only a hint of a breeze.

As I readied the boat for launching, Louann, her rather small, 16-year-old frame, clothed in my father's Korean War-era tank jacket, and her feet protected by a pair of three size too big rubber boots -- sloshed around in the shallows.

Once the boat was in the water, the castnet was put into action.

Louann carried the bucket and assisted in picking out the mullet, minnows and small shrimp that we would use as bait.

This was a slower than usual process because she had to inspect, and return to the water, all the other small creatures dropping from the net.

I don't think the egret following us understood why she was putting what was rightfully his back into the water, but he persistently followed us anyway.

She eventually relented and gave him a treat or two.Sadly, the egret was far more interested in our bait than were the trout and reds.

Even though a couple of blues had livened things up, I decided we should shift tactics and use some of the shrimp we had caught, as dead bait, out in the deeper water.

This provided us with a almost immediate reward as Louann's rod bent over.

I grabbed the net as she reeled and in a few moments a hardhead cat lay in the bottom of the boat.

As I searched around for a rag and the pliers (to this day I still use both on saltwater cats) Louann grabbed the catfish, removed the hook and without asking if we should keep it, tossed it back in the water.My future brother-in-law had taught her well.As the afternoon warmed a few more fish hit the deck and my father's old tank jacket eventually gave way to, well, let's just say it was a rather "nice bathing suit".

The setting sun found us heading up A1A, a couple of nice whiting, which my mother would later let us cook in her kitchen, riding in the cooler. I don't know if the female was impressed with the male hunter-gatherer but I can tell you for certain that the male hunter-gatherer was well impressed with the female.So what did I learn on the second date?

Yeah, I know, the "nice bathing suit" and, yes, it did weigh heavily on my young brain; but what other discoveries had the outdoors helped me to make?

I had seen a natural inquisitiveness as she inspected the small creatures we caught in the net. I'd seen a glimpse, albeit mud-speckled, of a girl who knew she could be female without being primped, pampered and powdered.

I'd seen a girl who had not bought into the notion that there were things she should say "yuck" to.

I'd seen someone who was as interested and impressed with the natural world as I was and she wasn't put off by the fact that it was dirty.That second date was well over 20 years, two kids and hundreds of fishing and hunting trips, ago.

Life's been good and the discoveries made on the water all those years ago ring true today.

As we head off this afternoon to spend the last couple of hours in our tree stands I am thankful I made those discoveries before some other lucky guy did.If, as I hope, the editors at The Record have suffered me the kindness of printing this article on Jan. 17, I thank them and to you, Louann, happy 21st anniversary.

[Daryl]

Speaking of wives, girlfriends, significant others, how understanding is yours regarding your hunting activities? Be honest!

Mine will go WITH me if she can get the time off.

If not, she urges me to go. She knows it's something I enjoy, and she loves me enough to encourage it.

I do the same for her with the things she enjoys most.

Daryl

Where did you go and what did you do on your second date?

LOL! We got married on the first one; went antelope hunting on the second.



Daryl

[plainsman456]

Mine sometimes asks when i will be going.I went elk hunting once Just bought her some earrings and all was ok.Good Luck

[rodwhaincamo]

My significant other likes to eat what I bring back and doesn't mind me going. My ex-wife, on the other hand, had accused me of sleeping with all the "whores" that lived in the tiny dot of a town not even on a map. That marriage didn't last 9 months. Glad to be far far away from that one! This one even bought me a 44 Mag for my birthday!

[flyboy14]

Mine get's upset if I don't go when I get the chance. She was raised in a hunting/fishing family. Two of the girls like both, one of em likes to fish. I married the one that likes to fish. I like to go fishing with my wife, but I am grateful that I get to go hunting with the guys. Very happy that my kids like to do both.

[shortwave]

After 24yrs. she has never questioned my hunting/shooting. Guess she just accepted me for what I did when we dated. Never tried to change me. Over the years she`s found out that she really loves to shoot. Gets up at 3 a.m. to fix eggs, sausage gravy and bisquits for my hunting partners and I. Although she loves to go fishing I wish she would go hunting with me. Very fortunate to have her.

[hogdogs]

My bride, rightfully, takes a bit of issue with me inviting folks from full blown hog doggers to strangers off the forums to come to my home and go hoggin'... Seems she feels I shouldn't trust folks but I assure her I got the security of the family always in front of my head.

She also would like more than a couple hours notice that someone is on the way in to town... wiminz???

But she does knuckle down and be the great hostess I knew she was when we wed.

She even cooked frogs for the first time that a cajun buddy brought. We can drag our muddy butts in at any wee hour in the AM and she will hop out of the rack and fix us all breakfast and coffee as we kabitz about the recent hunt.

I love her to death and until death and am 100% glad she puts up with me...
She had no clue how serious I was when I told her I was a pure bred southern redneck as we dated... She comes from a very prim and proper family
Brent

[stevelyn]

Speaking of wives, girlfriends, significant others, how understanding is yours regarding your hunting activities? Be honest!

I don't keep them around long enough to feel secure in questioning it.

[PRONE2]

My wife gets all jacked up around hunting season. She hunts with me about 50% of the time, and when she can't go she can't wait to hear about the details of what and when I saw something. In fact we are going hunting this weekend! BTW 2nd date a "not so good" mexican dinner!

[COYOTE JLR]

My girlfriend is very supportive of it. She even has offered to come hunting with me on a couple of occasions, though I haven't taken her up on it yet. And when I do it'll be for birds or coyotes maybe. She's too much of a softie at heart for deer I think. Ha ha ha. She says if I get it she'll eat it, but she doesn't want to think too much about deer for some reason.

As it is now she asks me to take her shooting not too infrequently. We've got a nice little group that goes out at least a few times every summer together. Some of them are true beginners and others have been shooting since they were just kids. Its good and its a lot of fun.

[koolminx]

My wife is ALL for me going hunting with a wonderful enthusiasm... Until I get back home that is...

When I return, I only hunt day trips and never home later than 9PM, she begins to give me crap about how I always get to do this and get to do that and I never spend time with the kids, (girl 12 and boy 20) yadda yadda... I work form home and see the beautiful cretins every single hour of every day that he's not sleeping and she's not in school... But I STILL get crap from her after I return...

Skull is one baaaaad mutha! I can't believe he allows his lady to fix Vegemite sandwiches and actually eats them! I thought that was an animal deterrent tactic...

[FrontSight]

She hates it, especially since I work so much that I am not around all that much to begin with.

[Waldermar]

My husband doesn't mind that I hunt all day. All my hunting is done in the back 20 acres or so. We have deer, turkey, squirrel, rabbit, some dove, and a few coyotes. I sometimes go out in the morning, come in for lunch and go back out until dusk depending on the season. He likes to hunt, but has a bad back and can't sit for long periods of time on the ground or up in stands.

[James R. Burke]

My wife likes fishing more than I do. She cant go enough. She likes hunting small game, and deer has much as me or more. I guess I am one of those lucky guys. So getting out and doing it is no problem. She is on me now to get on the loading bench, to make sure we have alot to practice with, and for deer hunting.

[kron]

Took the wife hog hunting with dogs on our second date back in the day. She lept up and was running through the brambles with us all night. She still gifts me with guns and hunting gear on occasion. So must still not mind it too much.

[CajunBass]

My wife got me back into shooting, hunting, fishing, all that kind of stuff. She knew it was all something I enjoyed and I had quit all of it in the year or so leading up to the divorce from my ex (no fault of my ex, either BTW.).

I used to take my wife (this one) fishing with me, before we got married, but she didn't have a fishing license so I figured she just wanted to go along for the boat ride and such and to spend time with me. Never occured to me that she might want to fish. After all, she was a city girl from Chicago. Finally she beat me over the head and convinced me that she wanted to fish. <LOL> After getting her a license, and a few lessons in casting, she's turned into quite a plastic worm fisherman.

Then she heard about concealed carry permits. "You mean I can carry a pistol?" YOU DON'T HAVE ONE? She got me back into pistol shooting and almost made me get my CHP. "A lot of people must have worked hard to get this law passed. If we don't take advantage of it, "they" will say, 'See, nobody wanted this law. Let's repeal it." I guess coming from Chicago, she knew what it meant to not be able to own/carry a gun.

November 27, 2007, she suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm and almost died. By the grace of God, she's recovered but still needs a walker or a cane to get around. (We were out hunting when she suffered the aneurysm BTW.) In the two years since she's gone shooting several times with me, and has been doing well. She has to sit to shoot, but she still loves to go.

Yesterday on the way home from church, she asked me, "Do you think there is any way I can go hunting this year? I know I can't go very far, but maybe just inside the edge of the woods around the house here?"

We'll figure something out.

She's a keeper.

[JagFarlane]

Yesterday on the way home from church, she asked me, "Do you think there is any way I can go hunting this year? I know I can't go very far, but maybe just inside the edge of the woods around the house here?"

We'll figure something out.

Maybe with a crossbow? They are legal here in VA, won't have the same type of recoil as a rifle/shotgun, and using a crank won't require a lot of strength to pull back the string [and maybe a little help from her husband].

Hmmmm well current girlfriend hasn't hunted before, but after talking it over with me...has done a complete 180. Now she gets jealous if I mention I'm hitting up a hunting/firearms store or the range. She has her eyes set on a Mathews Passion Bow [used to do archery in high school and loved it], and is thinking of taking some of the womens hunter clinics at Gander Mountain.

[mkim1120]

wife is anti guns
so being that i have about 15 handguns and 3 long guns she hates it

[wpcexpert]

My wife is great about hunting. As long as I keep a good balance, there's no issue. She is usually keeping up with the weather and will tell when I need to go due to bad weather later in the week.

She asks for the balance but It wouldn't a problem anyways. I don't ever want to take advantage of her enthusiasm. She also would rather have some grilled backstrap than a T-bone from a steakhouse.

HogDogs, when I get back to SC in a couple years, we might have to hook-up on some hog slaying.

[BIGR]

My wife has been putting up with my hunting trips for over 17 years or so she is pretty much ok with it. Other than talking about me spending money she does not say much about the deer hunts because she just loves deer tenderloin on the grill.....

[Swampghost]

#1 was a Cajun, need I say more?

#2 is from MA. What was I thinking? On the upside, she enjoys her time with her friends. I come home dirty and happy with something in the cooler.