"Lew Hodgett" wrote in message
...

Maybe it was a tall tale, I'll never know, but my Dad told me that when he
was a boy he was given a rifle and ONE cartridge and told, "Go get
breakfast".

Yeah - I suspect is was very much a tall tale. Variations on that theme
have been around for a long time. That though, does nothing to diminish your
Dad's skill and the value he held in that skill.


A case of get something or go hungry, you learn to shoot accurately in a
hurry under those conditions.

And of course the weak link in this theory is that absent some external
force (training or coaching of some sort, practice to develop the necessary
skills, etc.), the simple need for food does nothing magical to develop
skills like shooting skills.


All I know is I watched him "Bark" squirrels with a small single shot .22
until he was past 40 when he had to start wearing glasses and lost his
"Eye".

God bless the guy. I too began by bagging squirrels with a .22 and taking
them in one shot. I never used a shotgun to hunt squirrels. In fact, I
used a .22 to shoot pheasants when I was a youth. When I started wearing
glasses in my mid-forties, I went through a period where my shooting skills
suffered a small amount. Only though, until my vision failed enough that my
perscriptions matched what I needed to see the length of a bow draw or a
barrel length. Good shooters though, rely somewhat on instinct developed
over the years, and can usually get by on that instinct during these
adjustment periods. I'm happy to say I continue to smoke my son in terms of
deer takes. What the hell - you have to have something to be proud of...


SFWIW, When he started wearing glasses was the first time I was able to
beat him shooting straight pool.


Nah - our pool skills start to suffer as we age gracefully and let the
younger generation develop a sense of accomplishment. If we didn't do that,
they'd always just be in awe of us.

--

-Mike-