It Ain't Over

Thorson Pond - "Goose Hunting"

The Transition

I recently sold my Mississippi duck hunting mobile home, a Phowler/ProDrive mud rig and my Four Rivers Migrator marsh boat because hunting alone on the big river was no longer a wise choice. I will be 80 years old in August and beginning to feel the squeeze of “Can I keep hunting (or not)?”

The last few months have been an interesting transition. First, both dogs went south for two months of training in Arkansas with Pro Corey Zandonai. Winter was its usual not fun time here in northern Illinois. Last year, before getting iced out, I again hunted a pond on 60 acres of corn which is a goose magnet. We (just me and one dog) are on the X often enough to keeps things interesting.

During the last few hunts, there was quite a bit of pain when shooting my Benelii M1 with three inch goose loads. On the last hunt, the recoil flipped the gun off my shoulder and into the mud on the right side of the blind. I went to my knees in pain. It was intense and twofold. First, it hurt and secondly, I realized that I could not do this anymore.

Recently, my shoulder specialist informed me that I was not quite ready for a shoulder replacement. However, the arthritis and a torn rotator cuff have proven to be very painful. I have always had a high threshold of pain which evidently factors into his “no surgery yet” prognosis. Evidently, the threshold is no longer high enough.

To add another complication, my right eye is getting bad enough that there are only a couple of narrow visibility slots. I can cheat enough to pass the driver license test and my left eye is good. My right eye WAS dominant (not anymore).

In another train of thought, years ago I played a lot of golf (shot in the seventies once-in-awhile). Then one day I slipped on some stairs and tore a rib cage cartilage (right side). The result was intense pain when swinging a gold club. It did not go away. However, swinging left handed there was no pain. Within a few weeks, I was back playing and shooting in the low eighties. In addition, the huge, banana slice I had right handed did not translate to swinging left handed. With no faulty muscle or swing habits, it simply did not happen.

Now one might question…..so what? Well, I do not have any bad habits or poor, built in muscle memory issues for shooting left handed. Secondly, I am motivated and already have picked out a gun for this experiment. Thirdly, the old age, eye issue has "corrected" my dominant eye. It is now my left one. And lastly, I have no choice. With several months to practice, we will be on the X again next fall and passing shots to the right will be much easier.

Pounce will think things are simply the same and Gigi will discover a new high in retrieving.

Two visionary comments came to mind.

Benjamin Franklin coined the phrase, “No Pain, No Gain”

Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over....till it's over."

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