I taught myself to shoot at an early age on my Grandma’s farm. I do not understand how or why, or if it was natural or instinctive. As I look back, I simply cannot imagine how I knew what do to. I did not have a father or older male relative to teach me. The same thing happens when I am engaged in carpentry or similar work today. Often it is better to simply stop thinking and just do it, and it just happens. It is scary to see how this manifests itself as I see the project come together without effort. Perhaps this is why I like carpentry so much as it is an act of building something useful and I do not have to engage my critical thinking much. It simply happens without much mental effort as the hands make it come together. I typically do not need blueprints nor instruction. I just do it. This skill is now already built into my brain. What I am trying to say is that someone processes these kinds of skills naturally and they can be harnessed and improved with mental and physical practice. Unfortunately writing or expressing myself clearly and succinctly was not included in my God-given and genetic makeup.
I was given a Savage Model 24 over-and under-combination .22 LR and .410 shotgun by my mother who had grown up in the Ozarks during the Great Depression on a dirt farm. It was on her farm where I learned to hunt and shoot. I was 10 years old and the gun’s barrel was 24 inches long. At about 8 pounds, this was considered a lightweight gun. The first time I pulled the trigger, I got a pheasant, and the second time, I got a squirrel, both on the same day. I cleaned them, and Grandma cooked them up.Continue reading“Learning How To Be a Marksman – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit”
