Having been Web/social media editor for the North American Hunting Club and North American Hunter magazine since last October, I’ve finally settled in—I think!
When you start at a new “job” (I use quotes because, for me, my career is more of a blessing than a job), there’s always a learning curve to get over. It’s kind of like taking a foreign car on a spring hunting trip to South Dakota …
I recently went on my second spring snow goose hunting trip, ever. (You’ll get to hear the full story in a North American Hunter Online Exclusive in the future.) I let my cameraman and one of the gents from Federal Premium Ammunition take home the pile of snow geese we shot; I’ve already got plenty in my freezer. Instead, I took home my share of South Dakota mud, smothered on my full-size sedan—a Hyundai XG350. But it was more than mud. It was a lesson that I ought not ever take a car on a South Dakota hunting trip ever gain.
What was I thinking in the first place? Simple: outrageous gas prices and my constant urge to save a buck no matter what I’m doing. Some call it cheap, but I call it efficient. I prefer to spend my money on guns, ammo, tags, food, beverages and other things I don’t have to sit back and watch burn. That’s not to say I didn’t do my homework. I was sure to ask one of my NAHC buddies—the guy who set up the trip—if I’d be OK without a 4x4. He waved his hands nonchalantly, said it would be perfectly cool, and successfully changed the subject by talking about how many geese we would kill.
OK, I’ll admit something else: Prior to this trip, I hadn’t yet hunted anything in South Dakota. Shocking? Kind of, considering I love waterfowl hunting and I’m dying to kill a pheasant. Oh, and my Twin Cities’ home is only a stone’s throw away from the 77,116 square mile duck-hunting and rooster-busting paradise.
Despite my near-ditch experiences with my “city boy” car on low-maintenance South Dakota roads, the Light Goose Conservation Order hunt was a great way to kick off a new year in the field. Now, it’s time to move on to my ultimate passion of pursuing longbeards and limb-hangers. It’s gobble time.