NERVES

[williamlayton]

I play golf and I shoot guns--a lot.
My skill levels in both are in decrease--though I still have moments, lightning in a jar moments.
Some try all kinds of things---make all kinds of excuses--blame a lot of things.
Fact is, boys, the older we get the less control we have over nerves and eyes and health.
I have gone from one ragged hole, hitting 1 Irons, to remembering these moments---and they are better, so are the stories--and just enjoying the moment.
Now I can still hit a pie plate at 25 yards---but where on that pie plate is problematical.
Sure is fun to try.
Blessings  

[Tommyt]

SO with all that I think your new game of how many times, one could hit a Pie plate could catch on
Enjoy!
 I can only guess but I will say it gets Better 
How's this for a Gun club
name

Pie Plate Pokers Gun Club

Tommyt

[the jigger]

Will,
When you read my signature it tells my(our) story!
GOOD LUCK and GOOD SHOOTING!!!!

[williamlayton]

Tommy T
That sounds like fun and a good name.
Jigger
I agree, it aint for the young and ill-prepared.
The best part about pie plate shooting is you have too clean the pie from the plate first. 
Blessings

[oldhunter]

I can also associate with all that you mention or more.  Most of my friends and those that I am with on a regular basis are around my age or older and this helps to keep most things in a proper prospective.  From the golf course to many discussions on CCW, politics and historical stories about everything, it is much better to remember the "good things" and never try to compare our current abilities to accomplishments of our younger years. 

oldhunter

[Lloyd Smale]

spent my young life shooting the snot out of guns to get to be a better shot just to have my body rebell about 5 years short of my goal.

[Ken ONeill]

Getting old is not perfect. But I don't recommend stopping.

[FourBee]

Pie Plate Pokers Gun Club

I have all the qualifications to join one of those clubs......

[drdougrx]

Boy, you guys are depress'n me.....I'm 51 and have to wear a special contact to correct the astigmatism in my dominant shooting eye....never had the problem...one day I realize the bull is oval and fuzzy....what the h*LL!!! 

Youth is wasted on the young.

[GRIMJIM]

 I don't know. Hitting a pie plate with a 1 iron is pretty darn impressive.

I have always had tremors to one degree or another thanks to genetics, so my shooting is not olympian to say the least. I can count on them getting worse as I get older but I still enjoy slinging lead down range and the times when it does all come together -planet alignment and humors all in check- are even more enjoyable.

Just remember you've earned every wrinkle. With age comes experience and wisdom (hopefully) and possibly a more enriched sense of humor.

[rockbilly]

My hand is still fairly steady, the problem is the eyes.  Funny, I passed a flight physical and retirement physical with flying colors, 20/20 vision.  Then two months later I was wearing glasses.  If I can see it I can usually hit it.  In one of my recent medical test I was complemented on my reflexes and how steady my hand is.

[williamlayton]

I like chockolate and apple pie plates.
RB--you danged old western cuss--braggin anbout a steady hand too a bunch of has beens---maybe a bunch of wannabes or never was's (in my own case).
Blessings

[nessmuk101]

I think that's why they came out with the judge revolver. 

[Brett]

Tommy T
That sounds like fun and a good name.
Jigger
I agree, it aint for the young and ill-prepared.
The best part about pie plate shooting is you have too clean the pie from the plate first. 
Blessings

I'm in.  I'm particularly fond of pecan... tho apple, blueberry, strawberry, shoo-fly, Mississippi mud, peanut butter, Key-Lime, are all good too.  Hope didn't miss any. 

[Brett]

I don't know. Hitting a pie plate with a 1 iron is pretty darn impressive.

A 1 iron? I thought he said shootin' iron!  I haven't seen a 1 iron in anyone's golf bag in years.  Does anyone still make 1 irons?   Oh, and thank goodness I still shoot better than I ever golfed... I'm just happy if I hit the fairway let alone a pie plate with my hybrid.  

[rockbilly]

I just gotta chime in on those pies...............When I left home to join the military I hitched a ride to town on a logging truck, he dropped me off down near the raailroad tracks and I walked on up to the old Trailways Bus Station.  I had seventy-five cents in my pocket so I strolled into the dinner for a bite to eat.  I looked at the menu and the first thing that hit me was PIE, 15 cents.............when the waitress came over I asked for a piece of pie and a glass of milk, she asked "What kinda pie?"  I was lost, never knew there was anything other than sweet tater until then.

[Mikey]

Guys:  my pie plates have just become way to valuable to try and hit them with bullets or golf clubs, on accounta I'm cookin' (par'n, baking) pies now, and I'm makin' everything with scratch.  Can I use circular pie shaped targets that look like nancy pelosi instead? - even though it might ruin my appetite?? 

OK, so I went a bit nutz yesterday and whipped up a Venison Stroganoff and a Apple & Blueberry pie - just gettin' in shape for Turkey season so I can cook up a roast wild Turkey and a Apple pie (jeez, an it ain't even breakfast yet)......................

[Glanceblamm]

At 53 my hand is still fairly steady with my eyes being ok for now.

I think that I know what your are saying on the nerves thou...Had the 25' extension ladder out and against a tree the other day (actually three different trees) I had that ladder tied off at the top and kept my body square to it as I ran the chain saw at 12' to 16' levels...I did ok having survived to write this post but just did not feel as comforatable with my ability's as I had in the past. Not scared mind you, it just seemed to take a lot more care, concentration, and time than the younger me would have needed.

[oldandslow]

Glanceblamm, you are still a kid.  I have 19 years on you and can't even pick up a 25' ladder any more.  If someone will set it up for me I can still climb it but won't have energy enough to do anything after I get to the top of it. 

What's a 1 iron? I don't comprende anything about golf.

I can still do the 25 yard pie plate thing though. Barely.

[Brett]

Glanceblamm,
What's a 1 iron? I don't comprende anything about golf.

Used to be the 1-iron was the longest hitting iron (non-wood club {which aren't wood anymore but that's another story}) in a golfers arsenal.  They were used for long drives (shots).  Many golfers found them difficult to hit so club makers have replaced them with higher numbered (smaller) woods and hybrid clubs that are a cross between an iron and a wood.  The higher numbered woods and Hybrids are said to be more forgiving because the point where you make contact with the head of the club and the ball does not have to be as precise.   

[Oldshooter]

PIE  Did somebody say Pie!  Me and cousin Pookie want some pie! Y'all gotta share some of the pie!

Bill now we are gonna have to play some pasture pool one day as well! But since its been a while for me your gonna have to spot me some strokes, like about 18  !

[DEACONLLB]

Just remember as my dear mother inlaw would say when you hit 50 from there on it is patch patch patch.

Make mine hot apple with ice cream. Remember if you can hit a pie plate you can kill a deer.

Deaconllb

[williamlayton]

I have a game in mind.
Every round of shooters must first devour the pie--run to the target and put up the pie plate and return to the fireing line.
Each shooter will be timed and be penalized by seconds for the time it takes too get back to the fireing line.
Then the first to get ten shots on the plate -with the penalty seconds added in --wins the pot for that round.
Some charity could furnish the pies for a charge.
Maybe--you could get seconds off your time if you ate two pies.
 
I can see it all now in technicolor.
Think pie would settle the nerves or would the wretching stomach play havoc?
Blessings

[mechanic]

Bill what a grand game you have devised!  I like it already.  Just the other day I passed a building that said it was a pie factory, and almost stopped to see if they had a taster's job available!

Can we get 12" pies?  That would be better all round.

Ben

[GRIMJIM]

What do you win? Don't tell me.........PIE!

[drdougrx]

OK...I'm in....just make it P'cahn...preferably choc-O-lit p'cahn.

[Oldshooter]

ME TOO!! I'm more into strawberry-rhubarb or better yet Buttermilk PIE!

[odoh]

Brett ~ you've missed Lemon Meringue

While in the military serving in Biloxi, discovered Pecan pie after the cook at a local cafe ruined my eggs w/white mush. After I got back home, planted a Pecan orchard. One of the first in this area of CA. What I failed to consider was that ramps up 'work' at an age when the bod wants to ramp down. Also, time is not linear in life ~

I too passed separation physical just to start wearing hearing aids in less than a year.

Basically, a rifleman background then one day decided big revolvers were my future. Then one morning when the missus was abroad visiting her mother, someone/something was pounding on my nose. Awoke to find it was my own left hand. Long story short, diagnosed as Parkinsons and now have at rest tremors ~ which means no tremor if in use. Just acquire yet another handgun. Aside from a bout w/prostate cancer and them driving VWs up me where the sun never shines, I gotta give the grand prize to the side effects of PD meds. The resultant hallucinations of Grim Jims (Grim Reaper w/o the HW. Sorry GRIMJIM, but its a definitition I made up myself and documented in my med records while receiving treatment from a major Med School & someday that will be in the med school books. I know but I'm over 65 and can do that) and leprechaun's are most disconserting.
W/those said, I find joy still and don't wanna be young again as I've went thru a lot w/a lot of effort to get here alive and while no one gets out alive, I am going thru ~

No complaints ~

Rance (yeh, learned to live w/that too!)

[S.B.]

Guys:  my pie plates have just become way to valuable to try and hit them with bullets or golf clubs, on accounta I'm cookin' (par'n, baking) pies now, and I'm makin' everything with scratch.  Can I use circular pie shaped targets that look like nancy pelosi instead? - even though it might ruin my appetite??  

OK, so I went a bit nutz yesterday and whipped up a Venison Stroganoff and a Apple & Blueberry pie - just gettin' in shape for Turkey season so I can cook up a roast wild Turkey and a Apple pie (jeez, an it ain't even breakfast yet)......................

Mikey, you have my permission to use Nancy's image on your targets, what time is dinner, sounds good?
williamlaytor, at 62 this August I know what you mean, unfortunately.
Steve

[buck460XVR]

yep....gettin' old is a betcsh, but it still beats the alternative. One thing about gettin' older is I take more time and make my shots count, cause nerves don't play near as much a part anymore. Case in point........I used to be able to outshoot my two sons when it came to sporting clays. As the years went by it started to get to be nip and tuck and highly competitive. Nowadays, the only competition is between those two, and they don't even razz me anymore about my scores. Then we go pheasant hunting and flush a bird. Out of excitement and the competition of getting the bird first,  they both empty their doubles and watch the rooster fly my way. Without the nerves and the pressure to perform, it's usually an easy shot. Not that it happens often, but I still hang my hat on it.


PS........Pecan pie for me, warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.