My first firearm.

I find myself in a peculiar position.  I am still very interested in fishing, but my near-fanatical obsession of months passed has diminished slightly.  I mostly blame the sweltering heat.  I expect my obsession to pick back up once it cools off a bit and it's a little easier to fish from shore.

In the meantime, I've been doing some other outdoorsmanly things, mainly getting ready for hunting season by getting the bow my father passed on to me restrung and getting a FOID card so I can get a shotgun and do some hunting with that.   (BTW, if you're planning on buying a gun in Illinois anytime in the next six months or so, send in your FOID application now, you don't know how much you hate being restricted on buying a firearm until you're ready to buy one and can't.)

For my first firearm, to get some practice and shake off the rust, I picked up a Ruger 10/22.  Here's a pic:



I don't know why its showing as upside-down, I'll try to fix it when I have the time.

I got the chance to go out to the Chillicothe Sportsmen's Club to shoot it, and they have a nice lake on the property that they stock with bass, panfish and trout that I'd love to fish.  I'll be picking up an application as soon as I can afford the first year's fee's.  ($125 for the first year, not too bad for unlimited range/lake access.)

My current work schedule (11:30-8) isn't very conducive to fishing during the week.  My dream is to get everything organized to the point where I have work (and school starting in two weeks) through the week, a day just to spend with my wifey and a day just to spend with myself.  Right now, that isn't working out, and when I do get a day, the 90+ degree temps aren't making fishing a preferable option so there may be some more posts about the range and hunting preparations over the next couple months than fishing.  At least until it cools down a bit and I get the upcoming "Full-time employee, full time student, full time husband, part time angler, part time new hunter" schedule down pat.  Who knows, maybe I'll change the name of the blog to Intro to the Outdoors.  :)

As far as actual fishing, my dad and I are entered in a Carp tournament up on the Rock River the last weekend of this month.  Since my dad's nickname is King Carp, look forward to a recap and some pics of that.  (Hopefully it doesn't turn out like our father's day outing, with a big old skunk.)

Thats about it, hope you all have been able to get out a little more than I have.