Camping with Guns

I used to go camping with a few coworkers once a year. One of the guys owned a large plot of land that was zoned for wildlife preservation, so we’d set up out there for 3-4 days to relax, shoot guns, throw axes and knives, as well as archery competitions.

Cover Image

Me (back when I had shorter hair) in the double-wield competition.

From our workplace to the site was about a 4 hour drive, which I would traditionally make on my home-built dual sport Harley-Honda hybrid.

The bike has never as great off road as I wanted it to be, mostly due to the weight, but it was still fun to ride the trails - even though I was always guaranteed to wipe out at least once or twice in the slick, deep mud.

Another tradition was the lighting of the first fire, which was always done with a flaming arrow - this took some finagling, and wasn’t as straight forward as one might expect. Current best method is a tampon tied to the arrow and dipped in gasoline :)

Because of all the activities going on while we’re out there, photos usually ended up being a rare commodity, but here is one of myself on a shotgun day.

Most nights we put on lights and compete at throwing axes or knives. There’re always a few knives that have to be found in the morning :)

Here is one of the guys shooting during a six-station multi-weapon competition that included long range, short range, high and low caliber, archery AND axe throwing.

I wish I had more pictures, those trips were always so much fun.