Right now, it does take up a lot of my free time. Keep in mind though, before I had this house (I've only been there for 2 weeks now) I only had the ability to shoot maybe 2-3 times a week for the last year and a half, maybe a total of 150-250 arrows a week at most. Before I met Lisa and was single (2 years ago now) I was shooting 1000+ arrows a week, but honestly I wasn't improving much, with the help of a coach I've been able to make the limited time I spend now much more effective than what I was doing then with 1000+ arrows a week. Archery and bowhunting is a big priority for me, but I've gotta balance this thing right now between home life with Lisa who is generally great with giving me the time to pursue what I want, as well as work (main job @ 50+ hours a week and about 3 other side gigs).Make no mistake, she is my #1 priority, works is #2, then this archery thing. During hunting season, I don't shoot more than maybe 10-15 arrows a week and that's usually at the target at camp on the way to my stand.Because I'mgone all weekend every weekend, it's not fair to her for me to be also at the range 2-3 times a week on top of that. So the answer is that right now, I don't have a lot of time for other things, but I probably have less time overall than a LOT of people do for recreational activites because of family/work related commitments.

With that said, I'd still bet that I would fair pretty well in that competition.

I grew up prowling the streams of VT with a fly rod and was casting and tieing my own flies by time I was 12. I attended a lot of seminars on this as a kid and even went to a summer camp at the Orvis headquarters. Through college I spent probably 150-200 days a week on the water trout fishing (yellow breaches), bass fishing on the Juniata and Susquehanna, and even catfish fishing at night down at the "Gut" (Matt PA probably knows where this it).

I shot competitive silhouettes out to 500 meters for 2x years as well. Generally if I have a gun in my hand I hit what I'm aiming at. I've killed over a half dozen deer well past the 200 yard mark, including one that I know was past 400. I got bored with the silhouette shooting and reloading though quickly. I still love to hunt groundhogs though, and have killed dozens and dozens in the 300-500 yard range. I've got a heck of a groundhog gun and still get out 1-3x a year around my camp in PA during the summers. I've got a Savage 10fp Tactical with a Swift 4.5x14 with mil dots that breaks at a crisp 1.5lbs....... If I know how far it is and have time to range it I will generally hit it with that thing. I had a tough time restraining myself from filling my fall turkey tags this year as they walked through my plot 316 yards in front of the cabin every single day. It just didn't feel right to get it done that way.......lol.

I rode 4 wheelers the whole way through highschool, and while I never competed, no one gets and rides a Banshee to putt around on it like a grandma. That thing didn't really have a throttle.....it was more like an on/off switch. I'm lucky I didn't kill myself on that thing. If I ever get another quad it will be a 4wd model more geared towards work, I can't control myself if something goes fast I will push it.......[8D].

I've called in and killed 15 birds now too, this is my next biggest passion next to archery whitetails. I've also called in more than 10 birds now for others as well. I just like to work them, don't even care if I'm the one to pull the trigger anymore these days. Taking the bow out is bringing a bit more passion back to this though for me, and I'm really enjoying this now.

I've also done a lot of predator hunting as well, called in and killed well over 20 coyotes and a handful of foxes as well. I also used to trap when I was younger, my best friend in junior highschool's dad had a line of over 100 traps and I used to tag along with them and make my own sets, caught a lot of rats, coons, mink, foxes, a few yotes, and even caught a fisher cat on x-mas morning one year. And when it comes to woods navigation........well I grew up hunting the big woods in Vermont and snow tracking whitetails. I've also done tons of small game hunting for squirrels, grouse, pheasant, rabbits, etc. The only thing I've never really pursued was any king of waterfowl, I've honestly never been duck or goose hunting. Dan and I have talked about trying to call in and shoot geese with a bow though double bull style. Maybe we will do that this fall, who knows.

So with all that said, I'd probably do fairly well despite not having the time these days to do everything. I do plan to do a lot more fishing though over the next few years. My main focus right now is spending time with Lisa and she really enjoys fishing, I see us making a LOT of time to pursue this a lot more together rather than the other things we don't have common interest in. I think the next 2 years will see me really push hard with the competitive archery as well just so that I can see where I do stack up on the national level, but I know I won't have the time for this for ever, with family and work commitments I've honestly only got a couple of years left in me for pushing it this hard, that's why I work hard now because I know I can't do it forever and I don't want to look back and wonder"what if".