I turned the alarm off and rolled over more often this year than ever before, some of it being I hate to hunt in the wind whether some people say it’s better not. I’ve figured out that at nearly 69 years old I don’t have to hunt in the wind if I don’t wanna :D. The old adage of any day hunting is better than one not, umm. Maybe so most of the time but not always for me anymore.

Some of it being papa daddy with boys in high school, some things take prescience over others.

I’m older than you but still in good shape for an old guy but the gung ho ain’t there sometimes as much as it used to be.

I hunt hard and like to take an animal but I’ve become more animal specific, not trophy antlers or anything like that (they’re nice but not a specific goal) but more so the situation, the stalk or I dunno exactly, something just ticks in my brain yea or nay the release. There were many years when I had to go, stomped at the bit the night before but I seem to have mellowed out some. I still love it and will hunt as long as I can but it seems to be more of an “on my time” deal anymore.

I absolutely love to be outdoors and hunting is just another reason, maybe an excuse, to be there. Ralph

New year’s always leaves me somewhat melancholy and philosophical—

I think age is a huge contributor, as stated…I know some medical issues this year reared LARGE and the pain just wasn’t worth the effort…

Alas, there are other things, that while sitting in trees and in ground blinds, came to me this year:

1) Getting up as dead-dark 30 to go out into the woods and sit watching leaves fall, doesn’t hold the allure it once did

2) Finding a lack of game, sign, sightings, really licked the red off my lolly-pop…now please dont go on a tear with me about “the hunt vs. the kill”…c’mon…seriously? I agree… in PRINCIPAL…but I do NOT get up and go sit in the tree nursery behind my house in all sorts of weather just to LOOK at deer… (I know photo bugs who do though) (tip o the hat!).

I go because of the CHANCE to kill an animal that I respect, love to eat, and enjoy processing fully on my own.

I read all the posts about all these lovely sentiments about “it’s the lure of the hunt”… and the bunny huggers all suggest we take cameras and do just that….hunt without the potential for a kill.

Do you really do that? I don’t! I probably could be encouraged to do that, if I actually SAW deer when I was out…last couple years, sightings dwindled and this year, 4 of us hunting saw so few deer it was pathetic…

I can watch deer, foxes, coons and such throughout the day and not get a shot and go home smiling.

I will start the year honest and say if I go hunting and see absolutely nothing, over and over… I loose interest in getting up and enduring the rigors of the “hunt” when I’m not seeing any game.

Here, I get to hunt small patches surrounded by posted land. Things change. When they change on land I cannot access, I have no clue what happened…I play those cards till I decide I’m broke.

So age is a factor for me, but besides that, if the woods turn barren, there is something missing. I have thought long and hard, and believe the thrill for me personally, is the encounter, not the kill… I have more vivid memories of “them that got away” because of the incredible experience of it.

Since I’ve experienced more age-related health challenges at the same time the hunting grounds have gone sour on me, I can’t tease out which is which, or has the bigger impact on my motivation, but as aches, pains and spasms replace just good sore muscles, combined with dead woods and no sightings or encounters to stir the blood, I find my brain does a lot of “weighing” to get me up and out!

Hey Doc, sometimes things like the sunset I captured “on film”:D and sent to you awhile back put a factor into things that so many people will never understand why we do what we do or why we are what we are. That part of nature and things like maybe a particular cloud formation or a deer posing or many other of Mother Nature’s doings seem to become more important as we age whether photographed with a camera or a mental picture implanted that just pops in your head at times. That’s a part of carrying a bow quietly through the woods that are treasured more than any to me. It’s things like that that I wonder about what I missed today because I stayed in bed.

R2,

I read you 5×5 and agree 100%. One cannot put into words what sometimes happens out there.

I tried to convey that with me, for me, it’s never a single thing…but a combination of things.

When I lived/hunted in MT, seeing what was over the next rise; not seeing another hunter all day in many, many miles of snooping around drainages, having a bald eagle jump off a steep slope I was pants pocketed sliding down–they kept me going.

I think a lot of it has to do with body failure this year… where all the draw to ease up over the next ridge to see what I missed..just wont’ happen anymore…cant & being “Pinned” to a small bit of acreage combined to take the starch out… the red off the lollypop…

I shoot with a glove…and the cheapo pocket digi cam just doesn’t want to work for me wearing it… and those things I so wished to have recorded were fleeting…it seemed it was either be ready to hunt, or ready to photograph.

Our deer here tend to use underground tunnels…not a sound in the woods full of dry leaves and then there is a deer…12 steps away… no time to do anything but gasp!

Damn I missed that experience this year…8)

I stared at the screen for a while before I began writing this post. It occurred to me that when I was younger and really had to juggle work, home and hunting/fishing life it seemed I thought I gave up time that I could have been hunting/fishing. Don’t get me wrong I went at odd times and every time I had half a chance but it wasn’t perfect and I did spend time with family and I have held a job at the same Company for 34 years but after having some health setbacks I find it much harder to make myself go. I’ve spent some time discovering why. I found that I had become an “all or nothing” kind of guy. That if I couldn’t do it my way I just wouldn’t do it at all. So knowing that about myself I know I have to try and accept something else if I’m going to go at all. The funny thing is that I’m an empty nester and the juggling act is over so I should be free to do whatever and I would if those pesky health issues had not happened that is exactly what I’d be doing, making up for lost time. The other thing I learned is that there are no guarantees you will be able when you reach this point in life. I admire those who seem to have made it unscathed.

I did not go in any woods this season that was not work related for a site survey or such. I just could not get motivated to hunt. Luckily archery is something I enjoy even if I don’t hunt and I shot my tackle as if I was going tomorrow. Who knows I might wake up and feel like it. I’m not even as old as some of you on here. And for you younger guys and gals out there my advice is to go all you can while you can. You don’t know when you will have to stop so make the most of it.

Same here,guys…I’m 64 and just don’t have the get up and go I once had.Hunt when I can. Wayne

I hate waking up to see it’s light outside . No matter if I’m going hunting or not , I have always enjoyed watching the transition from dark to light .

This past year though has been somewhat difficult due to limited funds and now going to evening classes . Also the weather effecting or I should say hindering my access into a favored deer woods . Getting in is easy enough ,,,being mostly downhill,,,but no way I could get an average size deer up that hill.

And like some of you archers I simply don’t have to kill to be content . But , I always have the urge to be in the woods ,,,to learn more about any species ,,,to be a better woodsman and bow shooter.

Spent 3 hours yesterday afternoon with a very good friend stumpin’ over his 58 acres . Stumpin’, studying game trails and just casual conversation . It was very good to be out .

Then, no matter what we say and think, there’s times when the heebee geebees still hit. Like right now. I told my wife, with 4 days left of season, and the last two are going to have howling, cold north winds, that I was through for the season. Now here I’m here sitting with my gear scattered all over the garage wondering what’s wrong with me and kicking my butt cause I didn’t go. I’ve been up since 3. Arghhhh!!! I’m going in the morning dang it.

“I hate waking up to see it’s light outside . No matter if I’m going hunting or not , I have always enjoyed watching the transition from dark to light” . Me also. I couldn’t tell you the last time I woke up and the sun was up already except for a period of time last spring after my hernia surgery. That doesn’t count:D Then I didn’t much care.

I love the changing of the guard!!!

I sat as the sun was coming up the other day and watched six does and two young bucks establishing their hierarchy. That one old doe is a real old bitty! She ran everybody off then looked funny as hell when she suddenly realized “Hey, where’d everybody go?” She flicked her tail and took off after them.

I can’t help myself ! I must tell this ,,,again.

After turkey hunting alone for several years I finally got two of my stepsons ( grown men ) interested in going with me . They accompanied me on several scouting trips and I threw them all I knew at the time about the turkey and the hunt and the woods.

Finally it was the evening before the opener and we were standing atop a high ridge just to listen and hopefully locate a bird or two as they flew up to roost . As we remained still and quiet this big old tom came marching down the trail right toward us . I could see the excitement building in the boys eyes as the tom came to about 20 yards . The old bird soon spotted us and didn’t approve of us and exited ,,,stage right .We stayed till plumb dark just to do some owling . No birds shock gobbled at our efforts . So as a last ditch effort I gave one short , sharp locator howl of a song dog and one bird gobbled ,,,the boys were showing ALL their teeth with this event .

Next morning we crowded the parking lot with three trucks and hit the ridge top about 2 hours before the first light appeared . The moon was full and the sky was crystal clear . So bright one could have easily read a newspaper . When the first redbird began to sing I owled and nothing replied . The songs of the woods gradually intensified as the moon faded and the eastern horizon increased in its glory. Once again I howled and about 6 birds roared out their dominant intentions . The boys and I moved to a more strategic spot and I began my work of trying to deceive a gobbler .

Now this will probably sound like a lot of bull hocky to a lot of folks ,,,but it is the truth . I won’t try to imply that it was due to my skill as a turkey hunter , but rather one of those rare moments when there simply was too many turkeys in the same general area and they all wanted to be the boss and charge the lone hen that I portrayed . A dozen mature birds came up the slope that morning and into the lap (nearly) of my oldest stepson . Gobbling , clucking ,,fightin’ purrs , and wingslapping was continual as they approached our set up . I know that Craig was trembling as the birds came into his view because he is a pretty good shot and his twenty yard shot at the bird completely missed the head and did a broadside body hit . The excitement was thick like a dense fog . The birds all scattered and the three of us regrouped . You never heard the like of stuttering and stammering as the boys tried to tell of the recent foray they had witnessed .

That is one of many memorable hunts that began in the MORNING.Even as I type this account I feel compelled to go out with bow and arrow and at the same time feel a sense of wasted time and shame for allowing the sun to rise and find me still in bed this morning.

Blew this one didn’t we! 😀 Still great to be alive and in anticipation of the coming morn and we’re able to go and do something with it.

A cool adventure you shared.

That’s a great story….worth retelling.8)

As has been said, I too am a “all or nothing” kind of guy. That said I am still grabbing for every bit I can sink my fingernail into. Too many immenent death experiences to let me think there will ever be a “later”, and you should NEVER think that either!

Great story mhay! And it makes a great point. To me the spring morning is a much more magical morning than the fall morning. The woods are coming back to life, the songbirds are singing and for some of us, its the first WARM sunrises we have felt in months! I find it much easier to get out of bed for a turkey sunrise than I do for a deer sunrise!

Somehow September mornings are a lot easier than December mornings, even though I’m getting up way earlier to beat the daylight. Probably because I’m 1) hunting elk, and 2) far less likely to be freezing my @$$ off.

I have always been an early riser, and dont realy need alot of sleep, to be in the Woods/Mountains/on my fav trout river/bonefish flat before sunrise is a Joy I hold dear and if I’m late I feel I’ve missed something… But…

When it runs on into weeks it does give me burn-out, but taking a day off or starting later re-focuses me and I’m good-to-go (only been climbing a mountain every morning in the dark for a week now so still focused)…

There’s good reason to stop and smell the roses now and then.:D

I will be 67 before I stock up on tags from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department for 2014.

Even during September it is pretty chilly prior to sunrise in my hunting cabin located a little above 8000 ft. elev. (See avatar of 12’x16′ log kit cabin.)

What I feel most strongly though is a desire not to make bow hunting into a rat race of schedules, destinations, and a bunch of stress. I go to the cabin to slow down and de-stress. So I am pretty casual about getting up and out into the timber.

Looking back over my 22 years of rifle seasons of early rising for antelope, deer, and elk in Wyoming it’s clear I rarely have shot any game before mid-morning and a bunch of successful encounters have come in late afternoon.

I returned to bow hunting last season largely because it fits in with my slow down and de-stress outlook at this time in my life. Getting out is as important as ever but tagging out isn’t nearly such a big deal as it used to be.