Re: Hunting as you get older.
[Re: BKS]
#7348335
09/05/21 11:33 AM
09/05/21 11:33 AM
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 72 West Virginia
WVCritter
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 72
West Virginia
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As a kid, I started out hunting squirrels and rabbits because that's about all there was to hunt. In the early 70's I started deer hunting but they were scarce where I hunted. I can remember hunting every day for a week and would only see 3 or 4 does during a bucks only gun season. I bought a bow as a way to extend my hunting season for deer and I learned more about deer and their habits by sitting in a stand with that bow in my hand than I could ever learn while gun hunting. I killed my first deer, a 10 point buck, with a bow in the early 80's. Since then, and now that deer are plentiful, I've lost count of how many deer I've taken with a bow, and probably have taken just as many with my rifle. I think bowhunting taught me a lot of patience and also give me a chance to relax and enjoy watching all the other critters as well. Since my retirement, I've lost interest in bowhunting and started using my muzzleloader for deer and then got into long range spot and stalk. I've taken several deer with my Knight inline from 100yds out to 200yds. I still squirrel hunt but instead of my Ithaca 12ga., I use a pellet gun. I have found myself trying to sneak past a deer to get a shot at a squirrel. I have no idea what stage I'm in but sometimes when I go hunting, I take my camera along and never load my gun. Before my retirement, I thought I'd be hunting and fishing every day and that held true for a couple years but since then, I just don't feel the need to kill things.....lol. I guessing my stress levels have dropped tremendously. At one point, I was into trapping pretty heavy but I haven't done that in a while either but still enjoy scouting and looking for sign. I never get tired of being outdoors, whether it's hunting, fishing, riding my mountain bike, hiking through the woods or out working in my lawn and garden.
I married a moonshiner's daughter and I love her still!
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Re: Hunting as you get older.
[Re: BKS]
#7348356
09/05/21 12:23 PM
09/05/21 12:23 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 23,843 Wisconsin
The Beav
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 23,843
Wisconsin
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I have killed more deer since I turned 70 then I ever killed when I was younger. Know that I'm In my 80s I'm more patient and take advantage of those comfortable shooting house's and the adjacent food plots. My 60 year old friends gut my deer and haul them out for me. Life Is good.Know If I could only talk someone Into skinning my coyotes . LOL
The forum Know It All according to Muskrat
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Re: Hunting as you get older.
[Re: BKS]
#7348363
09/05/21 12:36 PM
09/05/21 12:36 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 21,716 Sandhills Nebraska
Gary Benson
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 21,716
Sandhills Nebraska
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I enjoy seeing wildlife much more than harvesting it any more. If I needed to I would take wildlife for food but as long as there's chicken and beef available I'll let the wildlife reproduce.
Life ain't supposed to be easy.
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Re: Hunting as you get older.
[Re: BKS]
#7348373
09/05/21 12:53 PM
09/05/21 12:53 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 759 U.P. Michigan
Spade
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 759
U.P. Michigan
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Can't stand crawling up the side of tree anymore, to sit for several hours, but I don't mind setting in the ground blind. However, my wife is way more aggressive than me, when she is in the stand. I swear she has a bladder bigger than a basketball. LOL
24 years Army Medical Corps
I only want to be known as:
A great husband, a good trapper, and a great steward of the land.
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Re: Hunting as you get older.
[Re: BKS]
#7348420
09/05/21 02:14 PM
09/05/21 02:14 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 21,042 St. Louis Co, Mo
BigBob
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 21,042
St. Louis Co, Mo
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Been hunting for 50 yrs and I find that freezing my butt off ain't near as much fun as it used to be!
Every kid needs a Dog and a Curmudgeon.
Remember Bowe Bergdahl, the traitor.
Beware! Jill Pudlewski, Ron Oates and Keven Begesse are liars and thiefs!
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Re: Hunting as you get older.
[Re: BKS]
#7348422
09/05/21 02:16 PM
09/05/21 02:16 PM
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Joined: Feb 2017
Posts: 2,227 Priest River, Idaho USA
SundanceMtnMan
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Feb 2017
Posts: 2,227
Priest River, Idaho USA
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I am 65 and still chase everything. I am a lot slower and if I ever kill an elk again I will be calling friends. Every piece of meat I eat is wild game except we raise chickens. I can't imagine ever stopping. Right now there is a snowshoe in the Instapot and a half a dozen grouse breasts in the fridge.
"They Say Nothing is Impossible, But, I Do Nothing Every Day."
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Re: Hunting as you get older.
[Re: bfflobo]
#7348423
09/05/21 02:18 PM
09/05/21 02:18 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,723 Maine
Mac
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,723
Maine
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At 71 yrs, I can relate to the main post and all that follow. Yup
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Re: Hunting as you get older.
[Re: BKS]
#7348558
09/05/21 06:46 PM
09/05/21 06:46 PM
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 16,604 Oakland, MS
yotetrapper30
trapper
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trapper
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 16,604
Oakland, MS
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Yes. When I was a teenager I lived for hunting. Couldn't wait for deer season. I still shoot a deer now and then, but it feels a whole lot more like work than it did when I was a kid. I still love squirrel hunting. If we had birds like pheasant or quail to hunt I would probably still love that as well. I do like running a coon with a hound, but once or twice a week in winter is plenty for me, I have no desire to go every night like the young folks do, lol. I guess trapping is and always was my favorite. I don't feel right at all if a season goes by without setting any traps.
~~Proud Ultra MAGA~~
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Re: Hunting as you get older.
[Re: BKS]
#7348584
09/05/21 07:29 PM
09/05/21 07:29 PM
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 7,183 Wisconsin
Moosetrot
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 7,183
Wisconsin
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I am 68 and have been hunting, legally anyway, since I was 12. Have too admit a few bunnies met their demise before I was 12 but I was hunting alongside my Dad and brothers for years. I have always been a die-hard waterfowler and still am, living here on the Mississippi. Since around 1977 I hunted almost every day of the duck season. Took the deer season off of duck hunting and killed a pile of them in my life, however at the time we did not have enough money and I was hunting to feed my family.
Nowadays, although the love of the hunt is still as strong as it always was, I find I have slowed down and am not as physically capable as I used to be. Have had a few scares while hunting alone on the Lake and they tended to make me more cautious about how I do things out there. In my life I have killed more ducks, geese, and deer than most and enjoyed the hunts but also enjoyed eating them. I am at the point I don't worry at all about needing to take my limit of anything.
All I need now are the sights and smells of a day in the marsh, but a brace of Greenheads will always be icing on the cake. I was raised in the thought that we hunt deer for meat, but once in a while I knock one down with bones on his head, some really nice ones, too.
I need to keep at it because I have a couple fine Grandsons coming up and I want to share the hunts with them and their Dad. He started duck hunting with me when he was 3 and has turned out to be a fine, ethical, and efficient hunter. The best hunting partner I could ever ask for. So, I will keep at it but at a slower and less frantic pace to make meat. I love it, and always will. It is so deeply ingrained in me and my family I could never leave it entirely.
Moosetrot
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