Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Big season coming up, maybe the last

My partners and I have drawn antelope and elk tags and deer tags are OTC. Antelope here is very difficult to draw and we haven't drawn in 23 years. I'm the youngest of the crowd at 68. The other guys are 71 and 72. Both have leg problems and I'm thinking that this might be our last good season before they both have to drop out. I'm in pretty good shape but that can change fast, literally overnight for some people.
The antelope hunting will be easy as it's flat land and the off road vehicle laws are fairly liberal. We can't shoot from my UTV so that's spot and hike, but we can get almost anywhere out there to pack one out.
The deer and elk hunting are another matter. I have llamas to pack the meat but this country is as steep as it comes. It's a hard place to hunt for young legs, let alone old ones.

Just need the desire to go.I'm older than any of them,but you are right, things can change fast

How quickly one can go from "the body is willing, but the mind is weak" to the "mind is willing, but the body is weak"

Life ain't fair!

My heart decided it would end my Elk Hunting and no matter what the mind thinks my heart will not cooperate. I do miss the high country.

The desire's there but if your knees can't take it, there isn't much you can do about it.

Get them fixed, try some of those gel injections, or find something you can ride and not lead or see if your state has some special accomadation for handicapped

Actually, Idaho does accommodate handcapped hunters. However, where we hunt, no accommodation other than a horse can help. No motorized vehicles can get in there. They'll have to hoof it or stay home.

One of them has a small commercial orchard. He spends lots of time on ladders pruning, thinning, and picking. I think the ladder is the cause of his knee problems. It puts a lot of stain on them that you don't get on the ground.

Just when you're figuring stuff out, old age comes ...

Ugh. Good luck anyway!

I wish you the best of seasons. Take lots of pictures for us!

Is that the only place you can hunt? Sometimes you have to make changes to keep it going. A few years ago,I thought I was done hunting, but I gave it some serious contemplating an found some ways to make it work..I can't do the pack in hunts any more,of crawl thru the thick timber.I do a lot more sitting,but still kill elk.

What area did you draw? I drew a 45 rifle antelope tag.

Very best of luck ! Age is tough, but a lot of my pals areNOT hunting!! Enjoy!u

We have antelope in 52 and elk in 48. 48's the tough one. Dang there's some steep stuff in there. We apply for cow tags there because it's one of the easiest draws to get. We draw about 2 out of 3 years.

RockChuck:

Less than a month away from 70 here. Everything still works (back, muscles, digestive system, etc), but the realization that I'm closer to the back end than the front is starting to surface here too. One of the tough parts now is finding others willing to go. Seem to be doing more stuff solo now.

Best of luck to you and your buddies, and savor every moment. Even the small ones.

I can sure agree that it's harder to find someone to go with. There's nothing I like better than to load up my llamas and go spend a couple days fishing a lake 5 miles back but it's a real trick to find someone willing to go with me, especially someone retired so we don't have to rush back to work.
Last month I took a small group of boy scouts to some lakes 5 miles back. Because of leaders work schedules, we had to go in one day and back out the next. We didn't even have time to fish. That's not the way to go packing.

I admire all of you guys. I am 62 and have recently realized that my days afield are not endless. I truly hope I can go till 70 (and more). Definitely a year to year proposition for now on. I do go to the gym every day at lunch and think that has been my saving grace.

One of the things that got me going was back when I was in my40's, Im started to think about how many elk seasons I had left in me.

Believe me ,when you put number on it, it gets scary and they go faster and faster.

That is why,in the last ten years or so, with Colorado offering two elk tags, I go two seasons a year . I have not missed an elk season for over 40 years ,so I figure I am ahead of the game with those two season years.

Many years,I had to go it alone, but I amg lad I did rather than sitting them out.

Like Dirty Harry said "a man has to know his limitations."
I had intended 2015 to be my last year moose hunting. Certain circumstances changed this and I am going again this year. This definitely will be the last.
I am 80 now and have been fortunate to have a big willing s-I-l to handle the heavy lifting. Without having younger people coming along many groups have to quit earlier than they want to. One of my buddies will be 82 this week end when we leave to go hunting. He has been luckier than most to continue his hunting career.
In the last couple of years the deterioration of my hips has been the greatest problem. Can no longer bend or kneel for any length of time. Things that used to be so easy I never thought about them are now difficult to impossible.
As usual things are still better than the alternative.

Jim

You guys are an inspiration. Like my son always tells me, never stop moving!

When I began to hunt elk I was next to the youngest in our party of 6. Today I am the oldest. Back in the day I was the most athletic, and the poorest (I remember hunting elk for several years before I could afford a scope for my rifle).
These days I hardly need an excuse to add another rifle and I own too much equipment to bring and I must choose whether the canvas tent, camper, ATV, trailer w/ horses is best suited for the hunt.

Throughout the decades I had always invited young men (fresh legs) on our hunts. Some moved on but some returned year after year to form the core of our hunting party. It has been my privilege to introduce about 8 young men to the hunt. Today they sometimes discuss when their boys will be old enough to join the hunt.

Roles change too. I used to be the point man - the scout - I always found 'em but someone else always seemed to kill them. Later, during my best years, I was the ramrod for the group. These days I am the camp cookie, bottle washer and grouch, and strategist. I care about everyone else's hunting success more than mine but oddly enough I still do pretty well.

It's sad when an elk hunter hangs up his gun. The locations of the kills of that older generation live on in the lore of our campfire. We remember their experiences and sometimes their misadventures. I hope I still have many years remaining but at times I don't feel like it.