Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting One more hunt

Last year Dave, my hunting buddy since the lat 1990's, informed me during our elk hunt that it would be his last. He has diabetes and significant physical limitations as a result.

We talked today and I was able to convince him that with the late start date for 3rd Rifle this year there was a good chance the migration would get going and we could find elk migrating through the lowlands in an area he knows and is able to get to. There were still over 400 cow tags available for the area so he purchased one and plans to drive out Wednesday and hunt with me through Saturday morning, after which we have to head home.

Daughter #1 and a son-in-law will join me for opening day (Saturday) but I don't know how long they will stay. Son-in-law will probably head home Monday at the latest but I'm hoping Daughter #1 will stay longer, maybe the whole week.

Whatever happens, I am elated that Dave will get at least one more chance.

👍👍👍

It is remarkable that he is still willing to hunt with you considering the information/opinions about him that you have posted on a public forum.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/8703620/1

Has Dave gotten his diabetes in check? Does he have one of those machines that can test his blood sugar? I hope you two have a good elk season!

Good luck to you all. Hope you have a successful hunt in all ways possible.

At some point we all reach that end to meeting the stiff physical retirements of hunting elk in the mountains. For the luckiest it is late in life but there is certainly an end even with younger hunting partners to help with the heavier work. One of my elk hunting partners is diabetic and for him getting and staying in shape for elk hunting is a huge benefit in managing his diabetes.

The checkbook truck hunts can extend your time as can the utv hunt on the flatter migration routes but just dealing with the cold snowy muddy conditions and putting chains on the truck get to be too much in your 70's or 80s.

Let Dave exit gracefully this year and pray that a big fat cow decides to walk past his spot to allow him to fill the freezer one more time.

Dave will be the first one to tell you he wasn't very good at controlling his diabetes and that his failure to do so caused a lot of problems for him, both physical and financial. That includes problems that, if left untreated, were life threatening. My concerns about him were entirely justified and we both agreed that, as stated in the thread mentioned above, "sending him home horizontally was something we both wanted to avoid".

He now has an internal insulin pump and appears to be much more stable but there are still concerns. He had the pump last year and was still unable to keep up with others in the hunting party. This is why we both agreed he should come up later in the season to hunt the sage country along the migration routes rather than joining us early when we might be hunting the highlands.

There isn't anything I've posted on this forum that I haven't discussed at length with Dave. Dave will tell you that some of those discussions were somewhat painful but necessary. After last year he was, in his mind, done elk hunting. He has been and continues to be one of my closest friends, which is why I've encouraged him to try one more year and am making special accommodations for him that family members I'll be hunting with don't get.

Unless you know me personally (and offhand I can't think of anyone on this forum that does) and know me better than most of my friends including some I've known longer than the 18 years I've known Dave, good luck identifying him.

That's good he got the insulin pump that's a big bonus.. I have a buddy that's wants to go moose hunting with me in Alaska real bad but I tell him that he is a liability he gets real bad kidney infections the type of infection where he ends up in the hospital. I tell him where we go it would take us all day on [bleep] trails in a utv to get you back to the trucks then another 270 miles to get you to a hospital. Unfortunately we would be those guys hitting the emergency button on the SPOT to get him medvac out of the area we hunt.

Classic. Got a good laugh out of that one. Not at Dave, of course.

CH threads are the best.

Glad you enjoyed it. Simple minds are easily entertained.