Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How do you tell a long time hunting buddy that it's time to hang it up?

There are 3 of us. I'm 73, one is 76, and the other is 77. We've been hunting together for 35 years and have packed out a truck load of elk and deer, usually the hard way. When the 77 yo reached his early 70's, he started slowing down. I mean REALLY slowing down, dragging his feet and making maybe a mile an hour. His brain is getting a bit addled, too, and I'm worried that it's the start of dementia.
2 years ago, it was starting to concern me. I couldn't let him hunt alone. If he got something, he wasn't able to dress it out alone, especially an elk. If he really was getting dementia, turning him loose alone in the mountains could be a death sentence. Besides his foot dragging causing him to move so slow, it also made a lot of racket. The other 2 of us both knew it was time for him to quit but how do you tell that to an old friend who's been through so many hunts over the years?
The solution came from his wife. I stopped by to visit one day and she said his knee was really hurting and the doctor had him in a brace. I asked how long he'd be in it and she said that he was done hunting. Period. She wasn't about to let him get 2 miles from the road and have it collapse on him. I could have hugged that lady. She did what I didn't have the nerve to do.

That’s hard. My dad is at that point, 78. I remember when my grandfather got to that point too. He was a giant of a man and strong as an ox when I was a kid. Even when he was in his 70s he was still stronger than most. It happened naturally, similar to your friend. He went from hiking everywhere, to picking a spot and watching a canyon, to being driven to a spot to watch, to sitting in the truck and then to just sitting at camp. I sure miss the old boy!

Too bad your friend won't be hunting with you fellows anymore but from the sound of things it's best. Still a tough pill to swallow that all of are facing someday. Friendships evolve too. Even though you and him won't be hunting I'm sure you'll still be in his life. All the more reason to live this life as best as we can.

Yeah. Dad told me the other day that he's not much good for anything anymore. He's 82. I'm sure it's tough when an old feller must come to that realization.

Very Well said.

Is your friend capable of hunting from a ground blind close to home??

Friends are there to help you. Wives are there to bring you to reality.

Mine, at age 72, hunting elk in our stomping grounds outside Leadville Colorado in 2015. He realized he just could not do it and it was painful to see him make that realization. At 60 I have no desire to chase elk at 12,000 feet again.

Thats what I was thinking.
I’m 71 and sure hope I can hunt many more years.

Make him the camp cook. Or, give him some other position of honor.

Sounds like y'all had fun for 35 yrs hunting together soon or later all things come to a end.

You old fart. We’re the same age and I feel the same way. I’m going to live live long enough to be a problem for everybody else in the family. And I’ll hunt something as long as I can make it to a place to sit and watch. Hallelujah!!

We're in elk and muley country. Blinds don't work very well.

Real easy like.


After he mistakes a penned horse, or a passing mini-van, for an elk.

Im 74, brother 69. 3rd pard is 81, said last year was it with the snow and cold. We are looking for lower easier terrain this go.
Taking a camp cook,/tender works; dementia doesnt. On that note my wife worries me so I may be staying home too.
Are you close enough to do a day camping trip?

We get out camping and fishing with them on occasion. I thinks he's happy with that.
We did find some lower, easier terrain a couple years ago. I've got cows 2 years running out there. It's a major elk wintering area assuming there's enough snow to get the elk down before the season end. It's still more hiking that my partner can do. 2 of us got 2 cows this year but we had a 1.5 mile hike after we spotted them.

This year was the first without my dad in camp. He’d been camp cook for the last 5 or so. Fugkin stroke made the decision for him.
I truly hope I have the balls to walk off into the mountains and enjoy a few hours of dead silence and retrospect of my life before I end things on my own terms when that time comes. There truly are fates worse than death.

I see that coming. Not for a while, but it is the twilight.

Having the same issue Evan fishing

Dad got into his 90’s and we had for a while used an atv to get him back and forth, but if you left him to sit at a spot he would go for a walk, never far but he had fun.
One day we were unloading the rifles and his Parker hale in 270 went off, I was mad, told my older brother and that was it for him we said.