Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game At what age did you begin to feel physically less functional in the bush

I am with those who mention doing things smarter than when I was younger. It seems that on balance, I can still do the things that I want to do, but what I want to do has changed and I go about things more deliberately. Somewhere in my later 40s and my son's late teens he began to be the one to look after me rather than my looking after him. When he isn't available I just have to use what little sense I can muster. Best to all, John

JJ,
I am sorry to inform you but the deteroration in your physical attributes continues to decay but at an increasing rate. At first it was nothing I even paid any attention to. Then, it was the knee that needed surgery from planting flowers, of all things. Then it was the cheaters for glasses, then, it is my hearing, and plantar faschitus (sp), then it is the back ache when I wake up, or is it the back ache that wakes me up? Then it is having to pee in the middle of the night, or even having trouble peeing when you want to. Then, on the other hand,it is having to pee NOW !, and not being able to wait for five minutes. Then, it is an increasing fear of heights or falling off of ladders or the roof. Then it is looking forward to taking a daily crap when you previously never gave it a second thought. It continues downhill, my friend.
Have a wonderful Christmas.

Wow. I'm on the cusp of all this stuff at 44. Man I can't wait...........

I'm still as good as when I was in my 30's thanks to year around workouts but I've seen my dad deteriorate in the past couple years. He's 66.

Like Mule Deer, he doesn't have the desire either. He's ok with letting a screaming elk go in the bottom of some hell hole, doesn't feel the need to hike in 3 miles to kill a black bear, or sitting in a deer stand for 10-12 hours a day for a week.

He's slowed down. It's kind of sad because he was "the Man" when I was younger, - not many could keep up with him. We became fairly equal when I was in my 20's into my 40's. Now I carry the treestands, drag out the deer, carry the bulk of things. Basically, the way it should be. We both know he won't be doing this forever but don't talk about it much but we do have some tremendous memories.

I still remember my first deer. I shot a deer ~ 3/4 mile from the truck, while we were gutting the deer, he shot one. He dragged both deer at the same time back to the truck. I was not alot of help at 4'9" and 95 lbs - my deer weighed more than I did. I shot that deer ~ 9AM and we ate lunch in the car. It was quite the feat, we still laugh about it.

Bingo!

For me, it is calling cats that I enjoy far more than any other hunting. I.e. I have no interest in another moose, though enjoyed taking a young man on his first moose hunt this fall. If anything the pleasure is better now that I'm not as hungry to get this or that big critter on the back side of a mountain range.

On the backpack hunt in Sept. when I came out early, partly why I came out was that I realized that I enjoy calling critters more than endlessly climbing and glassing for a critter that I had to admit didn't interest me near as much as it used to. So I called a lynx, wolf, coyotes, moose, caribou and tried for a grizzly, all within a half mile of a road and enjoy those memories best from my trip. For various reasons I shot none of them, but recall it as a great time and fun hunt.

Age isn't all bad.

I'm actually in better shape now (age 53) than I was in my mid-40's, but that doesn't mean I'm back to where I was at 35, and I'm still working hard at getting my legs back to what they were before my knee replacements ('05 and '07).

I was still playing basketball three times a week and skiing 25-40 days a year in winter, and running regularly spring, summer and fall when I was 43. But that year the pains in my knees made me quit playing league basketball and we moved away from the mountains, and I noticed after that I didn't have the endurance in the field I'd enjoyed previously. Used to be I could hunt pheasants all day, wear out two dogs, and still have energy to go out for dinner and drinks after. Not any more. I've been babying my knees, though, so that's a lot of it. I've only really got back to being pain-free this fall after almost 10 years of daily knee pain.

I got serious about 4-6 workouts a week in my late 40's, and that got a lot of my stamina back (and dropped the excess weight), but then I tore ligaments in my left knee in '04, and since then it's been a three-year process of surgery and rehabilitation. I'm fortunate in that I've never been seriously overweight, have never smoked cigarettes, and thanks to maintaining a decent level of fitness prior to the knees caving on me, I had the muscle and self-discipline to be aggressive in my rehab. Most guys my age who go through bilateral knee replacements end up being couch potatoes who golf from a motorized cart at their most vigorous.

I hunted pheasants half a dozen times this fall, and had no fitness or joint issues. This was the first year I was able to hunt pain-free since I was 45. I'm seriously considering buying another pheasant dog next spring, now that I have the physical ability to walk it, train it, and hunt it as it deserves. This coming March I'm going skiing for a week for the first time in almost 8 years, and next fall I'll be hunting elk in Wyoming.

No, I'm not the lean mean machine I was 15 years ago, but I'm not done yet. I thank God that I was able to receive this gift of renewed strength and ability through the miracle of titanium knees, and I intend to use this second set of knees a lot more wisely than I did the first set. I hope to hunt at least as much, if not more, than I did with the first set... although I won't be abusing these ones the way I did my natural knees.

I still have that zeal to be out in the field, to hunt and fish as hard as I can, and still feel keenly the disappointment when I don't meet my expectations of myself.

To quote the famous line from Top Gun, my ego continues to write checks my body can't cash! At 53 (I've always been too short for my weight )I still manage to run 4-5 miles/day four times a week. I feel great, but I've definitively lost a step...or five.
My labs are good and I have longevity in my family, but I'm almost parnoid of getting old and "geezing out." There is hope I think, when I hunted AFrica in 05 with PH John Sharp (he was 53 then) man that guy walked my dick in the dirt! and he can benchpress a Cape Buffalo. So I've embarked on a new PT program with some USMC Officers that work for me at the schoolhouse that includes running, some lifting and Aikido. Hopefully I'll be able to report progress....but after the Christmas/New Year's eating frenzy jorge

All of you "older" fellas should stop worrying about getting old. My great uncle, I call him grampa, had his first heart attack 3 years ago. It slowed him down, sure, but he still was out hunting the same year. This year he turned 80. There's nothing he enjoys more than hunting and flyfishing. Two packs a day and over the length of an elk season he could still put more miles on his feet than I could before that heart attack. Its a matter of "want to" over riding preconcieved "wisdom".

Just hit 50 this month and JJ I know what your talking about.

I'm driven to stay in shape for those backpack hunts in spite of a knee problem that I keep putting off for surgery. I put in
60 miles this year deer hunting with a 60 lb pack. I lost 5 toe nails and 15 lbs in the process. No deer.

I have to wear glasses now when I hunt and use them to read a map.

I lift weights 3 times a week to stay toned up and that helps a whole bunch. It's my desire to stay fit for when my 7 year old guy gets of age to hunt.

I have not given up on getting that elusive 30" 200 class mule deer.

I am not sure it is a sudden beginning in all areas. But with me mid- 50's I could still take on activities about as well as when I was younger. But late 50's there was more pain associated with everything.

I am 62 now and don't have much of a desire to hunt in high altitudes anymore. I used to really love the mountains, now it hurts my lungs just thinking about climbing around in them!

One of the Canadian guides in my deer camp was 69 years old and still in good lean shape. In a conversation with him he said he had guided for stone sheep in northern B.C. for more than 30 years but finally called it quits two years ago.

I didn't read through all the posts so somebody may have already pointed this out.
Just because you're 'in shape' doesn't mean the ticker is. My old man(mid 50's) has had two life flights to the cardio unit in Billings, MT due to heart attacks. He's in really good shape fat wise but has a clogged up heart(even with the stints). Nowadays he doesn't go anywhere without his nitro pills.
A muddy hike through the Breaks after elk almost did him in a couple years ago.
GET the wires hooked up on the doctors treadmill so you at least have an idea of what you're workin' with; better safe than sorry........
Your health/life is obviously nothing to fool around with!

I turned 58 on the 3rd. Nomally I do ok because I take it easy. When I was putting up lights the ladder decided it wanted to laydown, of course I had to go along on the trip. (btw ladders are not a good landing pad). My elk hunt was not fun. Ever try to walk in 18" of snow with a sore hip on one side and a sore calf on the other lol. If I had any sense I would have canceled the hunt. It was no fun. Saw elk but could not get to them because of being in pain. tom

I'll hit 55 next month. 10 years of being a desk jockey has undone all the good I had built up spending the first 35 years of my life on a dairy farm. Always heard people telling me I needed to eat so I could gain weight. Guess I listened too well, now I need to cut way back. Hard to get much exercise with a bad knee and plantar faceitous. I'm farsighted, so don't have trouble picking out the coyote on the far ridge, just can't see which box of ammo I brought along to shoot at him!

I still do fine out hunting in the woods but it did start to drop off in the bush at late fifties.

Thank God, I thought with was an old guy commizzerating session about blue pills.

Spot

..For me it's always been more to do with who's bush it is, that set the measure of how physically functional I was.*wink*.
.....Seriously, I'm 66 yrs now and past sheep hunting but keep fit enough to drag out my own deer, and get back deep enough to see quality animals.If I had the funds, I'd get on up to AK for a big bear hunt ( a childhood dream I've yet to be able to fulfil)before my get'em up done got up and gone.

Rolly-

laughing here. "you'd" better (laugh) for there is no good alternative.

Does anyone of us late middle-agers find they're leaving a "P" can by their bag or cot while in camp, because the alternative is crawling out of that warm cacoon, going out of the tent into 12 degree weather to "P"-maybe 2, or 3, or....times?

No wet blanket here guys but this is the way of all mankind and as someone said, things do not get better physically.

The very Best to all here for Christmas and the New Year.

Gdv

38 two days ago, did inventory: Can't see hand stretched out in front of my face- check Arthritis in both knees - check, 40 pounds overweight - check, tired going up stairs/can't run around the block - check. Feeling better yet or should I go on?

I'm well into my late 60's & due to chronic arthritis have to choose my trips carefully. I have an artificial knee & so many back procedures that I had an internal morphine pump surgically implanted with tubes than run along my spine. No direct injection into my blood so I'm not drugged up. Mountain hunting is a thing of the past for me. I have fished & hunted over most of NA,hunted in Europe, & Africa. I plan to return to South Africa in 08. I hunt 40-50 days/year & fish about the same. I run a high performance bass boat & have an ATV that helps with local hunting. I have over 40 big game mounts & about 20 fish mounts. My doctors are amazed that I do many of the things that I do. You only have one life so live it to the fullest. Best advise I can give you physically fit hunters is to try & do the things you dream about before its to late. I find my self doing even more volunteer work for SCI, NRA, & IWLA as a way to give something back to the sport of hunting & shooting. Happy holidays to all.

56, but that was due to an accident. I am doing better again but it has taken some real effort. I opted for lazer surgery on the eyes just because I hunt. Amazing stuff!!!!!!! I am seeing better than any other time in my life. I walked around the first year after my surgery just looking at things. My wife got tired of me saying, " did you see that!"