How many more years of deer hunting do you have left?

[Gravey]

I'll be 50 in March and been deer hunting since I was 12 or 13. I still love it although I don't get to do it as much as I'd like. Physically I can still do everything I did at 20 but it may take me longer to get over it. I'll do it as long as I can.

 

[mike243]

61 and counting, no idea but hope its a long time but it will probably stop when cwd gets to my neighboring county. No more climbing stands ladder ground blind or stalking will continue to produce dead deer

 

[Ed Cude]

For many of us who started when we were young, deer hunting is part of our lives. Some of us are so focused on it that it is the central part of our lives. But how often do we actually factor in how long we will be able to physically participate in this passion? Recently, with family members beginning to pass away from age-related issues, the hunting segment of my family began discussing how long are we going to be able to keep doing this. It was a sobering and somewhat depressing series of conversations. I'm the youngest of my family's "hunting generation" and I'm 60. I've been deer hunting since I was 17. How much longer am I going to be able to climb into a ladder stand? How much longer am I going to be able to move ladder stands? Will I be climbing into stands when I'm 85? Probably not. What have I got left in the hunting tank, maybe 15 to 20 years? That has caused us to reevaluate how we manage our hunting land.

So how many years do you think you have left in your deer hunting tank? Will you try to extend those years a little longer by changing how or where you hunt?

Hello there . I'm 63 still hunt deer I started at 15 but I go out and set on the ground now and yes I still limit out on killing buck and now since I live in the CWD area of tenn I have only kill doe's as many as I can a year . . When I was younger I would set one week of my vacation for open week. Even at 16 I could drive I would miss a week from school open week . I was possessed on deer hunt

 

[Thelonegoose]

Man, you guys are old. I'm only 26 and plan to hunt until I can't. I'm sure kids and career will impede a few hunting seasons as the years go by, but my soon to be bride insists that I kill a few deer every year to keep the freezer full. I will be sure to remind her of those words as our lives get busier and busier.

 

[Wildcat]

I will be 71 this spring, I burned out myself from hunting as hard as I did while I was young. Sun up to sun down stands, tracking rub lines, scouting all year, traveling to different places and different states, I used to post about all that on here and other hunting forums. All that work paid off with my 8 mounts but it just burned me out to the point I kind of quit even talking about deer hunting. But at the same time, I decided not to quit and not hunt as hard, it got to the point where I would rather spend the majority of my time in camp with friends. That hit me around when I turned 60, about the very same time David Jolly posted that he was the same way, that's why I remember it because I was already going through that stage. Nowadays sometimes I'm fine with just hunting in the morning 2-5 days a season. Gave up bow hunting 15 years ago.

In the last 10 years, I've been hunting out of box stands or ground blinds. I gave up the climbing and lock on stands about the time I was 53 and ladder stands 7 years later. How much longer? Who knows, I have all the farmland I will ever need, and unless a record travels through I doubt I'll ever see another one again. That is the reason I shot that tall 6 a few years ago, it was something different on my wall.

One day we all will HAVE to give up. Some of us long before our bodies can't take it anymore. Failing eyesight, our hands start to shake too much, etc, etc. but it's coming. I might have 3-5 more years left in me.

 

[TheLBLman]

Man, you guys are old. I'm only 26 and plan to hunt until I can't. I'm sure kids and career will impede a few hunting seasons as the years go by, but my soon to be bride insists that I kill a few deer every year to keep the freezer full.

This is part of the "trend" I see:

"Trophy" hunting is being replaced with "meat" hunting.

As fewer people actually deer hunt, more & more landowners will welcome (at no cost to hunt) their friends to come kill some deer. More hunting will trend more to more urban areas, in part due to convenience of those just wanting to put some deer in their freezers.

To just put some venison in the freezer, no need to drive to the next county, or some other state, much less be on an expensive hunting lease?

 

[Worm]

BiSKet just charge on as long as you can. I don't climb anymore just use ground blinds. I stopped hunting when my son passed away but finally started back. I'm hitting 60 very soon. I have neuropathy in my right foot since surgery that drives me crazy some days but finally found something that helps so far. I don't take pain medicine at all. All we can do is enjoy what time we have left.

 

[Talome13]

I'm 37, been hunting since I was 8. My dad was a traveling sales rep for Oneida bows and an extremely hard core bow hunter.

Horse chit was my cover scent growing up, my dad applied it. I was bow hunting by myself at the age of 13 with a bow that me and my dad built from spare Oneida parts. Shot my first buck with it (spike). To this day, it's one of the greatest feelings I have ever felt.

Hunting is in my veins, I will hunt as long as I'm able

 

[TheLBLman]

I will be 71 this spring, I burned out myself from hunting as hard as I did while I was young.
. . . . . . . just burned me out to the point I kind of quit even talking about deer hunting.

I gave up the climbing and lock on stands about the time I was 53 and ladder stands 7 years later. How much longer? Who knows, I have all the farmland I will ever need . . . . .

My situation is somewhat like Wildcat's, except I still have more passion left in me for deer hunting. Even though I've been leasing some deer hunting land, it's always been more a "want" than a "need", and I don't see myself doing it much longer into the future.

If I want (and am able) to hunt, the money formerly spent on a hunting lease can simply pay for a nice "vacation" hunt in some other state. Or it may just go towards fishing trips or something else. Perhaps a week or two of duck hunting in Saskatchewan.

 

[BuckWild]

I'm 65 and been hunting since I was 14. I don't hunt as hard as I used to, but there are far more deer today than 25-30 years ago when I was in my prime. I don't kill as many as I used to, but still kill and process at least 2 or 3 deer a year just for me and the wife.

I hunt 15 foot ladder stands and sometimes ground blinds, all on private ground.

My Dad hunted til he passed at age 76. I hope to make it that long.

FWIW, I talked to a guy yesterday that is 80 years old and he was showing me his Mountain Cur dog that a coon got hold of the night before on a coon hunt.

That's a tough old dude that's still coon hunting at the age of 80.

 

[fairchaser]

I'll be 66 in a couple weeks and still hunt from a climber most times but the e-bike helps me get there too. The drive to hunt has waned some but I still deer hunt 30 times a season. I don't like going alone as much as I used to. The reasons I hunt have changed over the decades too! I can see myself hunting until 80 or more if the Lord wills and the grandsons want to go. If I make it to the stump at 90, I'm sure I'll tell the Lord to take me to His house instead of mine.

 

[TheLBLman]

As an aside, I've been in one of the better "trophy" TN deer hunting leases (or hunt clubs) for now decades. The average member is about 64 years old. This past deer season, more club members than ever before, did not go deer hunting a single time, and even the younger members didn't hunt as much as the prior year.

"Life" just seems to get in the way, more other things compete with deer hunting opportunities.

My own best long-term hunting buddy, didn't hunt a single time, the past two years, yet he had stayed in the hunting club, "just in case" he might go again. But he didn't & he hasn't, nor will he be staying in the hunting club. We hunters are simply dying out faster than we're being replaced by younger hunters, especially younger hunters who could afford to pay the now too high hunting lease rates.

And like I've said, my passion is still there, but, with many my long-term friends giving it up, it makes me more inclined to just hunt closer to the house, and less myself. Pretty "easy" to just get a deer or two for the freezer.

 

[Ski]

Man, you guys are old. I'm only 26 and plan to hunt until I can't. I'm sure kids and career will impede a few hunting seasons as the years go by, but my soon to be bride insists that I kill a few deer every year to keep the freezer full. I will be sure to remind her of those words as our lives get busier and busier.

You won't have to. She'll be the first to recognize the money saved at the grocery store, and will encourage hunting.

 

[Wildcat]

My situation is somewhat like Wildcat's, except I still have more passion left in me for deer hunting. Even though I've been leasing some deer hunting land, it's always been more a "want" than a "need", and I don't see myself doing it much longer into the future.

If I want (and am able) to hunt, the money formerly spent on a hunting lease can simply pay for a nice "vacation" hunt in some other state. Or it may just go towards fishing trips or something else. Perhaps a week or two of duck hunting in Saskatchewan.

That's what I've been thinking about lately. I've been seriously looking at fully guided hunts in other states but leaning toward the more easier hunts, no way this body will be doing any more mountain climbing.

Maybe we should get together to make plans for that kind of hunt.

 

[Wildcat]

You won't have to. She'll be the first to recognize the money saved at the grocery store, and will encourage hunting.

As long as she doesn't find out the true cost of hunting.

Today I have more deer at the farm than ever before and can shoot a dozen without ever trying. Years ago I would spend thousands every year on leases, guns, clothes, gear, trucks, and travel just to take 1-2 deer.

 

[ArcherDian]

Working in healthcare I treat every single season as if it could be my last. Watched too many young people die to be complacent about mortality. Have I made modifications as I age? Yes. Really miss my compound bow the past 2 years but my shoulders can't take a decent pull weight so I use a crossbow. Last week of this past deer season was after my surgery so I knew if I harvested one I'd have to use a processor. I also couldn't climb up into my ladder stand. I should be back to full capacity next fall. The reality is though, my property can be hunted from my back porch so as long as I can move, I'm gonna hunt in some form.

 

[DeerCamp]

I forget where I read this but it stuck with me. If you see some family members just once every couple years, if they live another 20 years, you'll only see them 10 more times before they pass.... It made me prioritize seeing family more.

Now apply that same logic to deer hunting as you age and it starts to set in that the number of days you sit down in the woods is limited.

This past year my grandfather joined me in the woods and it was something I will never forget. I hope he is here in November for us to do it again but his hunting days are numbered.

I think I'm gonna call my dad today.

 

[moondawg]

grenada, enid or sardis first ? yall leave the butla alone plz

Butla gonna be the first one I visit!

 

[348Winchester]

That sounds almost identical to me in my early 50s as well. I'm in my late 50s now and there has definitely been a change in my energy level as well as desire to go. Had my T level checked and it was almost non existent, so started T therapy and it's helped some, but I'm still not near where I was just 3 years ago.

Don't give up!

 

[Steverino]

I've Hunted since the 90s, just turned 70. On and off with Deer. But even though I have a great setup and nearby processing places I just don't have the desire to get out there. I do enjoy watching them in my yard though. If only the turkey population would ramp up - that I'd be in for. But I doubt that'll happen here in my lifetime.