Trad Gang
Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: jim ratcliff on November 15, 2016, 10:03:00 AM
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im 45 and have hunted since I was 12, I seem to be loosing the fire to be out hunting. my son is 16 and I take him and am excited to do so but if its dads turn to go solo...I just cant get motivated!
any one else "suffer" from this? is it a "mid life crisis"? am I done...HELP!!!!!
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Things change and hunt only when you want to. I have been busy this year with my boys sports and have given it a break. Bill
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Well at times i've had some down times were I didn't get out as much as normal. It can be blamed to alot of things like other hobbies, lack of funds, lack of land to hunt, lack of game seen, and sometimes a person just needs a change of pace.
Try to see whats really bothering you.
If your bored with the area you hunt start researching a different animal and area to hunt for next fall. This might put you back in the mood as it's fun to learn about new things.
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Are you having a "mid life crisis "? Maybe, I know my mind started to wander, you know, right career, making right decisions for family, etc. Also a realization we are not 25 years old anymore. I took a break from serious archery for awhile, just shot with my family at round targets.
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Have a new custom bow built for you!
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It's supposed to be fun. If it isn't fun anymore, I would find something else to do that I really enjoy.
If later in the year I seem to be losing some enthusiasm, then I know it's time to hang it up for the year. So far it always comes back after a break and I'll start practicing again
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I am self employed so my concern is how much money I am losing while hunting,,,,,,,I lost a lot this year!!
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Typicality, I only get 1 deer tag a year and I'm fired up for it. Actually, more like obsessed. I've also got family and friends that keep the excitement level up.
I'm 47 and I am a Blacktail addict.
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Just take your son out and watch him succeed! It will make some good memories
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Originally posted by BlacktailBowhunter:
Typicality, I only get 1 deer tag a year and I'm fired up for it. Actually, more like obsessed. I've also got family and friends that keep the excitement level up.
I'm 47 and I am a Blacktail addict.
just curious. how many blacktail deer do you typically have in shooting range in a season? i can't imagine only having one tag. how many deer do you typically pass up waiting on "the one"? don't know much about blacktail country.
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I'm almost 65......been doing this since 1968. Killed my first bear/first trad kill in 2015. Still have yet to take a whitetail. I get bummed now and then, like this year, haven't even seen a deer while hunting. :thumbsup:
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I've discussed this topic with my adult son and, after my son, my best hunting buddy.
Until about 3 years ago I made about 30, in-state bow hunts per season. I don't count the week-long out-of-state hunts for bear, antelope, etc. The national average for bowhunters by the way is 23. I've always felt if I didn't get out 23 times I was "below average".
This year by the 60th day of the season I'd been out only 5 times. I'd be up and at em 90 minutes before light, geared up and ready to walk out the door, and just stop and go to my home office. It takes me less than 15 minutes to walk out the door and be strapped in my stand. I've been like this for the past three years.
I have more reason this year to be excited about hunting than at any other time in my life.
So, I took a week off (last week) before gun season to deer hunt. The first time since I've been bowhunting (since 1970) I've taken a week off to hunt in-state. I thought I'd hunt every day (9 days). I hunted only 5 times last week, but that did double my season total of sits.
This past Saturday I thought I'd hang it up for the year. I started making plans for next year. Then I realized, the bow season is only half over here in KY and it will be a long time until next September! So, I'm putting up some new stands (2) this week and going to get after them again.
I'm going to make some equipment and quarry changes though for these season and seasons to come. (This is a trad site so I won't describe the changes, one that involve taking "extra" equipment into the stand to harass squirrels.)
Here are factors I figure are contributing to my reduced desire:
1. My son is too busy to hunt with me as much. He's in the middle of two careers and I'm near the end of my 2nd. (He's 37 and I'm 62 - he's a university professor and a new pastor).
2. My best friend of 40 years, lives 243 miles away in Indiana and fell out of a tree ending his season this year.
3. I've been back to recurves since 2010. It is simply my new reality that I've cut my archery effective range in half. So, the odds of me experiencing the drama of a bow range opportunity (whether I choose to shoot or not) are reduced.
4. My buck standards are too high.
I learned in the 80's that not shooting (one deer/season regulation) removes much of the excitement and risk of failure from bowhunting for me. Sort of like "hunting" with a camera.
I'm in 100% control of my motivation. I fix it or I don't. By the way, I feel somewhat ashamed that I'm going on like this. I have it made and I know it.
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Might try a little small game hunting/stump shooting especially if you have a dog, for a change of pace.
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Are you really losing interest? Or have you lost focus?
What's your goal? Fun? A big buck to brag on? Fill the freezer? Maybe reassess what your doing and why your doing it.
It's really all I can think of from late summer till the rut. I hunt every day and it still drives me crazy not knowing what's going on at all my other stands and blinds....
I wish you luck in finding your way
Tim
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I've felt this way for the last couple years. I have not even strung my bow this year. I think the older you get your priorities change. My son will soon turn 18 and he's more interested in trucks and girls than he is hunting at the moment, but he'll come back around someday. Maybe then, some of the fire will come back.
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I understand where you are coming from. I've killed several in my years, now I like to let them walk. Just feels good...
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No one can help you with this but you. Maybe its a problem...maybe not. I chose not to hunt primarily with a bow during second buck season this year and try something new for change, something more effective. A few failures on my park, plus a hang-fire and misfire on bucks that I'll likely never see the likes of again (when I have to go back to public land one day) made me realize I'm a better shot with my recurve within 30 yards than anything else off hand. I gained a new found appreciation for my (learned) ability to shoot a bow. My advice to you, Jim Ratcliff, is to get a new hobby, fail miserably at it and see if you don't come back to the bow with a different perspective.
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For me being a wildlife artist also has changed my perception of the deer I hunt. I started many years ago at the age of 8 or so with a little fiberglass bow continued to hunt as a young man with a recurve,
than as I got older switched to wheels & cams,then back to a long bow and now at 66 years of age back to recurves,during that time I have harvested my fair share of deer and I guess i view them differently now that Iam older and hopefully wiser
you see I watch photograph and observe deer daily
and to this end my respect for these animals that we pursue has grown immeasurably.I no longer view this as a sport per say but what it was originally intended for,to provide sustenance for my family.
I still intended to get up pre dawn tomorrow with my new Tall Tine recurve in hand and take to the woods,but now my mind set is to enjoy the whole experience and not beat my self up for not filling a tag because these majestic creatures both does and bucks will be there again another day to enjoy and not merely a set of antlers or a steak on a plate. ENJOY
---------Black Wolf 68"57#@28--------
---------Tall Tines 60"52@45#@28------
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I have a lessened desire to hunt the last few years although my wife may say different. I have always liked hunting by myself , but maybe it's getting older, some days I think having someone else to share the hunt with would be nice. Shot my second deer of the year yesterday, I don't really care to shoot another this year, but will still be out some.
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We lose interest in things all the time. Sometimes things just get boring or too tedious to do and other things are done in their place. Soon, the original urges are replaced by others.
Change something. SHoot the next thing that walks by ( OK a huntable critter, not the neighbors cat). Go out and walk around a field with a dog pheasant hunting, use your bow and shoot lots and lots of weed stems, milkweed pods and anything else that looks like it needs to be shot. Watch the dog do what nature has bred into it. Nature did that to us as well, but we ade a few hundred other things to do. While in the woods, make it a point to stop and look ( and smell the roses) at things that catch your eye. Many of us tend to walk right past the little things and miss some big enjoyment.
CHuckC
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As Ricky Nelson's song said, "You can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself." If it is not fun, don't feel obligated to hunt. If the fire again blazes up, you can still get back into it.
I don't hunt near as aggressively as I once did, and I think it is fairly common among older guys. But I still spend a lot of time in the woods, and I carry the bow "just in case". Stumping and 3D are now one of the most central focuses of archery for me. Just do what is fun.
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I think for many of us, its a natural progression to slow down. I dont have near the drive as I did in my younger days. I plainly remember talking hunting with the older guys back then, and I didn't understand why they seemed more calm about it all then I was. They told me then, that when I reached their age, Id understand. Well, the chickens are roosting.
Try making your hunting easier and more simplified . If you are doing tree stands, simplify and ground hunt. Dont feel so pressured to perform, and when you go, take in all the sights,smells, sounds....you'll find yourself just enjoying the atmosphere whether there are deer present or not. Im addicted to nature first, and some days I kill a deer. Let nature soothe your soul. You may not go as often as you once did, all serious and nothing on your mind but taking big bucks....but when you do go, you will be fulfilled with a dose of natures peace. Killing a deer, simply means a tag gone, and if its the last one, it means your days in the woods are done for the year and is the end of it for a year. Go....just enjoy again without the hustle and bustle.
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Never happened to me. I'm almost 60 hunting today was awesome an absolutely beautiful day. Hunted yesterday when the rain stopped in a soggy mess. Can't wait till my next day off.
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Same here. My desire is slowly going away. My wife and I watch our grandson on Saturday most of the day and church on Sunday then lunch with my family. I work M-F and it's dark when I get home so no time to go out and shoot. Hunting season is still 1 1/2 months away from ending in my area but I don't see me being able to go. I don't even bother to look at my bows anymore. Might as well sell everything.
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I lose interest all the time. So I start playing my guitar. Or riding my mountain bike. Or playing the piano. Or playing hockey. And no matter what I'm doing in the "hobby" side of life, I'm always spending lots of time with my wife and daughters, and serving in my church.
There's nothing wrong with not wanting to bowhunt all the time. I've got too many other important things to do... so much so that I tend to feel guilty when sitting in a stand for hours and seeing no deer.
I think of trad archery and bowhunting at 45 years old much like I think of exercising in my basement or on the hockey rink at the same age... Why make it burdensome and onerous? Why not just keep in mind that I want to do this for the rest of my life, and enjoy the ride, instead of making it miserable by forcing myself to do too much?
I know I'll want to pick it up again before too long anyway so every now and then I just give it a rest "for now".
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My inspiration to hunt these days is as elevated as it was 45 years ago. The motivation is quite different. Having immersed myself significantly more completely in the total preparation generates genuine compelling desire to both see and experience the results of the personal investment and challenge.
The actual fulfillment of the hunt is aggrandized well beyond the satisfaction weight as applied to an actual harvest in my earlier years.
Still motivated...this morinng was hunt number 48 for the season while approximately 35/season had me worn down in the earlier years.
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Funny thing , this past Sunday I was going to go out .
Thought about it , and I was asking myself . What if I get a deer ?
I don't feel like messing with it .
Took my wife out for a nice dinner instead .
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Here is my $.02'
For most of us Hunting is a hobby. We are passionate, obsessed, consumed with arrows, broadheads, New bows, scouting, shot placement, blood trails etc. But it is a way to spend leisure time. When a person finds another activity that grabs his imagination, well, that is how a healthy mind works.
As a teenager is was crazy about water skiing, then snow skiing, then climbing mountains (I've climbed 63 peaks over 14,000 ft). The past 22 yrs my obsession has been split between hunting/longbows and running white water rivers in kayaks.
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Do they make a pill for bowhunters who have trouble getting up in the morning? ;)
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Have fun and make it interesting by changing some things. Always fun to put up a new stand or hunt a ground setup. Change bows, hunt with woodies, make new arrows, bring video camera, hunt without camo. The more you put in the more rewarding it is. Good luck.
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I've been there to .took up fly fishing then really missed hunting .
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I was a desk jockey for many years and felt like a caged animal. I almost burst out of that office (prison) every afternoon to get in an evening hunt.
I also hunted with buddies who had property where I could hang stands and expect them to still be there when I returned. There were lots of deer back then and things were pretty exciting.
Fast forward a decade or two. I now work an assembly line evening shift and am tired most of the time. A couple hunting buds have actually passed away, another's has a new 4-lane running past it. Add a decline in deer numbers since PA's "deer elimination program".
Our season just ended. I got out five Saturday's for only a couple hours each. No more tree stands for me, not worth the trouble and risk.
Honestly I'd rather shoot stumps than seriously persue deer. I'm actually cool with it. I guess that's what getting older does to you. I'm content. :)
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As far as losing passion as I get older- not so much. I am 64 and look forward to fall more and more every year.
Circumstances have dictated changes, I can't hunt with my best friend anymore (health reasons). My son is not as available with young family obligations. But as Ron sorta said just getting into the woods in Oct/Nov just makes me feel better.
My health is still good, but maybe just seeing stuff that has happened to some of my friends makes me want to get out there as much as I can, while I still can. Thinking about that may help you. The last day of my last hunt is not here yet, but it is on the horizon.
And again referring to Ron, I don't have to kill something to enjoy it- but that goal is certainly part of it.
If anything, I struggle to keep it in proper perspective. There are more important things in life, but for my personal enjoyment, nothing comes close to bowhunting.
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bringing up a old thread, I was going to post something similar but a lot of good advise here. Im 63 and have been passionate about my bowhunting. I didn't hunt with anything but trad bows for 30 plus years. it was a way of life for me and I thought about it every day... I have really lost a lot of drive and have gone 2 years without a bow kill where I was killing 3-4 deer and various critters a year, but I was really putting in the effort and I loved every minute of it. I have a 80 mile one way commute to work that I've done for 15 years, a pretty physical warehouse job and fairly long hours.. plus I have lost some local hunting land, making for pretty good drive to hunt, from 40 to 150 miles . I find im just not up to it a lot of weekends where in the past I would be hunting all weekend .. part of that is now hunting areas that are marginal as far as deer numbers go and the other is just being worn out at weeks end.... I plan to retire this year and pray I get my drive back..it has been a HUGE part of my life for 47 years
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I get bored hunting the same area over and over. A hunt in a new place really lights my fire. I have had to define what makes hunting exciting for me. It is different for many. So think about a camping/hunting trip to a new WMA for a weekend. The odds may be against you because its unknown territory but if your lite up to hunt that's all that matters.
Just an example of what may get you back in the spirit of the hunt.
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No need to keep hunting if you don't want to. There are more hobbies and things to do with your time in this life than there is time to do it all (let alone be any good at it). It's just more meat for the other hunters out there.
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Well Covey maybe step away for a minute. If you haven't even strung your bow bud...that kinda spells it out I think. Put your bows away where you cant see them for a while. See how it goes? but like my momma always said.."Idle Hands" maybe it will re-kindle. Maybe not. You could always get a truck project going with you and the boy as well. My son and me just built a hell of an engine for my rat rod and it was a great bonding experience. Especially when it coughed to life. Absence may make the heart grow fonder for you Covey. Good luck,best regards. rat'
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I remember slipping into that feeling of winding down when I hit 45ish. For me it was not a mid life crisis so much as life taking over my life. My jobs have always been demanding and the industry I love is always busiest in the fall and I managed to get time off along the way when I was younger. So what happened? I've never stopped shooting my bow. I decide on which bow I'm hunting with every year and set up arrows and shoot it like I'm going on a trip tomorrow but then I don't go but a few times and then it is over. Now I'm 60 and I have this sense of urgency to go more but I don't have the body I had at 45 or even 50. I'm not bigger I just know I'm weaker and it is really easy to get weaker the older you get. I guess I've been my own worst enemy all along by always hunting alone to keep my best places secret. I did do the hunting club thing for about 10 years but that was not really my thing. Even after 10 years I was still the outsider because I was one of about 4 bowhunters in a gun camp and I never did opening day of gun with them so go figure. Then despite my best efforts my son could not be won over to hunting of any kind. He loved sports though so I supported him in that and gave a lot of hunting time over to that. No regrets there though. He's my son and I support him.
Now that I'm older and find myself with no real hunting buddies I'm back to going it alone again. I know alot of guys that hunt but I wonder if they don't ask me to come along with them because I'd be a drag on them and they don't have time to look after the old guy. Now, I do regret not staying in that club. At least I'd get some help and there is usually someone around to know where you are.
But enough about me. My advice to you is, don't stop hunting unless you are really ready to stop. Once you stop it will be hard to get started again.
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When I got bored with standard deer hunting, I put more blunts in my back quiver, stayed on the ground and went for nice slow walks. I still shot deer, but i also enjoyed shooting at squirrels, pheasant, rabbits, dirt, and turkeys. One year i declared that i was only going to the deer tat got between me and the rabbits, turkeys and pheasants. I filled all of my four deer tags that year and had fun doing it, because the rabbit and pheasant numbers were up.
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If you lose interest...do something else! Bowling, golf, metal detecting.
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I'm 53, have to make myself go sometimes and enjoy it when I do, but get a lot more excited going with somebody else. Just life I think
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Yep me too.
As I've aged the quality of the hunting available vs the amount of work/cost required just doesn't seem as attractive as when I was younger.
My son moved out of town so that changes things too. When he was in town he was always dragging me out hunting, fishing, gigging frogs, running limb lines or some darned thing.
Now, on my own, I often opt for a little shooting in the yard and then maybe a nap. LOL
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It happens to me - I get too involved in something else and time just passes by. Last year I did not go deer hunting - first in like 25 years. I golfed all summer. I have been finishing shafts, strings etc. for this year and will get back to shooting this summer and hunting in the fall.
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I mix it up between hunting, fishing and golfing. Also mix up what I hunt. I was obsessed with deer hunting to the point I was tired of killing deer. Started back hunting ducks, geese, squirrels and varmint again.
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Perhaps it's because I live in the west that I remain motivated and have not lost my interest. Hunting for me is both an excuse and an opportunity to get outdoors and explore nature. I enjoy wandering hills and plains. To do so with a bow in hand is just the icing on an already wonderful cake.
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I never loose interest in hunting with my recurve or longbow , I just always switched gears. For me I seem to get going on something new every few years weather it be fishing , 4x4s , working on my place or hunting with a new weapon or spear. Every few years I always have a several month break from my usual hard core trad hunting. Then I always come back with a new fire for it , I have been on a short break and its time to get back into it....
Soon as the fish quit hitting my lures...
,,,Sam,,,
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I'm 61 and definitely do not have the zeal for hunting I used to. Part of it is that I've had good success at times so it's sort of a "been there, done that" thing. Part of it is the distraction of other pastimes, hobbies. Part of it is the reduced energy that comes with age.
But when I get up in the mountains with bow in hand the spirit is rekindled for a time, enough that I'll stay with it until I'm too old and can't do it any more.
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I don't have to kill as often but still enjoy going,never know when the right one will come along.
Kurt