Barry I feel your heart, though I haven't hunted these gritters as long as you, I been there. About 5 years ago I set up on public land and had few deer come by. Then about hour later off the beaten deer path, through a thicket was a deer moving. I turned around and watched, it was a doe, she was huge for illinois, looked like a canada deer. At first I thought she was picking her way through the thicket being careful, then I realized it was just her old age. She had a vast amount of white hair on her, and seem to labor with every stride. Now keep in mind she wasn't in exquisit pain, just like we look at a person whom is 90 and still healthy but arthitict. I watched her move and slowly browse and noticed she studied the other animal movement. Not just deer but squirrel's, birds and such. Then like Barry, I thought of everything she lived through and how honored I felt to be in the presance of a queen of survival and evasion. I felt she had the right to move through and that with all she has been through and gave to mother nature as well as us, she deserved to ride off in the sunset. I felt blessed to have been able to fooled the sense's and see a great animal as her. That is to me what hunting is about, the interaction with mother nature herself.