You're never too old to get in this game. As the song goes-"too old to rock & roll, too young to die." I'm 43 this month and this is my second season hunting. I got a Sako in 270 win that was putting a bruise on me. It's a fairly compact, light gun, so the 140-150 grain silver tips put a wallop on me by the time I had put two different scopes on it to compare them and see how I liked them. I put 80 rounds down range in that one afternoon. I wound up putting on a Sims Vibration Laboratory "limb saver" recoil pad. They made a H-LL of a difference. They made that thing shoot lighter than my .223 mini-14! There's a slip on version, that will fit over your existing stock, or you can get one to replace your existing recoil pad. I went that route. My gunsmith did it, cause I didn't know how it would have altered my eye relief and trigger pull mechanics. I spent about $55 for it, including the gunsmithing to change the stock length. My smith remeasured me for it and cut down the stock to keep it the same length. I strongly recommend it! Works like a champ, and the folks told me that it was better than the Pachmayer decellerator. They sold them both and recommended the Sims Limbsaver over the other one. Go for it and see what you think. -Ed