mallard stalker

The same thing happend to my grampa who maybe 20 years before would get out his gun and hunt. but now he has lost desire and doesn't hunt at all maybe you should just take one final hunt see how it goes and enoy yourself.

chaselton

I understand the point that you guys made and I agree with alot that has been said. I still enjoy hunting and look forward to the fall each yr. The part that concerns me is that now when I'm on the stand my mind always drifts to work. I use to just put everything except the hunt outof my mind and concentrate. However, now I seem to alway be worrying about the opportunity cost of all the time i have spent. Does this ever quit???
Maybe retirement?

SILVERTIP-CO

Me too. I been here in Colo livign for six yrs and aint kilt as much as a squirrel despite spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on tag and groceries to say nothing of the thousands of dollars of western slope gas (always .35 a gal more) I have bought. Somehow the law of diminishing returns is playing out here. I hunted 30 yrs in PA andspent less than a thous dollars in all that time on tags. Now I go out at 5am and by 9am I am thinking "why am I here alone?" Everywhere I go now is coyote tracks and coyote tracks and coyote tracks. I really dont think Colo has HALF as many deer and elk as they say they have. ANd they have three times as many coyotes as the game warden( bless her heart) will admit to. Six yrs of tag soup has left a bad taste in my mouth.

Or hell, maybe I am justt gettin old...

EKM

Muley,
I asked earlier but maybe it got lost in the mix....
What and when was the last hunting trip that was great?
(And it don't matter where or for what.)

AlaskaMagnum

I think what you are going through is a natural progression as a hunter. I think after you have killed a lot of animals, the excitment wears off a little.

Myself, I have found that I really enjoy taking different people, especially kids. This year, I took my cousing moose hunting (his first time), and I never really even had the intention of shooting a moose, but I sure enjoyed watching him kill his. Me, I enjoyed planning the hunt, getting the gear ready, tending camp, handling the raft, and butchering a moose under the Northern Lights with a bunch of wolves howling around you until the wee hours of the morning has to count for something.

I have also found that training the dogs is a lot of fun and challenging as well.

Doe Dumper

For me ..the poaching, idiots,trophy mentaility, and the whole macho air of the big dollar circus that deer hunting has become has seriously drenched my enthusiasm as well. Most times I go now..I dont even consider picking the bow up when deer show up.

EKM

My "killer instinct" is still going strong.I guess I am arguably blessed with being a reasonably simple "meat hunter" that whacks the big boys if they get in the way (and I have a license) and otherwise "first legal elk" works fine for me (usually have two licenses). For me it is a military operation and I'm there to kick arse and take names.... they provide the arse.

I huntNational Forest and I see lots of other hunters, more than ever back in Nebraska; no problem --- they are just one more competing factor to be dealt with and I'vekinda figured out how to work them to my advantage. I'm just a formerole ranch boy and this is just another harvest with a different twist.

I think about the past hunts and the hunt coming up all thru the year.... the camping, the scouting, the strategy, mother nature, violent weather, field dressing, packing with horses, butchering/freezing meat as a group right in camp, visiting other camps and renewing old friendships on banquet night during the scouting period. Meeting new friends from all over the United States. The excitement elk crashing thru timber and the jubilation of my camp/hunting mates when they score. The musty sharp smell ofelk. I also relish thinking about the moment of the kill, the power of heavy rifles, the K-THUD of a heavy bullet impactingand a pancake clean kill. God, I do love it. All of it.

I must say that after "getting away" from day hunt deer hunting in Nebraska and getting onto elk hunting in Colorado using a remote/away from home base camp/spike camp set up and using horses to pack them out instead of pickups like we did in Nebraska for deer has opened up a whole new world that isn't showing any signs of getting old.... yet.... when it does it will be time to "move on" to something else.... again.

Maybe I should take up golf just as a back up plan!

Elkcrazy8

Muley, I lost the so called thrill with the rifle, unless its a huge mule deer buck. I have made the switch to archery gear, and it has put the sense of accomplishment back into the game, when I can put it all together. Hell, I lost count of the big game animal killswhen I hit around the 50 mark, but I still get worked up when an animal is laying on the ground because I got it with a stick. The hills are quiet and the weather is warm. The challenge was put back into the game. When the feeling goes away, I will switch to a longbow, just to put the challenge back into it. Good luck.

muley69

Well, I would say three years ago when I hauled my camper up to a little spot I stumbled upon while taking my kid grouse hunting. I took 6 weeks off that year. I passed on several small bulls and chased this huge 6 point. I caught up with him several times but he always gave me the slip. One morning, just as the sun was slipping over the ridges, I let out a locate and got a bugle from right below me. I reconized that bugle, that was my boy, and this time I had him. I peered over the ridge, and 60 yards below he was tearing up a tree. I slipped to within 50 yards and let out a soft cow call, he bolted. Still can't figure out why I didn't just sneak down there and stick him, oh well. After that day, it all seemed to just get blurry. We had an early snow, and the elks' track betrayed them. In poured the hunters, a sea of orange and I hated it. The next season bowhunters crawled all over the mountain, camps were everywhere, the elk were not. A year prior I had my camper in there and never even saw another soul during peak rut weekend. The taste has never left my mouth. I guess I'm too much of an idealist. I really don't want to shoot animals that scurry about running from other hunters. I want to hunt them in a more natural state, by myself, away from the masses. Priorities have shifted, the pressures of running a business, a family, and surviving in the Bitterroot valley play heavy on my mind. I seem preoccupied and as others have stated, I am thinking about other things while hunting, my focus is lost. I am a spot and stalk kind of hunter, like to glass a lot, and that's hard to do when your not focused. I still love being in the mountains, especially in the summer. Last August, I threw the sleeping bag in the truck bed, grabbed a 12 pack of Coors, and went up to watch the persiads meteor shower. When it comes to hunting, however, I just have lost my desire to go up there.

MinnFinn

I think there are times that all of us go through changes that can leave us feeling empty and down whether in our work, hunting, hobbies and part of life.

It helps me to step back sometimes and ask myself and my maker what is important and ask for help to keep things in the right perspective.

Give thanks for all the good times you have had in the fields and else where. Look at the wonder of the creation around and not just the next animal to shoot and be amazed. If you can show a young person what there is to learn about hunting and the outdoors who may not have a dad or someone to teach them those things, it could open a new side of things to you.

Some guys are too busy or don't have the interest to show their own kids the wonders and the how-tos of hunting and how to be in the outdoors safely and have fun. With the knowledge you have, you might be the one who unlocks that hidden world to such a young person that they can enjoy for a lifetime.

Whatever you do, know you'll get through the down times just like you have the good times. I think you'll find your way through this time, too.