Getting Old Sucks!!
 

I turned 51 this year(DAMNIT). I have killed more than my fair share of animals and still the anticpation is incredible. I have been shooting every morning and evening for a while now. Shooting is harder. Lifting weights is harder. The freaking treadmill is way harder. It's a good thing that hunting is sweeter and I'm able to enjoy the full experience of being in the mountains or it just might not be worth it. 19 more days and then it begins. Although my body isn't really ready and my mind cannot stand the anticipation. I'm still like a kid, with a pocket full of money, in front of a candy store, waiting for it to open. Bring on 2010 elk season. When do you guys start?? Good luck to all of you guys and gals.
:party0005::party0005::party0005:

Hey lucky, where in Co are you from? I use to live out there for 8 years when I was a teenager. I'm in up state NY and our season doesn't start till Oct 16th. I think we start the lastest...... it sucks having to wait.... I feel your getting old pains, and then some. I have had two back surgery's. I am held together with 6 screws and 2 rods and 2 cages. I'm 44 but I think my body it 64.. lol. But, until I cant walk anymore, I will be in my tree stand every opening day... I sure wish I was back in Co. I love it out there. We didn't get to go out there to see family this year. We try to get out there every year...

I live in Centennial. I hear you on the back sugeries. I had the fusion last year. I have a little titanium and six screws I take with me everywhere I go.

Ditto on the getting old thing Lucky. I swear the bluffs of Iowa get steeper every year. I keep telling myself it's just that the earth is leaning a little more this year than last, lol.

Hey Dog,
I'm just 5 yrs behind you and I know what you mean (oh my knees!). Yeah, the anticipation is always unbearable. I'll be in GMU 67 on Sept 18 for my first elk hunt. So far I haven't injured myself during my training so I plan to be peaking when I head out there.

Hey brother, it could always be worse. You could be like a kid in front of a candy store with empty pockets. :s2:

I'm right there with KCMO - five years behind you. The way I see it though, every day is a great day. As long as I wake up, it's a great day.:s2:

I am 46 also, and since I just started hunting 2 years ago I have lots of hunting to make up and a limited warrantee on my body parts. The only good part about starting hunting now is that I have some money to buy good hunting equipment.

Atleast you don't have a nice 12 point rack on your head and folks out to get you.

We have quite a bit in common then as this year will only be my fourth year bowhunting.

:biggrin: That's a good way to look at it!

Getting old sucks but it is better than not getting old.

There 'ya go!:s4:

Like I said, any day you wake up is a good day. If it's not a good day it's totally your fault.

I'll be 61 this year, omg... but I'll tell you CLD and youngsters, you'll be here before you know it. Stay the course with working out & aerobics, and keep your weight under control so that you can continue to enjoy the outdoors - I've seen too many hunters fall by the wayside. BTW, it doesn't get any easier, lol.

-fsh

I hear ya brother(s)...turning 49 @ the end of the month but I still have the motivation to climb into my stand during bow season the same way I did when I was 15 years old. My passion to hunt and be out among nature hasn't gotten any less while growing older, it will never get old. My love for bowhunting and enjoying the great outdoors is still as great as it was when I was younger. I hope to be bowhunting when I'm well into my 70's and beyond, the good Lord willing.....and when I die I hope there is plenty of hunting where ever I end up. Good luck hunting this season and all be safe.

One of my very best hunting partners, is going to call it quits after this year. We have been rifle elk hunting together for 15 years. He says he just can't take the walking or the atv rides. I told him we need to buy some horses. He just laughed. I think he is going to be 65 this year.

Thanks for the replies. I think you guys gave me new motivation for working out. Maybe next year, I'll work out all year long. Not just the 3 months before elk season!!LMAO

My step Dad use to go out Elk hunting every year in the San Louis Valley, ( where I lived in the 80's ) But then one year he got high altitude poisoning. So he called it quits. He was 65 when that happened. He has been back out there and he didn't have any problems, but at 72 years old he figured he better quit hunting. They use to take mules and there 4 Wheeler's. I got a small 5x4 bull when I lived out there in 81. I never got a chance to go for mule deer. Some day I will... I love Colorado.....
They are going to be putting a pain pump in me in the next couple weeks. Then its a 4 to 6 weeks of recovery. I told my wife, they better hurry up and get this thing put in because I'm not missing bow season, wont happen...lol.. But when that pump is put in, my pain should FINALLY!!! go away....

You know what they say, "Getting old ain't for sissies!"

I am a little older than you, it definitely is a "painful" transition in so many ways, however considering the alternative, it doesn't seem so bad.

I too will be in the mountains come the 28th. I will be moving slow but I will be there nevertheless.

Age is just a number, I turn 61 in two weeks, I still shoot everyday, play golf and work harder than I ever have in my life. Age is just a state of mind.

Who do you complain to
 

. . . if you get to sixty?

i'm with you. love walking the golf course and the woods. just turned 59 and still hanging lock ons by myself. i fully realize that will change, but hopefully ground blinds will allow me to hunt for many more years.

Sorry Rev but that's kind of a retarded statement. I think your age is getting to you.:s1: How many bowhunters do you know that are 80?? Not very many I bet. Is their state of mind all screwed up?? LMAO!! :poke:I'm glad your health is so good and I hope you can hunt until your 200 years old but age is not a state of mind. It is a fact of life. I think that accepting that fact will help individuals live their life to the MAX!! JMHO
:party0005:

That being said, I feel like a million bucks and I always feel my best right before hunting season.

I use to feel like a million bucks, but most of it got stolen when they knocked me out to do the 2 back surgery's I had.... lol

I hear ya, getting old does suck. Im 45 now, about 3 years ago I had to start wearing reading glasses, really screwed with my pins when trying to anchor. I had to get a Verifier peep, or was it a Clarifier lol, I dont remember, thats another part about getting old I am not looking forward to, memory loss.

Retarded? I don't think so. I know men that after 50 just gave up on doing things. They have boats that just sit there, they have motor cycles they don't ride. I ask them to do things even most are younger than I and all I get is it's too hot, it's too cold. I don't have the energy. Are they too old? Heck no, they have given in to age... I like to call it a state of mind. BTW, there's an old man in his late seventy's that shoots on team Bowtech that can out shoot 95 % of the young boys here. I'm sure he'll still be popping deer with his bow well into his mid 80's.. My mom is 86 years old and still works because she loves what she does. Getting old doesn't mean you can't. In most cases it just means you can do it better!

Retarded was more than a bad choice of words on my part. I understand what you are saying and you can't let age be an excuse. But back sugeries and things like that are real and a part of aging. I do agree with your philosophy.

Edit- Rev, I sent you an apology in a pm.

im 46 also and once i hit 40 the body needed some help 3 hernias all fixed at the same time, two knee surgerys one was because the doctor didnt completely fix the knee so it was a touch up,one shoulder,damn factory job,eyes need glasses now,this year alone i had appendix out and about two months ago i had fusion surgery just four screws and some titanium.

how does your back feel after the surgery as far as hunting wise and everyday activity.

hope i never give up hunting,or fishing and mushroom hunting, now i guess i am gettting old looking forward to mushroom season

Ya know, I can usually walk around in the woods longer than I can walk on the street. The ground is softer. Sitting in the stands gets hard. I can sit there all day. I usually only last about 3 to 4 hours then I have to walk around. But walking around with a bow where I hunt wont do you any good, so I just go home for a few hours and come back for an evening sit. I am lucky. I have a great friend that lives a 1/2 a mile from me that lets me, and only me hunt his 35 acres. Once and a while he lets his ex step son hunt there. But he keep shooting everything that walks by and its pissing him off. That and the fact he only hears from him when hunting season is coming up. Anyway, here is what my back looks like.

Attachment 11119

Now I'm waiting on a surgery date for a pump. They are going to put a pump inside me that will kind of be like a morphine drip. Since the line will be going right into my spine, the dosage will be very little but very effective.