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Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting #7675719 11/29/19 10:05 PM
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There has been many times through the years that I would hear someone say they had gotten back into hunting, meaning for some reason they had left the sport. Just recently I ran into a guy at the rifle range who said it was a divorce that caused him to leave the sport and that he was now getting back into it. While I have never left the sport, I can easily say I've stepped back from it since my retirement. As I'm sure it is with others, hunting was always my escape from job stress and worries, which all disappeared once I retired. So while some might jump into hunting even more once they retire, I decided to start spending more time with the wife and doing things at home. I recently saw a post on social media that said it's better to spend money on experiences than to spend it on stuff. Maybe I've become one of those looking to enjoy doing more and different things than sitting in the woods waiting to shoot an animal for meat that I don't need.

So then, if you're one of those who falls into the category of having once left the sport, what caused you to leave it and why did you decide to take it back up? Or, if you're one of those who never left the sport but have taken a few steps back from it, what drove that decision?

Last edited by Texas Dan; 11/29/19 10:32 PM.

"Some people will never like you because your spirit irritates their demons."
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7675732 11/29/19 10:29 PM
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I've not left it...but like you, upon retirement I find myself spending a bit less time in the woods. Even then...it is more as an observer than any real commitment to taking something (except hogs, hogs are killed on sight).

I enjoy taking my camera with me and with no self imposed pressure to shoot anything for the table...I can really relax and take in what has been painted for us...on this wonderful canvas we call the outdoors.

My Wife is going to work a few more years...but I expect when She retires we will spend more time together doing things she enjoys and my hunting/outings will drop a notch or two on the list of things I find important.

I am fortunate to live on the property we own out in the country...so right there...I have it better than most.

I can walk out my back door and start enjoying what many folks have to travel hours for or 'plan' time to do. I am spoiled in that respect I suppose.


Spartans ask not...how many, but where!
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7675733 11/29/19 10:30 PM
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Hunted all types of game growing up with my dad, uncle, and other family members. Stepped away for a while as my wife and I started our family, and got back into it when the kids got a little older. So it has all came full circle!! Waiting on the day I can take my Grandkids with me (only have one right now and she's only 6 months old, but it'll be here soon enough).

I'd have to say finances were the biggest reasons I left hunting for the time that I did. With young kids there are many different ways to spend the money. As the kids get older you realize the money will work itself out, and make the necessary sacrifices where needed.

Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Travelinman] #7675796 11/30/19 12:18 AM
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Originally Posted by Travelinman
Hunted all types of game growing up with my dad, uncle, and other family members. Stepped away for a while as my wife and I started our family, and got back into it when the kids got a little older. So it has all came full circle!! Waiting on the day I can take my Grandkids with me (only have one right now and she's only 6 months old, but it'll be here soon enough).

I'd have to say finances were the biggest reasons I left hunting for the time that I did. With young kids there are many different ways to spend the money. As the kids get older you realize the money will work itself out, and make the necessary sacrifices where needed.


+1


God bless John Wayne!
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7675841 11/30/19 01:49 AM
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Also being retired, my hunting has changed. I never really got out of hunting, but have scaled back. I’m able to hunt on our place, so it’s about a 200 yard walk to the closest two stands. I can hunt every day, or not. There’s no pressure to hunt hard anymore, now that I don’t work, and I’ll take two doe each year and then be a spectator. If the right buck shows up, 10 point minimum, I might shoot him, or not.

This afternoon was a typical hunt. Had my rifle (223, today) a cold Diet Coke, and a good book. 4:50 pm, there’s a non-legal 7. At 5:15, there’s a wide 7 point, maybe 19” inside (that’s good for this area), and one doe. None of them sniffed me. I was hoping for a coyote or pig, but that didn’t happen.

I’m a lucky fellow.


Not my monkeys, not my circus...
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7675917 11/30/19 04:15 AM
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I haven’t stepped away from hunting, but I couldn’t be gone every free minute like a lot of guys are during season. I plan to take a few weeks every year and do adventure type trips and fill in with a few days here and there for my whitetail hunting. Wife and 3 kids make it hard to be gone every weekend from October-early January. Fortunately my job details I’m on a ranch about 3-4 days a week at least so I get my country fix from that. It will get easier in a few years when I get one or two kids out of the house ( or at least driving on their own ). One thing I am asking myself is “ how many deer do I really need to kill”? I don’t really have much more room for mounts and need to save what precious space I have for different species. I am looking at doing a lot more bird hunting ( blue quail, duck and pheasant).

What I did put on pause was fishing. When I got remarried, a boat didn’t fit into the equation anymore so I sold my rig and quit fishing. Aside from throwing a rod in the truck and hitting a river or stock tank while I’m at work, I’ve gone on two trips in the last 3 years.

As soon as I get some kids out of the house I’m getting a new bay boat and spending some tine on the water with me and the wife and daughter. I really miss driving my boat on glass slick water just after sunrise



For it is not the quarry that we truly seek, but the adventure.
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7676085 11/30/19 02:24 PM
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I agree with most of the above. Owning our place changed me. I can hunt just about anytime I want. When we used to lease, it was like, " I want to get my money's worth". I don't really need to kill a deer, I have venison from last year, vacuum sealed. It's more about making our land the best it can be, and the deer herd will respond in kind. I've passed 3 bucks so far that were true trophies for our area this season. Just watched as they cruised through. Sometimes there's power in NOT pulling the trigger. Hogs, however, never get a pass. I guess your priorities change as you get older.


Life is too short, as is. Don't chance it.
Don't text and drive.
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: txtrophy85] #7676522 12/01/19 01:38 AM
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Originally Posted by txtrophy85
I haven’t stepped away from hunting, but I couldn’t be gone every free minute like a lot of guys are during season. I plan to take a few weeks every year and do adventure type trips and fill in with a few days here and there for my whitetail hunting. Wife and 3 kids make it hard to be gone every weekend from October-early January. Fortunately my job details I’m on a ranch about 3-4 days a week at least so I get my country fix from that. It will get easier in a few years when I get one or two kids out of the house ( or at least driving on their own ). One thing I am asking myself is “ how many deer do I really need to kill”? I don’t really have much more room for mounts and need to save what precious space I have for different species. I am looking at doing a lot more bird hunting ( blue quail, duck and pheasant).

What I did put on pause was fishing. When I got remarried, a boat didn’t fit into the equation anymore so I sold my rig and quit fishing. Aside from throwing a rod in the truck and hitting a river or stock tank while I’m at work, I’ve gone on two trips in the last 3 years.

As soon as I get some kids out of the house I’m getting a new bay boat and spending some tine on the water with me and the wife and daughter. I really miss driving my boat on glass slick water just after sunrise



I have a good friend who did just the opposite. He had his own place but his new wife wanted a lake house instead. Now he has a lake house and two boats but no place to hunt.


"Some people will never like you because your spirit irritates their demons."
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7677686 12/02/19 03:59 PM
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Not me, but my dad falls in this category. He was a hunter when i was born and continued to hunt until i was 5 or 6. Well in 1991 my parents decided they wanted a weekend house and settled for a water front house on the San Bernard river. After this purchase, we started to focus on fishing over just about everything else and hunting stopped. Fast forward to 2011, i got a my first good job outside of college and always wanted to try hunting. I did some research and found an opening on a lease in E Texas. My dad retired last year. At the end of last season i was notified that my deer lease was being sold, so back to looking for a lease i went. I was able to find a new one pretty quick with the relationships i made from my old lease. A few weeks after i joined the new lease i heard there was one final opening. I made a quick call to my dad to see if he was interested and sure enough he wanted to give it a go. It was a lot of work this past summer getting everything all set up but it sure is nice to get to spend the extra time with my dad in the woods.

Last edited by Bobby Hill; 12/02/19 04:01 PM.
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7677768 12/02/19 05:09 PM
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Recently retired. I’ve found I’ve killed enough deer in my younger years that I’m ok wo taking any more. I do enjoy camaraderie and fellowship in hunt camps still. But I’ll kill a pig in a heartbeat. They don’t get a pass w all the damage they inflicted in past.

Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7677774 12/02/19 05:18 PM
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I haven't quit to come back yet, but children and a wife have cut far further into my outdoors time than I ever thought possible. I don't know if its role reversals in modern homes or im just not a sit around and do nothing person or what, but I cook clean do the yard work, do more than my share with the kids etc. and it just doesn't seem like there is enough hours in the day or days in the week to get 1/2 of what I need to get done much less what I want to get done. The ranch has been put on a back burner, the boat is on a back burner. We still go, but more often than not the food plots don't get planted the senderos don't get mowed, new blinds don't get built etc. I hate it, but I know I have to do what I have to do for my family and that means I don't get to go fishing and hunting as much as I used to or as much as i'd like. I haven't used my bow fishing bow, generator and lights in probably 4 years crying


It's hell eatin em live
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7677821 12/02/19 06:29 PM
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I am kind of getting away from hunting and fishing as well. All I do is work all the time.

I think a lot of us spend a lot less time in the outdoors when we come of age and start hunting something else.

That slows down a little whne you mature some but down the road marriage and work also slow you down.

Then when the kids are big enough to hold a fishing pole you start trying again


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Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7678441 12/03/19 07:46 AM
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I just started back after 30 years this year. I moved way too far away from my regular hunting areas which were the S. Houston and D. Crockett National Forests, and I just didn't want to deal with leases. i finally moved closer last year, allowing me to hunt back in those areas. However, I will not limit myself to the national forests next year, and I will put in for drawings and research leases.

Also, i REALLY want to get me some venison! Back when I was hunting in the '60s to the late '80s, I only ate unprocessed venison. After seeing all of the processed venison products I'm seeing now, I can't stop drooling. Sausage and summer sausage is tops on my list.

Just to add, I really wanted to go during my 30 year hiatus, but I just couldn't get my daughters into it. Just to go out and shoot was like pulling teeth to them. If I could have gotten a spark of interest out of them, I would have wouldn't have been away so long.


Retired!
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7678984 12/03/19 09:54 PM
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Interesting comments for sure.

I've never really thought much about it but maybe it's trying to be like our parents or others we admire that motivates us to get into hunting or any other past time activity. Then once we become an adult, perhaps the competitive aspect takes over as we try to bring home a deer that others will admire. If you live long enough, you eventually reach the point were being competitive no longer means squat to you and you find yourself re-evaluating how best to spend all the days you have left.


"Some people will never like you because your spirit irritates their demons."
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7679016 12/03/19 10:42 PM
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I think for most it is simply about being able to hunt or being willing to hunt. A resource that is there all the time is still there tomorrow. A resource that is limited must be used to the max until it is gone. Some different mindsets with those two aspects (land ownership vs leasing).

Likewise, time management is very difficult and trying to be a good dad/parent/spouse makes us keenly aware there simply are not enough hours in the day. When I started my residency training, I was told I needed to re-prioritize my life so that my family came first, my learning was second, and my desires came a distant third. That was the way it was for several years, but it worked. I could not have hunted then even if I wanted to, but I wasn't into hunting then so it didn't matter. Life cycles take their toll on some more than others.

The idea that hunting is all over at some point in life is not really valid. If you have a gun in the stand, you are hunting. You may be very selective about what you are hunting, but you are still hunting. So maybe stating it to say you are taking a break from shooting as much in the past is a better way to say it. I think some people phase out of hunting, but a lot of the commenters above are still very into hunting (hogs don't get a pass, that means you are still hunting guys...)

Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: redchevy] #7679272 12/04/19 04:04 AM
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Originally Posted by redchevy
children and a wife have cut far further into my outdoors time than I ever thought possible. :



Man you ain’t lying about that one


For it is not the quarry that we truly seek, but the adventure.
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: txtrophy85] #7679294 12/04/19 04:42 AM
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Originally Posted by txtrophy85
Originally Posted by redchevy
children and a wife have cut far further into my outdoors time than I ever thought possible. :



Man you ain’t lying about that one


I agree. Priorities change when you start having kids. Money gets tighter and I always feel like I’d rather spend it on the kids than on myself. Hunting was such a part of my childhood and younger years. I just couldn’t get enough and thought about it all the time. Like most on here, it was just part of who I was. I’m finding my way back into it now and happy my boy has an interest. I’ve tried real hard not to push it on him, but rather have him come to me about it. When I was younger it was all about getting a limit or tagging a buck. Now that’s not the case at all. Now it’s about trying to show my son the rush of hearing their whistling wings and watching them cup and commit. Showing him how cool it is to see a good dog do what they were bread to do. I’m really looking forward to the next few years and being back out there with him.

Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7679935 12/04/19 11:09 PM
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Divorced, huh? My problem was I got married! LOL.

I had exactly two seasons where I was all graduated and matriculated and what-have-ya and I had not yet met the woman of my dreams. Bet your butt I was out in the woods every day I wasn't working. Then I fell in love. That fall I got one afternoon out.

One day she says to me, why do you have all this hunting stuff if you don't hunt?
I said darling, honey babe, I've been chasing you every weekend grin

Then she graduated (college) and we moved around for her career. So I've resolved to spend at least a little time on my first love.

Plus now we're talking about kids eeks333


Jordan

"It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them." -- G. K. Chesterton
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Tw0fish] #7680042 12/05/19 01:02 AM
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Originally Posted by Tw0fish
Divorced, huh? My problem was I got married! LOL.

I had exactly two seasons where I was all graduated and matriculated and what-have-ya and I had not yet met the woman of my dreams. Bet your butt I was out in the woods every day I wasn't working. Then I fell in love. That fall I got one afternoon out.

One day she says to me, why do you have all this hunting stuff if you don't hunt?
I said darling, honey babe, I've been chasing you every weekend grin

Then she graduated (college) and we moved around for her career. So I've resolved to spend at least a little time on my first love.

Plus now we're talking about kids eeks333


that is a double edged sword. Wife at home alone with no kids is gonna get bored if husband is out in the woods every weekend, a lot of times they will get resentful.

with kids, especially babies, they expect you to be home every weekend taking care of the kids, if not, they really get resentful.

its like a no-win situation.


Currently, I am able to take a full week or two off during the course of a year to go on trips. Locally I can sneak in a afternoon or a morning here or there ( I went out Monday evening, week before I got a morning hunt in where I discovered my bow blind roof is torn wide open....) Weekends are usually hunting with the kids ( I have to sit with one still so i'm not able to get my hunts in although that will change in a few years, If we both want it too, I enjoy sitting with the kids and get a lot of excitement from it ) or various activities. Thank god I have a place to hunt 15 min from my front door or we would be in a very different situation. I could hunt more in the mornings but that would interfere with my work which pays for my trips so I don't usually skimp on job duties.


The guys with wives and kids who hunt every single weekend, I don't see how they do it. My wife works and leaving her on the weekend all the time to take care of the kids would not be very fair to her, so there is a balancing act to consider.





For it is not the quarry that we truly seek, but the adventure.
Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7680067 12/05/19 01:23 AM
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I have never gotten away from it and never will. There was about a decade there where keeping all the plates spinning was hard because I was working like a dog and we had two young kids.

But my wife knew how much I loved hunting (at that time on a deer lease with my Dad and very close friends), and I still went at least 3-5 weekends a season. I don’t think I could have kept my sanity without it. There were 10 other months available to do my share and then some to make it up to her and the kids. You can’t be the best husband and Daddy if you are not at least paying some attention to your own well-being.

Of course things get easier once the kids get older and can go and/or become more self-sufficient. My wife and I spent last week at the farm together hunting. The kids still go when they can. Now it seems things have slowed down and there’s time for so much more.


Originally Posted by Russ79
I learned long ago you can't reason someone out of something they don't reason themselves into.


Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: txtrophy85] #7680068 12/05/19 01:25 AM
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I think there is a direct relationship between getting older, a gradual reduction of testosterone, and that famous saying,
“ I don’t hate them that much.” Many other things diminish with this getting old process. So far, I’m still in the game (starting) and enjoying every minute of it.

Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7680164 12/05/19 03:01 AM
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First of all, I don't consider myself as much of a Hunter. In that, I have never Deer hunted.
Over all the years, from a teenager shooting, skinning squirells and rabbits, attempting Turkey hunts at LBL in Ky., dreaming of being a Fox hunter.. Then to mid 30's shooting targets, no hunting.

then to late 40's into mid 50's just chasing Coyotes and some hogs. It has always been on and off. Off for the past few years to the extent I sold all my guns. And now.. maybe a little more sensible about it. I can see where a hog gun, a few .22lr, a yote gun and a shotty are going to be more than enough for the rest of my years, lol.

Sometimes I reminiscence about how the Gun Digest, Shooters Bible was my go-to reading material as a young buck.

I'd like to say to the Husband's and Father's you are doing the right thing. I learned the hard way. TIME, hopefully is on your side, so stay healthy and don't worry to much about it smile


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Re: Comments from those who have gotten back into hunting [Re: Texas Dan] #7680643 12/05/19 05:25 PM
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As I've gotten older, I've slowed up a little but still going strong. I have found that I am way more selective about what I bring home. Does that make me a trophy hunter? Maybe, but I still bring home young and tender when the kids or friends need to fill their freezer.

For me, it's just getting into the woods and watching the world come alive. There's no better show in the world.

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