How Has Aging Affected How You Hunt?

L

Larry Eckart

Well-known member
Guys,
I saw a few posts about getting older and how it affects our hunting. Bifocals. Trying to back up a trailer when your body won’t let you twist like you used to.

How has aging has changed how you hunt? I don’t consider myself “old” at 63 but I certainly am not as flexible as I used to be or have the endurance I had when I was 50.

I notice my age when I try to throw my kayak up on my truck rack. The kayak isn’t heavy. But there is no place to grab it like my canoe. So I find myself struggling to get the kayak up on the rack and feel embarrassed that I can’t do that by myself without straining. I find myself preferring to use my 13’ canoe since it is easier to grab and throw over my head.

I notice my age when picking up something that has weight and feeling a pull in my elbow that didn’t use to be there.

I notice my age when fishing in my boat for the day. Pulling up the anchor, reaching for a rod, and throwing a cast net all use different motions than I use on normal days. And the next day my body is sore but my mind is happy!

I notice my age when I read my hunting journals from 20 years ago about crazy things I did back when. Like sleeping in my MLB Wigeon overnight in Lake St. Clair on the Canadian side. It sounds thrilling or romantic to sleep inside your boat. Isn’t that what Nathaniel Bishop did when he spent four months in a Barnegat Sneakbox floating down the Ohio River? If Bishop could spend four months in a Sneakbox surely I would enjoy doing it for one night! What I remember most is how LOUD waves are inside the hull and how LOUD mallards drakes quack at night and how LITTLE I slept. I’m glad I did it then. I’d never do it now.

On the other hand, aging brings an accumulation of knowledge, usually from past mistakes. Last year I took a young guy out diver hunting using long lines. He had only puddle duck hunted previously. I was surprised to hear him say several times, “oh that’s how you do that.” It dawned on me that there is a large bank of knowledge accumulated over the years in each of us.

But in spite of that accumulation of knowledge, I still relish the opportunity to learn new things about the marsh, the birds, the hunt and about myself. In that frame of mind, maybe we aren’t old at all!!

How has aging affected how you hunt?

Larry
 
Larry:

I saw my doctor and then an orthopedist earlier this week for a weird knee/calf injury. It turns out nothing is really wrong there, just an unusual complication from some mild arthritis that happened at a really unfortunate time. (1st day of my 10 day Yellowstone trip.)

So I was cleared to "return to normal" at the end of the visit, and I said, "Duck season starts next week. Does normal include portaging an 80 pound canoe by myself the half mile in to my local spot for the season?"

"Sure. If your body let's you do it, go ahead. But you know they make those carriers with wheels, right?"

I think that after 30 years of hauling boats on my shoulders, I may finally be ready for one of those.
 
Great post and particularly timely for me. Knees and hips are the biggest issue. Both can get very sore. I know everything would be so much easier if I just lost some weight.

I tend to hunt a lot smarter than I used to. Fewer canoe trips, more fields. Boats are my favorite hunt but that doesn't really work on the prairies. Good dogs help! More scouting, less time in the field. More afternoon hunts, fewer mornings. Less competing for the ideal spot in busy public areas.

Curiously, I am harvesting more birds than at any other time in my life.
 
Now, should I have a dream of any physical activity like duck hunting I wake up sore.

Age has changed how and where I hunt. Outside of this weekend, I can't walk a mile towing/carrying gear to the spot. Retrieving ducks in muck kills me. I look for the easier places to hunt where I might not see any ducks but I know I can get back out and home safely. Some of the places I used to hunt I would be crazy to do so now.

Mark
 
Turned 62 this summer and starting to notice the effects of ageing on my doings! Slight depreciation in balance is what worries me the most. Especially doing a lot of my waterfowling from small boats.I have all the usual aches & pains associated with age and strenuous work in younger years. Back, arthritis, starting wearing glasses at about 45. Copd and sleep apnia. Glasses really effected my wingshooting for a short time. Finely figured out I needed another 1/8" drop at comb to keep me from seeing that top rim and picking my head up slightly. But back to balance, I routinely run a 15" ghenooe up river about 3 miles with a little 8hp motor. Although hull is much stabler than standard square stern canoe you still need good balance & quick moves to adjust for sudden problems. Started wearing a pfd couple years ago as boat almost throwed me over side on a new years morning hunting trip. And at that time my balance/recovery time was better than now. Was setting decoys and leaned against a seat back that gave way. Gun still cased along gunnel on seats. Knees came down on case and saved me from a dunking. Picked up case and could tell things weren,t quite right. Had busted buttstock off browning at receiver but it did take up my fall. First time I,d seen the sunrise heading back to the boat ramp while hunting. Spectacular , especially being I was alive to see it.
 
Weeeeeeellllll perhaps not what you meant, but aging has affected how I hunt for sure......I have more money now to do so. Promotions have allowed me to save more money and age has taught me to budget better so that I can go more places without worrying if I ought to or not.
 
I'm a youngster at "only" 49, but I can tell you that I now hunt smarter than I used too!
Fewer decoys, don't hunt 4-5 days in a row like I used to, don't hunt where I cant motor the boat or walk around, etc...

Also, I have found that simply walking briskly every week day morning for a mile or so all year round sure improved my stamina when wading the boat into the blind or after birds when duck season rolled around. And don't feel sore like I used to afterwards.
 
I will try to be brief.

Age has made me a wiser and better hunter.

The full tilt Gonzo hunter, many year stage, is over and I lived through it, Thank God. Now I'm more of a everyday hunter of minimalist style, in no rush, on my time. No matter what I'm hunting. Being there is the main thing.

Medical issues from a life of working hard in steel mills, etc. has taken a toll, but I fared better than most. Each day a new place on my body sez "ya remember when ya beat the hell outta me?!."

My first MI at 54 slowed me down for awhile, but I did not stop hunting. Meds play hell with muscle strength. So it's a slow go at times, and considering things, prior to doing.

My hearing is not what it used to be, but I listen to my body now better than I did before.

Last Dec.9th, MI #2 came a knocking while I was still hunting buck, a far piece from my vehicle. I almost got my wish to die (at age 66) doing what I love... Dec.24th the Docs fixed me and I'm here, by the Grace of God.

I asked the Docs. Can I Hunt deer, waterfowl, grouse, etc.? Their reply - "Get in shape and yer good to go, just don't be stupid."

As always, when I see a high ridge I wanna climb up it and hunt. See a lake, river, stream, marsh, or swamp, I wanna explore it. Walk far to hunt anything, I wanna do it.

So I'm going to, at my own pace and discover more of what I missed being in a hurry when I was younger.

Life is good.
 
65. 2 new hips,(wish I'd done it sooner) 2 microdiscectomies for L,3-4 herniations. BUT luckily in darn good shape considering.

1. Rarely hunt till closing time, which by the time you pick up and run in, is dark! A lot can happen after dark, most of which is not good.

2. I bought, with wife's urging, a bigger, safer boat. 14' aluminum Starcraft served me well for years, but things can get iffy in my northern Michigan waters too quickly. Ok, before R. Ligman outs me, I bought a 19' Bankes. I feel damn safe now!

3. Appreciate the marsh and marsh environment more. I work hard to pass this appreciation on to my grown kids. What goes on those 30 minutes before shooting time in the duck marsh is special to me.

4. Always feel safer to hunt with another partner, and his second boat. Not always doable, but if I fall, twist something, or do something age-related-stupid, help is close by.

5. Sitting there, let's me give thanks and reflect more on all the years I've been able to enjoy this sport, and the friends I've hunted with. Too many hunting partners are gone or fighting cancer. No ducks flying finds me thinking about those things.

Be safe my senior friends, Steve
 
As I am in the middle of treatment for multiple myloma I have time to reflect on seasons past and how they have changed. First off I have fewer buddies to hunt with which some times is not a bad thing, Booker always listens and never laughs. Second, limits are not nearly as important or possible. Third, I have gotten the urge to burn some black powder in a boat. I am sure there are support groups for that. Finally if I had to chose between the dog or he gun the gun would stay in the truck on purpose. After missing last year and this one is not looking good I realize how important this part of my life is. I do need to add how important the people on this forum have been to me, love you guys and gals
 
I think Dani is wise for her years

I enjoy shooting guns I could not dream of shooting of in my youth, I can still walk the hills - just can't run up them

i got smarter against many peoples predictions - I don't hunt every day - have not for years- but I hunt better places and don't feel the urge to prove anything, so I'm happy

I make a great choice in parents - genetics trump a lot of stuff
my Dad hunted NY's southern Tier hills with me and my setters until a dr killed him at 82, he was resuscitated, survived surgery and in an weakened condition made it another ten years- but could not make the hills any longer - I do what I can to avoid the docs and keep going in the field

in my muzzleloading days I did a horn with a setter on point with a grouse that had a quote from the 18th century
"Better to hunt the fields for health unbought
than fee the doctors for a noxious draught"
 
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Turned 70 this year and have been retired for 15 years.
Bought a larger boat for open water hunting, old boat was a small 16 foot with a pull start, new boat is large 18 foot with electric start engine.
Didn't buy a fiberglass boat because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to launch and retrieve it.
Rarely shoot open water alone anymore. I do hunt th sneakbox alone but in very shelter.ed water only. No more crossing large water in a sneakbox.
Relax more now. Don't have to kill a lot of birds. I now have time to make some of my own decoys and scout more. Shoot less and enjoy it more.

I also am an upland hunter. Shoot upland birds over an English Setter. Can no longer hunt all day. Hills are a killer. Wife says this is my last setter, she might be right, last year I hunted ducks a lot more than upland.
 
I'm going to be turning 59 in a couple of months, but I really started changing my hunting habits and preferences in my late 40's. I hunt salt marshes, so I hunt around the tides more wisely now. I hunt places that I like to hunt as much as places where there might be more birds. There are just certain little spots around that might not always be as good as another, but are great places to be. I definitely am not getting caught again on a low tide and stuck till 10PM in December. I also try to find one or two new spots to hunt every year, keeps your options open. What's great in a salt marsh is that over the years new channels open up areas that were previously not accessible, and old ones close up and change what was once a good spot. And I definitely prefer to hunt in the afternoon and rarely hut more than around 3 hours, maybe 4. If I can't get them in that time frame, too bad for me.
 
The majority of humans have a roughly 50:50 ratio of fast-twitch to slow-twitch smooth muscle fibers. High repetition, low weight, workouts benefits folks in their fifties and up, developing and maintaining both white and red muscle fibers, along with stretching on a daily basis, to maintain and build smooth muscle mass, which serves to "splint" a lot of the chronic use damage and wear done to joints. Your fast-twitch fibers are generally used in short duration burst effort expenditures like lifting and pulling. Slow-twitch muscled fibers are the muscles that provide endurance effort benefits. These are the "guys" that we can develop via long walks, bike rides over a half-hour duration, extended swimming, hydro-cycle classes at the "Y", etc.

There are no chronically dosed cardiovascular medications that cause muscle destruction or damage...none. Statin drugs that lower cholesterol, can induce myopathy to varying degrees, and the beta-blocker class of BP lowering drugs slow heart rate and cardiovascular contraction, which can influence time interval to a feeling of fatigue, but essentially what they are achieving at the tissue level is a lowered rate of cardiovascular smooth muscle oxygen demand, reducing arrhythmia onset and an angina event or an M.I. Cardiovascular smooth muscle differs from skeletal smooth muscle due to its, much lower tolerance for lactic acid build-up when the cells shift over from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism, based on lowered oxygen supply and concentration in the blood on exertion, as well as diminished blood-flow due to coronary lesions within the heart's circulatory "tree".

IF you have experienced an M.I., find out whether it penetrated the heart wall entirely or not ( transmural or non-transmural), Identify whether it was on the back or front of the heart (inferior or superior location), since the front two-thirds of the heart is that portion that undergoes the vast majority of wall motion during systolic contraction, which is related proportionally to its oxygen demand at the tissue level during exertion. Ask the doctor to what degree has collateral circulation developed post-M.I. at the site of damage. Find out how many sites exist within your coronary tree where lesions have created partial occlusions that block blood flow at 60% or higher. Ask if you have significant lesion formation or near-occlusion at or within your Left Anterior Descending artery (LAD), since this area supplies blood to cardiovascular tissues in a very significant area and active section of the heart. Occlusions within the LAD are usually those most associated with sudden death events (see Eric's post on the loss of his friend at a young age).

Chronic exercise confers significant benefits to the aging hunter, as well as all humans by: 1.) Increasing mitochondrial density in all muscle tissues. 2.) Expanding capillary density within both skeletal smooth muscle and cardiovascular smooth muscle. 3.) Increasing release of "joint lubricators" from surrounding bursa sacs. 4.) Improving time to fatigue and perceived level of fatigue. 4.) Decreases hemoglobin A1C, ( HbA1C) which is a long-term indicator of glycemic control, since it turns-over at an interval of roughly 120days. The higher your mitochondrial tissue density, the more ATP your body can make. The more ATP you can produce, the longer and farther you can go before your cells begin to respire via anaerobic pathways, building-up intracellular lactic acid concentrations. With chronic exercise, your ability to metabolize lactic acid improves as well.

Consistent HbA1C values of 5.9 or less indicate chronic blood sugar concentrations within normal range. Elevated blood sugars on a chronic basis are pro-inflammatory to your circulatory tree, slowly destroying it and damaging its functionality. Generally, anything that increases chronic inflammation within your vasculature increases the rate of damage within the neo-intimal layer of your circulatory tree, both skeletal systemic and cardiovascular. "Happy", fully functional neo-intimal cells look like paving bricks, and produce a compound that causes vasodilation (N02). When they are damaged they take on a columnar array, sticking up into the lumen and opening gaps or cracks in the neo-intimal layer. A group of modified white blood cells move into these sites, attracted by chemotactic factors that are being produced at these sites. From here, there are a variety of compounds and events that can induce production of an array of pro-inflammatory cytokines ( a group of protiens that have a chronic ability to drive elevated inflammation within your circulatory "tree" at the cellular level, damaging the neo-intimal layer's functionality further: elevated BP; elevated chronic blood sugar levels that lead to Type-II diabetes;chronically elevated small-dense LDL-C, smoking, chronic obesity, picking your parents wrong...etc.

I am one of the folks who picked the wrong parents, being "blessed" with metabolic syndrome...

Like any other aspect of life, being an informed "consumer" has value...particularly in the current U.S healthcare delivery environment!
 
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My first MI was 100% blockage and then rupture of the mid LAD. (Same thing that killed my dad at age 44). I drove myself to the ER and walked in very SLOWLY... Not smart at all.

They gave me a very poor chance of survival. My priest asked me if I was ready to go? I replied yes.

Doctors lost me twice during the procedure, and brought me back, by the Grace Of God.

After cardio rehab I went on the Dr. Dean Ornish Program For Reversing Heart Disease, with my doctors OK and telling me. "Good luck with that, patients try it but can't stick to it."


I read as much as is published about my condition & meds. Less than 2 years later was riding a good road bicycle 200+ miles a week. Plus getting heavy workouts at the job I went back to.


After the MI, I was told I had another artery blocked 60% that they could not address due to my condition on the table.

Was told, be aware of it. No two MI's feel the same, pay attention to what your body tells you.


After the second MI last Dec. (the artery that was 60% blocked) I asked my Cardiologist, what happened Dec.9th while I was hunting? He said the plaque broke loose that day, and on Dec 24, blocked the artery 90%.

Each time I had the chance to kill a deer last season. I'd slowly click off the safety, place my finger on the trigger, but my inner voice always said NO. I obeyed, or I would not be here now.


Not a day goes by that I do not realize I should have died Ground Hog Day, 2005, and Dec.9 & 24, of 2016, from heart disease.


The meds I've been on since 2005, come and go and are now all generic. No matter what the stats say, they play hell on the body, but help keep me ALIVE. As a good friend of mine, a general surgeon sez. "All medication is poison with good side affects."

So I do as the docs tell me, watch my diet, exercise a lot, walk a lot, and listen very closely to what my body sez.


Spring turkey hunting went well, carrying my hand carved decoy, a Model 12 Heavy Duck Gun, and walking far, up and down steep terrain. Fly fishing went well also.

Soon grouse, waterfowl, and deer will begin, and I'll be there at my own pace, and will only drag deer Down Hill.[;)] God Willing.


I am certain many folks on duckboats have gone through much worse than I, and continue doing what they love to do in their own way.

My hope is that if my true story helps even one person, it was worth my sharing.


To all here, at any age, with any type of medical issue. I wish you all the best.

I tip my hat to each and every one of you.

SALUDE!
 
Vince, you should have taken an aspirin and called the EMTs, who even back then had access to several clot-busting medications they could have administered in-transit to the Emergency Department, limiting the scope and degree of damage from your M.I. by restoring downstream blood flow more quickly. Someone also should have identified that you had a family history of CAD risk, based on your father's event profile. The first large population statin trial was published in 1994 (4S). You should have been on a statin. The Ornish Diet likely did little to reduce your post-event risk since you likely have a genetic induced dyslipidemia related to one or all of the following: 1.) Heterozygous recessive for hepatic LDL-C receptors. 2.)Lipoprotein-a disfunction 3. A high proportion of small-dense LDL-C sub-fraction.

Statins function by blocking HMG-Co-A-Reductase, a rate determining enzyme within the endogenous cascade in hepatic cells that eventually produces cholesterol. Secondarily, they aid in normalizing endothelial cell function in the neo-intima, stabilize the collagen/smooth muscle cell "cap" surrounding an early stage atheroma, and lower CAD event risk.

You did not mention whether you were a smoker or your weight level, but these two factors would also be drivers; as well as hypertension undertreated or not treated.
 
Will hit 75 this November. Still exercising three days a week, training dog, making stool. I have learned to pick my days a bit more now, than in the beginning. I still expect to do my share of set out and pick up when gunning, and my buddies, who are younger than I, expect that also. If I don't or can't, then I am missing an integral part of the fun of waterfowling.
As Vince said, it's more about getting out and enjoying the experience now, although the whole process each time still seems like doing the Christmas morning when you were a kid thing.
Headed back to Argentina this year, this time with son and some new and old companions. That has me stoked, even after many trips.
God willing, I will still be doing this insanity for a while. Of course, having a few bionic parts-hip and shoulder help, as does shedding around 70 pounds. Enjoy your moments afield, because you never know when the whole thing will end![;)]
 
I chewed 2 Ecotrin as soon as the intense pain shot from my shoulders to my elbows. Was told that most likely saved my life.

The second MI I took a "bus" ride from our local hospital with EMT's to UR, was home less than 26hrs later.

The medical technology from 2005 to 2016 is amazing! I was in Awe at the difference.


Had stopped recreational smoking in my 30's, or I would have had the first MI in my 40's I was told.

Hypertension was untreated for many years, and I ignored other red flags as well. A hard headed man thing. Just thought I was getting old.

When ya wake up in the morning, more tired then when ya went to bed, it's time to see a good doctor pronto.


Have very good doctors and meds now, to help manage my condition. Fatigue from 80mg of Atorvastatin can be a problem though, after ya endure the muscle pain for awhile.

So it is what it is, and each day a blessing.


Rick, you are very knowledgeable. Much like all the info that I read about my condition.

Thank you for your input and sharing. Guys like you, help keep guys like me Alive.
 
Whom ever coined the term "golden years" should be slapped!!!!!!! lighter decoys, like suck ducks, mid day hunting, usually the crowd is gone. less decoys better location. sold my bigger boat, using mostly skiffs no motor no gas no battery-fast simple easy. more jump shooting, patient and selective when shooting ducks. all good things, less cripples lost better ducks to eat. not concerned about limits. I hunt mostly with my "duck sons" young guys all gung-ho, its fun, they do most the work, interesting to watch them mature as hunters. adapting and changing is part of the journey!!!!!!!!!! enjoy it as best you may. (yes have had multiple surgeries on various joints) denial is a blessing! opening day pic.View attachment north opener.jpg
 
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