Please help me understand...

[std7mag]

I came accross a gentleman yesterday. Older fella, sitting in his vehicle, looking out accross this "field".
Stopped to chat with him. He was hunting (deer in PA). Had his rifle next to him, magazine on the dashboard.
Claimed he couldn't walk very well. Had a black eye from a tumble on a step earlier in the week.
Claimed he was "good to 300 yards, to the treeline". I ranged it. 518 yards.
Coming back to the parking area 3hr later, he was at the front of his vehicle chatting with some other hunters, leaning heavily on his cane.

While i'm all in for someone to continue what they love, i just couldn't stop wondering...
What the heck he was gonna do if he did shoot a deer?

This is not the first time i've run accross this.

Thankyou for your time!

 

[Laelkhunter]

He probably didn't really expect to kill one, he just loved being out there, and couldn't just sit at home. All of his old hunting buddies were probably gone, and he just "had to be out there". -Or- he hoped some "nice fellow like you" would come along and give him a hand. We might all be there one day.

 

[jabber]

When my father started reaching that age, he when "hunting" many times with absolutely no intention of shooting anything. Just wanted to be out there. He had all the essentials, rifle, clothing, knife etc. but told me a number of times it was going to have to be a really big one before he shot. Looking back at it now, I don't think they grew that big.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

I've seen this a couple times, usually two things I've seen. Either they shoot a deer and call someone for help, or the shoot a deer gut it and have some ingenious method to get it in the truck. Like some goldbloom like pulley system they created 15 years ago

 

[Doublecluck]

Better to die trying to drag your last deer to the truck than in a hospital bed....

But my guess is he would just call someone....

 

[madtom]

It’s also possible the people you saw him talking to later were his friends and they were trying to push deer to him. Seen that a lot in the Midwest where deer drives are the norm.

 

[Mtnhunter1]

We will all be there someday....some sooner than others.

 

[Scrappy]

It’s also possible the people you saw him talking to later were his friends and they were trying to push deer to him. Seen that a lot in the Midwest where deer drives are the norm.

Here in iowa during the shotgun season the big deer drive guys go by the old folks home and pick up any warm body. You maybe wondering where I'm going with this huh. In iowa you can shoot deer to fill other people's tags but that person has to be present. I've drove past a many a pickups parked on the side of the road with an old guy sitting in a chair beside it.

 

[OleRedbeard]

I agree with most of the posters above on what they have said about him calling some buddies or having a ingenious way of getting it out of the woods. Before my dad passed he would always call me to see what time I was working that day and let me know if he got something down to come on over. Its a awfulyl humbling thing to watch somebody you learned everything from go from being able to walk up and down every mountain around like it was nothing to barely able to get a hundred yards off the road. If we stick with it long enough that's the last chapter in the hunting story for most of us.

 

[noharleyyet]

I came accross a gentleman yesterday. Older fella, sitting in his vehicle, looking out accross this "field".
Stopped to chat with him. He was hunting (deer in PA). Had his rifle next to him, magazine on the dashboard.
Claimed he couldn't walk very well. Had a black eye from a tumble on a step earlier in the week.
Claimed he was "good to 300 yards, to the treeline". I ranged it. 518 yards.
Coming back to the parking area 3hr later, he was at the front of his vehicle chatting with some other hunters, leaning heavily on his cane.

While i'm all in for someone to continue what they love, i just couldn't stop wondering...
What the heck he was gonna do if he did shoot a deer?

This is not the first time i've run accross this.

Thankyou for your time!

No offense but you missed the point....

 

[onpoint]

NHY and I are rarely on the same side of things.
That being said..........

 

[rmyoung1]

When my father started reaching that age, he when "hunting" many times with absolutely no intention of shooting anything. Just wanted to be out there. He had all the essentials, rifle, clothing, knife etc. but told me a number of times it was going to have to be a really big one before he shot. Looking back at it now, I don't think they grew that big.

Darn good post right here. Perfectly stated!

 

[Western Traveler1]

I see it where I am. While on my mule deer hunt this year I saw a similar fellow. When I passed him later in the morning there were a couple of hunters (strangers to him) waiting to drag his deer to his truck after he finished field dressing it. They packed it in the snow and left. I chatted with him a bit and he was waiting for his younger friends that were off elk hunting to come back from their hunt and load it. I checked on him in the afternoon and met his friends. Really nice guy that had hunted the area since the 70’s. Then there are those hunters like I met in Colorado on this years elk hunt that told me to come to their camp if I killed something as they love packing animals out for people. I told another hunter the story and he said they had helped pack his elk out the prior year and refused any compensation. We have always been a special community, though sadly I have seen some changes over the years. Maybe I’m just more conscious of it these days.

 

[the nikster]

I sometimes go hunting with knives, rifle and rope but no tag. I’m not going to poach, I’m going for my sanity. If the ol guy takes a 300 yard shot at a deer 518 yards away he’ll still be sitting there with a tag in the late afternoon. No problem with that, I’ve missed plenty.
Im glad you stopped to talk to him, that’s probably why he was there. Probably made his day

 

[onpoint]

My father in law, closing on 80, was again "hoping" he might be able to buy a deer tag and hunt the Duluth MN country for whitetails just once more.
Again, as has happened the last few years, health - hurting back - prevented his hopes from coming to fruition.
If putting yourself in his shoes, or the old guy's from the OP's story, doesn't make you cringe - you're either too young and dumb (something a lot of us have live and are long passed) or a different kind of "hunter" than I.
At one time MFWP held confiscated game auctions every Wednesday morning at the Region 3 HQ - gone a long time ago, and a whole different irritating story- and a whole slug of old farts who no longer had the hunt in them showed up every week. Many to not even bid on some meat, but to just still be a part of the game somehow and to hang out with other old timers.
Who among us, if we make it long enough, will bow out of doing this stuff gracefully...................

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Have been "Hunting"many times not wanting a kill,but just wanting the walkabout.
If you can't walkabout,sitting a stand or Pickup is the next best thing.

 

[brnsvllyjohn]

Where I typically hunt I am known as the "Old Man camped at the corner" by some of the other hunters in the area. I do camp on the same corner most of the time. I can still retrieve a buck by myself but it might take 2 trips now. I hunt by myself a lot and 2 out of the last 4 deer that I have taken I had complete strangers offer to help me pack my buck to the road. I will continue to hunt as long as I can, I just don't go as far as I used to. I would never plan on getting help from strangers and I did not ask for help with either of those deer but when offered I have accepted the help.
I completely understand that hunters situation and who knows he might know someone he can contact to get help.

Would you offer help to a complete stranger?? I would and have many times.

 

[Pucky Freak]

That was my dad in MN many years ago. He wasn't going to pull the trigger if a deer was 30 yards away let alone 300. We all just went about normal deer camp business and no one would ever state the obvious, as that would have been pretty insulting. We made sure it was a great last trip for him. There is something about having a weapon at your side, a tag in your pocket, and just being at peace with the world. This too, will be you someday, and then you'll understand.

 

[devon deer]

To me was hunting 'smart'!
Cheers
Richard

 

[mtmuley]

Who among us, if we make it long enough, will bow out of doing this stuff gracefully...................

Not me. Gonna drag my ass out for as long as I can. mtmuley