What is the biggest challenge for you in hunting?

[Huntin' Fool]

I read a few years back that hunting effort declines rapidly after 65. Will be that this summer.

Semi-retired since '06 and have hunted more than most since 1971.

Biggest challenge during hunting season?

If I have a big game tag in my pocket and the dogs wanna go bird hunting.

 

[MarvB]

Used to be time/raising my girls… now since retired it’s getting drawn to begin with!

 

[Bambistew]

Time away from my family. I just can't consciously spend weeks away. TBH I get all the time I want. This year is probably going to be the most I've been away in a long time. Have 5 weeks on the books right now.

 

[geetar]

Finding time to hunt while also being a father and husband who plays an active role in my wife and kids life.

 

[geetar]

Big trips are actually easier to deal with since it's completely blocked off.

I’ve found this to be true. With having two small children to take care of it creates less conflict in scheduling when I go states away to hunt for a week or more than it does when I am just down the road on short notice.

 

[Flatbrimmer]

Pesky private landowners with buttloads of screaming elk that invite their boyfriends cousins husbands nephews or whatever to shoot trophy bulls before the guy that they see daily and will work or pay for it…

There’s more than one… aint that about AB

 

[TomTeriffic]

Time aint ever filled my fuel tank!

or my bank account...... in the 1970's, your money could double in 9 years on savings interests alone

 

[Johnny Bravo]

I have a problem with other HTer's not telling me what unit to hunt with my 9 points

 

[Westxhunter]

Time......also, this year I was sick a couple times at the exact time I should have been hunting.

 

[TomTeriffic]

@TomTeriffic i hope you are related to Tom Lehrer, the guy who did the comedy hunting son in post #29. That Tom claims to have invented the Jell-O shot.

This Tom invented boozy egg custard and boozy pudding. Brandy is the key ingredient.

 

[devon deer]

Where I live at the moment, farting in front of the wrong person and them informing the police.

Cheers

Richard

 

[Sytes]

Time.

 

[hank4elk]

Recently it was my health. But that was resolved for the time being.
So gas $ to get pie is now. Or go to the eye doctor when there is an opening. New issue.
Don't get old kids.

 

[brockel]

Hunter standing there looking cute, waiting for something to move and SHOOT! BANG!!!! AAAARRRRRRGHHHH!!
Is that a little red vixen (she red fox) in the background? A she-gunnywolf pup?

View attachment 267093

 

[howl]

Right now it's figuring out what to camp on Grand Mesa in late May.

Generally it's finding somewhere to hunt in GA.

 

[Cornell Cowboy]

Time...and it's not even close. I don't get vacation days in the fall, so at best I get a long weekend. That's why I have to look out of state for hunts either over Christmas break or the summer.

 

[BackofBeyond]

Like most, time. The eternal question of how to allocate that precious PTO between family vacation, sick kids, helping out aging parents, and try to save a few days for hunting.

 

[CRJR45]

Ain't gonna lie , for me first it's money , and second is time . I'm retired on a pension , but still working for myself too , I work to play mostly . I try to go on a guided hunt each year , mostly because it I live in Flor-ee-Duh !
I have no friends that hunt or that would want to go west for a extended stay so it makes more sense for me to go guided . IMO
I've toyed with the notion of selling our boat and moving west , but my wife is younger than me and loves her job and isn't keen on the idea .
My second option is selling the boat and putting the money aside to fund my hunting for the foreseeable future . Just not sure I could live this close to the ocean and not fish it .
I'm 64 so not sure how many hunts I have in me .
I am really kicking myself for starting big game hunting so late in life . Being from Michigan , I hunted whitetails a lot , just not the same thing , IMO .

 

[buffybr]

Drawing tags is the hard part. Time is not an issue.
Other than that the big challenge is I'm getting too darn old for the hard stuff.

When I moved to Montana in 1975 we could buy an OTC Grizzly tag for $25. I bought one every year until they quit selling them, and
I didn't know how much of a good thing that was I only carried my tag in hopes of finding a bear on the gut piles of my elk.

Same with Mountain Goat tags. I drew one the first year that I applied, hunted for one one weekend, got snowed out, and didn't go back. Three years later I drew another Goat tag and killed an old long haired billy. I skinned him out for a full mount, but only had him done in a half mount because at that time I didn't have room for a full mount. Since then I've applied every year for over 40 years without drawing another tag.

When I moved down to the Bozeman area in 1978, all of the Montana Bighorn sheep units just north of Yellowstone NP had Unlimited OTC tags, also for $25. Back then you could also buy an unlimited tag up to the time you went hunting, and even if you had not drawn a limited unit tag. Again, I started buying an Unlimited sheep tag every year, and each year I would hunt them one weekend. Most years I would see at most one other camp of sheep hunters, and I did turn down some legal rams, hoping for a bigger one. I was lucky enough to kill 3 rams.

In the '80s I was also lucky enough to draw and kill two bull Shiras moose.

In the '80s and '90s I had horses which really helped in getting my camps in and packing many of those above animals out. I haven't had horses now for over 20 years, and at 77 I don't have the desire to backpack a camp into the wilderness or to pack the animals out by myself like I did 40 years ago.

And now every year when I apply for a goat tag I wonder if I can still climb into goat country if I would draw another tag.

 

[buckbull]

I remember when I started my family. It was tough getting into the field. My son and daughter were born 14 months apart and one of those years I only bow hunted 1 day and I own private ground. Both kids were heavy into sports, my son played select soccer and then played varsity soccer in high school. He was an even better tennis player, making All-State (top 16) in the state of Illinois his senior year. Daughter was heavily involved in dance from the age of 5 and was on the varsity high school team. We had something every weekend, usually multiple things. Sometimes at the same time so wife and myself would be at separate events with the kids. I would sometimes get aggravated that I had no time to hunt. Both kids are now in college and the wife is now an exwife. I have a job that allows me to set my own schedule and can work from my hunting cabin now that I have Starlink internet. I have about as much time now for someone who works full time can have to hunt.

The point of my story is this. For a young guy raising his family, don't get bummed out because family commitments may be keeping you out of the field. My greatest memories over the last 20 years hasn't been the whitetail mounts or coolers of fish. The best have come from the lawn chair on the soccer field or the bleachers watching a dance competition or tennis match.