Has anyone else lost the appeal of hunting a certain species?

[MCgunner]

I hunt deer for the meat, hogs I mostly trap and shoot targets of opportunity, not really big on either anymore except for the eating. I love both meats. I am a dove and duck and goose hunter, primarily waterfowl, but love doves. I'm a wing shooter through and through. I like the fact that there's ACTION.

What I love about ducks is the experience. I love the marsh. I love using the call, the challenge of turning birds, the challenge of keeping 'em comin', interested in my deek spread. It's more than the shooting for me, a LOT more. If it's cold and wet, I just dress for it! Hell, I ride motorcycles rain or shine, winter and summer, no biggy. Actually, I passed on teal season this year because it was too danged HOT and I wasn't in the mood until a couple fronts came through and I heard some migrating snows. You gotta understand, though, in the south Texas coastal marshes, there aren't many freezes. What's cold to me, you yankees laugh at. LOL

Everyone has their preferences in hunting experiences. I'd rather be in a duck marsh calling ducks than in a deer stand. Yeah, it's a little hard on me now days getting up that early to get a spot out in the marsh, but I keep doing it. I don't do it nearly as much as I used to, though. 3 or 4 hunts a year seem to do it for me.

And, a good goose hunt is a cherished memory. I've had a few over the years. They're a lot easier to call, though, than ducks. Ducks are the bigger challenge. What I like about dove hunting is hunting with friends, chatting as I look for birds, catching up on old times and new. I can do that duck hunting, just that not many folks will get out there with me in the marsh that early. LOL The younger set is taking the marshes over around here. I can understand that. Older guys do tend to burn out on it. They can run their wheel chair up to a box blind, but they'd need an amphibious one in the marsh.

 

[Armored farmer]

Rabbits & squirrels don't do it for me anymore

With all due respect, a .32 muzzleloader or .22 handgun will put the sport/challenge right back into small game hunting.

 

[Wes Mantooth]

posted by ZeroJunk:

If I was a meat hunter I would just shoot a couple out of the window of my house.

Funny. I started a similar thread on TFL and it ended the same way. Nice doe @ 238yrds from my upstairs bedroom while my son was downstairs watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

 

[Bill_Shelton]

So as the title says Duck hunting for me has just lost its appeal this year probably because all my hunting buddies are gone, and i dont want to have this sound like bragging but i got my limit of 7 ducks with 9 shots so the challenge just isnt there anymore. Does this happen to anyone else with a certain species or have i gone off the deep end.

No...you are just fine. The same thing happened to me more than 20 years ago. Nevertheless, I still like to watch migrating ducks and "Get their Attention" occasionally when I'm fishing during the fall (I'll carry the call), and I'm always willing to help a new generation of Duck Hunters learn how to call, point shoot, lay-up Decoys, etc.. But...the old friends are no longer around, and this makes all the difference in the world - so I just don't hunt ducks anymore.

Hunting ducks is an art. I'm glad I learned that art even after years of not practicing it. I hope you feel the same. I think you will feel the same.

 

[RE-15]

Im sick of turkey. The season comes right when catfishing starts picking up. We cant hunt them past 1:00 if they would allow rifles to hunt them, I may be interested.

 

[CoRoMo]

....22 handgun will put the sport/challenge right back into small game hunting.

Okay, I'm in!

 

[TexasPatriot.308]

ducks and turkey, both taste blah, turkey for me are a nuisance, no challenge to killing them, they eat the corn from my feeders...also dont care about dove hunting anymore.

 

[skiking]

I have lost all desire to hunt whitetails.

 

[leadaddict]

This thread is depressing! It’s like “Worn-Out Hunters Anonymous”.

Hello, my name is Greg, and I’ve lost the desire to hunt.

 

[CoRoMo]

Gregaw:
Oh, but I could fill ten of these threads with the zeal and excitement I have for elk hunting!!!

 

[leadaddict]

I assume most people reading the "hunting" section of the high road still enjoy hunting something!

 

[Gunnerboy]

^ i enjoy hunting ducks still its just lost that appeal like ill go and shoot a limit and its alright i was just wondering if anyone has ever just lost the excitement and appeal of the hunt.

 

[leadaddict]

I'm with you! I was just tyring to lighten the mood.

I'm usually ready for a (short) break from whitetail season by Janaury. (not as ready as my wife though!)

 

[MCgunner]

Bird hunting is exciting, deer hunting sorta boring. I've got these Eurasian collard doves all over my place right now, they've moved in to the county big time from somewhere. Second dove season just opened up. Screw deer hunting, I'm gonna go shoot doves!

Okay, that was at first depressing, finished on an up note. Hey, everyone has preferences. I'll always pick wing shooting, especially waterfowl, over deer hunting. Sitting in a stand gets old, spot and stalk is a bit more interesting when I can get out west to do it, but it still doesn't compare to a good day in the marsh.

 

[wankerjake]

I don't care to hunt Javelina. It's like $30 a tag or something, I can't find them reliably, they aren't very good eating...I killed one years ago and don't care if I kill another one. Meh.

Birds. Since I've discovered predator hunting, I'll almost always choose a predator hunt over a bird hunt. If somebody wants to take me to a good dove or quail spot, I'll go. But if I'm gonna plan a hunt, it'll be a predator hunt.

 

[TexasPatriot.308]

javelina and duck, neither taste worth a darn and neither a challenge to hunt for me, turkey either.

 

[wankerjake]

Oh, and how could I forget turkey? Arizona's turkey herd is pretty poor. I haven't put in for turkey in years.

 

[caribou]

Ive stopped Hunting Whitetail here in the Arctic, and Turkeys I gave up on yearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs ago, haveing never seen a damn thing .....~~LOL!!~~

 

[T Bran]

For me it is Turkeys I'm overrun with them to the point that I keep a slingshot and a bag of rocks in my stand to run them out of my feeder zone. I dont care for the meat so no need to killem just go away.
Hogs on the other hand are the reason the feeders are there I love shooting hogs and making sausage.
T

 

[Liberty1776]

to answer the OP - no. I'm 60 and haven't been able to hunt for three years due to degenerative arthritis, three operations, two new hips and a new knee in place and working fine now and I'm raring to go next year! Got a place lined up for pheasant, and looking for a lease for deer. Biggest change I'll be making is using handgun for deer, as it's lighter, and that gives me a free hand for a "hiking staff". It's not a cane if it has a forend "v" on top, in my book...

 

[Hunter125]

I am in grad school and I have not been deer hunting since before I started undergrad about 5 years ago. For one I don't really have a place to go, but I also find that I don't care to go hunting alone. The friend's property I went to to hunt in my home state was not great for deer, I've still never gotten one, but it was more about the people I went with than killing a deer.
I went back a couple years ago and just went out with my dad, didn't hunt myself. If non-res licenses weren't so prohibitively expensive I would just hunt there.
One of the guys there that year was a new hunter and absolutely out for blood. I'm just not that way anymore. If I get the opportunity I will go and shoot a deer, but that's not all it's about for me.
A colleague introduced me to dove hunting this year and it was a lot of fun, much more laid back.

 

[H&Hhunter]

I got a little burned out stand hunting hogs with a scoped rifle. So I started spot and stalk hunting them and jump shooting them. Then I started doing the same with a iron sighted heavy rifle then an iron sighted double rifle. It's a great excuse to exercise your DG rifles and it great training for the real thing as hogs in tight cover very closely simulate the the types of situations and conditions in which one hunts buffalo and elephant.

After having killed multiple hundred hogs I still enjoy the challenge of sneaking into tight cover and shooting a running hog or even a still hog at close range. Don't get me wrong I like to snipe them occasionally too but spiting distance gets my juices flowing. If I was still sitting over a pile of corn waiting for a hog to come in I'd have given it up a long time ago as I find it to be BORING! Same goes for deer. Stand hunting deer makes me CRAZY I'm impatient that way. I like to move and work at hunting. About the only time I sit in stand or blind is either bow hunting or hunting with kids.

Taking kids out and putting them on game is infectiously exciting for me. Their enthusiasm rubs off on me. I find that sneaking a kid into range and having them get set up and making the shot is one of the most challenging things I've ever done in the hunting world. Doing it right, keeping your mouth shut when you are excited too and providing nothing but calm and meaningful guidance is not as easy as one might think.

 

[dogrunner]

Now Caribou, as I recall those Nelchina 'bou I used to hunt had white tails (not to mention the necks!).......and the best Thanksgiving 'turkey' I've ever eaten had turned white as snow over on the Denali. Truth be told I really believe that both were better eatin' than real WT or these long legged swamp gobblers!

 

[MCgunner]

H&H brings up something, my search for something to spice the hunt. Only thing that gives me variety on the deer stand is trying to shoot one with a BP rifle. I've done it with rifles and handguns, iron sighted and scoped, so I got this inline since I could mount a scope on it for my eyes, which have never been that great. I've worn glasses since age 2 and I'm turning 60 this year. Age sux for eyes.

So, I was walking to my stand earlier this season, turn a corner and there stands a little 5 point. I hadn't killed a deer in a couple of years, didn't need to debate, raised the gun and fired in a cloud of 777 smoke. Now that THAT's accomplished, I've not shot one with my Hawken and I've not shot one with a bow. Hmm....but hell, I'd still rather be waterfowling.

I'll get back into hunting New Mexico, maybe. If and when, it'll be during black powder season with my Hawken. That's a bit more challenge than sitting on a stand and popping one. Getting within 7mm Rem Mag range of a mulie with those HUGE radar like ears is tough enough. I may not get anything, but then, what I like about that hunting is just being in the mountains, the experience of spotting game and trying to get close. It's kinda tough on me now days, but I've still got some spark left in this old body, even if everything snaps and pops now days when I get out of bed in the morning. I'll just walk slower, take my time, works better hunting, anyway.

 

[TwoWheelFiend]

Turkey

I can go to the store and buy a better tasting one and spend a lot less time and energy.