Age and Hunting Dreams

Big Fin said:

Curious if any of you have entered that time in your lives where you decided, for whatever reasons, that you were going to stop dreaming and start doing. I’ve been so occupied with building our platforms and immersed in the hunting that is required for those platforms that it seems I’ve probably let more time pass by than I should have when making these dream hunts a reality. Time to correct that in the next few years.

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That's where I am at now, but everything is relative. I'm afraid that I'll be doing good to get an elk before I'm too "stove-up" to get after them!

Finally got around to watching this. It was fantastic, and that country is just incredible. Congrats!

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. I have read it probably 2 or 3 times trying to convince myself not to back out of my first western hunt coming up at the end of October. Going from GA to MT to hunt general mule deer in Region 7 (maybe Region 3 but trying to avoid Grizzlies for my first time out), and as it gets closer I can come up with NUMEROUS reasons and excuses and scenarios for why I should back out and not go. I did that last year and after the season I kicked myself for not going through with it. Fast forward a year later and I am becoming more and more anxious as the opener gets closer and telling myself that I need to start acting on my hunting dreams now, and not coming up with a thousand scenarios in my mind that could or could not happen to keep me from going.


This thread has provided a lot of encouragement!

I am 38. I don't have any specific hunting dreams. I just want to hunt. I am a DIY guy in my other hobby, motorcycles. Growing up in Omaha I knew families that hunted, and I knew my Grandfather in Michigan did too. I loved being in the woods as a kid any chance I got. I always wanted to hunt deer, but my understanding was you had to have some land, or know someone with land really well. I never took the time to really look into it. As an adult it just got pushed to the back of my mind as one of those someday things. In 2005 my best friend was paralyzed for life in Iraq. There was a lot of dark time for him for several years, but in 2009 he moved to Oklahoma and got hooked up with some great folks at the Dallas VA. The process of rebuilding his life began. One of the hobbies he wanted to get back into was shooting and eventually hunting. So we came up with some ideas and did some research and got him back on the range. While at a gun shop one day he was introduced to a very kind family that was fortunate to have an amazing piece of land. They invited us up to hunt pigs and deer, and went out of their way to give us an amazing experience. That was my introduction to hunting. In the years since my buddy has had made connections with an exotic ranch in Oklahoma that is excellent with his particular disabilities and he keeps his freezer full. This past spring we planned a hunt up there for next week, he will be hunting water buffalo and I will be culling 1 or maybe 2 wild boar as my modest means allow. While preparing myself for this hunt I was spending a lot of time on youtube watching videos about field care of game and other hunting topics. I came across your video about the gutless method on elk Randy, and it was so well presented that I started watching your other videos. I have to admit that just a couple months ago I was under the impression that you needed to be fairly wealthy, know someone with land, or own land yourself to hunt regularly. I had put an elk hunt on the list of things that I needed to save up a couple years for. Watching your videos opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities. Especially living in El Paso and being so close to so much public land. I will be putting in for NM elk and mule deer this next draw. In the mean time the discovery of public land hunting possibilities has driven me to go a little nutty according to the wife. I will be returning to Oklahoma again in November for their whitetail rifle season on public land. This will be my first DIY adventure, and part of the trip will be scouting for areas I can get my buddy to and set him up in a ground blind. Neither of us are looking for giant trophy animals, just time in the woods and hopefully a little meat in the freezer. I am planning to go after NM barbary sheep in the spring using the OTC tags available. The western section of unit 34 is a 2 hour drive for me, and I have seen plenty of videos and pictures of guys who have been successful up there (You can't hide that big pile of white sand in the valley behind you, it is a dead give away to your general area). My brother and I are also planning a DIY back country adventure for elk in either Colorado or Idaho for the 2020 season. Thank you Randy for the amazing body of video, podcasts, and network of information you have created. It has really shown me that this is a sport the average guy can get into.