Quit hunting

I know a people on a hunting forum will probably not understand why people quit hunting, but thats why I am asking. Recently more and more family and friends have quit or limited their hunting quite a bit and it puzzles me. Some say age, others say no where to go, some only go hunting at the best locations in the country and quit hu and where they cut thir teeth. With all of thise responses, i don't understand why you would quit. Have any of you quit hu and temporarily or know people who have quit? Why? Curious to get your thoughts on why you or others called it quits either for good, temporary, or cut back on hunting.

I myself have been busy with work that limits hunting a bit, but the drive inside is still there and get out every chance I get. Seems like for ithers the fire inside dwindles.

Nobody likes a quitter!!

After my Dad died, I was 22, I stopped deer hunting for about two years. He died in October, I went out that year and it just seemed weird. I felt a little lost to be honest.
A friend invited me out to hunt and I jumped back in with both feet. If that hadn’t happened who knows if I would of got back in it.

Sometimes I think people just get to a point of been there, done that. It may not matter where you live, but maybe they get to the point of no new challenges other than hoping to shoot a giant of whatever their local species are. That's why this site has been so good for me. I have been able to take on new challenges, 3 new species so far, and that has kept my fire going. If I was only hunting whitetails in Iowa like the past 35 years, it won't necessarily get old but less exciting. I think age just has a lot to do with it also, we just get tired and don't have to go all the time. I know my dad won't go at all if I don't encourage him to get a tag and set up a date and time that we are going together.

15 years ago I had more places to hunt then I could count. Now I have 3 with only one being a sure thing for next year. I love hunting all sorts of game but with loss of land it sure cut me back. Oh I will never quit until the put me in the ground. I just know one day, unless I move West or purchase my own ground, I will be without a place to go close to home. I will always take a week or two and go public land hunting in the West. The sad thing is I have to worry about the slime balls trying sell our public lands. I can fight for those and will until I die!

My only break was after Iraq and holding a gun was very different. Took a couple years before I got back I to it.

I have the same thoughts as Muskeez. I am not sure if it’s good or bad, but it seems I move from one species to the next for the new challenge. Luckily hunting out west has given me more options. I still haven’t missed a season of whitetails here in Missouri, but there was time where hunting them wasn’t as exciting as it once was for me.

I am very thankful to be living in the West when it comes to this issue. I am from Indiana and, as Redman has intimated, access in areas with little public land has become very difficult as of late and will only get worse. This is especially true of areas with "trophy" potential. I know that personally I used to look forward greatly to a chance to hunt the WT gun season at home when we could get home for Thanksgiving. I had a farmer that I knew through a fraternity brother that would give the kids and occasionally me a shot at his cut corn field. Also, another fraternity brother has in laws with a small farm in Steuben County and while their place is not possible to hunt several local family had an ad hoc hunting club where they would hunt each others farms and help a few elderly landowners with farm maintenance in return for hunting privileges. In both cases those opportunities are now gone because the size of Indiana deer is apparently now know to every "hunter" in the South with a fat paycheck. They are coming up in droves and the going rate around these places is $2-3k per season just for access and the ability to place stands......the other negative impact is that the limited public land there is is becoming that much more crowded. All it takes is one generation to stop hunting and then you have a ripple effect. ;(

It is all in the will. Time, money and effort. Work and pain involved. When the will to overcome these things is gone. that's it.

Maybe it comes with age.
I’m long past caring if I actually kill anything but the desire to hunt is stronger than ever. Maybe someday that will change but it’s hard to imagine.

I've been struggling with this lately.

My situation may be unique, but here it goes. I grew up hunting. My father had me shooting a bow a soon as I could hold one. I inhaled hunting as a kid, every chance I could, I hunted everything that had a season. Doves, squirrels, deer, foxes, turkeys, groundhogs, crows, ducks and geese. We had a small, but close group of family and friends that hunted together, and some of my most cherished memories are opening mornings of deer season hunting with my father and the camaraderie that followed when we all helped drag deer out. So naturally I moved West, just like any other hunting addicted young man would. I fell in love with Montana and the landscape. The hunting was exciting and new, but I definitely notice that lack of camaraderie. I didn't know anyone when I moved here. I found some success but I also found an urgency I hadn't felt before. Due to inexperience I saw very few animals, and almost no mature animals. My second year I shot a whitetail that I would have passed on without a second thought back home. I was excited to get the buck, but I can't say that I was "proud of it". I had shot it for the meat, but also to stop the bleeding, get the monkey of my back as they say. But there was a small, deep feeling nagging at me that I couldn't understand. Fast forward a handful of years and I started guiding. I enjoyed guiding, I found that feeling of camaraderie that I had been missing, the hunting was easy. I found that I really enjoyed helping others be successful. I gained a lot of hunting confidence as well. I could find game and quality animals more easily now. But I missed hunting on my own. I didn't want to turn hunting into work. The season I semi-retired from guiding was one of the best in a long time. I took two terrific animals and still got to guide a few weeks and hunt with some good friends.

But the last two years since have been a struggle. Last year was one of my worst seasons as I was hunting all new ground and struggled to find animals, never even saw a bull during rifle season. Hunting has now become on big stress season. I take friends out or new hunters, so I'm back to guiding again, for free, but I still feel the same pressure to perform, find game and make sure they're successful. So this leaves less time for me to hunt which ends up stressing me out more. Now I only have a few days or a weekend to fill my tags. I was absolutely stoked for archery season in July, but as September drew near I began to dread it. I planned to backpack into a basin for opening weekend, and was so miserable and stressed out that I called it after one night. I took some friends out the following week and they had a good time and we got into game, but I couldn't enjoy myself because I had slipped back into guide mode, I felt like I was working rather than spending time in the elk woods with friends. I decided not to hunt the rest of archery season and I'm less stressed now than I've been in a while. I can't say I'm really looking forward to rifle season now. I have 4 of the five weekends already promised to friends and family.

Whole point of that story is that I've managed to make hunting unpleasant for myself, to the point where I'm hunting less and less. I'm not sure of all the reasons why yet. I feel a tremendous amount of pressure to be successful though. I'm no longer able to define success as just being out there and seeing a few animals. I'm sure there is a way to get back there, I just don't know it yet. If I could go hunting and have no one know I went, I think a lot of that pressure would leave. Or go hunting with a few friends where I don't fall back into that guide mentality where I can reset everything.

I'm running out of steam and starting to ramble.

I hope it gets better soon, because I'm already dreading rifle season.

My neighbor across the street told me he used to hit the waterfowl hard every year. He loved hanging out with son/ hunting partners, but never found a way to eat what he was killing. He used to have associates who would take his game, but they moved and he decided that shooting clay was more his style, unless he was going to a shooting preserve and shooting chuckars.

406LIFE said:

My only break was after Iraq and holding a gun was very different. Took a couple years before I got back I to it.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your service and sacrifice 406.

I will never quit , my dad is 75 and this is his 55th consecutive year hunting out of state (5 in Wyoming , 5 in colorado and the last 45 straight in Montana. We own prime river bottom land in nd and love whitetails but our passion for other game such as elk and mule deer helps spice things up . This is my 15th year in a row headed to Montana I just hope 40 years from now my son is still taking me

For many, hunting is a deeply personal deal. Way more than shoulder mounts, internet website bragging rights, custom guns, grip-n-grins, etc.
When aspects that are as or more important than the kill negatively change, or worse-go away, the "will" can weaken.
I know a lotta' guys who were serious outdoorsmen, grew up in SW Montana, and have remarkable hunting stories and accomplishments. They aren't on the internet.
Some "quit" because they lost their hunting partners. Some because they lost the places they hunted for years. Some because the crowds of outdoorsmen/women moving into this area just were too much for them. Some because they killed enough animals in their life and were happy to leave it at that. Some don't like how hunting has changed from what they knew.
None of these guys are not hunters anymore. They still tell me about seeing a big six point bull in the back of a truck during bow season. They still ask me how my old dog is holding up and if the young one is progressing. They still get itchy when the first snow tops the Bridgers.
I don't think real hunters ever quit being hunters. They may not take part in the physical act anymore, but the are still hunters nonetheless.
After 44 years of hunting it has definitely changed for me. I'm way more concerned with things about hunting other than the killing now. The conservation and other like parts of this stuff is the only reason I ever even bothered visiting this site in the first place.
I used to hope that I wouldn't live long enough to not be able to hunt. Now, I kinda' hope I might get to see thefirst snow, get the old feeling(s), and remember when...
If I do, I'll still be a hunter - not a quitter....

The only ones I've known to quit are guys that see big stags in magazines and on social media, chase them for a while, struggle, spotlight a couple illegally then just move on because it's all too hard.

Mind you we have no wanton waste laws and very little policing for doing the wrong thing so there's no disincentive for what I've mentioned. You don't get pulled up for poaching in Aus unless you're a prolific poacher and they want to make an example. Just need to wait until they get sick of it generally.

I hunt less since having my son, used to hunt most weekends for most of the year. This year outside a week on hog deer I've done maybe 3 weekends. The day i quit hunting is the day my life has lost purpose.

I haven't quit but don't hunt near as much as I used to. Part of the reason is my family is grown. We don't need near the groceries we did when we were raising 3 boys and the 3 boys hunt a lot so that fills the freezer. Another part is work. More responsibility, more stress, less time, etc... Another is fall is Montana. There is just so much to do! Hunting isn't always the priority. Recently though I did spend a week archery hunting with my boys. What a blast. Took my first archery antelope buck in several years and just spending time with them stoked the flame. Can't wait to get back out there.

I'm easily bored. I'm losing a lot of motivation to hunt and apply for a lot less tags. Part of it is cost too. I could sit on a beach in the Caribbean for what some tags cost. Last night I was boiling my deer skull and while getting the pressure washer set up I asked myself why I still do this, how many skulls does a guy have to toss in a pile to get bored of it. I'm doing more hunting for hanging out with friends than doing the actual hunt these days. People's interests change, that's why today's kids don't hunt like they used to.

I think a lot of people quit hunting because of the cost of licenses.

My mother-in-law quit because everyone in the club was constantly bickering and bitching. She COMPLETLEY gave it up.

I've watched my dad's motivation to hunt wane to the point that I think the only reason he goes anymore is to get me to quit harassing him. He's 70, is plagued with arthritis, and I think that really affects him.

Personally, even if hunting became something that was cumbersome to my happiness and interest, I would still do it for the sake of the meat. I don't "need" the meat, but I value it so greatly year-round that it is still the chief product of hunting for me. That said, I think I understand some of why folks quit hunting. On public land it can be stressful and expensive. I've always enjoyed scouting for hunting more than hunting itself. Hot July days in the mountains, or hiking as high as I can in May - I value the solitude and exploration, void of the rat race that hunting can sometimes be. I hunt, seek enjoyment out of, and try to understand, chunks of land - more so than the animals upon those chunks.

In the same way having children redefined love for me, I am looking forward to hunting with them, and seeing how that redefines hunting for me.