goherd1111

Slicendice it sounds to me like you quit hunting for enjoyment. Sounds like for the last few years you have treated it more like a job. Sure everyone gets tired of work. I have also hunted as well as fished with such intensity for a long period of time and it suddenly begins to feel like work.You have to remember the reasons you started hunting in the first place. Think about the relaxation of being alone in the woods with no worries and nature all around you. If you change your mind and decide to hunt this season. Slow down, relax and enjoy being out there again. Sounds to me like you have burnt yourself out. However, the passion will return if you let it. Like someone else posted earlier, introduce someone to hunting and take them out and teach them the basics. Maybe that will also remind you of why you used to enjoy it so much. Just my to cents. Hope this helps. And good look with whatever you decide to do.

bjanakos

As it has already been mentioned, maybe just getting a license anyway and sitting out in the woods would help you get the fire stoked again. But maybe just some time off will do just as much good. You know that saying "If you love someone, set them free?" Maybe if you just let it go, it will eventually find it's way back to you. You mention your son and I am willing to bet that when he is ready your passion for hunting will be reborn and focused on him. Passing the torch if you will. Maybe that time is now? What a better hunting buddy to have? I sure wish my dad was still around to be hunting buddies wtih.

A similar situation happened to me a number of years ago with another time consuming hobby. I thought I had quit all together and gave it up for life. It just wasn't fun anymore and becoming a chore. 3 years went by and I was no worse for the wear. Suddenly, one day I bumpped into one of my old buddies who quit when I did, but was active again. He asked me to "Just come out for one weekend and enjoy yourself as a spectator." I did, and it brought the fire back stronger than ever. It was like being with an old familliar friend. We were able to pull a few more old friends who had quit back into it again. We all realized that it wasn't the hobby that we enjoyed so much, it was the effort and team work that we all put forth together.

What ever you decide to do please don't feel bad about it. Just follow your heart.

tatonka

It's a phase.....our priorities change as we get older and wiser. There is a season for everything and one of those seasons for some people is to take a step back and re-evaluate things. I think you will find that the passion will come back, but it will be different..... My guess is that in the past you may have been what a lot of people would consider obsessed with killing a big buck. Am I right? Because of a lot of factors (access problems to land you want to hunt, less time to devote to hunting, etc.) you have become frustrated because these things have hindered your efforts. Right? I reached that point a few years back. Places I'd hunted for years and years were suddenly leased out to outfitters. I knew those places like the back of my hand. I had to find new places to hunt and learn them and found that there were a lot of other hunters in the same predictament I was in....it was very discouraging and to be quite frank very depressing. Hunting pressure increased, more and more "out of staters" were hunting "my" places, etc. So, ya.....there was a time when I was just tired of the fight. But it passed.....Maybe it will for you, maybe it won't. It doesn't matter....if you cannot rekindle the fire, you'll find something else equally as enjoyable.....

slicendice

Bjanakos, Thanks so much for your post!! It was very heartfelt and i appreciate it very much.

Tatanka, Thank you also for your post. I was definately not a big buck hunter. I shot alot of does and small bucks, but at the same time, didn't need to shoot anything to have a good hunt. Someone mentioned that I had turned hunting into work, and i have to agree. There were times when the alarm went off and I cringed, much like I do when the alarm goes off for work.

Nodog, I live in PA, but I have never hunted in PA. I do all of my hunting in MD.

r33h

nicely put...

Double Creek

I bet when the leaves start falling and the temps start dropping, that fire will start rekindling....

I find myself less and less excited for the opener each year... I guess having 2 young boys, a wife, and full time job does that to a fellow.... But without fail, when it starts getting cold, the only thing on my mind is whitetails...

BobCo19-65

Yup, I have. And I think it's time for a change.

My advice is to take up (or go back to if that is the case) traditional equipment. It's a whole new and exciting avenue. Go can get into it as much as you like right down to building your own equipment. Below is a picture of my son with a quality bow that he and I made for him this past summer. We're gonna build one for me next year. Personally, currently, Ishoot mainlycustom made recurves and longbows.

rcgerchow

In 1989 I did the same, I had shot 2 bucks the year before and never got excited during the whole process. I had scouted my butt off that year ( 2 1/2 hr. drive each way) set blinds and all that good stuff. Opening day I took a buck at 8:10 in the morning, got it back to camp and had lunch while collecting my buck pool money and went back to my stand. About 1:15 pm I shot another buck and brought him back to camp, collected themoney for the second buck pool, had dinner and a couple pop's then off to bed. I slept in the next morning, drove homeand promptly began selling all deer hunting equipment. The following year opening morning arrived and I awoke to the sound of rain and thunder and thought I am really glad I am not out there in that stuff. Later that day I called on a customer in Saline, Michigan and as I walked out a pickup pulled into the feed and grain store next to the customers building, I could see some antlers sticking out of the pickup bed and went over for a look. As soon as I saw what was a very nice deer everything came rushing back and I haven't missed a season since. Cost me a couple bucks buying all new equipment, but it was a lot of fun shopping for the new stuff.

Doefever

This year for the 1st time I kind of felt like you. The hassle involved kind of eats away at me. Such as waking up at 2:15AM and driving 130 miles to public land, wondering if someone will be in my spots (Lots of times they are). Going to the motel, shelling out lots of $$$. I just turned 50 this week (I have my share of aches and pains)and the thought of freezing my ass off all day weighs on my mind. But the last week or so I've been slowly getting excited about the upcoming season. The fire is building again. By openingweek I should be raring to go, Thank heavens!
Maybethe turning point for me was a scary Dr. report I had recently. I'm going for surgery Monday and should be OK in about 3 weeks after. So hopefully I'll be AOK for the 1st week of the season (NY).

Critr-Gitr

I kind of got that way a few years ago. The situation may be different but the symptoms were the same. We have open country and big bucks, and I had been used to having alot of acres to hunt. I was also single and could hunt as hard as I wanted to with no one to answer to. Then all of a sudden several things happened at once. I got married and my wife already had two boys that were starting to be the age to hunt, but had no experience, and my wife wanted to hunt too. I lost my big place to hunt and was forced onto a much smaller place with more people and had to change mey methods of hunting. All of a sudden hunting wasn't fun anymore, it was just alot of work,I was spread too thin. I didn't have the time or resources to hunt the big bucks anymore. I knew they were there, and what needed to be done, but I coudn't do it the way it needed to be done. It was just such a rapid shift in my mentality I couldn't make it the switch fast enough. I kept hunting, but it wasn't fun anymore.

Then I did some soul searching and found the things I had been missing, and learned to take the joy out of what was around me. I gave up the trophy obsession,handed therifle over to the boys, and bought a new bow. My oldest son shot his first doe and gobbler. My youngest shot his first doe sitting on the ground with me between my legs, and his first buck (a little fork) a year later on the ground at 25 yards. Hunting is fun again, and I have an appreciation for it I never had before. I have never had as much fun as I have the last two years. Don't worry, you will find what is important to you. There are no mountains without valleys, no joy without sorrows. That is the only way we know when things are good, because we have experienced the bad. Otherwise life would be too dull. Hope this helps.