Some 20 plus years ago I was guiding elk hunters from a tent camp in the mountains. One of the clients was a doctor from Phoenix. One evening while playing cards and enjoying a few drinks he asked me why I smoked a pipe. I told him that I enjoyed it and smoked only during the hunting season. I asked him why he drank alcohol. He told me that alcohol was poison but the human body could cope whereas there was no mechanism in the body to combat the effects of smoking. The conversation continued and I asked him what hunting he recommended as one aged past 65 or so. He said Sheep hunting. Elk and Moose could cause you to over extend yourself trying to cope with the mass of the animal as at that age most men were not in prime muscular condition but remembered when they were. One hardly ever shoots a sheep and if you do it is much smaller and lighter than either an elk or moose. Plus sheep hunting is hard on the legs and lungs and if one became addicted, which is often the case for those who try it once, you would exercise all year long just to avoid the pain of climbing those durn mountains. Pretty good advice.
