Mr. Rowley, I am sure that the message in your post above touched all of your friends here who are getting on in age. I'm only 73 but lots of my old hunting buddies have gone the way you described your own buddies. I don't know when the time comes to lay it down and start parceling out your sporting treasures. Not yet in my case, but I can see it over the next few hills.

Not wanting to quit is certainly a sign to me that neither of us is quite ready to do it. I don't want to hunt alone, but I'm lucky to have three sons in town who will put up with me, and more importantly come when I call if I fall and can't get up or on a better note to pull a deer out of the woods for me. I pulled enough of theirs to earn it.

I have also been blessed with some younger hunting friends to hunt with. I recommend that highly. Oddly enough many young guys think old guys know a lot more than we actually do. Try not to do anything to dispel that notion...Geo