THE HUNTERS GUIDE To Growing Old Disgracefully

Instead it’s about what happens when we hunters – as is inevitable – grow older – and eventually – get really old. I’d love to have a dollar for every time I’ve been at a social function and met someone around my age and got yarning to them about my main leisure time activity only to be told “I used to do a lot of hunting but I’m too old now – it’s a young man’s game.”

The purpose of this article is to show that those words are simply bull dust and if you’re a young hunter you’ve got much to look forward to in the years ahead. Hunting isn’t just a young person’s pursuit – it’s an activity for all ages.

I started shooting small game when I was 9 or 10 and I’ve been hunting now continually for 60 years. Hopefully I’ll still be putting food on my whanau’s table for at least another decade. Now I don’t claim to be anything other than average when it comes to hunting. I’m an okay shot and a workmanlike butcher, but I don’t have a great sense of direction and could get lost in the supermarket between the frozen peas and the toothpaste so I have to be ultra-cautious in the bush – though these days the I-Hike NZ app on my iPhone does help.