Nov 23, 2013 4 min read

I have said it before and hope to repeat it again in the future, those who have a passion for hunting do not look at the new year beginning on Jan. 1. They look at the new year beginning on the opening day of deer season.

I made it to another one.

There have been some changes over the course of my lifetime of chasing deer, some of them changes in the rules and regulations, but also in the mentality of the hunter and the seriousness of the hunt.

When I began to hunt deer, and bucks in particular, I wore my red plaid hunting coat and my red watch cap. I was lucky to own a plaid wool coat and a single pair of high-calf boots.

My rifle was a Remington 725 bolt-action, which is rarely seen today. I was chambered for the .270 cartridge and topped with a 4X scope.

Back then, scopes were rarely seen in the deer woods. I considered myself a well-equipped hunter, better prepared than those carrying their Model 94 .30-30s or .35 Remington pumps. Later in life, I gained a respect for those hunters with their short-range rifles and their ability to hunt and stalk.

Change eventually caught up to me, and I had to retire my old watch cap and move to blaze orange. I was sad and handed my old head warmer over to my daughter, Kathy, for safe keeping.

By that time, I had swapped my 725 for a Winchester Model 70, which I stil have. It’s a .270 as well and has been a faithful but overly heavy tool.

Later in life I find two things have caught up with me. While I still bag my share of bucks, age has somewhat limited my hunting.

Combine that with antler restrictions, and hunting can be difficult.

Age has kept me closer to the road. Not only do I dislike walking very far into the woods where the terrain is uneven, if I did down a deer, dragging it would be almost impossible.

Cold is another difficulty. Older people don’t handle cold as well as the young. Regardless of what someone of advanced years tells us, elderly also do not see as well as we once did.

Because of that, anter restrictions affect the elderly more than any other group.

Still, like most hunters, sleep will be difficult for me to come by next Sunday night.

Hunters will rush to their stands while it is still dark, only to shoot a buck at 3 p.m. There will be some sprained ankles, and unforuntately, someone will likely exert themselves too much and have a heart attack.

Those opposed to hunting or those who just don’t know any better will include heart attack deaths in the woods among hunting-related deaths, but it could have occurred while doing some other activity just as easily.

Some good advice is to stay within your limitations. Going deer hunting is no exception.

I am seeing a lot of small-anterled bucks this year. I realize my range is limited, but I am constantly on the lookout for large-anterled bucks. They might appear in a location I do not hunt, but I still look.

I have seen one buck this year I would call a trophy. Last year, I saw at least a dozen.

I have said in the past the genetics of big bucks are weakened by making small-antlered bucks illegal to shoot. By doing this, there’s more pressure on big bucks and allow the little fellows to do the breeding.

I know there is a large buck taken in your area every year, but I would bet it came from an area of limited hunting.

A few years ago, there was an article in Fair Chase, the official magazine of the Boone & Crockett Club, which addresses the subject of antler restrictions. It’s titled, “Antler point restrictions, a case of unitended consequences.”

The author says that “Antler point restrictions probably would work best if they’re set to protect the bigger bucks, not the smaller ones.”

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.