By: Ted Nugent
Mercy, mercy me, was I a hyper rapscallion ridgerunning MoFo back in the good old days as a young whippersnapper deerhunting fool or what?
Clearly, there is no what, for the inescapable evidence tells no lies and my youthful incendiary vaportrail in the wild burns on!
I mean, when I hunted partridge and timberdoodles behind my trio of equally hyper Irish Setters, Paco, Popeye and Pinecone, we covered ground like some sort of swamp bustin, timber scrambling Olympic Samurai sodbustin marshland maniacs. We’re talking, miles, and miles, and miles and miles and miles each morning when the flight birds were in, and then we would grab a quick bite, dump our hard earned gamebag full of birds, reload, oilrag down the short barreled side by side 20 gauge then head right back out to do it again.
After yet many more bone fatiguing trudging miles, a quick change of clothes, a hot shower and getting the amazing hounds fed, watered and kenneled up, I would race to my favorite high ridge makeshift treestand with my trusty bow and arrow for another thrilling afternoon of deerhunting.
I look back and chuckle with pure happiness and thankfulness at the incredible pace I would maintain each fall season, then I sit here in the fall of 2020 and realize those crazy fast paced days afield are pretty much done with, over and out.
Now, mind you, at the tender age of 72, I would challenge anyone anytime anywhere to keep up with me just this morning doing radio interviews and podcasts, washing dishes, doing the laundry, sweeping and vacuuming the cabin, washing my truck, checking numerous vehicle’s oil levels, cutting briar paths, cleaning a shotgun, cutting cornstalks to cover duckblinds, mixing super deerfeed, filling feeders, checking traps, fertilizing foodplots, bug-bombing deerblinds, cutting pine boughs for treestand cover, cleaning dog kennels, fileting backstraps, dressing a brace of pheasants, making a doctor’s appointment, and now sitting here hammering away on my laptop sharing the indefatigable escapades-O-Nuge with people around the world.
Believe me, there is a point to be made in all of this that I am convinced impacts our hunting lifestyle and the American Dream itself.
Though my memory bank is ablaze with all those phenomenal high energy hunting adventures of yore, I am here to tell you that young, athletic Ted no longer exists, and there is no way I could ever again manage the insane pace of my early hunting years ever again.
In the sheer measurement of miles and game bagged, I have no desire or capability to aspire to such accomplishments, but pray tell, lo and behold, hunting happiness has nothing to do with that sort of statistics or grand totals.
I am confident nonetheless that my pace continues to qualify as hectic, but I do take the advice of the great Dirty Harry and admit that a good man has his limitations, and I certainly have mine.
With age, new knees and bouts of insomnia, I will continue to hunt each day, but find myself taking much needed naps midday just to keep going.
Fortunately all my dream hunting can be accomplished within earshot and a short stroll of our little Michigan swamp cabin and or/our SpiritWild Ranch home in Texas.
Getting to be an old hunter is surely something to celebrate, and this conservation lifestyle is at the core of why I am still healthy enough to indulge.
I heartily rejoice that those were the days, and I most heartily rejoice that these are the days as well!
With the exciting Autumnal Equinox upon us, my inner reasoning predator is cocked, locked and oh so ready to rock doc!
The squirrels are moving about, the doves and ducks and geese are staging, deer and turkeys are everywhere, cranes cruise about, the pheasants and rabbits are here, there and everywhere, and the Great Spirit is all aglow.
A very happy fall 2020 to everyone out there, and here’s to the greatest, well-paced hunting season of our lives.
Re-live the glory days of yesteryear while fully embracing the gift of a new season.
Join me for the huntseason 2020 celebration on my Ted Nugent Spirit Campfire with John Brenkus, the fiery physics of spirituality with attitude, every Monday and Thursday night at 9pm EST on my facebook.
And don’t forget to join us at Huntthevote.org to be a positive we the people in the asset column force to reckon with for God, family, country, freedom, law and order and our precious hunting lifestyle in the upcoming November election and every election forevermore!