Hunting...with a bad back

[Anonymous]

Ok folks. Anyone got some suggestions for hunting with a bad back?

An opening day float hunt has pretty well TKO'd my season after my low back let loose. Doc says with the discs in my neck and the discs in my back degenerating...I need to look at doing something different.

Backpacking in and shooting stuff is pretty well out now. Fly in for goat is cancelled. I've got an ATV but hunting from "horseback" isn't my favorite method but it makes recovery easier. Float hunts are cool but loading and portaging is tough as well.

Maybe grabbing at straws here, but looking for some ideas to go easier on the body. Getting old sucks but it beats the alternative.

 

[Vince]

Road hunt.
I know some good canyons that hold deer and the road is on the ridge. Decent, not great, coues deer get taken every year from the road. Drive in. Set up optics. Glad all day. Spot a buck. Make a long shot. Send the Mexican boy to go get your deer.
Nothing like hunting in southern Arizona.

 

[Vince]

Glad = Glass.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

That sounds sorta familiar...

I don't have degenerating things going on...but I wiped out on a motorcycle years ago and wrapped around a telephone pole backwards...they say it was a miracle that didn't break my back, but it didn't...it still hurts though, always...worse at night and in the mornings.

My neck...another wreck...car this time...went through the windshield of the car I was driving and through the back windshield of the 1 ton flat bed Dodge I rear ended at 65 mph...knocked me out, knocked the 2 guys in the Dodge out...when I came to I was head down in the floor board with my feet hanging out the back window of the Dodge...glass all in my head, got small pieces of glass out my head for 2 years after that...but I'm glad they didn't have a headache rack!

That compressed my neck some and hurt like hell for several weeks...doesn't really bother me all that much these days, but my neck ain't what it used to be either....used to be able to pop my neck from time to time...it hasn't popped a single time since that day (17 years ago)...another miracle, it didn't break my neck.

Then there were all the horses I trained when I was young...some of them banged me up a little.

LOL...its a miracle that I lived past 20...but I'm glad to be here at 41!

I don't really have any suggestions for you hodgeman...except that I believe its best to keep moving as long as you can...because when you stop, everything else goes to hell too.

EDIT: Maybe one suggestion...not sure how or if it would work for you...hire somebody to do the heavy lifting for the float hunts.

 

[DrMike]

My back was broken in several places when I was sixteen. I was supposed to be an invalid by age thirty. I've lived the dream despite considerable degeneration of the spine. Candidly, as I have stated on several occasions when challenging "independent medical examiners" for the provincial insurance, "How many men over the age of forty have you seen that don't show a degree of degeneration of the spine?" I keep moving, doing all that I am able; and I always take a younger fellow hunting with me. If nothing else, he can gut me and carry my carcase out if something untoward should happen. :shock:

 

[Oldtrader3]

I compacted C2 and C3 neck vertebrae when I was working on the drill and fell off the tripod at 16 years old. I have really bad arthritis now and neck pain. This does not affect me for hunting. except for recoil which I have ignored all of these years.

I can not climb even a hill any more but I still can deer hunt with still hunting on fairly flat ground and trails.

 

[Darkhorse]

Been there. Got one disc gone in the lower back and 2 in the neck as per the last x ray over 10 years ago. My Chiropractor got me a good back brace and I had to wear it one whole season. Sure helped.

 

[truck driver]

I've dealt with 7 ruptured disc in my back for quite a while now. The good doctors had me strung out on medication at one time till I said enough and did what they told me not to I went to see my Chiropractor and he relieved 75% of my pain the first session. I went to an acupuncturist latter and he got the nerves to start healing and relieved the rest of my pain. Yes I still have pain when I stand on concrete for long times but that's never going to go away.
Oh Ya and I'm still driving a Truck I guess what I'm telling you is to keep moving and doing the things you like to do. You will learn to deal with the situations as they come at least I have. :mrgreen:

 

[sask boy]

I believe most of us in the 60ish bracket have or are dealing with back issues. I am some what lucky and I do have some lower back problems but in most instances my body tells me when I am at my limit.
I have also been blessed with being able to hunt with a number of young fellows, they sure help when it comes to the retrieval :wink:!

Blessings,
Dan

 

[LD375]

I guess what I'm telling you is to keep moving and doing the things you like to do. You will learn to deal with the situations as they come at least I have. :mrgreen:

I had an accident two years ago, and know where your coming from, I have neuropathy in both my legs as well, still doing physical therapy and seeing doctors. You get used to it, and life goes on. You just gotta know your own personal limits.
Lou

 

[Guybo]

I have good days and bad days with my back. I had surgery in 96 for an L4 rupture that also damaged a nerve in my left leg. I still have numbness in my left foot that i was told would always be there. I can't do some of the things I use to do but im pretty active I just have to be careful not to over do it.

 

[FOTIS]

Been doing it all my life. Take it easy and take it slow and never ever hunt alone!

 

[NYDAN]

I have some blinds and stands that I can drive to, if necessary. Some of my disabled friends have used them to great advantage. Some are permanent and some are moveble.