I was attending church services on the Sunday before opening day of buck season and was sitting next to a young friend, Ally.

Though she is only 13, we have been friends for years and one of our common discussions usually centers around horses, basketball and hunting. I must admit that the first two are not areas that I would excel in nor could I give much sage advice.

However, I can give some words of encouragement and experience when it comes to hunting. Ally was nervous about the first day and was feeling anxious about missing her chance on a buck due to any number of reasons. I encouraged her to stay focused, listen to your father as he guides you through the hunt and trust your abilities as a marksman.

All the hunters were asked to stand as Father Steve gave us a blessing of safety and reminded us of our responsibilities and stewardship. We parted our ways after the service and I was on my way home to a different generation of hunters.

It has become a midwinter reunion during the deer season for the cousins in our family to get together for a few days of hunting, storytelling, laughs and meals.

Once in a while, we even get a deer or two during each adventurous week. Most of the cousins are getting older and the kids in our group are in their 50’s. I thought of the age range of my hunting companions this week either in shared hunts or in spirit: New hunters barely in their teens up to 89 years young, who watches the old hay field from his covered porch. If he gets out his hunting coat and binoculars, he considers it a good season.

Many of the discussions center more than where is the best place to find deer. In the advanced stages of hunting careers, the issues are terrain difficulty, assistance in recovering a deer off the beaten path and health considerations. Maybe there should be a senior hunter mentor program, too!

Many times, I have discussions about the aging hunter population in Pennsylvania as the baby boomers become the Geritol Gang! That is the moniker that my one relative has hung on the hunting group. Ironically, the younger members of the family have no idea about what joke he is trying out at our expense.

I received a call from a reader StephenYoder, who wanted to discuss many concerns and ideas for the senior hunters. Many things were brought forth for discussion, including point restrictions, early rifle season and increased opportunities for senior hunters.

The facts are the facts, each year the total number of hunters decreases in license sales and little is done to keep the interest of the older hunters going. The No. 1 tool many senior hunters carry is a set of binoculars just to check out the points of a deer’s rack as the old eyes aren’t as sharp as they used to be at age 20.

Well, the rainy weather on Monday didn’t keep us out of the woods and we all headed for our favorite stands for the morning opener. All I saw was young does and a flash of a tail in some tall golden rod fields.

It could have been a buck, but the deer melted away into cover as a wily whitetail is known to do. The day was pretty much a bust without much shooting in our area and only a few small bucks taken.

The call for snow made everyone feel that hunting could improve this week, but only time would tell if the change in weather would bring out deer and more hunters! Hunting does improve when someone is moving the deer about more.

Hunters can see deer sign and track much better with a fresh snow fall. As the first day was fading into twilight, I received a text message and photo from my friend, Ally.

There she was, posing with her first buck, the only successful hunter in her family group. I called her and congratulated her on her successful harvest and reminded her that everyone had faith in her and that she had kept up her part of the family tradition.

Hopefully, things will turn around with the Geritol Gang and we will have some success as well. The deer season continues through next Saturday with both buck and antlerless deer being legal game with the proper licenses.

It seems that the deer population is very healthy in our region and should give all hunters a pretty good chance at bringing home some fresh venison.

Until we meet again on one of the trails of life, keep your spirits up, shoot straight and hunt safely!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle