Eyesight seems to be the focus of a lot of my conversations lately so while washing dishes tonight I thought about all the ways it affects hunting.

A few years ago my dad missed a deer and he never misses. I tried the gun and it was fine. A few weeks later cleaning his gun he thought his scope was broken. However it’s wasn’t broken when he looked through it with his other eye. He didn’t notice an issue at any other time. He had a torn retina, and we were lucky to catch it and he had it operated on before it was too late. In his case hunting literally saved his eyesight.

When I was a teenager I worked at a lodge that offered a bear hunt. I baited and butchered and a lot of nights I went out tracking too. Along with bad eyesight I was also blessed with bad balance and I tend to swing my hand down and grab whatever is closest when I trip. One night off I went with a group of hunters and other staff tracking a bear. We found the bear and as we were dealing with it, leave it to me to trip over something I didn’t see...lose my balance... and swing to grab sometime so I didn’t fall. The guy beside screamed. I screamed when I realized what I had done. And then we were silent. Neither of us admitted what happened that night.

When I bought my house I live in now it still required some landscaping. This included about a four-foot drop in the backyard that needed to be sloped. Last year after tracking a deer I was first in line back to the house. I was also the one that entertained all my kids walking behind me as I went face first off the big drop into the snow. I couldn’t see the drop and forgot it was there.

And then there are the camp bloopers. There are really too many to count. There was the night the generator got turned out on my way to bed and I ran into a brand-new door leaning against the wall and crashed it down on the way. One time I fell over a trailer hitch I didn’t see and landed with pipes on top of me and the whole camp came running. I have gotten lost in the bush on foot in a rainstorm because I couldn't see the trail. I have smashed my head off a bunk bed hard enough to see stars because I couldn't see that the bed was a bunk bed. I came back from a trip with a bruise on my forehead because I walked into the guard on the ladder for the stand. Unfortunately, there are more embarrassing stories than those, but they should probably stay at camp.

Not seeing as well as you used to is not a reason to stop hunting, my dad even got a deer this year after his surgeries. There are ways to work around these issues. We have exchanged my dad's sights for fiber optic ones that he can see better and I have a dusk ‘til dawn scope and always have a flashlight now. There are some people that share stands so someone else can help them and some people that just go for the enjoyment but no longer shoot and that’s o.k. too. No matter what-you can hunt. When you can see you can shoot, and worst-case scenario when you can’t see at least you can provide the entertainment!