This article raises alot of concerns for hunter to make sure we know what we are capable of . Hunting smarter not harder as we age is also a good strategy 
. I know myself the days of dragging a deer for a mile or even half a mile are over. Being a safety Consultant I urge each hunter on here to make sure that a good plan of retreival is in place to conquer the task of removing that deer to the pickup or the hood of your car( to each their own)
. A 4 wheeler and a drag rope ,or like @shooterrex a JD tractor , a horse ( which my dad did on many occasions ) Just dont place yourself in a position of overexertion and push your body beyond its current limits. As we age physical abilities deteriorate over time and a good walking and workout program and a Health checkup can go along ways in protecting your life while retreiving that once in a lifetime trophy or that Freezer meat.
Always used 4 wheelers to get em back to camp. id drag them to where i could drive the wheeler too and load it up and take it to camp to hang up and gut. sometimes it was a short drag and sometimes not. bucks were always a lot easier to drag cause you could grab the horns. does you have to drag by the legs and those legs get slippery after a while. i never used one of those drag harnesses.
Weight is but one part, adrenaline before the kill raises blood pressure, then begun gutting and dragging, all adds up, now, if we ate more venison, less bacon and greasy burgers, might be less of an issue.
The sonic garlic bacon cheesburger is to die for. 
I have a drag rope with a built in handle it is the berries. And I drag to any flat place I can get the Jeep to and then it goes in the bed. Now I have a winch too so no more dragging up hills from now on.
This is the reason i wonât hunt or fish alone. I donât even like going to the gun range alone, just in case of a negligent discharge.
Doesnât mean it wonât happen in 2023 9or 2022) at an IDPA at the range I shoot at, one guy left his squad to go to the restroom, took 20 minutes for them to wonder where he was. He was face down in a puddle, heart failure.
I used my John Deere 1025R to not only retrieve my deer this year, but I also skinned it using the tractor and the âgolf ball method.â
You donât stop hunting when you get old. You get old when you stop hunting.
Rather die dragging a deer than on a morphine drip in palliative care with someone in the bed beside me watching Oprah on TV with the volume up.
This last year has been a bummer for me. Iâve spent more time in the hospital than ever before. Darn near died earlier, but I guess us stubborn old Marines just donât do âdeadâ well.
Been a while since Iâve dragged a deer anywhere. Last years I deer hunted, there were plenty of young bucks to do the dragginâ, and plenty of them on 4-wheelers to haul the deer back to the house. One advantage of hunting on âthe family farmâ. (My old head old Flight Medicine was a surgeon but thought he was a farmer. 400 acres NE of Madison, WI.)
But for the first time in my life Iâm to weak one, needing âsupportâ. Went hog hunting out in Western Texas - had a sgreat time but ended up with an infection in the bone of my L big toe. So now I have a pic line and give myself antibiotics twice daily. Still, I am slowly getting stronger and more mobile. And it feels good to be back among the âlivingâ.
Happy you stuck it out
Keep working it 
Doggone @Devereaux man I am so glad ypur gonna be with us I have learned alot from you.
I am starting to have my own physical limitations as well, but if there is one thing I know is older folk have knowledge in spades 
!!!
Well just keep on posting .
You will have to tell us about the hog hunt.
Heard theres a million of those critters down there . Did yâall do it with dogs ??
No. Sat in a blind with a Marine buddy. We passed on a couple hogs first day and didnât see any more after that. One day was rained out - guess pigs are smart enough to come in out of the rain. But we DID see a bunch of animals. About 11A on. the first day, THIS walks in!
He had a younger buddy too. But we didnât have tags for him.
Elk were considered as an exotic a few years ago . Has that changed in Texas?
I just always wanted to take a Fallow deer or an Audad !! @JTR
Donât know. We were hunting on a private ranch. Perhaps the ranch rents out hunting for elk. This one would have been a fine trophy for those who do that.
That is probably it . I forget almost all of Texas is private land.
I shot this fallow deer on my own 20 acres in Upstate NY. A farm 5 miles away had a small herd obtained illegally and without permits that escaped. This I learned from my neighbor (a DEC Warden) after I called it in. They tested it for a bunch of diseases and returned the rack and headless body to me. Did not care for the taste vs. whitetail venison. Was out grouse hunting with an Ithaca/SKB 200-E 20 gauge. If you have a home intruder donât be afraid of using #6 field loads at livingroom distances!
Good Deal 
nice buck
We just drove back from Houston Texas and I saw an Audad standing by L-45 .
Dangit @JTR
Yeah pouring rain the whole way until we got into Oklahoma . I wasnât going to stop for it . And all I had with me was a 9mm concealed carry pistol.