RE: Ban compounds from archery season - thoughts ??
<font color=red>"Wouldn't you guys agree that there is a definate learning curve when you migrate from compound to stickbow?"</font id=red>
In terms of shooting the weapon? Yes. In terms of bowhunting? No. Allow me to explain...
Everyone has an effective range. Even the guy who's never shot a bow before has one (albeit a foot or two, maybe). Yes, "stuff" happens at times. We don't see that branch in the way, the animal jumps the string, etc. These things should be the exception, not the rule. If a bowhunter stays within their effective range, they don't go 1 for 12 with a couple of wounds.
High miss/wound rates are a function of people not staying within their abilities. One or two, here or there? That's one thing. One for twelve with a couple wounds? That's unacceptable...for any weapon.
<font color=red>"I've never talked to a traditional hunter who never missed an animal. I've never talked to a trad hunter who has not wounded an animal. The same can be said for compound shooters."</font id=red>
Exactly what I've been saying. It's not a function of the equipment that causes it...it's the "individual" behind the string that makes Ingrid Newkirk squeal like a giddy school girl on prom night with things like "1 for 12 with a couple wounds".
<font color=red>"6ptsika/JRW---How many animals have you not recovered after you loosed an arrow at them?"</font id=red>
That's a fair enough question, which I'll try to answer as best as I can. Prior to 1999 I didn't keep records of things, so I honestly couldn't give an accurate account. However...since that time, best as I can recall, I've gone 15-2-2, exclusively with recurves & a longbow.
My two misses were both string-jumps that got away good as gold. My two wounds were...
1) A shoulder blade hit that survived to let me watch him rub the heck out of a sapling later in the season (very unique rack, same buck).
2) A long story, but in short... I thought it was a great hit, but turned out to be a liver shot. Jumped the buck, tracked him for several hours and lost sign at the edge of a 20 acre cut field. Couldn't get permission (must have) to track through the woods accross the field and highway. No doubt the deer died, but was not recovered. My one and only kill-loss since 1985 when I first started bowhunting, and I still think we could have found him if the landowner had let us.
JRW