I don't remember where Fred's shot landed, but he killed an elephant with one arrow all the same. My point being he got the penetration required to kill the largest land animal on earth with a bow that had no wheels, cams, carbon, let-off, etc. How much better can it get in that respect?


Everyone has to set their own code of ethics. Big name or not, nobody sets mine for me, and I can't tell them what shots they are comfortable taking. Ben Pearson is one of the archery "icons" I most admire, but Ben is on film shooting (and making a kill) a javalina at somewhere between 130 and 160 yds (depending on whose account you listen to). NO WAY I'd try that, even if I was a good shot at that range, but I still respect Mr. Pearson.

I don't think it's so much "growing" as getting better educated. The pioneers of the sport pushed their limits--but they were still learning what their limits were. Some people still try to push the envelope. The biggest concern we have today, again my opinion, is the impression we leave on the public. Far fewer people kill their own chickens, hogs, and beef. More and more people seem to think that meat come from the store, set on a plastic or styrofoam tray and wrapped in celophane. People that never consider that the steak they are enjoying tonight was grazing in a pasture last week--but would be disgusted to hear that a wild animal was wounded by a careless hunter.

Like I said, these people vote.We need to give the best impression we can, and educate them, else they are liable to vote against us. We have idiot and hypocritical organizations like PETA and the HSUS putting out false propaganda already--no need to add fuel to that fire.

I don't think things will change all that much in the future, at least not for some time. The reason is the same as I already stated. Back in Fred's heyday, even housewives and kids participated in killing and cleaning the chicken that was going to be cooked for Sunday dinner, the Christmas goose, the hogs and cows--even if they never hunted, they were exposed to this and understood that in order to eat something, first you have to kill it. My grandmother was a very compassionate person, anddidn't want anything to suffer needlessly--but she didn't have a problem wringing a chicken's neck before she cleaned and cooked it. The same chicken that she would have whipped her kid's tail for if she'd caught them throwing rocks at it, orotherwise tomenting it. I can't see society getting much more "sanitized" than it already is.

Chad