Depends on how well you get instructed from the get go, if your equipment fits you and how much you actually shoot in that year. If you have no direction, ill fitting equipment and you only shoot 4 or 5 times in a year, then no it's no where near enough time. However if someone helps you that knows what they are doing, you get your equipment from a good shop and you shoot every week or so a year should be plenty of time to get good enough to hunt with a bow.

My advise though is to hunt with whatever you want to hunt with. If you don't want to hunt with a bow, or can't afford to get one then don't do it. Take your gun and have a good hunt. Don't hunt for your buddies, hunt for you.

What if you decide to take the bow just to appease your buddies and you miss out on a nice bear because it is was just out of range, or worse yet you wound one because your confidence was shaken at the last minute or something? You are going to regret that for the rest of your life. Now if you want to hunt with a bow, then by all means do it. If you don't though don't invest that much time and money into something you really are not passionate about. Especially just to keep from getting ribbed by your "buddies". Might be easier to get new buddies in my opinion.

Paul