ORIGINAL: Arthur P
This 'no need to practice' baloney is the exact reason our archery club is 80% traditional for the first 6 months of the year, then 80% compound the last 6 months. It's been that way for the past 6 years.
Not exactly sure why this is relevant in any way to this conversation, but I agree with your point here about shooting trad vs. the easy way.
Why do so many compound shooters hate shooting their bows? I say that because it's human nature. When people enjoy doing something, they make time available to do it. So, since these folks refuse to shoot, then they obviously hate shooting.
That's perhaps the stupidest off the cuff statement I've heard out here in a long time. I've read plenty of your stuff AP - you clearly seem to be a rational, good guy that can shoot trad well and is very knowledgable about hunting and bows. To hear you say something like this is just flat out wierd. Sure people make time for things when they enjoy it. Let's see: Ice-out pike fishing, steelie run, walleye run, bass on the beds, turkey hunting, golf, gardening, working out, cooking, flying RC planes, basketball, horses, golf, scuba diving, building model planes, writing and recording music, building things, working on the house, landscaping, camping, family, riding the hog, researching mind stimulating topics such as religion, the Bible, hunting, NWO, target shooting with the pistols/bows, scouting, building stands, planting crops, etc..... These are some of the things I love doing but rarely get to do them. I didn't even include the most important part in there - my kids, my wife, and my family, which I am blessed with the ability to spend a ton of time with. So to say that because I don't shoot all year I must hate it, is really absurd.
So, you folks that do not shoot archery but still bowhunt, I'd like to know three things:
1)What is it about compounds you hate so much that you refuse to shoot any more than you absolutely have to?
2) Since you dislike shooting a bow, why do you even mess with bowhunting to begin with?
3) What gives YOU the right to come on websites like this, where people who live and breathe archery hang out, and start whining about folks not seeing eye to eye with your attitude?
1. See explanation above.
2. Can't answer this question - I DO like to shoot a bow.
3. Last time I checked, I was still living in a fairly free Constitutional Republic with certain freedoms and rights. One of which is to come out here and chat with you fine folks about one of the many things I dearly love - HUNTING and all things associated with it.
It's the folks that live and breathe archery who have the right make the rules, not part time, relunctant participants. Yes, that is the classic definition of elitism. I believe in it, wholeheartedly.
Actually AP, that's more along the lines of socialism or communism.
I know that I am just as passionate about hunting as you or many out here with a great chance of being more passionate than most out here.
The only thing I can add to this AP, is that I do know where you are coming from, but I do not agree with your philosophy entirely. From a traditional shooting perspective based on my own skill level, I would have to love shooting a recurve way more in order to shoot it all year to be able to get good enough to hunt with it again. I don't have the time. But if I were madly in love with instinctive shooting, I would do something about it. That DOES NOT make me any less passionate about hunting deer with a bow though. Several years ago I hunted for two seasons with my recurve when I had a chance to stay current with it. Because of life pressures one year I did not have the time to shoot it, so I got my compound back out. After not shooting it for two years, the first shot was a bullseye. The next six arrows were in the bullseye as well. I can enjoy the sport I love with very little practice at the shooting portion of it all.
