If a trad guy shoots his bow every day of the year and scouts a month before the season. Do I have the right to say he is not a bow HUNTER - just a Bow shooter.
I suppose you could say all those things and more, but then you'd be making the case that equipment doesn't make the hunter, the hunter makes the hunter - correct ? (I'm playing along here)
I will give you that a highly skilled compound shooter and ANY(even the most novice) Xbow shooter are going to be group roughly the same regarding accuracy. Now take a brand new archer shooting a compound and a brand new Xbow user, and the Xbow user will dust them by a mile.
I challenge that. I bet almost anybody can shoot a tuned compound well at 20 yards - its not a great skill, it really isn't.
How hypocrital is it the you bust on me for not having a love of archer yet still choosing to hunt, when you do the same regarding squirrels.
Careful ... you mean I don't have a love of SHOOTING - right ? True, I don't, I am using the gun as a tool to do what i DO want to do, and that hunt squirrells. But heres the kicker - you can use most anything to hunt squirrels with and nobody bitches about mine is better than your way etc. Use dogs, shotguns, .22's, bows, double team them .... whatever. Right ?
Answer me why a true love of archery should be a pre-requisite to bowhunt?????? But a true fascination with guns not be required
An excellent question that isn't easy to answer. Maybe it has to do with the difficulty of the weapon ? Maybe its a traditions thing ? Maybe its none of that but is just something we all talk about in the off season and the core reason is the G&F departments of yours and my states decide we can use XXX weapons to control the deer herds ?
I'll say it again ... and please understand this is true .... I do not care what you choose to bowhunt with, I really don't, not until modern compounds and/or crossbow are proven to be a negative to the sport of archery. You can expand that to guns too .... use whatever you want to unless it violates what is generally considered ethical and/or until it becomes a negative to the deer herds. An example would be in central US states where rifles are not legal - if they were, there would be more hazards afield and many more deer killed - negatives to the sport.
I am tying this all into one package at the end .... archery equipment doesn't make the hunter - I think we can all agree on that - however there is a big difference when it comes time to shoot. The whole hunt for that 180" whitetail is almost identical up until the shot - and at that point if you have a compound in hand, or a crossbow, or a recurve/ longbow, things change drastically. Prior to the hunt too theres a difference if we want to take into account the time and dedication that one must have/show to master a given weapon.
Is or isn't that true ?