Datamax, I am still trying hard to figure out what your intent is with this thread! You passed on my wager which you knew you would lose!Why would I value the significance of a neighbor of yours abiltiy to effectively use a bow you set up for them,when you yourself agreed that target competency and hunting competency are vastly different.You are not making a point that supports ethical hunting.So what is your point?
No one would contest that shooting a recurve or long bow is much more difficult than shooting a compound.(is that your point)
You have not and can not establish that using a compound is easy,easier than traditional yes,much easier.(If you want to weakly support your opinion again my wager is still on the table!)
Are you in favor of more stringent competency testing by our hunter education departments before we can take to the field with a particular weapon?(Bring it on in my opinion!)
Probably like so many other people that participate in this forum you scan the threads to see if you recognize a particular poster someone who has expressed themselves well in the past,someone whose views you agree with.One of the first threads I read was when you described your hunt where you switched from stick bow to compound on that hunt because you felt it was the ethical thing to do.I thought here is a guy who is admirable,he did the right thing.Now you are throwing all this BS around and I am trying to make sense of it.Maybe if I understood your motivation more clearly it would make sense.
To use a weapon for the sake of using it,whether it be for the challenge,the romance of using just stick and string or whatever does not justify a lack of competence.If you can throw a rock and kill humanely 9 out of 10 times I have no problem with that.If you can drill Robin hoods with your stick and string at forty yards,but your shot to kill ratio on game is less than 8 out of every 10 times,I have a problem with that!
For most of us the time necessary to become proficient with traditional equipment is not available.Family,Work,Faith,giving to your community etc..
Again I will say that we are our own worst enemies with the proficiency and behavior that we condone among our hunting community! It would be fine with me if we had much stricter proficiency requirements.If we lost hunters because of it,they were hunters who shouldn't have been in the woods any way.