Who got you into Bowhunting
 

I'm sorry if this has been asked before.

I'm new to bowhunting and was just curious how everyone got involved/exposed to bowhunting.

My Dad originally got me involved in hunting but he never bowhunted. I got into bow hunting by my future brother-in-law.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My dad got me into hunting. He didn't really ever get serious about bowhunting though unfortunately. My best friend/neighbor in middle school, his father was a bowhunter and a guy that I looked up to very much at that age, who helped my family with a lot of things. He was possibly one of the best hunters I have ever known, he consistently killed deer with a bow or gun in Vermont every year, which is very difficult to do in Vermont.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My mother and father both shot competition archery in the 60's.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My grandfather got one of those old bear 76er takedown recurves..

He tried archery and didnt like it.. So I told him i would archery hunt when I got old enough. Now.. No one in my family archery hunted.. Some of the guys that my grandfather worked at the hardware storewith were archers.. They got me set up using that old bear when I was 10. 40# recurve.. I shot that for two years and then for xmas of my12th birthday I got my first compound.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

Need a category for self. No one helped me or taught me or even asked me when I was growing up. I got into it on my own.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

I was self motivated as well. I actually got my father and friend into it. I did have a gentleman loan me his old Whitetail II bow so that I could see if I liked bowhunting without spending too much money. After I arrowed a 5 pointer I returned the bow and went out and bought myself a brand new XI Legend Magnum. Also had a lot of help from guys at pro shop (staff and customers) who helped me learn.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

I agree with the post above, need a catagory for self....When I was fifteen, some 23 years ago all I wanted for my Nov birthday was a bow...prior to that I took an old fiberglass recurve for a walk in the woods every fall and thought I'd be successful....Well Nov 10th came and I did get a new compound. A Bear Black Bear II. I used that bow for the next 9 years with less than marginal success. At 24 I recovered my first deer with it, a young doe and it's the last I ever used it for hunting. I was ignorant to the sport and bows in general, I shot full length 2117's with 160 gr Thunderheads, off a flipper style plastic rest with fingers. Talk about underspined. I had sights on the bow and was rather proficient out to 20 yards but was a green horn to deer and bowhunting. At 25 I received a new Jennings Carbon Extreme XLR and a release aid.....started shooting 3D and darn did I get good at it....now with all those 20plus seasons and years of competition shooting...

Bowhunting is my life along with alot more of the outdoor industry....I was self taught in most intances in life growing up with nothing more than an older brother and a single mother....I didn't do too bad and praise her for it....But that's my story...self taught, addicted to the sport and promoting and prolonging it every chance I get....

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

Ditto for me. My brother in law had a bow someone had given him. I borrowed it and shot for about a week. I was hooked......

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My Dad. I don't quite remember what got me started but I sure remember the Hunter's Education Course as well as the first trip out during rifle season. He fell asleep on a blanket and a herd of doe went by. I never fired a shot.....

....which is good because it was buck season at the time. ;)

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My dad got me into hunting. But a buddy of mine, bought a cheap crossbow and started shooting. I borrowed a crossbow from my Grandpa and we both started shooting together.

It progressed...and as the natural progression goes...we both ended up getting into bowhunting, went out and bought compounds, and here we are.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

my father started me off gun hunting and then got me a bow when i was 15

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My best friend hooked me up. I killed a small buck the first night of opening day. Been hooked ever since. They haven't come near as easy since then. It is an awsome sport.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

Need another option: Husband. I had NO inclination to hunt, in fact, was pretty much against it (**gasp**) until I started dating my husband, he asked if I would try, I said what the heck, I'll try anything once, gotmy first deer/buck 2nd day of season and like was said earlier, I was hooked. Now I bowhunt too and haven't harvested one yet, but I love every minute of it anyway. :)

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My grandfather was the person that got me started in hunting. One day I was eyeing up the 3 recurves he had in his gun closet so he took one out and set it up. After that I was hooked. ;) He and my dad taught me the basics of how to shoot. I was only shooting targets for the first couple years. Nothing too serious. Then I got the bug. :) I got my first compound bow as a Christmas gift one year and the following season I started hunting with it. After that I never looked back.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

It's kind of sad to see that most of us got ourselves into bowhunting. Guess that really shows that we need to step it up and get some people into hunting.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

Dad got me starting in hunting. I got him started in bowhunting and since I've taught myself about the technical aspects and as of now I'm using hte internet to get myself and dad seriously into 3d, spots, and indoor competition.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

Itook archery in college. I work at the school and my boss bow hunted. He let me borrow his old bow. I didn't hunt with it but did alot of shooting. I then got my own bow after college and began to hunt about 10 years ago. I got hooked after I killed a deer the first two weekends I hunted. I have now taken seven deer,a rabbit anda hog with my bow.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

Got into bowhunting in 1976 after reading articles in outdoor magazines by or about Fred Bear. It sounded pretty challenging and besides the woods were getting so crowded during gun season that I thought I'd give it a shot. Went out and bought an old wooden Ben Pearson 210 compound. Wheels were attatched to clips on the ends of the one piece riser/limbs. Learned to shoot it instinctive. Got my first buck (a 6 pt) after a couple years of missing a lot. Once a local pro shop opened up, things changed. My new Illusion reminds me that things have come a long way since I started. The passion for bowhunting is still the same, though.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

Just me decided to lengthen the deer season

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My dad and pawpaw got me into deer hunting, I got my dad into bowhunting.

My buddy and I was looking at the state regs book one day and got to noticing that gun hunters here in Arkansas only got two weeks while the archery season lasted from Oct. 1 until Feb. 28th.

It didn't take us long to save enough money to buy our first bows. We were 14.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My dad got me started. I used to sit out in the backyard and watch him shot his recurve. I asked him if
I could shoot too and he took to the local bow shop where he purchased me a hoyt excel. The rest is history.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

i got myself into it. when i was little i was very interested in all types of hunting and talked my dad into getting me a small compound( he didn't hunt much other than squirrels) and i taught myself to shoot. then my mom bought me my next bow. then after i outgrew it( about 6+ months ago) i worked and got my own bow which i'm using now for hunting.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

I got myself into it as well. My dad passed away when I was 1 and mom never remarried. My dad had a Bear recurve that hung on our wall as long as I can remember. Mom finally let me start shooting the thing when I was 13, it lasted about 2 weeks before the top limb twisted and cracked. Saved my money and bought a compound a year later and away I went. Like a lot of others I hadn't a clue what I was doing. My quiver contained about 4 different sizes and lenghts of arrows all with different broadheads, which I never practice shot. I couldn't afford a sight and even with all the mismatched equipment was really accurate out to thirty yards and even managed to kill a few does. My mom wouldn't let me rifle hunt alone but allowed bowhunting so it was a natural choice. She would get up at 4 am every saturday and sunday morning, drive me to where I hunted and sleep in the car until I was done. She used to go along in the afternoons but not the morning. So while I got myself into it my mom had a big hand in it as well.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

Wow! That was a great story. Your Mom must be a special lady. Good luck this season.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

I am proud to say Antler Eater got me into ths crazy sport. I couldn't imagine not bowhunting.:D

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

Guy at work was talkin bout how good he could shoot a bow, i was like pfftt i can do that, bought a durango off of Ebay.Discovered i love shooting it.....The rest is history, as they say.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

Mez....That's a GREAT story, there.

My first post.....My dad had an old recurve around when I was a kid, but I never remember seeing him shoot it, even once. I used to play around with it....but like someone else said....it soon cracked!

I got married @ 39 yrs old....just 1-1/2 yrs ago. My wife has a (now) 13 yr old from her previous marriage. We live in the country....and our nearest neighbor has a son who's 18 that is an avid and VERY adequate bow hunter. Another neighbor is an expert archer.....and our son has naturally been mesmerized when watching them shoot. The younger neighbor recently upgraded bows....and that left one availble for our son. The price was right....and we bought it for him. I bought him a membership to the range @ the local archery shop (which is only 3 miles from our house) and it looked like so much fun....I thought I'd try it. I also thought it was something he and I could do....together.

I bought my first compound bow without ever having shot one (just being honest). I also have a friend that guides elk hunts in CO that helped me with my buying decision.....but I was TOTALLY clueless. I've only been shooting a short time.....but I'm confident to about 25yds. My goal is turkeys with the bow. We'll see.

Great forums here, guys......I hope you'll tolerate my questions.

Jeff

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

I took the initiative to start bowhunting myself, but my parents were both avid bowhunters. They both gave me pointers and fueled my passion of the great sport of archery.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

You guys wont believe me but it was Fred Bear, He taught me how to shoot, for real. I don't care if you believeme or not but when I was 12 I rode my bike down to the archery shop by my house and fred was in talking to his friend old man Erno, we'll he got to talking to me about shooting a bow and we went out back for a couple of hours and he showed me how to shoot. any way about a week later I stoped in to the shop and old Man Erno said fred had something for me and it was a bow made by him. but I had to work for it , so I worked at the shop and thats how I got into it.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

I got myself into it when I decided to move up from slingshots back in 1954.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

I used to have to take my wife to garage sales to haul crap back in my truck vs her carrying in her compact foreign job. Not my idea of a good time so I decided to buy some manly toys in the hopes she would not want to hang out with me during these times. Bought a radial arm saw, chainsaw, wood chipper, ...until one day I saw a Bear Magnum for $50. I always wanted to try archery but compound bows were expensive enough for me to always pass. Didn't want to invest a lot of money into something I might very well suck at. Bought the bow 2 years ago and started target practicing. Was alright, but not good. Went to an archery store and they fitted me with a bow that was correct for me and let me use the range for free. No time at all was robin hooding arrows. Traded the Bear fora Jennings and am now in my first year bow hunting.
BTW, it worked, when I started buying toys, the wife decided to leave me at home while she bought junk.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

What got me to finally try a bow was , ironically , my crossbow .
Once I started flinging those little arrows I got to wondering about flinging the bigger ones so I borrowed a recurve and practiced with it until I was ready to try hunting with one . Now I own my own bow , a 50# PSE Kudu , along with the crossbow and hunt with both . My inspiration for buying a recurve was partly my Uncle Dennis who used to hunt with one , and being too lazy to maintain a compound .

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My best friend and wife’s cousin... and my wife has been mad at him ever since !

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

no one in my family hunts so i had to do everything on my own. But i really like to teach myself so it was fun. One thing that helped ALOT was this forum. Thanks to everyone on here. I am 19 and there are a few kids that live near me that are 13, 14, and 16 that always watch me shoot my bow, and said it looks sooo fun. Well i told them to talk to their parents and see if they could get some equipment and i would show them some stuff. They all got bows and sights and rests and all the important stuff but for got to get arrows and releases. Well i have like 10 releases so i gave them all a release and i also have about 10 dozen aluminium arrows so i gave them all a dozen and some field tips for them. Now they are out bow hunting and i take them with me ALOT the 14 year old just shot a 7 pointer out of my blind with me video taping, but it wasn't a great shot and we couldn't recover the deer. He was a little bit bummed but i told him it happens to every one.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

Got into it myself. I shotgun hunted for years and just wanted something more challenging.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

myself, I have just loved to shoot a bow

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

I got into bow hunting by watching the Outdoor Channel. Being from NYC, I had never hunted before. Once I started though, I felt I had to get into all aspects of it.After gearing up for Deer hunting (rifle), and duck hunting, I thought I'd givebow huntinga chance. I bought my first bow, a PSE Nova, and eventually worked my way to my current Mathews Legacy. Never looked back. Now i'm trying to get my friends back home to get into hunting too.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My husband got me started. This is my 3rd season

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My dad took me bowhunting when I was 6 months old (no kidding) - wrapped in a blanket at the bottom of his feet in a ground blind. I can't ever remember not going bowhunting - well at least sitting in a blind until I was old enough to hunt myself.

He bought bows to the hospital when both of my sons were born (the nurses loved that). This weekend we are taking my boys up to camp (ages 6 and 8) and each of us will have one with us in tent blinds - makes things a little more challenging than the usual treestand by yourself. My oldest son has done nothing but watch hunting videos for the last 4 days - he's more excited about going up than he is before Christmas. I haven't been able to get a shot at a deer yet with one of them with me, but this year I think I can get enough days in with them to make it happen (if I can just get them to sit still for more than 30 minutes!).

Neither of them has any hope of not getting hooked - next year all four of us (Grandpa, me and the two boys) are joining an 3D league as partners. We'll probably have the lowest scores in the league, but I'll bet there won't be many other teams that have more fun.

RE: Who got you into Bowhunting
 

My best friend really forced bowhunting on to me back in '99. I was interested, but not passionate about it. He set me up w/ his back-up bow...68# High Country. He bought all the accessories, arrows, broadheads, etc. (had to pay him back, but it was a bargain) for me and explained how it all went together. Practiced quite a bit before I first went out. Very first day in the stand had a mature doe at about 30 yards in front of me...froze like a 15 year old at my first high school dance.

We don't really hunt together much anymore, but I'll never forget what he did for me.