My dad got me started. It wasn't cause he was bowhunting atthe time but he did for years before. He would talk about it all the time when we were out hunting other stuff and I wanted to experience what went on. Needless to say I've been bow hunting ever since and got my dad into it again.

Simply put without archery equipment I would only be hunting deer for a few weeks of the year with a shotgun and muzzle loader. Before this year I would not be hunting on sundays without archery. Thank gawwd for archery!

I started bowhunting because I love to deer hunt and it extends my season and puts more venison in my freezer. I muzzleload hunt for the same reason.

the challenge

as a kid i spent a lot of time in the woods and at the river i made a couple bows to just fling arrows when i was in grade school then in high school they offered archery so i took it the started to hunt on my own using what i had learned and seen when i was playing in the woods next thing you know i had a doe for dinner then went into the army and after i turned 30 i went back to hunting showing my step kids how i never stoped learning always reading about hunting then got another bow started practacing and tore the tendons in my arm at work gave the bow to a friend 4 years later i tried shooting another bow the scar tissue has healed 4 deer later and3 seasonsi hunt every chance i get

My dad taught us and took us out hunting and I grew up living for deer season. Guns were the thing with us and I still have a passion for them....but they will never be the same. I'm retired now butI worked with a bunch that were avid hunters for the most part, some were bow hunters. I quietly admired the bowhunters and always had an idea of getting into archery.....matter of fact I was invited to join in on some hunts....never did and blamed it on the expense of getting started. About the time I retired, I was also gun hunting mule deer in New Mexico on private land.....wife's relatives. I started noticing that many times I could get very close to the deer....stalking or sitting or whatever. (Even during the offseason I spend a lot of time just watching the deer) Anyway, it occured to me that I was in an ideal situation to bowhunt mule deer on this place and the New Mexico deer seasons greatly favor the bow hunter....so I built a couple ofpermanent tree stands (also use apop-up ground blind) andbought some entry level equipment at first thenupgraded to what I have now.

I am not going to run down gun hunting or gun hunters (proud NRA member here) but bow hunting is so much more challenging AND rewarding! You don't really see or feel it until you take that first trophy....you have a pride and feeling of accomplishment that is unmatched. Thanks for asking. Ray

Free beer saturdays after the hunt!

My story is a bit different than the others here. To start off, no one in my family hunts. My dad shot squirrels, etc. when he was a kid during the Great Depression, but that was it. The second way my story is different is that I didn’t hunt anything with any weapon until I was 38, and I’ve never hunted with a gun and don’t plan to (except maybe for coyotes and other pesky varmits).

When I was a kid in Massachusetts, I spent a lot of time in the woods behind our house and loved it, but never hunted anything, aside from shooting squirrels with a BB gun to keep them off our birdfeeder. Then, when I started high school, I moved to the Texas Panhandle, which was a completely different scenario. I loved the woods and didn’t care much for the terrain, although it did have a kind of stark beauty. So I kind of lost touch with nature somewhat, although I always longed to go back and spend time in the woods. Not to hunt, just to spend time amongst the beauty of nature.

Then, in the early ‘90’s, I moved to the Washington DC area and worked with a guy from South Africa who bow hunted…even wrote some articles about bow hunting wild boar in South Africa. He also did some research on the deer population here in VA. He also wrote poetry, windsurfed and was in general was a pretty cool guy. When I saw the research he did on the deer population in VA (which they think is about twice what it was when Jamestown was settled in 1607!), and he explained the problems this caused with cars, farmers and the ecology in general, it kind of took away from the bad feelings I had about killing a beautiful animal. I was never against hunting, it was just that I had no desire to be involved directly in it. My South African friend moved away some years ago, before we ever hunted together, and I think is now teaching windsurfing in NC.

But several years ago, I had the good fortune of making another very good friend, who is now my best friend and hunting buddy. He and his wife live in a 200+ year old farm house on the Shenandoah River here in VA, where we stay when we go to the mountains. I met them through my wife, who is from the Altai Mountains in Siberia and who loves the outdoors, who used to work with his wife. He has been hunting here in VA for about 30 years and bow hunting for 25 years. Some of the land we hunt is the same land he hunted 25 years ago, when he was a teenager. He is a good and ethical hunter, a wise man, and a good and patient teacher. I am very fortunate. Because of him and his approach, and my love for the outdoors, and the beauty of Virginia, I have become a very passionate bowhunter. I live in Arlington, which is right across the river from Wahsington, DC. It’s a two hour drive for me to reach our land in the mountains, but I go out there every chance I get, whether bowhunting or just to be out in nature. And my appreciation for nature has grown amazingly since I took up bowhunting 2 years ago.

My wife and I plan on building a house on some very remote land in the mountains we bought last year, and to make that our primary home.I'm not sure any of this would have happened if I hadn't taken up bowhunting.

This year I discovered what a resource HNI is. Because of HNI, I think this year will be a very good hunting year for me, on many different levels.

Thank you all!

(and sorry for the long post…I know I can be along-winded cuss!)

I grew up watching my dad and brother hunt together, I couldnt wait until I was 12, the age when my dad said I could hunt. My step-dad and mom also hunted, and they said Icould hunt if I could pass hunters safety course.....I did that at age 9, so on opening day at age 9, Ishot my first deer ever with my single shot 20g....a six point. It was the happiest day in my life, and I knew I would be hooked from then on.I got my first bow (a highcountry) that year, and it took me 3 years to arrow my first deer. My dad stopped hunting when I stated, because he was "too busy" so I could only hunt with my step-dad, and he taught me everything about deer I know. He always used to put me in the best spots that would produce the most deer. now that I am older, he lets me try to find those spots.....its alot harder then it loooks!
I too was taught not to shoot anything unless I was going to eat it, with the exceptions of them danged ground hogs in the back yard that tear the yard up and the muscrats that dig the holes under our bank in the pond......I am very thankfull for this, because it is just wrong to kill one of God's creatures for no reason at all!

My dad was really the only bowhunter that I grew up around. One day I came home from school and he came out into the front yard with a new compound bow for me. I was completely surprised and have not forgotten that day, even twenty two years later. It's because of my dad and my love of the outdoors that I still look forward to climbing into my treestands every year. There is something about being in the outdoors, watching the woods come to life, that just continues to amaze me.

My 14 y/o son has recently shown a BIG interest in bowhuntuing so we have been doing some looking for him a bow. I'm not going to let the opportunity to introduce a youngster to bowhunting slip by, so he will be set up soon.