I'm a deer hunter that has learned to proficiently shoot a bow. If I couldn't hunt deer with my bow, I'd probably never pick it up again. I guess that makes me a bowhunter. Same thing goes for my Rem 700 .270 and my Knight 50 cal. muzzleloader. The only reason I own them is to deer hunt.

I bought a hunting rig to bowhunt and to practice I started shooting competition indoor 18yards vegas and 25yards.
Now I am a bowhunter who proved his worth and who kicks ass on the range.
I seem to constantly beat the guys with bows looking like they can pick up radiosignals from Alpha centauri or bows that look like the only thing they're missing is the tarp to become a tent for 4.
In my opinion, having long stabs has something to do with compensation......

So I am a bowhunting archer.

Frank
Belgium

I consider myself both a bow hunter and archer. Here in Scotland archery is very much apart of our culture and the bow of choice for archers here is the long bow or the recurve. There are compound shooters too.

I also shoot in tournaments.

An Archer strives to make the perfect shot everytime under controlled conditions.

A Bowhunter strives to make the perfect shot under any condition one time.

I am a Bowhunter.

Being a great shot never hurts a hunter.
Being a poor one can.

A little of both but more so a bow hunter. Bow hunting to me Is not a shooting sport, shooting paper/targets Is.

Bowhunter.

Bowhunter, when hunting game, Archer, when pursuing the pure shooting aspect of the sport.

Distance has zero bearing on the definition. It is purely intent. Do you wish to kill or have the best score, form, etc?

Even in hunting, distance means nothing to me. The goal of the hunter is to be able to make the kill shot when presented. With a bow, sometimes that's measured in feet and sometimes it's beyond the effective range of NFL Field Goal Kickers.

GR8atta2d seemed to sum it up very well. What bothered me about the signature was that it presumed the archer was interested in only the long shot and that somehow he might be uncabable of making, or even trying to set up a perfect shot on close game.

I agree that distance has nothing to do with it. To me, an archer is someone who has taken to the bow and shows some dedication to mastering it or at least striving to improve. I would hope all bowhunters would be archers.

I think that since coming from a recurve beginning, I may identify more with the term archer, because I doubt there would be much arguement that shooting barebow with a slower recurve takes some dedication to achieve a competent level of repepitive accuracy and confidence. It may be possible that compounds with sights, releases, drop aways and peeps are much, much easier to shoot and kill deer with within days or weeks of purchase. The average recurve/longbow hunter may spend a year or more before he feels the same level of confidence. Then, he must connect with a good shoot to build that confidence.

That is why I think "archer" may be dearer to the barebow shooter and I think in the world of compounds the term has changed to competitive shooter. Now I may get some flac from that assumption from distinguished compound archers... lol.

Well said! As a BowHunter my goal is to kill as effectively as I can. Distance has nothing to do with being a BowHunter!

Dan