Are you an archer or a bowhunter?
 

I would probably never have brought this up except I just read someones signature block that said: An "Archer" tries to see how far away he can get from his target and still connect, a BOWHUNTER tries to see how CLOSE he can get to his!

How many can say they are archers

How many can say they are bowhunters

How many can't seperate the two and claim to be both.

Let's do an unofficial pole.

I'm also a little curious if equipment choice affects this. How many compound shooters consider themselves archers? Is it an old dieing term? I'm not sure if the signature block intended a slur of archers by only capitalizing bowhunters. It almost appears so, but I don't really know.

I consider myself both. In my heart of hearts I enjoy my recurves more than my Mathews which I bought out of necessity when arthiritus didnt allow me to control the string anymore. Although I will say that compound sure impresses me with it's accuracy from 40 out to 80 yards. I think the arrow is up in the air long enough for me to feel that thrill of watching it fly.

Bowhunting IS archery.

Now...if you want to talk about TARGET archery .....then I'd just say that target archery and bowhunting are mutually exclusive endeavors.

I consider myself a bowhunter....that enjoys target archery.

I claim archery hunter for myself becuase situations change and I adapt to them.

Ryan.

bowhunter!!!!!!!!!! if had 2 make a choice

I am a bowhunter, its awesome to be 15' over the top of the back of a mature whitetail looking down on him watching him breathe an he doesn't know that anyone is around.

Bowhunter!

I would say bowhunter

I am a Bowhunter that Loves to shoot and experiment with all sorts of equipment.

As a Bowhunter my objective is to Kill the Game I am after by any legal means. Everyone should always know their range limitations and stay within that effective range. I have killed Big game with Trad gear, and with Compounds. I have killed Game at ranges from 3 yards to 84 yards, although my average kill shot for over a hundred animals would be under 20 yards I am sure.

Many things determine an unethical shot besides how many yards that animal is from you, and unfortunately many animals are lost every year due to an unethical shot that was attempted at under 25 yards.

I started Bowhunting with the object of reaching my personal goals and will continue to hunt for those reasons. I think target archery is Fun and everyone should try it. If I lived in an area where there were more opportunities I still might shoot for Fun. A long trip to go shoot somewhere gets old and takes $$. Especially when I can get together with a group of guys and shoot in the back yard up to 100 yards if we want to.

Dan

For me, I started aas a pure bowhunter, only shooting in order to be just proficient enough to kill an animal. Now, I'm still a bowhunter, but I enjoy target archery as well, especially 3D. By learning to really just enjoy shooting, that has helped me immensely in hunting situations with having the confidence to know that I can make the shot. Target archery, (redneck gold as GMMAT's friends called it) in the sense of scopes, umbrellas, and 4' stabs is not akin to bowhunting in any stretch of the imagination though, in my opinion at least.

Well Said!
 

x2
Well Said!

I see many bows in the 'bowhunting' class at 3D shoots that have never seen a tree stand, a broadhead or a gut pile. There should be a 'practical bowhunting' subclass: bows would be required to sport at least three scratches, one blood stain and stabs shorter than your manhood.

Ha! But then you've got a guy like myself, who could still shoot in the hunter class with an open class stab if that's the rule...

Consider myself a Bowhunter! Though I love to shoot 3d and other types of targets, thats for fun and to sharpen my skills. The ultimate goal is put myself in a lucky spot and have to confidence to make any and every shot count!!

I have no interest in target archery, yet I understand practice makes perfect. I want to get as close as I can to my prey and kill it.

Well the way i see it is that a bowhunter needs to be and archer but an archer dosent need to be a bowhunter. So if you bowhunt your kinda both right?

I'm guessing now a Bowhunter as i've taken 38 Biggame animals with a recurve & mostly wood arrows & most of them from the ground & a natural blind & since compounds & going to trees a ton more consisting of Black Bears, Elk, Caribou, Buffalo, Whitetail, Mule deer, Hogs, Sheep & more. Archer in the past as I "personally" considered it the target part of the sport & having won a few State Bowhunting Championships & a Great Lakes Sectional in my division in my tourny days.
I have & am blessed with 2010 starting my 54th year in the great sport of Archery & Bowhunting......

Funny thing is I consider my self a bowhunter but spend far more time "shooting"

I'm a bowhunter,would not even own a bow if it weren't for the hunting part of it.I shoot at targets to make me a better BOWHUNTER!

Not all archers are bowhunters
 

Or need to be.

A bowhunter should be an adequate archer. Or else they're wasting a lot of time as as a bowhunter.

Bowhunter...,I'm into the challenge I gave up rifle hunting because I no longer found it a challenge anymore and gave up using treestands to hunt from the ground to increase the challenge of getting close enough for that perfect shot.
Next challenge is to go Traditional.

Well said, MeanV !!!

Hmmmmm, I wonder where in the world the OP seen that sig ??? :wink: :D

For me... although I do pride myself on my constant pursuit of improving my game, it's ALL about gettin' close when it comes to bowhunting! It's all about trick'n 'em for me and getting the critter within' spittin' distance. I want 'em close enough to hear my heart thumping! :s1:

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

To me, the difference lies in decision making. There is very little decision making in archery (3D is a bit of an exception). But, what makes a great shooting bowhunter is the decision making prowess to decide when and how to shoot.

To complicate matters, bowhunting is a solitary sport and face-to-face learning is limited.

We have all heard same, old stories of the archers who can hit a bottle cap every time at 20 yards but can't double lung a deer at 15 while bowhunting. There is also the trite story of the guy who can't hit a pie plate at 20 but thinks he is deadly on game. Obviously, none of us think we are either of these guys but the harder question to answer is: What kind of bowhunter appears in the mirror?

This is the kind of self-reflection and examination that improves decision making and allows you to become a better game shot (IMO).

I would say I'm an archer that has always had an addiction to bowhunting. The only reason I classify myself as such is that I shoot my bows year round and hunting season lasts but a short couple of months. There are 8 or 9 months of the year separate from hunting and I'm not going to let all this expensive gear sit around when there's paper or foam to shoot.

That being said, as I get older I'm losing the urge to get up in the middle of the night, get dressed in a lot of heavy clothes, and go sit in a treestand for days at a time without seeing anything. In other words, after chasing deer for almost 50 years I'm getting burned out. The desire to keep shooting remains.

Pretty much sums it up for me. The more endeavors I venture into in archery the more I learn and the more I like it. However, I'm probably really (mentally) a BOWHUNTER first, as many times, I consider a shot and as I take it, I think to myself, it may have been just outside the 10 ring, but it would've resulted in a DEAD ANIMAL. I have a couple guys I shoot with, and we shoot a "modified 3D" where we determine a HEART shot to be 10, good clean kill 8, anything else, ZERO!!! I think this is part of what I DON'T like about 3D is that it leads too many people to aim higher than they really SHOULD be aiming!!!

I like it;)

archer here... I kill and hunt just as much as everyone else, but won't accept "getting close" as an excuse for poor shooting... I've killed animals directly under me, an from the ground less than 5 yards... Of course I wanna get close every shot, but I I see a deer o turkey at a distance known as "far" to most, I will not let my attitude get in the way;)

I will evaluate the situation, and if the outcome seems like it will be good on mine and the animals part, I will shoot with the intent on recovery... Knowing your ability as an archer in the woods is vital for good judgement on "to shoot or not to shoot". If u shoot alot, you know your probability much better

Yep. Everyone should think more before they shoot. That second guessing will cause you to realize sometimes that you are incapable of a good shot then, or it's a bad day, or the animal seems leery or whatever... The second guess/ questioning of ones ability will cause more thought out decisions that are realistic to that individual...

I know that I can hold groups at 70 yards that would kill an animal 95% of the time. But in a tree you are not in the same situation so being able to judge your current shooting/holding state is necesarry as well.

Some guys get really nervous, which IMO limits their shooting tremendously. You can't expect te same results when you are shaking uncontrollably...

You've gotta know where you stand as an archer at the particular moment of truth as a bowhunter to increase your success... They go hand in hand for bowhunters...

On an "archers" moment of truth, he is goin to shoot regardless and doesn't really need to ever question his ability. That's what kills alot of us;)

I have always thought of an "Archer" as anyone that shoots a bow, Compound or Recurve or Longbow for hunting or target. I am a Bowhunter, but I shoot year round. I approach archery from a hunting perspective, I used to have target bows for target shooting and hunting bows for hunting. Now I use my hunting bow for everything and do not change it much in the off season for 3D shooting. This keeps me sharp for hunting.

Yea me to Jeff !

Exactly. I don't see how someone could be a true bowhunter without first being an archer.

I agree with a lot of the previous posts, I became a bowhunter by first becoming a archer. Bowhunting is a true passion of mine, but by enjoying and practicing archery it makes me a better bowhunter. It doesn't matter how far I know i can shoot an arrow. I will still try and get as close as possiable to the animal i am trying to put on the table, simply to increase my odds of taking that animal and out of respect to the animal.

Bowhunting is what introduced me to archery. I'm sure glad it did because I enjoy both immensely and while they are related I enjoy them for different reasons. With archery it is competitive (with myself mostly now) and I love to tinker and change things trying to squeeze the most out of myself to be the best I can. With bowhunting it is the pursuit and learning the land and the game as much as possible and putting together the pieces of the puzzle that will lead to the shot. It is only when that shot presents itself that the two are married and that is a beautiful thing.