I was just wondering what you consider yourself to be.I consider myself a archer who loves to bowhunt. I strongly beleive that if a law were passed that I could no longer bowhunt I would still shoot my bow as much as I do now. I have friends who drag thier bow out 1 month befroe season and fire a few arrows through it and as long as they can hit a pie plate they don't shoot anymore until season. I shoot my bow year round. So how about y'all?

I shoot year round as well. I shot for 2 years before I got into bowhunting. I love competing in 3d shoots with my friend during the spring and summer. It's really good practice too. I would have to consider myself an archer.

I'm a bowhunter who loves archery........
I'm competitive so I shoot competition in the off season and love tinkering with new gear, but as soon as mid summer starts to roll around the gears shift and I sort of glaze over thinking about falling temperatures, mornings on stand and that crunch in the leaves.
The competition aspect and all the shooting practice really goes well with the hunting part.......a high attention to detail with your shooting and gear is one less thing to worry about in November.

Like the native americans, i hunt to gather food, i am not a european archer per se. I practice to become proficient with my tool.

I guess it depends on what you defination of archer and bowhunter are. I have always looked at an archer as someone who strives for great consistency from great distances and bowhunters as people who put the arrow where it counts but try to get as close as possible. In that scence I'm a bow hunter but I love to shoot my bow.

If you are going by the guidelines then I would consider my self an archer

The way you have incinuated a loose definition of bowhunters kind of puts that category into a bad light. It seems that you are indicating that archers shoot all year long and would continue shooting in the absence of bowhunting, and that bowhunters are not dedicated to shooting effectively but go out in the woods and fling arrows until they kill a deer. If that's the case I doubt you'll get many people volunteering to say they are bowhunters.

To me, an archer is someone that may or may not bowhunt, but has a passion for archery shooting sports and shooting excellence. They most likely compete in some aspect of archery be it Feta, 3d, or otherwise and toil over their gear trying to squeeze the most out of its performance. A bowhunter is someone that is equally dedicated spending a good portion of their time scouting, preparing, and PRACTICING for the upcoming season with the hopes of bringing home a big one. The archer may or may not be an effective bowhunter due to the fact that they don't spend as much time scouting because of their need to perfect their equipment or compete. The bowhunter may compete in a 3d shoot to hone his skills for hunting but cannot hope to be in the same league as the true archers. That is my view of the people you are asking about. The people who shoot a couple of arrows to see if their bow is "on" and then run to the woods are most often gun hunters that bowhunt to extend their hunting time.

With that being said I would say I am a bowhunter. I practice extensively, scout quite a bit, put a lot of time on stand, look over maps and aerials, and attend 3d shoots in the off season. Given a choice between giving up gun hunting or bow hunting it would be a no brainer and I'd be hitting the woods with my bow all the time.

[quote]ORIGINAL: adams

I guess it depends on what you defination of archer and bowhunter are. I have always looked at an archer as someone who strives for great consistency from great distances and bowhunters as people who put the arrow where it counts but try to get as close as possible. In that scence I'm a bow hunter but I love to shoot my bow.

I agree! And i will also add that i hope that one will make you better at the other!

Ditto HuntingBry! Great post...you saved me alot of typing

I am a bowhunter. Being proficient with the archery equipment is just one facet of being a bowhunter. I will most likely never shoot tourneys or competitively. Sometimes its nice on the practice range to step back and let some arrows fly at great distances, but when it comes down, I want my shot to be 15 yds at my deer.

I am a bowhunter.