My thoughts exactly!!!

Point of the post made.

Well said.

What I've noticed is... that the farther someone gets into a certain specialty the more they tend to think their way is the best and anybody else is a slob.

The high-tech rifle guys who reload thier own bullets, shoot tiny groups at 500yards and know exactly where to aim on a deer walking 10mph with a 15mph crosswind @ 263 yards are a lot like the selfbow trad guys. (even tho' both groups are also worlds apart) They are both ultra-devoted to their specialty and think anybody who does it different has a lack of discipline and/or ethics.

It's not just a bowhunter thing... tho' bowhunters are notoriously cliquey and weird about equipment.

People just need to feel 'special'.

BTW, if you don't hunt with a 9 year old, round wheel, XI Demon compound... bowfish with a Oneida T-III, slug-hunt with iron-sighted 870, rifle hunt with a Rem 7400 (must be a 30-06) or trap 'coons with 160 bodygrippers... then surely you are an unethical, out-of-control glue sniffer.
.... because my way is the only true way.

Im part of that group as well. I like to shoot long distances with my 300 wby, 25 wsm, and 30-06. I have great loads cooked up for all my rifles. I know were everone is going to hit at any distances up to 500 meters, whether its the 300 or 22 250 or 243 etc.. I have all my barrels polished, trigers set to 2.5lbs to 3 lbs. I will not let copper set in my barrels. I bed the stocks, etc.. I do visit many reloading/gun forums but still dont see as much bashing as I do on all hte archery sights. People tend to get real ugly with one another on bowhunting sights. But you are right, the perfectionist quality does shine through with any body who is into one form of hunting or another. Like I said, I do them all to a great extent, probably because there isnt much else to do in my little town. So I visit a lot of different forums and sights. Im simply posting an observation I have made and find disturbing.

I think that is the issue. Some people can do it civil, others tend to do it uncivil.

You tryen to pick a fight buster. Looks like theres fixen to be a dust up.

I have found that it's not so much the equipment but rather the mind set, the: "Because I bow hunt I am the best hunter in the woods" and "If you don't bow hunt your not a hunter" or "If you don't bow hunt you are less a hunter than me" mentalities that seem to come more from bow hunters than any other group of hunters.

All you need to do is look at gun hunter vs bow hunter threads and you will see it implied constantly. This has bugged me for years and even kept me out of the sport many years ago because I didn't want to be associated with those type of thinkers.

I really don't know why it happens but it does. All I can come up with is they either don't do other forms of hunting or have some kind of superiority complex.

Cliques on this site? No....not here. lol

Great topic and very timely with some the threads that have been rolling around lately!

I had trouble with the archery I use to shoot at. It got so bad I quit shooting at any archery. I now live far from an archery, so I shot only at home. Even if I did live near an archery, Id still not go because of this very issue. Not so much of this attitude was ever directed at me, but to newbies. That is what really burns me.

I hear ya,

At the time I was first starting out in archery and all through the years for that matter, I would get this attitude from bow hunters that we "lazy gun slobs" were somewhat less of a hunter, even though I bow hunted as well! Well I put down my bow for a few years after that because it just put a sour taste in my mouth (so to speak) It really pushed me to the point that I hated bow hunters.

Well, I picked it up again about 20 years ago and even though that attitude was and is still out there. I made my decision back then to return to bow hunting but do all I could to try and change that way of thinking. I know I will only make a small dent but with the internet I hope this message will reach more people.

It's time to end this attitude and face reality that every form of hunting has it's own challenges and degree of difficulties. Further more, bow hunting is no more difficult than any other type of hunting with any other type of weapon. It's just different.

For those of you out there who think bow hunting is so much harder and requires so much more skills to do it, I have news for you. I dosen't. I have hunted with many types of weapons and while I find some more challenging than others, bow hunting is certianly not at the top of my list of difficult. Some aspects of can be challenging but overall, not difficult.

I must add the I am refering to compound bows and compound bow hunters as they make up the majority of the bow hunters out there. As far as long bows and recurves, they can be truely difficult to master. But again just because you use a long bow or a recurve does not make you a better hunter than me or the guy who shoots a rifle only or anybody else for that matter. A better bow shooter yeah...... hunter, no.

WOW ! I never thought that I would agree datamax. Thanks data for restoring some faith in mankind.