HMMMMM

Why use a bow ? Seriously. Hobbes, Lilhunter, Mike ??

I went to a compound because of the challenge and I found it. If I wanted to fill tags I would rifle hunt. About 3 years ago I got interested in trad archery. I had started to prepare for archery season and realized my shooting (with a compound) was very good with little or no practice all year. And it wasn't fun either. So I jumped into longbows. I am cross dominant, which might make it harder for me to become proficient with a longbow, but I found THE challenge for me, right now, in trying to take a deer/elk with a longbow.

Now, that said, I still gotta have some success in filling tags when I hunt. I love deer meat, and theres got to be some tag filling for me to keep hunting with a longbow. I can't go 0 for 120 in the next 10 years and be happy - honestly I just cannot do that. Am I missing the point of hunting then ?

My most successful hunt ever was with my Dad in 1996. We backpacked into a wilderness are on our backs, camped through snow, rain and hail, I was sick as a dog for two days and we had a fantastic time of it. VERY challenging physically and mentally - ask Arnie how my elk hunts go. Anyway, we did kill a fine bull each, but even without the kills tat hunt would remain tops in my book because of the way the hunt went. So no, I don't think I am missing the point of hunting, however I AM being honest in that I gotta fill a tag sometimes.

Wahya - I actually hunted with a compound for a couple of days in KS and came away even more determined to master hunting with a longbow. I passed several bucks, VERY close range bucks, that I would have tried to take with my longbow. The challenge of shooting them with a compound just wasn't there - not unlike carrying a rifle IMO.
Stealthycat's Photo's

No apologies needed. I think we all know what hunting means and all of us have our own set of standards we have set. Mine does not include the necessity to kill a deer, if it did I would shoot every buck that got close, but that is the ultimate goal that I try to achieve each season. And the more effort required the more I enjoy that ultimate goal.

I did just get back from hunting and had a big 8pt manage to slip around me without offering a shot this morning, didn't matter that I had the compound. I also had a doe at about 10yds that spooked when I drew on her last week that would have been a perfect set up for a quiet recurve, but the sound of my arrow sliding across the rest was more than she could take.

So...... whats ping pong balls taste like???<img src=icon_smile_dead.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>LOL
Every day that i spend in the woods... Free...no worries...the birds sing.... leaves fallin.... squirrels playin....are succeful hunts....
but ya know... this tag might as well be a brick!! LOL
Good huntin to yall
Hedgeapple

mushy and they give ya gas MWUAHAHAHAHA <img src=icon_smile_evil.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>!

Stealthy,

I just got back this evening from a week in West Virginia. I hoped to shoot a deer with my new Crusader. For the week, I saw over a hundred deer, but all of them were in fields or alongside the road as I was driving. There was zero mast and they were feeding on browse and grass. There were dozens of deer in fields at mid-day!!

I did not see a single deer in the woods with bow in hand, at ANY distance. It still was a successful week, for me. I went back to one or two of the places I have hunted in past years and saw some beautiful country.

There were 18 shots taken by four of six hunters in the camp. All four were carrying wheel bows. My son killed a healthy 170 lb doe last Saturday. He missed one other shot on which he misjudged the distance in the fading light and shot over the back of the doe.

One other fella took one shot and missed on a yearling. The other 15 shots were taken by two brothers. The result, one dead and recovered deer, one gut shot, and very likely dead and unrecovered deer, and apparently 13 misses.

Right about now I have a bit of a sour taste in my mouth after the hunting trip. Some folks, like my son, are hunters, others are nothing more than shooters, and not very good ones at that!!!!!

I venture to guess these young fellas have no idea what their effective range is, or what the term even means! I've got to do some serious soul searching before I go back again!!! Do I really want to associate with folk that do not respect the game any more than that? I have 48 weeks, or so, to decide.

Bill

Praise the Lord, He is worthy

Stealthycat, I fully understand how your feeling. I haven't posted in awhile because I feel I have let the Trad. archery sport down. Last year I hunted with my recurve for the first time (after having practiced with it for 2 years prior and shooting damn good) and I blew 2 shots on 2 bucks during the season. Clean misses, but still. My biggest problem was what I couldn't do with my recurve that I could do with my compound. Plan my shot. The first buck came in so fast that I took the shot too soon and shot over it's back. The second buck had a doe with it and it was actually HER that I had to watch more than the buck. I could have pulled back just before the buck cleared a big tree, but the shot would have been too far at that point. So by the time he was close enough to shoot, the doe had cleared the big tree and spotted me, giving a good snort and both go flying off just as I drew back half way.

I also spend $'s and hunted in KS this season. The first trip was about 3 weeks ago (23rd of Oct.) and the bucks weren't moving yet and again this past weekend. I'm sorry, but I brought my compound. I saw some nice bucks but none within range.

I love everything about hunting, the time alone, the time spend listening to the sounds of nature, the thrill of seeing wildlife that doesn't see you, but I have really no confidence with my recurve, I know maybe someday I might, but for now, raising 2 small children doesn't give me as much time in the field as I would like and I would like to feel that I am a confident hunter when I am out there.

Btw, sorry Chad! I love the new bow and I have been target shooting it great, but I just haven't yet mastered it in the woods. Maybe I will someday, at least I know Doug can't adopt it from me!LOL (righty bow &quot;Holly's wood&quot; Dougie, lefty!!)