0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

I just spent 7 full days of hunting in KS. I took my Adcock longbow and a borrowed compound. I took the compound because this is THE hunt I have waited 2 years for and I have no kills with my longbow - a lot was riding on this hunt and I suspected I would get a chance at a nice buck.

We had poor hot weather and for some reason the bucks just were not in the creeks chasing does much. They were in the fileds and praries - unhuntable for the most part. I hunted with my longbow a couple of days and one Friday evening I had a mature whitetail come in right at dark. He had broken off one side of his rack but had half a 150&quot; rack and a huge body. I had him at 18-20 yards, broadside and my focus/shot felt great. I hit a limb for the second time this year and the arrow went behind the deer harmlessly. <img src=icon_smile_sad.gif border=0 align=middle>

This is now 0 for 2 with my longbow. I HATE being unsuccessful and I worked darn hard to get in position on a nice elk and whitetail only to have limbs deflect my shots. With a compound I really think both shots would have connected. Still, I have AR deer season to prove I can do this longbow thing. Its frustrating for me ..........

As for the KS hunting .... I had 4 shooter P&Y bucks within 75 yards, two within 20 yards and one shot. A farmer we met had a 4x5 skull/rack that I green scored at 160&quot;, 22&quot; inside spread, 26&quot; main beams, 16&quot; G2 on one side. Basically a 4x4 with a 5&quot; 5th point on one side - MONSTER deer (I'll post the pick later). Kansas has awesome hunting !
Stealthycat's Photo's

Edited by - stealthycat on 11/11/2002 13:54:54

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

Stealthy,
Sometimes things just don't go the way you think they should. I have changed my idea of a successful hunt since going back to traditional. If I can get within bow range and at least fool the deer that much, I've had a great hunt. If I get a deer, great. I just like being out in the woods! The only thing that can ruin the hunt for me is a lost deer. Keep trying! It will happen. Dick

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

You know......if a guy really NEEDS to connect with a deer....maybe he ought to hunt with his compound. I don't own one anymore, because I really don't care if I kill another deer or not.
It's pretty much like Dick said, it's the hunt and not the kill for me. But, having said that, You need to hunt hard and make as many kills on them as you feel comfortable with. Huntin' is huntin', doesn't matter what you use.
If I get one good shot per season and I miss (as I did this year) it's been successful for me.
I was a little disappointed on an Elk hunt a couple years ago, but that was because I was fool enough to spend $5K on it.
I guess I'd hunt field mice if that's all there were..<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
Keep at it. You WILL make it happen.
Good luck in AR

Your life is made of time, not money.

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

John - I spent a weeks vacation elk hunting and like $1200-1500. I then spent a week's vacation and about $500 whitetail hunting in KS. I spent a lot of time getting ready for the hunts physically and getting my equipment ready. Lot of time, lot of preperation, and while the hunting was great kill or no kill, man, I sure like filling the tags !

I do agree that the whole of the hunt cannot be measured by kill or no kill alone. I would go as far as to say that the main goal is to enjoy the world God created, enjoy the woods, the camping, the comraderie and the hunt itsself. The kill IS the ultimate (maybe not the most important) goal though, and I can't imagine hunting for years without filling a tag, you know ?

I love horns, I love deer meat and I aint got either so far this year. Does watch out in the next few weeks !
Stealthycat's Photo's

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

Stealth,
Sorry to hear about your bad luck. Maybe it'll happen at home for you. I haven't been able to bring myself to put down the compound this season. I haven't practiced with the recurve as much as needed and am only comfortable out to about 15yds. Past that and I would be going against my own code of bowhunting ethics, don't shoot past my effective range no matter how big the animal.
I enjoy the hunt as much, maybe more than anyone. But,there is nothing better than connecting after a lot of effort and hard work. I will happily admit that I do want to kill more big bucks. I am putting in as much time as possible in my home state of IL right now. And can not bring myself to give up that extra bit of confidence I have in my abilities to connect with the compound. I'll admit that at this point I can't stand the thought of a big buck passing me by at 25yds, knowing I can't take the shot if it is presented.

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

Hobbes - You know, I agree. Shooting a longbow/recurve is SOOOOO much harder it seems than a compound is, isn't it ? I argue this point time and again on the LW with people who want to seperate crossbows but see compound/longbows/recurves as the same in the same season. I too have a hard time giving up the accuracy of the compound and range. I actually bought a new HC Carbon bow, triple S. Under 2 1/2 pound mass weight - lighter than my Adcock longbow I think ! Amazing thing, haven't shot it yet and might not. I DO think I can kill with a longbow - proving it seems to be harder than I thought it would be !

Call me an O-fer so far this year, but it aint over yet !
Stealthycat's Photo's

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

Stealthy

ah man, you need to revamp your definition of Success dude! You are getting the chance to do what many cant, having opportunities that many don't, not to mention having them time and time again! It will happen, be patient and be dedicated as its all a matter of time! Successful, heck ya!

Hobbes,

Go for it! The season is winding down in places and the only way you are going to hunt with the curve is to take it out and put some stand hours underneath its belt. So what if you can only shoot 15 yards, then set up your stand at 10 yards giving yourself a 5 yard bufferzone! I am sure you wouldnt take a shot you dont feel comfortable with, but not hunting the way you want to because you cant shoot 40 yards and nail ping pong balls 99% of the time is un imaginable imho! Its supposed to be FUN eh? Make it that way <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>!

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

I just started hunting with a recurve this year. I made up my mind at the beginning of the season that I would hunt with my recurve this year and leave my compound in the case. I live in Alabama where we have 46 days of either sex season with a gun. I knew I could get one to eat with a gun if I had to. I killed my first deer ever with traditional equipment on November 1st. It was a doe. Right after the shot, I got so shook that I had to sit down. My knees turned to jelly. It had been a long time since that happened. I have practiced enough this year that I ought to be a great shot, but I am just average. It worked out for me though. Don't give up guys.

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

Lilhunter - I don't think I'm missing the points of hunting, however theres got to be some tag filling going on or I might as well hunt with my camera !

doehunter - congrats !
Stealthycat's Photo's

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

ah man, you're taking it a wee bit wrong, I didnt say you were missing the point of hunting! Its called patience, it WILL happen, you have that nack of getting/creating opportunities, its just a matter of time before you connect. Btw, I know what you mean where there comes a time when filling a tag takes the front seat. Almost considered per pressure we put on ourselves. Its just the way the US runs, economy and success. But there is one thing I did have to learn the hard way. The harder you work, the sweeter it smells!

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

I didn't mean I wasn't hunting the way I wanted or not having any fun. I enjoy shooting deer with a compound as much as anything. I will eventualy put in some time with the recurve, but I don't know that it will replace my compound for good. I love &quot;bowhunting&quot;, which means I like for all my effort and time to equal a &quot;bowkill&quot;. If the kill didn't mean anything or didn't matter then it would be more productive and a lot less heartache to use a camera.

Not to sound like a jerk, but I am not missing the point at all. I haven't missed the point for the last 15 yrs in which I have bowhunted. I love the sounds of Wood Ducks flying through the woods, the excited bark of a squirrel when a hawk flies through the trees, the sounds of turkeys talking in the early morning before they fly down, the soft bleats of a fawn as it tries to relocate it's mother, the smell of wet leaves after a fall shower, the sound of leaves falling from the trees, the excitement that comes and goes when I spy a big buck or doe that just doesn't present the right shot, I could go on and on about all the things I love about bowhunting. But the one thing that is beyound compare is the feeling of coming to full draw, picking a spot and releasing the string on whatever animal I am hunting. It is what I work for now and will continue to work for in the future whether it is with a compound, recurve or longbow.

And by the way, I can't hit ping pong balls 99% of the time at 40yds. LOL

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

Hobbes, you can hit ping pong balls 99% of the time at 40 yards? If you can do that with your stick, throw a chain on the wheels and deep six it. If not, practice, practice and practice some more till you can do it with the stick and then come and brag on it. <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

Stealthy, better luck next time. That obstacle that deflected your arrow harmlessly away from your buck is why I stump shoot so much. Puts the wild factor into it. There's not much we can do to avoid unseen obstacles, but the seen twigs, limbs, branches and sometimes trees are heck to shoot around unless we practice it a lot. I know, been there done that. I practice so that I'm not only accurate as I can be, but so that I learn the flight of my arrow and know what I have to do to put the arrow between, over, under, through and into a variety of obstacles at any number of distances. Besides, isn't that why they call it huntin and not killin?<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> What ever weapon you decide to hunt with, have fun and if at all possible, make meat.<img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

Make em sharp and shoot em straight, or leave em home.

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

man no ping pongs...jeesh here I thought you were my hero!

Dont get me wrong, I put my time in and hunt hard and hope ya I get even the chance to draw the bow, but dang, if I dont who cares! I find it a little odd when people use this statment or something close and toss it around like flys on freshly laid cow pie.

I love &quot;bowhunting&quot;, which means I like for all my effort and time to equal a &quot;bowkill&quot;.

who doesnt, but get real, when they come on here can whine for whatever reason cause they didnt kill a deer or it wasnt MR huge they just ran though, I get disgusted!

btw, I do take a fine camera! If I aint hunting with one, I am hunting with the other!

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>Besides, isn't that why they call it huntin and not killin? <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>

shew Mike, around this place it starts to make me wonder!!!

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

I may have ruffled some feathers without meaning to here, so if I did I apologize. Somewhere somebody made the comment about the 40 yd thing and I jokingly stated that I can't shoot that good, so lets get that straight first. I in no way was saying that I can do the ping pong thing.

I am not sure what the fresh cow pile thing means, but I definitely don't think it has anything to do with my statements. If we are ashamed of the fact that what we do is kill animals with a bow then where do we stand when asked why. I do not flaunt anything about my bowhunting but when everything does come together and I loose an arrow the plain and simple fact is, I have killed an animal. There are no two ways about it and going on about how the kill means nothing is nothing more than a candy coating over what we do and belittles the fact that we have just taken a life. I love everything about bowhunting and I am sometimes a little unsettled after I have taken a life. Does the kill mean everything? No! Do I have to kill to consider myself successful? No! But I won't lie about the fact that when I am successful, I am happy, thankful and looking forward to the next time.
I have lived and breathed hunting for 25yrs of my life and still love every minute I spend in the woods.

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

Hobbes,
You left out something. Venison tastes great and is good for you!
Dick

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

Stealthy, dude, I am jealous. Even though you didn't connect, you have had some amazing time in the woods, and the memories that go with it. Heck, I went to Canada a couple months ago on a moose hunt--needless to say, that ain't cheap. I didn't even see a moose, much less get a shot, but you know what? It was, without a doubt, the best hunt of my life to date. I absolutely had a ball, got to meet some great people, spend time with friends, make new ones, and see some of the most awesome wilderness on God's green earth (not to mention them blueberries). Did I want to bring home some moose meat? You dern skippy I did! But the experience was worth so much more. I would do it again in a minute (if I could afford it!).

Now that is my experience and opinion. I don't expect you to feel exactly like I do about it--you aren't hunting for me any more than I am for you. If you really want to take up the other bow to make some meat, that is your choice--just be true to yourself, because that is the only one you have to answer to.

It is definately a challenge--heck, if it was easy everyone would be doing it--lol. You have just had some bad luck, but it will change--just hang in there. You overcame the problems you were having before, and you will overcome this. If the situation was reversed--say that monster came out and you had the high-tech gear in hand, but something else went wrong--I bet you would be feeling the same way--&quot;Blast! If I had only brought my longbow instead of this thing I would have tagged that one!&quot;.

Do what is right for you, but don't let a little bad luck make that decision for you--follow your heart. Btw, one of the fellows in our moose party most likely would have gotten a shot with trad gear, but it was a missed opportunity with his compound--it can go both ways.

Chad

Long Bows Rule!

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

Hobbes, we are beating eachother up for nothing LOL!

I used your statement as a very broad one, should have changed a few words so it didnt get directed towards anyone, my humble apologies. Hang around the bowhunting forum for awhile, that or the gasp other site, I am sure you'll know exactly what I mean!

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

my bad <img src=icon_smile_blackeye.gif border=0 align=middle>

<img src=icon_smile_evil.gif border=0 align=middle>made me do it

Make em sharp and shoot em straight, or leave em home.

[Deleted]
 

[Deleted by Admins]

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

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

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

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.

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

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

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

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>!

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

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

RE: 0 for 2 ............... back from Kansas
 

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!!)