Interested to see how many members here prefer stick and string?

been bowhuntin now over 50 years ,but still handload and shoot rifles too !

Been bowhunting since 1977. I take a rifle for big game occasionally but prefer bow. In the last 40 plus years my big game total would be about 125 with bow and maybe 25 with rifle, including several with a handgun.
Of the bow kills, 18 were in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Going to Alaska in June for brown bear and in August for grizzly, both with bow. We a

Thank you for the comments guys.
Would you mind sharing your choice on broadheads, what you found worked, what you had problems with, gear choice etc?

KMG,

I did a bow safari a few years ago, with this monster Livingstone Eland as the big prize. Bow was a Mathews Reezen, 65#, shooting a Muzzy 100 gr. 3-blade broadhead. Arrow achieved nearly full penetration at 25 yards, with the broadhead resting just under the hide on the offside of the chest. Arrow broke in two inside the Eland, probably as he ran off after the shot.

Congratulations sir. That is a very nice Bull.
I use those exact same 100gr Muzzy broadheads at the moment. Kind of thinking of giving the mechanicals a go. Looking at the Rage Hypodermic Mechanicals. The Muzzy's have never let me down. Just get tired of needing to re-sight the bow from field points to broadheads since the POI is different. The Rage's supposedly fly the same as your field tips.

Got some time the other day to go after a Fallow Deer in the rut. Arrowed a nice Stag. Saw bigger on the day, but he was in the wrong place at the right time. Will try and see if I can upload the photo. Think I will go after a Bushpig next. All depends if a tank comes in or not...

we use elmer expandables for elk hunting because shoots are long and more poundage does help 65 lbs and 75 lbs. now for whitetail deer hunting I only shoot nicer bucks now days I use a completely different set-up I shoot 55 lbs. with a 125 gr. hand sharpened broadhead called a Zwickey Eskimo 2 blade with bleeders, the reason bow shots are close 20-25 yards and these cut on contact hand sharpened broadheads cut more,draw more blood to follow blood trail and many times kills the buck faster as it does on pigs and bears too. most bowhunters do not have the skill to sharpen fixed blade broadheads properly but could learn if they wanted too. also in order to make a fixed blade broadhead arrow to fly accurate you need to shoot less bow pounds maybe 55 pounds or less ? Zwickey broadheads are one of the oldest broadheads made and to be honest Fred Bear used Zwickey Broadheads before he made the famous Bear head,Zwickey still makes Broadheads in the Twin cities of Minnesota.i have bowhunted since the mid 60`s before the compound bow was invented, so I have seen it all and still believe those old Zwickey broadheads kill better.

I used MUZZY MX 4 on one safari and a combination of Slick Trick magnums and Magnus Stingers on my last two safaris.
And I iused an Ashby broadhead on Cape buffalo.
My recommendation would be a sturdy fixed blade with four blades.
The Slick Trick and Magnus stinger worked well. If I were going today I’d look at Iron Will heads, expensive but over the top quality.
The MX 4 worked but the other two worked better on bigger animals.
I shot a large eland at 20 yards with the Slick Trick mags. The fletching stopped in its heart with the BH pushing through the far side. It ran 50 yards and was dead.
I used 70 pound bows on the above.
I used an Ashby single bevel 315 grain and 980 grain arrow on Cape buffalo. The bow was 74 pounds.
Penetration was poor. I would not recommend that BH.

I used Muzzy 100's for years with no problems. It old reliable. However, a few years ago I bought a crossbow and was talked into trying Rage 2. It's got 2" cutting blades and is devastating.

This deer was walking towards me, so I didn't have a good shot. I decided to shoot him right in front of the shoulder at the base of the neck.

Over many years the Zwickey fixed blade broadhead has killed every animal in the world except BIG FOOT. I also watch my son shoot a huge bull elk with 73 lb. hoyt bow that shot 315 fps with a expandable elmer head 100 grain" bull scored 382 B.C. typical", arrow went thru bull like butter at 35 yards ,bull went 100 yards and tipped over, son made a perfect shot out of his bow too.

Ive been bowhunting for 42 years. Of late ive been tackling larger game in a variety of states with the largest being a 1700 pound water buffalo. For my tastes, heavy arrow setups (I shoot a 700 grain total weight) with a premium broadhead in a 2 blade, single bevel platform is optimum. My draw weight is 64 pounds.

Ive been researching my next hunts and Africa is on the short list.

I almost never hunt with a firearm any more and prefer to bowhunt everything. Here are a few critters Ive taken with my bow in the last 4 months.











My broadhead of choice of late. Cutthroat, 250 grain, made in Loveland Colorado.



But I am looking at Iron Will after purchasing one to play with.

https://www.ironwilloutfitters.com/

I have bowhunted since 1985. started with a compound and switched to traditional in 1994.

My equipment choice is a 50-55# traditional bow. I switch between longbows and recurves and have even made a couple of self bows. I prefer arrows in the 10-12gr per pound of draw weight.

I used both carbon and wood arrows with a solid two blade broadhead. There are more than a few good ones. I like Eclipse and cutthroat as of late. But really like the old Magnus Journeyman design, just not available any more.

I spent 10 plus years as a bowhunter instructor and serving on our State Bowhunting organization board.

It may be strange, but I have very little desire to bowhunt in Africa. It has a lot to do with my style of bowhunting. I am pretty much a wanderer, and can not remember the last time I sat in a tree stand. So the thought of sitting in a hide for 12 hours a day for a 10 day hunt is just not something I prefer to do at this time, but that may change.

Im with you and prefer spot and stalk but I wonder just how much spot and stalk is done in Africa?? I think it may be more common in Australia.

my friend who has been to Africa said this to me and he`s hunted Africa many times with rifle and bow. hunting with a bow in a hut in Africa is very boring, so if you decide to go take a rifle and enjoy ride`n around in the jeep looking at all the animals and country,plus you will shoot more animals with a rifle too. the noon meal is much better too on African hunt when you rifle hunt ,but if you bowhunt you will get a bag lunch and they suck Allen said.

Interesting. I just dont have a desire or interest in killing stuff with a firearm any longer. Its just not a challenge. It holds no appeal.

Try it without the cornpile.....whole new ballgame.

I can say the exact same thing about hunting with a modern compound bow. (good natured ribbing)

True to a degree which is why I like to also hunt with a homemade longbow with homemade arrows fletched with feather I took from turkey I kill and homemade broadheads I make from old saw blades and a homemade finger tab and homemade arm guard. I use every single type of legal archery equip here in WI. All manner of human powered bow. I like the challenge of the draw at the time of the attempt on game while getting close. Using a gun was cool and all but after 42 years of hunting Ive gotten away from gun hunting. I own a ton of guns but they don't seem much use any more.

And like the thread starter asked, "Who here prefers the stick and string?" That would be me. Ive killed several bear and hogs and a few other species with bow but have never killed any of them with a gun. I just don't have the interest in doing so with a gun.

This is my 2016 Black bear with all homemade gear. The smaller bear I killed with my truck on the drive home from that hunt.

Spot and stalk bow hunting is area dependant. It is paramount to hunt with a specialist, and for that reason we have a specialist bow guide for such hunts. Hunters come a long way, and they deserve the best guides.
The Eastern Cape is great for walk and stalk.

If Marius is talking about Martin Neuper,you will not find one better. For such a young man,his skills and knowledge are unsurpassed by any. Porsche73

I've taken whitetail deer with everything from recurve, longbow, compound, crossbow, and bent sapling with a bootlace. My recurve is now in the hands of a young lady archer, and most of my bow hunting is done with either my old Indian Stalker compound, or one of my crossbows.(Barnett or Horton)

I have been looking at a lot of African packages. Africa is on the list as I generate my list of hunts for 2018 and 2019.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Been to Zim once and SA twice. I never found blind sitting boring. That is because there frequently was multiple species of animals in sight. And monkeys, baboons, and many birds came to water. I enjoyed it a lot.
And some days we moved from blind to blind. I rarely sat more than 4-5 hours without killing something or moving to another blind. I arrowed 18 critters on these three safaris.
Were the lunches better back at the lodge vs the sack lunch in a blind, maybe, but I was more than happy with the sack lunch. And in my case, having a fancy noon meal vs spending more time hunting was a real low priority.
I didn’t go halfway around the world to get a slightly better lunch and give up hunting time.

The one and only.

The m's get much less penetration as a rule. I like the old 90 gr 4 blade muzzy on my last 6 big animals. They drop it seems aomost twice as fast it seems as the 3 blades i used for years.

Dont use Ms around high grass or weeds. Catching one strand can pull the arrow down in short order.

Its easy to sharpen Zwickeys.

I'd have never known you couldn't shoot heavy draw weights with them. We shot up to about 72 or so pounds quite often, and the accuracy of them was good enough for much longer shots than we should be trying anyway.

As to killing better, I can't see that at all. You have X amount of cutting edge, and diameter. Given same sharpness and penetration depth thats good enough, then all will be equal.

COC will give better penetration than any other head is about the only difference we could ever see for sure.

On teh low end, the wife shot eskimo 110s out of a 45 pound bow and had the tip of the head sticking out the other side of a pig with 3 inch thick shields that bottomed out a 350 pound scale.... so I know they also shoot at low poundage for sure.

what I should have said was bow speed ,seems when you get over 250 fps Zwickey broadheads can be a little harder to tune for accuracy,i personally seem to get more blood on the ground using a Zwickey broadhead that I sharpen but that's just my 2 cents,i am no worldly hunter just a regular bowhunter.

hmm, Don't know that I"ve ever had a bow or a need for over 250 fps so that does make more sense.

I get plenty of blood from COC slick tricks... as much or more than deltas. Snuffers, the big ones, give even more typically.