Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Intersting article on the current state of bowhunting

A guy like gldprimr will never understand, and that is ok.

MontanaCreekHunter...May I ask where you live? I assume somewhere around Florence by the zip code.

I grew up on Kootenai Creek.

Right off East Side Hwy make a left on the rotary to Woodchuck.

Gotcha. I know a few folks that live up there, just off the 8 mile road.

This is a little old, but I thought I would chime in. I started bowhunting when I was 15, and continued hunting with a bow with a break here and there due to military service. When I lived in AR and MT, I mainly bowhunted. I always went out gun hunting, but bow was my favorite. My last two years in AR before moving to AK, I still bowhunted, but not as much. At the time my oldest son was starting to hunt with me, so we gun hunted a lot. After moving to AK and him still hunting with me, I haven't bowhunted in 7 seasons now. One reason, is I can't get my oldest to bowhunt, and my youngest won't hunt at all with me. Since I retired last year and took work out of country for a year, I've been wanting to start bowhunting again. I have a friend that took it up two years ago and loves it. My oldest is now in college and just joined the Army Guard, so no hunting for him until next year when he's back from AIT. I have lots of opportunities to hunt around the house with a bow for moose and bear, plus going up to the North Slope for caribou since I didn't draw any tags for the season. I get back home for good late July/early August. I have plenty of time to kill, so I am going to take the bowhunter's ed. that AK requires and schedule a shoot for when I get back home. I also want to start shooting competitively again.

As far as the article, yeah I would say hunters numbers are falling quickly across the US. I have never understood the argument for box vs, crossbow as long as they are legal, I say go for it. I saw my dad shoot a crossbow the last two years he was alive when I was a teenager. He saw my interest in bowhunting and he rekindled his interest of bowhunting, but had to go from recurve to crossbow due to bad shoulders. I just know the crossbow allowed my dad and I to spend quite a few more days in the deer woods together, that we other wise would not have had before he died way too early.

I'm also late to the conversation. I am not a bow hunter at this time. I won a $600 bow package from BP about 3 years ago. But due to a shoulder injury have not had the practice time to become proficient. May perhaps try it this coming season with an OTC license.



I believe the issues are complex, including recruitment, cost for hunting, equipment cost, etc.

1) Unless you are blessed with a large mount of public land, the cost of hunting is becoming,if not already, prohibitive.

2) Beginning with NAFT and the heavy handed eco regulations the vast underbelly of the American middle class, manufacturing, was eviscerated. The graduating college grad today is not rolling in cash. A recent article I saw states that the average new grad is going to make ~49k. College debt coupled with today's housing costs does not leave much disposable income for $1k bows. $300 bows may help.

3) I agree that the bow industry has put all of its eggs into the revolving bow strategy. They are making very small incremental changes at an exponentially increasing cost. Looking at the specs of my raffle bow, I can hardly justify spending $1k to up grade, especially since that used bow is practically worthless but works quite well.

4) Some of the romance of bow hunting is the quiet, solitude, challenge, and the longer hunting seasons, but in many places the woods are getting over crowded with bow hunters (according to CPW here in CO). In CO xbows are not legal in the archery season.

Primitive weapons?
Muzzle loaders with sabots and 12x scopes are effective 200 yards plus. I have a friend that has a muzzle loader that’s plenty accurate 300 plus yards.
X bows with scope, buy one at your pro shop the day before season, sight it in and you’re good out to 50 plus the next morning.

If I was in charge-

Muzzle loader season would be iron sights and lead projectiles
Scoped muzzle loaders and sabot bullets, hunt in firearms season

Archery would be hand (drawn) held bows and legitimate handicapped could use cross bows
Non handicap cross bows hunt in any firearms season.

But I’m not in charge.

i started bowhunting and target archery before the compound bow was invented,so we hunted with longbows and recurve bows,i prefer the longbow at that time. but when Mr. Allen invented the compound, i purchased a Allen compound bow that bow only had 20 % letoff and we thought boy we really had a special new bow.then ,Tom Jennings improved the compound bow and many other compound bow companies started too,recurve bows and longbows went very cheap then ,i should have purchased a truck load of tradition bows and gear then. Now the x-bow debate is here and some hunters want the easier way . i am not sure what the future road of archery is going to do ? at 65 years of age archery has been a great sport for me and my family ,i am teaching my grandkids with a recurve first ,then a compound , grandkids will have to decide if they want to draw and shoot a bow or use a x-bow ? the world is changing fast i just hope we all agree that what ever you decide to use rather its traditional,compound or x-bow we gotta stick together otherwise our youth will never have the joy in the world of archery rather its hunting ,fishing or target shooting . some of the best whitetail deer hunters i know hunt only with a drawn bow and are not very healthy anymore but most have never given up yet with their bow , a few now use a x-bow but wish they still could draw that old bow back yet. myself yes i still draw a bow " lower poundage" but the day is coming i will have to decide rather i use a x-bow or just quit my shoulders both have been operated on and my shoulders are longer healthy either,300 50 x`s are not my scores anymore with a compound bow . what i learned bowhunting now over 55 years made me a better woodsman and a hunter ,books will not teach that,time in the woods bowhunting will. hope you all have many safe joyful years in the world of archery,Pete53

Sounds Legit to me.

I don't think out west the crossbow is that beneficial, unless on stand.

The thing that really buggers it up is the 4 wheelers going around and around where they ain't supposed too.

Yeah this year was an eye opener for us. We went to a late season whitetail hunt here in BC. We set up stands and hiked into our stands every morning the thing that blew us away was the amount of people we saw just driving around on there atvs with a xbow strapped on the gun rack.

I started deer hunting with a fiberglass longbow and a percussion half stock. I remember my Bear dealers surprise when Bear brought out a compound. I stayed with that cap gun until I got a rifled shotgun. Still use it for ml season. Six years ago i had fusion surgery, developed a spine infection and lost 90% of the strength in my legs, any flexibility in my back and a lot of arm strength. Lots of therapy brought me up to 50# pull on a compound which I now use. I bought a x bow and sometimes take it out during gun season.
Fourteen years ago I bought some land so we and our kids and grandkids would always have a place to hunt. Couple of nephews hunt there, too. Rules are simple. If you are disabled, you can use a crossbow. Otherwise, if it is legal, it is o.k.
We take five to eight fair chase deer a year.
Neighbors seem to have gone largely to in line muzzle loaders and crossbows but we don't. I used to really look down on the new stuff but now I figure that unless there is over killing we need to grow the sport. My family is helping. From a generation with two hunters, my family now has one senior, four next gen, and two grandkids in it so far.