Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting bow hunting a tough experience

for me in 20yrs of bowhunting,,generally weekend only hunting,, i killed 3 deer with a bow,, and last yr i killed one with a traditional bow 49# 66inch custom recurve,, i do generally do alot better come gun season due to the experience of learning during bowhunting,, someof these guys who get one every yr and let deer walk are amazing to me due to my experiences,,

my experiences are the deer are not easy to get close to where i hunt! its thick,, they can be 25yards away and it may as well be a mile you cant shoot,,

I love archery hunting and to be honest my biggest trophies fell to arrows.

If it weren't for archery I would go crazy but don't get me wrong I like my gun hunting too.

In many of the places I hunt my bow and rifle ranges aren't that much different. Of course you have to draw the bow and you can't thread arrows the way you can bullets, but I can hunt public land nearly alone in the bow season. I can typically see many more deer/day hunted with a bow than I do rifle. I am not much of a horn hunter, but I do let a number deer walk with a bow because arrow placement is quite a bit more critical than bullet placement. I would guess that over the last 20 years my bow take and rifle take is pretty close.

For the sheer number of big game my bow kill numbers are higher than my gun numbers.

I saw more bowhunters last season than I saw rifle hunters here in California.

I love archery because I can shoot in my yard at anytime, just turn on the lights and start slinging arrows. I rather bowhunt than rifle hunt to be honest.

we've all heard "any animal taken with a bow is a trophy." this is especially true when using some of the older type compounds or recurves where shooting over 100' is difficult.
over the past few years i've put more in the freezer with the bow than rifle simply because of the low amount of pressure on the animals, and i'm finally getting the hang of this bowhunting thing after the past 40 years.

-ken

Longtime compound hunter here thats giving a recurve a go.

I was a guy who reached a point in my rifle hunting [about 10 years] where I felt I wanted more of a challenge limiting my equipment to archery. Shooting the recurve gives a guy a huge appreciation for how much more skill is involved with trad vs. compounds.

The big thing when converting from firearms is your mental adjustment- you will not have much success bowhunting with a rifle hunter mentality. Same with going to trad equipment, where some of those layup 50yd animals are just too far.

First year bowhunter; the advantages of getting to hunt while all the bucks are searching for that first doe and not having to look like a radioactive pumpkin are undeniable.

As are mine...Bowhunting made me a good hunter....Traditional Bowhunting made me better. The limits you have as a bowhunter force you, if you want to be successful, to get much closer to the animal; I've learned so much more about the animals that I've hunted.

yeh that!

I have been using tree stands for 30 years and they can really up your harvest rates with bow.

If you wantbthe ultimate challenge try taking an animal with a self bow, arrow and knapper broadness ( where legal)

my biggest trophy is a 120 lb doe I took in a corn field with a self made, sinew backed Osage bow. have shot a lot bucks with a compound but best memory with this harvest

Sorry iPad corrected spelling

"knapped broad heads "

That'll be next...never a knapped head or a self bow. That's too cool, and congratulations.

Stand or ground?

I plan on looking into that.

A homemade bow, arrow, and broadhead is the ultimate.

I do not know if anyone you have seen this but the fellow hand knapped the broadhead and put it on a insert screw ( I do not know what it is called)



http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1666147

Its called a broadhead in an insert screw....lol

Gave up bow hunting 4 yrs. ago. I wounded a buck, and 2 does in 2 years, and 10 yrs ago wounded a buck and doe. I got a few in between that time. I just could not stand to wound another so I gave it up.Then 3 years ago my bro inlaw got into gun and the nest year got into bow hunting. He talked about 4" groups @ 30yds, 5" @ 40. I chalked it up to I'm a crappy shot and never liked to practice anyway, too frustrating. It was sad going to the cabin without a bow and missed it. I figured I will buy one more bow and if I wound one I'm done. Decided on a Mission Endeavor. Sighted it in at the shop @ 5 yds. Took it home to my range in the basement @ 20 yds. I never knew a bow could shoot so well and I'm not even used to it yet. I shot about 50 shots so far. I have yet to shoot an arrow worse than 3 1/2 " from the center of the bulls eye. Now I know why you guys get deer. Except for a few fliers I don't believe I can shoot my scoped 22 rifle any better off hand. Many shots are touching each other. I shoot one arrow and pull it out so I don't ruin arrows or I'd have a few broke. This new bow is a world away from y Mathews Featherlight. I don't think that bow ever was set up quite right and always thought it was just me. I'm back into bow hunting and my 15 yr. old son wants a bow bad. It was his idea to to go up midweek cause we se so many more deer midweek. He can't wait niether.

Good luck and aim low.

I rather miss low then hit high!