Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting question for you bow hunters

A big reason for my considering archery is that I can practice shooting in my back yard unlike a rifle, shotgun or handgun where I have to drive to a range.

To hunt with rifle, I usually have to drive an hour to two out of the city whereas with a bow, I could slip into any back wood lot.

There's also alot of local shooting events I can attend. There are indoor and outdoor ranges as well.

I'm also becoming more of shooter than a hunter due to work limitations, etc. So I'm shooting the bow for fun as much as anything else plus it's good excercise building strength and stamina.

Also where I currently live it's shotgun area for whitetail and I'd rather hunt with a bow in that case.

Just reading the initial post I would say I fall into the "hunt with anything legal" category. In Oregon you have to pick which weapon you will shoot for that given game animal.

If you get an archery tag for deer then you are a bowhunter for deer all season unless you draw a special tag in a drawing for doe's only. This is why I am a bowhunter who enjoys hunting with a rifle, muzzleloader, bow, shotgun, when the urge suits me. I do have to give up being a bowhunter to hunt with a rifle but it�s worth it to me for the hunt.


This is why I am going on a rifle elk hunt this year.

i like bowhunting much more than rifle hunting, but i still rifle hunt

I hunt with all, much like Bea. However, I enjoy bow hunting the most. I find myself grabbing my recurve more and more for hunting. I making up some carbon flu flu's as I type for squirrels. I'm mostly traditional except for the arrows. I run a custom hand built but can't deny the durability of carbon arrows. A little khaki paint with some cresting makes them look better.
The big draw is the peace and quiet of it all. My daily grind makes me enjoy the quietness of being out in the big timber and not hearing the equivelent of Coxy's Army lighting off a barrage of gunfire. I'm not giving up my rifles any time soon but archery has a certain addictiveness to it. The more simple you make it (shooting off the shelf without sights) the more fun it is for me. The season is longer in most parts as it should be due to the added difficulty but a bow kill is a well deserved trophy. I could soak up all sorts of bandwidth on this but I'll quit. I love to bow hunt everything. Bow for enjoyment, gun for filling the freezer.

Thank you all for the feedback.

Another quick question for you all. How does shoulder injuries affect your archery skills?

Reason for asking is several years ago, I suffer a partial shoulder dislocation that while healed still bothers me from time to time.

Will the constant pulling back of the compound bow aggravate this past injury or will it help strengthen my shoulder?

I really enjoy bow hunting (especially with trad gear), but when I draw a good tag - I have no issue what so ever in shooting one with a rifle. Both ways are fun and I enjoy both.

Hard to say without your doctor's input - however, starting off with a low draw weight, and regular reasonable practice sessions, you "should" be able to build up your shoulder over time. You may need to start out lower than you want, but it's better to build up, than to start heavy and wear/tear something again. Like any good conditioning program, steady progress can be made over time without further injury.

If you are limited on shooting access, space, range time, a piece of rubber tubing will help get the draw strength back, and no range time needed.

I quit rifle hunting in my primary residance area about 8 years ago. Our deer population is way down and there's way to many road/lazy hunters in the area that just drive around non-stop.

Never see a game warden and it just pisses me off to no end knowing that 8 outta 10 deer taken in this area are shot out of or very near a truck.


Still love rifle hunting, but really don't have the opportunities I did to pick up a rifle like I did 10-20 years ago.

Amen...I watched four seperate trucks of road hunters a half mile above me cruise back and forth on a ridge looking for elk for about a half day, sounded like a bleeping freeway.

I had a left over cow tag for the Northern Black Hills last year, with all the extra forestry dealing with the pine beetle there were
quite a few logging roads all over the place.

Really had a hard time getting more than a 1/2 mile away from a road and everywhere it was possible to drive, there'd be someone driving or they'd just passed.

LAZY people... I finally found a place away from traffic and found a small herd and filled my tag.


Around here on opening rifle season it's like an interstate on the gravel roads and than there's usually a truck on every hill side surround our property.

I started out shooting a bow when I was very young (3 or 4). I have always shot a recurve, never used a compound for hunting. I have shot relatives compounds at targets to try, it is much easier than using a recurve, especially if you have good shooting mechanics.
I recently picked up my father in laws Hoyt compound prior to a trukey hunt last spring. I shot 3 arrows into the center dot on his block target from 20 yards, several times. It felt like using a gun almost with the release etc. I had not shot a compound with sights before and was amazed at how relatively easy it was. Kind of made me want to buy one tell the truth.

I do love bowhunting, I also love rifle hunting again now that I have somewhere I can do it without condending with road hunters chasing deer with thier pickups. I gave it up years ago until I met my current wife, whose grandfather runs a large cattle ranch with abundant deer. I still see people out during rifle season, but not like it was before. I enjoy whatever can get me in the woods or out on the prairies more. The solitude and peace of bowhunting is what I enjoy the most, something that I can enjoy with rifle in hand also.

We are lucky here in So. Idaho. There are still places where you can walk and get away from the road hunters. There are plenty of 4-wheeler and 4x4's but if you work at it a bit you can usually get away from them and most of the hunters. The buck pictured above was shot about a mile from the nearest road and took a couple trips with the backpack to get him out, but I had the place to myself. Well worth the effort to me.

I started shooting the bow in 1974 , shot competitively for many years . I hunt with bow, shotgun, ML and rifle. The more you use , the more time in the woods you get. Yes killing something with the bow is much more of a rush because it all happens so close and you are in their zone.I got away from shooting competitively because a lot of the guys turned into friggin bow snobs. I could kill a 200 inch deer and if it wasn't taken with a bow it might as well have been a spike. Meanwhile 98 percent of them have never been more than a couple of hundred yards from the truck and they think they are the holy grail of hunters.

I used to bow hunt most all season, and would travel great distances to hunt archery only hunts on management areas in the state during rifle season. I do take the rifle more these days, but I seldom shoot anything but coyotes with it these days. It takes a nice buck for me to pull the trigger anymore.

Bow hunting's where it's at for me!! I usually will hunt the first couple hours of the opener of gun season and thats about it! Would much rather be 20ft up a tree on Halloween with a bow in my hand

I went head over heels for bow hunting from roughly 1977 tntil about 1995. I did a little bird hunting during that time and some rifle varmint hunting, but the vast majority of my hunting was with bow. Then I diversified some and do a lot of hunting, and I use all weapons these days.
I think I enjoy bow hunting more now that I don't do it constantly.

"It's not the kill, but the contest of skill and cunning." If that quote fits you more than "Fill the Freezer" then bowhunting may be something for you to look into.

Me too....

I've even done stone heads and a homemade spear. Never connected with eitehr but had fun trying so far.

Last year I was about 50 percent rifle and bow. It helped that I filled two rifle tags on the first day (in two separate states). So that really reduced the field time for rifle hunting. Usual for me is about 12 days for bow and that or more for rifle.