You can't go back

[Bisch]

I say shoot what you want, when you want and have fun doing it ! Just get out there and enjoy, life is short.

I agree with this wholeheartedly!!!!!

I disagree! I go back and forth all the time and feel rewarded after every kill I make. Hunting free range deer with trad or a compound bow can be very hard and frustrating. Especially when you target mature bucks and go after them. I hear some trad guys talk about being "Trad Only" but at the end of each year they pull out a rifle and shoot deer to meet the mgmt. program of their lease or just fill their freezer. That's fine but for the guys who do this you are not Trad Only! I love shooting both and kill all the deer I need every year with them and love every minute of it with whichever bow I bring in the woods! I see lots of misses every year with both types of bows!

My response above was meant to be my response, and the way that I feel about it. I was not knocking what anybody else likes to hunt with. For me, shooting trad bows well enough to be successful hunting with them is a lot harder than shooting a compound well enough to hunt with! I have not shot a compound in over 5yrs, and i could pick one up this morning, practice with it, and go kill a deer with it this evening at 20yds. If I put my stickbow down for 5wks, it would take much more effort to get it back. There is no doubt to me that no sights, and no letoff is harder than having sights and letoff, and FOR ME, I get a grreater sense of accomplishment when I am successful the harder way!

Bisch

[TacticalCowboy]

I shot my compound last weekend (Matthews MQ1) for the first time in about a year. On the very first shot, I hit the bullseye at 20 yards. I like the precision of the compound, but it sure is a lot like shooting a rifle.

[SwampRabbit]

I started shooting a bow 2 years ago, but didn't really get a shot opprotunity on something till last year's WT season. My first confirmed kills came this past spring on a TBH hunt down south. I learned real quick that no matter what my groups looked like on foam, bowhunting was completely different and I had alot to learn.

I picked up the recurve because I wanted to have more fun shooting. And it turned out to be true, shooting a recurve is way more fun than shooting a compound. But like I learned, hunting and shooting are two completely, yet related, things. The choice of a bow, puts us in a posititon to need to get closer, and that closeness to the prey is what I know gets me shaking.

This past weekend, I brought home my first deer with a bow. It was my compound. I had actually brought my recurve with me and it was ready to hunt. I had wounded a doe on the first sit and shot under one on the next with my compound. I contemplated just hunting with my recurve at that point... but my wife told me she thought I should use my compound because I had only been shooting the new recurve setup for a week or so. She was right, but a different thought came into my head later though... I couldn't understand why I couldn't down a deer with a tool that I should be accurate with. Harder then a gun, certainly, easier than a recurve, absolutely.

It wasn't about the bow... it was about me.

See... I love the outdoors, I don't hunt just so I can go experince the outdoors. If I wanted to do that, I'd go camping, hiking, fishing, etc. I love to do those things. But I also enjoy taking food from the earth. I am not a farmer nor a rancher... so I hunt if I want to bring home meat that I took from the earth.

I am also an engineer, and as such, you would might think I like high tech toys... the honest truth is that I like to know how things work and even more, how to simplify life. Newer gadgets are created so that the skill required is reduced... as an engineer, I have an inherent trait that says I shouldn't need it, I should be able to master the skill; to be simple, and to use my knowledge to overcome certain challenges. Ego? Maybe... but it really boils down to a drive to understand how things work.

Okay... not really sure where I am going with this ramble... but I guess that even though you are going through this after a lifetime of hunting... I experience similiar feelings early on.

BTW, when you look back, a rifle is more primitive than a compound bow and a much longer heritage. Oddly enough, it's why I shy away with the idea of taking a deer with an AR or modern tactical sniper rifle. I much prefer the basic bolt style rifle with Leupold glass.

[little john]

Very good read swampy think oprahs people should be calling any minute jk

[ShaBow]

I agree with this wholeheartedly!!!!!



My response above was meant to be my response, and the way that I feel about it. I was not knocking what anybody else likes to hunt with. For me, shooting trad bows well enough to be successful hunting with them is a lot harder than shooting a compound well enough to hunt with! I have not shot a compound in over 5yrs, and i could pick one up this morning, practice with it, and go kill a deer with it this evening at 20yds. If I put my stickbow down for 5wks, it would take much more effort to get it back. There is no doubt to me that no sights, and no letoff is harder than having sights and letoff, and FOR ME, I get a grreater sense of accomplishment when I am successful the harder way!

Bisch

My comments were not aimed at you Bisch! Sorry didn't mean them to come across that way! They are directed towards SOME Trad shooters I come across every year who look down their noses at compound shooters and then turn around and pick up a rifle at the end of the season and shoot deer they have not been able to get with their Trad bows. When I know guys who get all their deer shot with a compound year after year who are far better hunters than they are.

[CEpperson]

In previous years I have hunted the hard way (Traditional only). I drove 10 hrs to hunt Kansas with only my recurve with 100% confidence that if i was presented a opportunity i would kill. I did get the opportunity and shot a huge buck and made a good shoot but did not get an exit and there was little blood to follow and I did not recover the deer. I ended up killing a great deer but I was sick that i had lost the biggest buck of my life days before. I say all that to say this, I won't limit myself to go that far from the house spending all the money having great bucks at 40 yards and wishing I had a compound. Around the house i mainly hunt with my recurve but when I spend the time and money to travel I carry both. Like Buff I am a guy that likes killing stuff, I enjoy using any weapon but prefer my recurve. I bought the latest and greatest Matthews this year and after killing a doe with my recurve I went out and tried out my Creed....It worked lol. I don't have anything to prove to anyone, I have killed lots of critters with my traditional bows but I will still and probably always will use a compound from time to time. Hunting is a big part of my life and I want to enjoy every opportunity I get to in the outdoors. My way is not your way and your way is not my way, but at the end of the day I can stand around the campfire and enjoy your recollections of your rifle hunts, compound hunts and traditional hunts because to me that is what it is all about.

Clay

[hammackc]

Like Clay said above, no bowhunter has anything to prove, no hunter of any kind for that matter, hunt with what you like, I bowhunt because I enjoy my time alone in the woods, I'm not a social style person, one on one with game is what I enjoy, doing it with traditional equipment is also my preference, but I might woop out the wheels if necessary, make it enjoyable to hunt!

The other Clay.

[Cropduster]

I guess it just comes down to what you like. I happen to enjoy hunting with a longbow. I also hunt varmints with a ar-15, although that is a different time of the year. I also trap in the winter to get hides to sell. So I cannot say that I am a traditionalists but I do use it with I want. Enjoy what you use and get the best results from your equipment, practice, practice, practice.

[Stykbow]

Amen to you all. I enjoy my recurve the most but I am in no contest with anyone. If I decide one day to use a rifle, I'll do that and enjoy it and I won't be worried about what this one or that one "thinks".
Great topic Buff, thanks for bringing it up, I'm enjoying it and thanks for all of the input from everyone ! Good stuff !

[widdler]

Be content with whatever you decide to pick up and head out the door with. And put a smile on your face cause your at it again. WHOO WHOOO!!!

[BmacBmac1]

be content with whatever you decide to pick up and head out the door with. And put a smile on your face cause your at it again. Whoo whooo!!!

x100000.........

[PYBUCK]

Don't do it Buff. I know you can kill anything you shoot at with your recurve, even from the hip. I've seen it.

[Fuzzy Dog]

I say shoot what you want, when you want and have fun doing it ! Just get out there and enjoy, life is short.

Oh hell yes. If your choice of hunting weapon is based on what "they" will think, you need to adjust your priorities. I know compound guys who bust on single string bows and "trad" guys who look down their noses at compounds. In my opinion both groups are wrong. If what you're doing is fun, and you respect the animals you're hunting, you're doing it right.

[Bisch]

I can't get the link to copy, but go read the thread about how gitusum shot his first trad buck here in the trad forum.

That is why you can't go back!!!!!

Bisch

[Ron]

I have been hunting with a longbow or recurves only for several years now, but after shoulder surgery and crippled up fingers on my right hand, I've been looking hard at the idea of shooting a compound again. Time will tell, but I'm OK with it either way.