Can Some Of You Tell Me Why? .........

[laddy]

I take the killing of another living creature very personally, although i am very good at self defense, it is also very much against my nature to be violent.  If I don't feel that I have really earned the right to shoot something to eat, I can not help feeling that i have cheated.  the roar of a gun is not music to my ears, the sweep of graceful bow limbs and the sound of an arrow in flight is much more in keeping to the rhythm and sounds of the natural world.

[Weekend Warrior]

For me its the challenge
Flight of the arrow
Simplicity
Most of all its fun!

[Cherokee Scout]

It is the flight of the arrow. We can see it fly.
It is because the sport is so quiet, almost all natural sounds.

[BowHuntingFool]

I enjoy all types of hunting, but with a bow the most and the Flintlock a close second! I really like seeing that cloud of smoke billowing thru the air and the thump of the patched round ball! You still have to get them in close! I look at it the same way as the bow hunting, 1 shot....1 kill, with just a tad bit more range!

[scriv]

My first deer kill was with a compound bow.  I had been shooting recurves prior but had a compound in my hands that day.  My second was with a longbow and my third with a rifle.  

Traditional equipment has ruined hunting for me.  I've found that I cannot remain on stand very long or still hunt without resorting to stump shooting.  I have discovered that I enjoyed the preparation for hunting more than the actual hunt.  Trad gear is so much fun I cannot possibly resist.  I am content to stay in camp and practice so as to not disturb anyone else.

Talk about a complete transition.  Don't misunderstand me, I still believe in hunting, have helped several others get started, I simply cannot hold a traditional bow in my hand and resist the urge to shoot an arrow.  I've got it bad.  Man! Isn't it wonderful!

[Jedimaster]

It's funny how things change, over a decade ago a friend and I were talking when he said: "Now that I have a family and responsibilities my hunting time is limited.  I'm going to use it the most effective way I can."  We both agreed that we would give up bow season to maximize our time during rifle season.

That lasted for two years.  Yes, we were able to fill the freezers and take a few trophies but all the fun was gone.  Now our lives have come full circle and are if anything more hectic but I don't know how many times we've agreed "I only have a limited amount of time to hunt this year and I'm gonna do it the way I enjoy most."  For me and my friends this means stick and string.  We still like to get a turkey or two with the shotgun or an evening shooting clays but most get-togethers are much more informal, and enjoyable just out stumping.

[Killdeer]

You are not 52 yet, grasshopper.

I hunt with everything. My love of bowhunting does not mean that I will give up the smugly sneaky pleasure of becoming one with a blowdown or stillhunting with a firearm. Most of my gun kills are within twenty yards, and were done while stillhunting or laying in wait on some frozen hillside. I spent a lot of years learning about and shooting all kinds of guns. I like them. I like deep rust bluing, the smell of black powder, color case hardening and the myriad of action types.

There is a certain relief at the end of a session at the range when, at last, I remove the hearing protection. Aaaahhhh! The archery range is much more pleasant because of the lack of noise. The thump of a bow and the arc of the arrow have a beauty found nowhere else. The most beautiful gun stocks have nothing over the risers of Blacktails or Morrisons. I spend more time at the archery range than I do at the firearms range. Mostly because I need to practice the bow more. The bow takes a lifetime of striving. Hmm. So does making targets with one-hole groups.

I have phased out of being rabid about guns to being rabid about bows. The bows have always been there, but I had to leave home before I could even own a BB gun. Now, I have done most of my groundwork in firearms, and shoot with friends for fun.

I love horses. I love dogs. I love salamanders and fringed polygalas. I love my digital point-and-shoot, and my Canon SLR loaded with Kodachrome 200. They are all different, and not mutually exclusive.  

I am older than you.
And taller than you, Mikey!
Killdeer              

[Tyke]

For me it has been a 2 step process.  First, I fell in love with bowhunting.  The time of year, length of season and the fact that you can hunt during the peak of the rut all had something to do with it in the beginning.  But, as I bow hunted more, I also discovered that it made me a better hunter in general.  You need to get closer to the deer, and so you end up watching deer that are out of range a lot more.  Deer that would have been dead within 10 seconds if I had my rifle, I now had to watch for minutes ~often many minutes~ and most of them just walked away.  But watching all those deer and how they reacted to different sounds, or movements, and what they did when they caught my scent really made me understand them, and how to hunt them, a lot better than I ever had before.

Then last archery season, as I was carrying a treestand and a bow that weighs about 5 pounds, I thought "this is stupid".  Now, I love hunting from a treestand, because it forces me to stay still, and I see all sorts of things from one that I rarely would see from the ground.  But sometimes, I would like to still hunt with my bow,  but I never felt like I could get a good shot with my wheelie from the ground. It would just take too long and require too much movement.

So I decided I was going to get a new bow in the next year or so, and if I could get good enough with a trad bow that I was being respectful of the animals I was hunting, that I would go that direction.  After all the cost of a new compound is about the same as the price of a good trad bow, and they just kinda suit my style better. (I just like old style stuff, fish with bamboo flyrods, etc).
 Now I've been shooting my Dads old Pearson Cougar most of the winter and it is going pretty well, but that is just in the basement at about 8 yards.  If I can keep the groups tight out to about 20 or so, my decision will be made for me and I will never look back.

[Greyfox54]

I bugged my parents for a couple years for a bow till one Christmas , I think I was about 9 or 10 I looked under the tree and saw a bow .I have 2 brothers but I knew that bow was mine . Went right outside in the snow with a coat over my pjs and shot till I was forced to come back in to open the rest of my presents . Always had fun shooting bows until compounds came out . I bought a Bear Whitetail hunter and quickly got good with it ., after a few years I stopped practicing because it wasn't any more fun . Went back to a recurve and haven't looked back . Just seems like the way things were meant to be , I still get as excited as a kid when I shoot , Fred

[woodchucker]

Mike, My "little" Friend.....I just PM'd My Brother adkmountainken last weekend a short note about prefering "simple things" as I grow older.

I like "simple" bows.....a stick and a string.....that shoots a feathered stick.....and then using that simple bow and arrow to "make meat" the "old way".

I like old guns.....My 16ga.Ithica Deerslayer,My Dad's old .300 Savage model 99,or my old iron sighted Western Field .30-.30 and using that old rifle to track and then shoot a "basket racked" mountain buck at 20-30 yards.

A "simple" fly rod.....and using that rod to cast a fly into a clear cold mountain stream pool and catch a beautiful wild Brook Trout. I have had so many problems with "modern" spinning gear over the years,(bent,broken bails/springs,twisted lines.....)I just find myself grabbing my fly rod more and more.....

Your not getting "old" My Friend.....You're just getting "simple" as you grow older.

[DeerSpotter]

Nice thoughts wrong idea, because we can, it's because of choices, and those choices are simple.  Most of all it's to see what God created.  The deer in the meat are just His blessings

Carl

[TSP]

I've hunted for many years, most with a gun (my family only gun hunted).  But I haven't taken a deer with a gun for a number of years now.  The bow has been good to me, in more ways than just providing meat.  

I've wondered why I've taken so much to stickbows over the last 25 years and came up with two basic reasons.  First, I just plain like the silence they provide in a world of silence when hunting, even as game is very close, even as the shot is taken, and even in the aftermath of locating the animal...or the errant arrow.  Just having that opportunity is a genuine pleasure.  Its an amazing feeling thats hard to explain.  And second, I like the idea of giving the animal the best chance of beating me, of outwitting me, of surviving and continuing.  These are things largely absent with a gun, where amidst the noise and deadly efficiency of powder and bullet death can be delivered from hundreds of yards away.  Productive, but "impersonal".  Not at all a  satisfying experience anymore.  I guess I've been spoiled.  

Whether for hunting or just backyard recreational shooting, the stickbow and its simplicity get into your blood.  If I ever feel I NEED to kill game (perish the thought) the gun will be there.  But until then my bows are my real interest, like gifts that keep giving every time I pick up, handle, tune, tinker or head for the woods with them.

[straitera]

Point & shoot with gun or cmpnd w/sights is way anticlimactic especially after you've taken a sufficient amount of game. Trad equipment requires a great deal of concentration, skill, & expertise which is exactly the rush we're after. That's not to say a rifle hunter isn't entitled nor experiences a dissimilar rush, just obviously in a different way. IMO we're much luckier to have the experience (that brought us here), physical ability, & mental fortitude to hunt/shoot trad. I'm much thankful for that.

[Killdeer]

Tyke, for a first post, that was a wowser! Glad to have you among us!

Killdeer  

[Featherbuster]

I have found that, when it comes to deer hunting, I dont even think about my rifle just my taking my curve.

[Tyke]

Killdeer,

Thank you. When I decided to give trad a try last fall, I checked out several sites to try and learn whatever I could.  I found this site and your "Killdeer in the wood" thread kept me coming back.  I am very glad I did.  I am a member of several message boards for a variety of interests, and this is by far the best I have ever seen regardless of subject. I have been reading this site a lot, but being out of my depth with regard to all this, have not posted til now.  But I did want to get started and never cared for the "Hi- my name is...  " threads.

Mike, sorry to hijack your thread.  I think you will find as many different answers as you have trad shooters.  Things like this have some common threads, but everyone seems to get there from a different direction.

[BAK]

For me the use of a firearm is such a precision tool that the real skill of hunting is not needed.  I enjoy my guns yet, but seldom use them hunting.  I did shoot a coyote last week with one.  Distance was just under 600 yards.  That's not hunting.  Was a nice shot though.

[Bonebuster]

I am one of three 4H volunteers, who teach  archery at a local range every tuesday and wednesday night. Including my three, we have about fifty kids between the two nights. It`s a ton of fun. For those who don`t have equipment, we have some very nice recurves, and feather fletched arrows available for use.

One young fella who kinda keeps to himself, has been shooting a compound for three years with us.
He is quite good. He draws, settles to anchor, and squeezes the trigger on his release.

He had a few questions about the recurves, and I helped him get started. That is all it took.

The last few nights, I have noticed, he gets his bow out of the case, and puts it in the rack. That is where it spends the rest of the evening.
We have one 62" curve, that draws thirty five pounds, and he spends the evening with that simple bow, learning something he THOUGHT he already knew.

Suddenly, the quiet one, is FULL of questions. Wood arrows?  How much draw weight does it take to kill a deer? How much does a recurve cost? Why are feathers better?

I asked him why his decked out compound was sitting in the rack. "Cause this bow is so much more fun!" was his reply.  I think I found a home for an old 38lb Shakespear recurve I have.

I think his answer, is our answer.  

[mcgroundstalker]

Remember hearing or reading somewhere that traditional archery celebrates the human condition. Think G.Fred Asbell said it. Times when I make a great shot stump shooting or on the 3D range I can't help but feel closer to The Creator.

... mike ...

[Killdeer]

Jeez, what I see of the human condition isn't all that heartwarming! What I see of traditional archers cheers the heart immensely, however. Being among others who are willing to go the extra mile, and do things the hard way for the added joy and pride in accomplishment is inspiring and ennobling. The easy path is full of easy people.

Thanks, Tyke for the kind words. I passed them on to my husband, Mockingbird, who started that thread.

Killdeer