Losing Bowhunting

[Bowguy67]

This is not to start any debate. I don’t care what anyone does it just seems a once great sport is being eroded.
Years ago hunters were America’s great conservationists. We hunted but at the same time the challenges we placed upon ourselves made things take longer. We’d never deplete areas of game either. Some prob still don’t but it seems we’re going the wrong way.
The get a deer this year mentality causes guys to do things more what they envision as guaranteed. They buy carbon suits, hecs suits, bait, use cameras w time stamps. You never hear of many using binoculars to long range glass.
Than there’s the preseason rituals of sharpening heads, making arrows, etc.
Even the hunt outcome itself is becoming questionable. Too many place value on themselves as a hunter with what they harvest that particular year. You hear guys make excuses for a buck not being large enough. Who actually cares?
Years ago we’d take a doe and show it off.
Paul Schafer did an interview one time. I don’t remember where I read it but he was fortunate enough to take a record book I think it was sheep. When told it was record book material his response was “good for him”. That’s the mentality so lacking now.
I’ve had some issues. My dominant eye was sewed shut, balance was off, had to learn to walk and talk again last year. One side is numb and my face has no sensation where I anchor so it makes things tough but I’m just glad I can be involved in the greatest sport or should I say life style around.
Many can’t believe I won’t use a crossbow w so many limitations. There’s no way to explain to some why not.
Getting game isn’t shopping. Besides game harvested the “right” way for me because it is all personal taste better.
This is no knock or disrespect to anyone who does things different. Fairly certain there’s more people who think this way on here. I know things change and they call it progress, I just miss the old days when the majority instead of the minority had a different way of looking at the sport and the game God gave us.

[Bowguy67]

A doe taken a couple days ago and one I am proud of.


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[Tom]

You should be proud of that deer-just getting out with bow in hand and having a good hunt is reward in itself. Buck or doe taken cleanly and ethically is why and how I hunt. I won't starve without a deer but when I bring one home I am proud of my accomplishment. You have the right ideals and thanks for the reminder of how we should be out there.

[Joeabowhunter]

Congratulations on your fine doe. 

[Roy from Pa]

Congrats...

 

[Kevin Dill]

Well done and well spoken Bowguy.

I see bowhunting (including traditional bowhunting) as inevitably affected and changed by the same forces which change almost everything in our lives. There's no sense in me listing everything I can think of, but it's enough to know just about EVERY thing we do today is done far differently than it was 50 years ago. Our society has become one of generally doing things faster, easier, with less calories, with more brain cells...and along the way using most any advantage we can glean. Just take any basic endeavor and compare today versus 1970. Nothing we do is immune from progress...whether we agree and like that progress or not.

In many respects traditional bowhunting flies in the face of the modern hunting mentality. But even we...as an overall subset of bowhunters...are slowly embracing the changes which make what we do a little easier. We tend to shoot weapons somewhat consistent with the past, but then we climb into tig-welded aluminum stands, or maybe we screw carefully machined broadheads into carbon shafts. We share hunting info and techniques instantly across the internet, whereas most of it was learned via hard effort and mistakes in the past. Though we love wood and graceful arcs, how many of us carry a gps or smartphone and use it while afield? Game cameras anyone?

My simple contention is we are traditional bowhunters (by claim) but we don't live on a proverbial island away from the tide of progress and development. We've embraced some of it, while rejecting parts of it. I think if we took a sampling of 500 traditional bowhunters we'd see plenty of evidence they avail themselves of gear and techniques which aren't consistent with how things were done 50 years ago. The accepted definition of 'traditional' is always a moving target, and one that I've yet to see universally accepted.

Hunt honorably and hunt hard. Beyond that, hunt to please yourself....and nobody else.

[TIM B]

I agree boys but somewhere in the back of my mind I see the cave men talking about how the younger generation don't even make their own clothes from the hides of animals they killed....
Tim B

[toddster]

Nice doe, kudos.  But true bowhunting will never die as long as we are around to pass ethics and tradition to others.  Why I donate my time at least twice a year to hunter education and/or youth shoots.

[Bowguy67]

That’s very true. We gotta pass it down. Myself I teach hunter ed, do Jakes days, open houses for state, teach archery to kids and what might be in my opinion the most important, mentor. I do the mentoring through the NWTF as well as on my own., we can really touch more kids spending time w them and showing them things of the craft. Myself I even carry two Buck Woodsmans. It’s a favorite knife and when a kid is successful on a deer hunt we clean the deer, than the knife and I give it to them. It’s a cool momento for the child.

[Zradix]

Society as a whole is changing....don't think anyone would argue that.
Many ...maybe most..people have tech driven lives....at least in some way.
The tech of today gives immediate results...we're used to it.
...when is the last time a kid actually went to a library to find an answer to a question?

As a whole, we're also used to "needing" the latest/greatest gadget to get the best results.
....why would hunting be any different right?

Fast food, online instant payments, online loans, shop online...the list goes on.

TV shows and online vids showing hunters "how it's done"...with the latest/greatest gear, super ultra mag this and that..etc
To me it is a no brainer of WHY hunters are changing....everyone is looking for an edge.

I myself started out hunting with the mindset of wanting all the best stuff...fastest wheel bow, scent blockers, awesome scopes on rifles,...my list went on and on too.
Later on..for reasons I don't truly understand..my mindset with hunting changed.

Just decided to go simple and humble and try to connect with nature a bit rather than trying to turn myself into the Predator from the movies...lol
I do my best to teach my kids and whoever wants to listen to me about how simple and humble hunting is actually more rewarding.
Be proud of what you accomplished...not of what you bought.

I'm not so sure there's anything really wrong with using every gadget you can afford to go hunting.
....I just feel sorta sorry for those who will never experience how fun and rewarding it can be to not buy into the hype.

In the end, it's a personal choice...and kind of a deep rooted one.

..Nice doe btw. I'd be proud of it.

[Jon Stewart]

I was born into archery. Dad owned an archery shop back in the late 50's thru 1969 and after getting into my early teens I had the good fortune to work in the shop and learn how to fletch arrows and make bow strings and work on traditional archery equipment. Because dad shot for Bear and was on his advisory staff for a period of time it was nothing to answer the shop phone and have Mr Bear (as what we called him) on the other end asking for dad. I watch the turn that archery has taken.  Now fast forward to ten years ago when I found my first stone point artifact. I looked at that thing and said I can do that, I can make that and hunt with it.  As you older folks know getting your mind and hands working together at the same time  ain't always easy, lol.  But I learned how to knap a stone point well enough to hunt with. I killed a doe with a stone point and a long bow that year and it was a hunt I will never forget. I wrote a story about that hunt calling it "A stick and a Stone".   I later learned how to make self bows.  I now hunt on the ground with primitive equipment hoping to do another first and that would be taking a deer with equipment that I made.  And when I do I am sure another story will be written and probably will be only enjoyed by myself,lol.  Yes, archery has taken a turn. For some in one direction and for others in a different direction. It is all a matter of "your" choice.

[Alexander Traditional]

I think about stuff like this myself. I'm only 48 years old,but it does seems like things are changing faster than they used to. Hunting season was my grandma and grandpas place,and sometimes public land. I had my blue jeans on and maybe a camo shirt,some walls coveralls. It was just the excitement to go sit in the woods with my bow.

It does seem like the ramp up now is about all the neat new gadgets,but some people back when may have considered a camo shirt to be new age?

[JohnV]

I think we tend to over-romanticize the good ole days.  Most people have always used the best equipment available to them which they could afford to purchase.  The old timers did not use much of the stuff we use today because it was not available, not because they thought it unethical or that it gave them too much of an advantage.  Each of us needs to decide how much challenge we want for ourselves and select our equipment/accessories accordingly.

[Zradix]

Very good point.

[ron w]

I agree on the "gotta get one mentality" that seems to run rampant now days. I have not killed a ton of animals but the ones I did harvest I like to think I did it the "right way". I admire you getting out there with your issues and getting it done. May you have many more hunts in the future.  

[Captain*Kirk]

Well-said to the OP and many of the replies.
My son, who shoots and enjoys trad, (but still hunts with modern gear) can't for the life of him fathom why I put down my compound and went to hunting with bows that were designed when I was a kid, effectively cutting my effective range and arrow speed in half, and widening my target circle by shooting instinctively without sights. From his standpoint it makes no sense.
I got very turned off by the techno-wars that make this season's hero obsolete for next season, which my son has himself witnessed at the lightspeed at which his new, outrageously expensive equipment is eclipsed.
My newest hunting bow is over 40 years old and it shoots as well as the day it left the Grayling factory (can't necessarily say the same for me  ). I use my own handmade woodies for the same reason; they work. And if I can't bring home the bacon with what I have, I need to work on improving ME, and not expecting newer and better gear to make up for my own shortcomings.

[LBR]

Our society has become one of generally doing things faster, easier, with less calories, with more brain cells...

The "instant gratification" mentality.  Some find it hard to accept that you can't become an expert on bow hunting just reading about it.  It requires actual experience.  Time.  Devotion.  Sacrifice even.  Think you have it perfected?  Try hunting somewhere else.  I've seen a few miles difference make a big difference in behavior, and I'm an average hunter at best.

[zwickey2bl]

As others have said, each of us has to decide what we want out of the experience. The fact that we've chosen the traditional route (in the big picture sense) says that we are more interested in the process and method of the hunt than purely in the outcome; otherwise we'd be compound shooters or just using the latest "Tactical" sniper rifle. Within that traditional framework, we decide where we fit and exactly what we want out of the experience. This influences our equipment choices, hunting style, scouting method, and a host of other choices. What I think we have in common and different from many today is a recognition that easier isn't always better, and that how we get there (or attempt to) is more important than end results (measured by game killed or trophy status).

[Dennis Allan]

Fellas
  Been a minute since I posted. But this has kinda got me thinking. I know this is tradgang (traditional). And I sure don't have the experience slash age (43) that alot of the members here have. But I don't believe losing bowhunting is or should be our concern. I am not driven by politics, faceplace, Twitter space, sattalite TV or any of the other crap that is running most everyones lives. What we are losing is hunting in general. Woodsman ship, the simplicity of learning on our own. Figuring it out from what we remember an elder once said. Or something we saw, but didn't seem important then. But makes alot of sense now. The older gentleman at the diner drinking coffee, by himself. So full of the information that everyone thinks they are getting from all the social media. But no one bothers to ask? No one takes the time to sit and just listen. Would take to long. Can't just push a button and skip to what you wanna hear, or turn the channel to what we wanna see.
      We are losing way more than bowhunting these days. Hunting in general. Weapons are just away to divide us as a whole. Modern , traditional, primitive, recurve, self, longbow, compound, crossbow. I could keep going. All words that divide us in general. And those are the titles we give ourselves. It's no wonder we are(losing bowhunting).
      Wonder if I took the time to sit down, show that old man at the diner the respect he has undoubtedly earned. The reason he sits humbly by himself. What his answer would be.  I think he would be of the opinion we are losing the outdoors all together. Hunting, trapping, fishing. The thing that brings us all together. Being in the outdoors. Dividing it is and will be the reason we lose it.
     Are we losing bowhunting?  We may have already lost it.

            Sorry for hijacking. Fellas, I was just thinking.
        Dennis

[Jon Stewart]

Dennis, I think you nailed it.  Your post brought me back to the MTB shoot held up in Grayling last June.  We were sitting around the camp fire Friday night and a long time family friend showed up and at the age of 83, set his one man tent up next to our trailer. Aaron sat next to me and we started to talk about the old times, 60's archery, my dads archery shop and some of the "olde" timers that we both knew.  There was another younger friend sitting with us just listening to our talk.  He said to my friend, I need to interview you for an article in the MTB magazine. Aaron laughed and said, anytime.  Well the interview never took place and we buried Aaron two weeks ago. He went to bed and didn't wake up. A good long time family friend is gone as is his wealth of knowledge. My friend could speak 7 languages.