Why aren't all hunters hunting trad ? POLL

[GRINCH]

Because they have a choice,some people like guns,some compounds,some both,it doesn't matter to me just as long as I can hunt the way I choise with traditional equipment.

[Forrest Halley]

I believe that not everyone is hunting traditional because they have yet to realize how light a longbow can be. At about a pound adding a few more ounces for my arrows...life is good and travel light. I am shocked at the weight of some of these speed bow rigs. I think the need for speed is partially driven by the bow's attraction to the ground.

[xtrema312]

Well I think this type of thing just needs not be started in the first place.  But, here I go.

I have to side with what Shawn, Izzy, and one or two others have stated.  They think the most like I do.

That comment about in-line muzzle loaders being single shot 270’s made me spit out my soda.   :rolleyes:  That in-line stuff is mostly hype much like the compound stuff.  Very few users of either can really push them to consistent long range accuracy.  Most can just manage reasonable range hunting shots and need all the help they can get to do that.  I wouldn’t want them shooting anything less accurate.  

I personally hunt mostly to kill stuff.  We eat wild meat for 75% or more of the meat we eat every year.  I can’t recall the last time we got beef.  The rest of the experience is great, but hunting has always been about killing and eating stuff through the generations of my family. Maybe I got raised wrong. I don't judge a good hunt by rather I get anything or not, but I do everything possible to be successful each hunt.  The closer I get to a kill the better the hunt.  I don’t take repeated failure lightly.  

Nothing wrong with doing it the hard way and never shooting a thing at all as far as I am concerned, but don’t get down on those who go out with the intent to kill something in the most efficient and lethal way legally possible just like hunters of days past.    

I have always tried to be the best hunter I can be and that means getting them close and putting them down fast. I always figured a sure thing was the way to go for any shot and the closer the better my chances.  Maybe it was because I grew up shooting a recurve and smooth bore shotgun to hunt deer.  My Hawkins was my most deadly long range deer killer.  You had to get close with nothing better you could hunt with in those days in a non rifle area.  

My closest kill on a deer was about 5 feet.  I did it with a gun. I shot my first deer with a gun in about three years late last year.  Shot distance was 12 yards. That was my longest shot last year with any weapon.  Long bow, compound, gun wouldn’t have mattered for any of my kills last year.  

In all my years of killing with a compound my longest shot was about 37 yd.  One other around 30.  About 55 kills the best I can figure at under 25 yd. with most of them under 20. I could have shot a pile of those with a trad bow and probably shot some I didn’t get if I had a trad bow.  Then there were all the deer I let walk past at trad bow range for one reason or another.  I don't know that I would have shot all that fewer deer with a trad bow vs. a compound when I think about it.  

I switched over to compounds almost 10 years after starting bow hunting.  In part because it got hard to find trad bows and supplies or get help with them.  It was the internet and all the info and gear I could get that got me back into trad heavy again. Most people couldn't walk into a sporting goods store and get started in trad if they wanted.

Even Fred Bear made compounds, promoted them, sold them, and even hunted with one a little.  He couldn’t shot one well so stuck with the recurve because it was what he shot the best.  Maybe he should have stuck with the compound because he was less accurate with it and it would have been doing it the hard way.  

Face it, trad bow hunters can’t support what is required to maintain, improve, and supervise fish and game in our states, and they can’t get all the hunters we need to get in and stay in the sport.  It takes all hunters to do that.  If all we had was trad bow hunting, hunting would die out and the anti’s would kick our butts.  It would be hard to get new hunter to stick out years of not shooting a single thing just to do it the hard way.  

Do what you like and leave everyone else who is a legal ethical hunter alone to do what they enjoy the way the like to do it.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Hmmm...

I am one of Fred Bear's "Two Season Hunters", metaphorically speaking.

I love traditional bows and classy, usually big, rifles.

I read a couple of comments about traditional bowhunting being more fun, and I must disagree. It may be lots of things, but fun is more about attitude than equipment. I had heaps of fun yesterday blasting pigs with my M70 .458WM in a place where it was almost impossible to bowhunt them.

Further, I would be so bold as to suggest that even though I love traditional bowhunting, "fun" is not always so fitting a description as is "frustrating". Or at least it is a combination of the two, to me.

A decent man should be defined more by his character than by his choice of weapon.

Sometimes traditional bowhunters sound almost evangelical, selling a message that ours is the only path to eternal salvation.

Happy hunting, and enjoy your adventures!

[Stone Knife]

I would rather say that using other equipment is lazier not easier. It takes much more practice time with a stickbow, unless your the exception to the rule shots will need to be closer so it takes more work to get set up for the shot inside 20 yards, it takes more patients to let the game come to the range that will make a good clean kill. I know several guy's that hunt with the high tech stuff and still haven't killed a deer, I hunted back in the 80's with the other gear and it took me 3 years to get my first deer, it wasn't the equipment it was me.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Lazier? I must disagree again. I put the same amount of time into loading ammunition as I do in making arrows. And when I hunt I have to walk the same distance, just as slowly and cautiously. The only difference in terms of time spent in preparation is that it takes fewer bullets on the range than it does arrows to stay proficient. "Different, not deficient", as my old college lecturer used-to say. The term "lazy" is derogatory, and I would prefer not to be labelled thus. I will say that hunting with a rifle is easier than with a tradbow, but it is still a valid and useful pastime. There's nothing wrong with some easier things in life, if used right. Most of us here order archery goods online or via e-mail; many of us utilise tradesmen or technicians to do jobs that we aren't skilled to do. Tradbowhunting isn't everybody's cup of tea. It is an interest, a hobby; not a religion.

Funny thing: Now-and-then I find myself having to defend the honour of riflemen here and on Ozbow; and now-and-then I find myself having to defend the honour of bowhunters on Nitro Express.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Originally posted by Ben Kleinig:
 I will say that hunting with a rifle is easier than with a tradbow...

In terms of making a kill, that is. Not in terms of facing the dangerous old enemy-friend, The Sun (or fierce cold for others); or aching legs and back from hiking for miles; or avoiding dangerous snakes or terrible bugs; or finding the game to begin with.

[BigJim]

I'm sure it has been mentioned already, but it is difficult to find people to help with trad advise. Oh yes, when you find some, they are more than happy to help. Unfortunatley the advise too frequently comes with snide remarks about the wannabe's current method of hunting and pressure to convert to traditional archery.

I will tell you that when I started shooting a bow, I wanted a compound (late 70's). If you would have told me that I needed give up my guns and to "convert" to archery, I would have told you some not so polite words and stayed with my guns.
I have many guns, but rarely use them unless something just has to die. I probably would have kept my compound too had I felt some sort of attachment to it.
I know that most of mean well when trying to recruit new trad members, be we can come off as unaproachable.
There is a tendancy to bash everything that isn't trad. I know this is human nature, but it is a free country (at least for now). Let see what team would you pick. Team 1: advertisement everywhere and help around every corner. Lots of people participating and friendly with a willingness to help. Or Team 2: Great people but very hard to find. Lots of good trad shops but tucked away in remote places across the world. Lots of help especially when the student shows the desire to "convert" to trad.
If it wasn't true, why would so many people be afraid to admit that they still hunt with a compound wether it be ocasionally or frequently.

just my.02 .
Trad and loving it, BigJim

[Ben Maher]

Hunting with archery gear is just that ... hunting with archery gear . Its great that we have a place have here to chat about archery gear that has no cables etc ... wood arrows and longbows play a big part in my life ... but this is a sport , a pastime and it is very personal choice as to what someone uses when hunting...

 I tend to cringe when I see stuff that could be seen as divisive etc ... I'd put down a good whack of money that the majority of archers here came from shooting compounds, rifles , some of us still do ...
And amidst threads on trail cams , gps units , carbon arrows , foam cores and extreme EFOC, commercial camo  ... this whole "trad vs.....  " is kinda tiresome  .

Yes , with my back quiver full of woodies and straight limb longbow I am way cooler than me wheelie friends lol , but it doesn't mean I am better .

[centaur]

I hunt with several compound shooters. I don't see any of them admiring the beauty of their bows, but they sure do compliment how my bows look (thanks to guys like Big Jim), even as they say that they would be hard pressed to hit the broad side of a barn with a trad bow.
Lots of us own several bows, mainly because we are enchanted with the lines and woods that make a traditional bow as much a work of art as a killing machine. Lots of us shoot wood arrows, probably not because they are more efficient, but rather because they have a look and feel that is pleasing to us.
I believe that a lot of us hunt and use trad bows because we enjoy the overall package; the look and feel of a wood bow, the involvement with sharpening broadheads, the continous practice to maintain proficiency is all appealing. If we just wanted to go out and kill something, there are lots of ways to do that without all the involvement that traditional archery entails.

[Can Hahaka]

When I hunt I enjoy the challenge of reading the sign, studying the animals activities, watching their reaction to different happenings in the area (A.K.A. woodsmanship). I will choose to shoot my first deer with a longbow when the time is right. The challenge has been completed. And, I will do it from the same zip code, up close and personal.
Mechanical shooters think I shoot well (let'em think what they want) but when I tell them I shoot 250 arrows a week they freak out. They have just completed their 3, 5 arrow set and are off to buy something new they just saw on the hunting infomercials on TV.

[Sticks2117]

Because the TV shows tell them that traditional bows aren't cool.
It also takes a great commitment to become a proficient shot and people aren't willing to work that hard.  

[vermonster13]

You have too few choices. Your poll is very biased. One reason that really needs to be added is "They aren't exposed to it".

[Matty]

I agree with all things that others have said here.  I think all th SMART ones eventually return to their roots as Trad archers....

[Rob DiStefano]

it's a fast food society and compounds are the quickest, easiest way to make-believe bowhunting.  and they look so darned space age cool, too!   :D  

the ACT of hunting IS hunting, for without the act their can be no attempt at a kill.  

[John Scifres]

Why aren't all hunters TRAD?

Why doesn't everyone listen to heavy metal?

Why isn't everyone's favorite color red?

It's a matter of taste and preference, experience and exposure, and a hundred other factors.  

You probably don't mean it or realize it but to ask the question itself implies a bit of elitism.  It's a form of PRIDE that is insidious and dangerous; as PRIDE usually is.

Thank God there's room for us all here on His grand creation.  Just enjoy it.

[Friend]

When I started trad, the Allen Compound was ~ 6 years from making the local scene. Our club was nothing but stick and strings. When the wheelie started to spring up here and there, most were totally against it just like other common response when change is required.

Today the younger generation, peer pressure, marketing and state revenue takes its toll on making the switch and/or commitment thus serving to deprive those of the true traditional experience. Marketing still strives on developing a weapon that virtually shoots itself. Even back in the 80's, 2D's ranges were to 60 yards. A good wheelie guy then may average 265 where the elite may average ~280. Today's wheelie shooters may have several guys scoring in the high 290's at virtually every shoot. Many of the high scorers today are likely not as proficient as the 265 guys of the past.

While coaching NASP, many of the kids are quite noticeably distracted by another walking up to the line with a wheelie and picking the spot a part. I even witnessed this last year in working with the national champ team, while a kid, with a wheelie, from a competing school that they well new and whom they easily dominated during NASP shoots. They were nonetheless still mesmerized.

It is ultimately up to us to share the experience or the masses will continue to miss out on the total fulfilling experience of the traditional. Just remember that the burden we carry is light but what we unload is esoteric. Those successfully inflicted with the passion will follow. The youth will remain our best source for growth, however instilling change and fully exposing this wonderful experience must come from the top.

[Blackhat]

It's not necessarily  the destination, but the journey, live for the journey.

[LimBender]

I go with Vermonster, lack of exposure is a huge part of it.  I started with shotguns, 15-20 years ago rifles other than 30-30 were a fairly new thing in our area (tradition, dense woods, fear of somebody getting shot), then compound.  I had never even seen a tradbow in my area until 2 years ago. If you asked me about a recurve, I would have conjured up a B&W photo of Fred Bear.  It just wasn't on the radar.  

Ever since my first shot I've been hooked.

It is harder to master and stay on top of, no doubt, but 20 yards and in I thought that Fred Eichler article comparing stickbows and compounds made good points.  Stickbows do have certain advantages - quicker shots, quieter shots, better in low light, less gadgets to go wrong, less to think about, and, other than length, easier to maneuver/cant for a shot.

Seems to me, no matter what you are using, figuring out the animals and getting close is probably the hardest part.

[Bobaru]

Interesting thread.

So far, I have not wounded and lost a big game animal with any of my recurve bows.  I have done that with a compound bow.

I recently went bear hunting in Maine where I took one weapon:  a recurve.  And, as I practiced in the morning and ruined two arrows putting them over the top of the target, I had a serious conversation with myself.

Is my need for challange and/or romance more important than the ethical need for a clean kill?  The question is a serious one that we all should answer for ourselves.  Many take that answer by saying they will hunt with a compound.  And, for them, it's a good answer.

As for myself?  Either I straighten up, shoot straight, or not go out that evening.  Shooting a recurve can be challanging.  Fortunately, I was able to reacquire my focus.  

This, I believe, is where the cutting edge of tradtional hunting should legitimately be.  And, I agree 100% with Bowwild on simply saying "I went bowhunting" and leaving off the "with a recurve."  Hopefully, we will bring young hunters into the sport with a dedication to shooting accurately and making clean kills.