? for converts

[wisconsinteacher]

This year I am planning on going 100% recurve.  Up until this year I have bow hunted 13 years with a compound and have not shot a buck in 5 years.  I want to use the trad bow because it is more fun to shoot at home and I want the challenge.  So as a first year guy, would you keep your standards on deer size or let it rip at the first good chance you get on any legal buck?  I know it is a personal question and it has to feel right but I am wondering if the guys that have converted felt they needed to get a deer under their belt with the trad bow.  The first doe I get a shot at I plan on taking it.

[4dogs]

I personelly, just shot does the first few years I hunted....let the little guys go, let them have a shot at getting to be a mature. A mature doe is not a push over either by any means, They can be really tough just seems to be more of them. I'm a meat hunter anyway, not that I dont appreciate a nice rack    :D   We really had a shortage of bucks around here for a long time. Seems the wasting desiese was harder on the m for some reason. So, I guess it depends on the health of your heard and like you said , it's a personel decision.

[WidowEater]

If you see the use of a trad bow as an increased challenge then you have not been shooting one long enough.  With time you will find that it is a superior hunting weapon than the compound.  It is quieter and faster to draw and by the nature of instinctive and gap shooting it is faster to fire.  They can be shot from many more positions including some extremely awkward ones.

These are all very powerful advantages over the more modern bows.  This all comes at an expense of perfect practice though and lots of it.

I started out with that because by the nature of your inquiry you were implying that by using a recurve, you were somehow handicapped at shooting a deer.  I am just telling you that in my experience the opposite is true.

To answer your question though, I thought the same as you do when I first latched onto a recurve and saw all my buddies with their sleek and futuristic looking compounds.  I figured I would have at it at the first deer that walked by.  It happened to be smallish doe that season.

My buddies did not shoot a darn thing that year with their bows and they were also trying for the first thing that came by.  What can I say, we were 12 years old at the time.

[Brad Arnett]

Shoot what makes you happy. No need to let others opinions dictate what you want to shoot as long as its legal...imo.

[lpcjon2]

Originally posted by Brad Arnett:
Shoot what makes you happy. No need to let others opinions dictate what you want to shoot as long as its legal...imo.

DIDO, and the bow choice doesnt determine the size of the animal you shoot,your confidence does.

[grouse11]

I usually wait until the moment arises to make my decision. You can say that you will hold out all you want, but when you have a five or six point standing at 10 yards, your will power will be tested.

[mscampbell75]

It would like to say that it would depend greatly on my feezer status.  But with that being said my 1st was a small 4pt. My freezer was on the low side. I think if i wasnt meat hunting, I would have shot anyway... as the 1st two I shot at was a clean miss both times. And that was looming in the back of my mind.  I had something to prove to myself at that point.  Good luck to you what ever you decide.

[wisconsinteacher]

I just checked a game camera and had 5 yearling bucks in one picture.  I know it will be one of those things that when it feels right, it will happen.  I just hope to have fun, relax and watch my wife shoot a deer or two.

[bawana bowman]

I'd say it depends on the game laws in your area. Here we can shoot 2 deer per day. So I will shoot just about any decent size deer for meat. Usually will let the smaller one's pass.
Have never considered a trad bow to be a disadvantage, but then I've never shot a cable gun. Never could understand why anyone would consider a cable gun as a superior weapon. Just doesn't have the versatility of a trad bow.

[wisconsinteacher]

I have never thought of a trad bow as being superior to a compound.  You guys have me thinking.  I hope I can find out that the recurve is a better weapon.  I know it is lighter to carry and more fun to shoot.  I have never hunted a full season with one.  Two years ago I took it out a few times.  This year, I hope to lock the compound up at my parents and then sell it next spring.

[RedShaft]

LET ER RIP!!!!    

[Mojostick]

What are your standards? What's the goal of your standards. Why should a weapon change your management goals?

I'm a convert and let me tell you, in my opinion, comparing compounds to trad bows is like comparing an F-16 to a Piper Cub.

The reason I gave up the compound was to put some challenge back into bowhunting. I could shoot darts out to 60 yards and killed my last buck with a compound at 47 yards and didn't think twice about the distance.

Now, at short range a trad bow is probably better or at least as easy. But there's a reason compounds are so popular, it's because they're twice as easy to shoot and master, have twice the range and are approaching twice as fast.

[old_goat2]

Same as with compound for me, ethical shot on a legal animal was and is my goal, no horn porn for me. I love the hunt and the meat!

[BWD]

Go on and get that first kill under your belt, I'd say. It helps build confidence, and rounds out a few dinner plates as well.

[KSdan]

Not handicapping your self. . . however you do get some new pros and cons.  I only disagree a bit that you should wait to decide.  Nothing wrong with any legal deer, but I think you will find a better hunt/experience and more shooting control/concentration if you "target" (read: make a goal) of what you hope to harvest ahead of time .  One of my most memorable hunts was a 3 day public ground hunt in MI where (for a number of specific reasons) my goal was a 1.5 yr old buck.  That little spike/sort-of-forky adorns my wall next to numerous 130-170" deer! Other times I did the "wait and see thing" and I ended up harvesting a deer where after the fact I wished I had waited.

[ChuckC]

Matthew, a compound is a much superior weapon. .  in terms of long distance accuracy and even short distance accuracy for those with not much experience.  Whenever you add another tweak. .  sights, release, etc etc, you make that weapon more capable of accuracy.

But. .  that said.  for those willing to put in the time to get woods wise, to be able to shoot accurately within your range,  a stick bow is deadly as can be, plus, with it you can do things you cannot with modern compounds.  I can carry mine in the mountains all day with two fingers,  I can raise it, draw, release and put another arrow on the string in the time most would take with a compound,  I can draw it in a horizontal plane and still hit what I am aiming at,  I can be laying prone and still shoot (OK. .  it is easier now with a belly that raises me up a few inches.   The real point is. .  they are just different tools.

As to your dilema.  Try to just go with your flow and NOT allow the rules or ideals of others get in your way.  Does taste great.  Young bucks taste great.  When you haven't shot one in years, or when (here in S Wisconsin) of late. .  you ain't seen one in two or three weeks, just shoot what comes by if that suits you.

Shoot straight / pick a spot

ChuckC

[WidowEater]

ChuckC, you said it a little better than I did.  Different tools that require a similar concept but still different skillset.

[fisherick]

Take the first legal deer. Other wise you will fall back to the compound as a crutch. Yes you will have some heart breaks, but each deer will be so much more rewarding. I have shot large six and eight point bucks, but nothing was a rewarding as shooting a spike with my first bow ( Bear K mag) wood arrows and bear razor heads. I now do not feel handicapped and am not going back to a compound.