Today, waiting out our windstorm, I was re-reading some of Larry Koller's Shots at Whitetails, a book written in 1948. His chapter 11 is entitled The Archer Deer Hunter, and the first two paragraphs really related to how I, and I believe many others on TG, feel about our sport. For your reading pleasure....
"Scattered throughout our broad expanse of deer hunting territory is a select group of highest quality sportsmen. In singles, pairs, or small groups they take to the woods each year, garbed in conventional woods garments but carrying the primitive weapons of a bygone age. Around each hunter hangs the traditional aura of Robin Hood and the American Indian, for these are the modern day archers who prefer to take their game under the most exacting of all hunting conditions and with weapons, that, although wholly adequate, are certainly not the most efficient method of destruction.
It might be difficult for the non hunter to visualize the reasons for bow and arrow hunting; but for men who love the outdoors, the sweeping roll of the timbered ridges, the stark white stands of birch and the quiet gray halls of beech,the bow and its silent but deadly missile may become a logical choice. Certainly it will never be the weapon for a man who must kill every buck he sees; neither will it be the choice of the hunter who cannot bear the ridicule of his hunting partners or friends. No, far from this, the bow and broadhead shaft are the weapons of the true nature lover, the hunter who above all things dislikes the discordant crash of gunpowder rending apart the holy silence of the forest. Then too, the man who takes his buck with the longbow and feathered shaft feels a far greater physical intimacy in the act than the hunter who squeezes a trigger, thereby releasing the storehouse of energy which lies within the brass cylinder in his rifle chamber. The killing force of the arrow is the direct result of the archer's muscular effort in compressing the bow, then releasing this force to speed toward the quarry."
The writing style may seem a bit outdated, but then so am I. I thought it was a good description of how hardcore trad archers feel about our pastime that borders on obsession for many of us.
Topic: Larry Koller's thoughts on bowhunting (Read 1154 times)
