Is bowhunting a "sport"

[Dave Thaxton]

As a youngster I participated in/played just about every type of organized game/sport known to a boy growing up in Georgia the 60's and 70's. In high school I was friends with a couple of different groups...the jocks(because I was one) and the hunters (because I wanted to be one). I found myself grasping to learn as much as I could from the hunters. My life started gravitating towards the solitude and peacefulness of the outdoors while shying away from the lights and crowds of sports. Odd thing is the exact progression happened with my son, at 10 or 11 instead if his latter teens. So, to me, bowhunting is 180 degrees opposite of being a sport.

[KenH]

Bowhunting is a non-competitive sport.  
Archery shooting at targets of various kinds, is a competitive sport.

We hunt for 'sport' rather than hunt for food on a regular basis

[Wannabe1]

Call it what you will, I'm going hunting!  

[shankspony]

When you look at what is considered sport now, I don't think it is a sport, or even that we should wish it to be. For me its an instinct and a part of my culture. A culture I share with people all over the world. We hunt for the sake of hunting. But also because we recognise what it gives us and does for us. Most of us still hunt for food as well. We might have other choices of source we can get food, but we are entitled to go out and provide our own. We should not downplay the importance of that.

[Hoyt]

It's been a way of life for me as long as I can remember. Never even considered it as a sport.

I wouldn't know how not to hunt. My whole life is wrapped around it yr round in one way or another.

I can kinda understand how some call it a sport if they don't hunt for the meat and are competing with friends or whoever for biggest rack or most numbers. The reward is glory just as in football or other sports.

I feel the same way far as the glory to some extent, but it doesn't come first with me. I have a predator type instinct that fuels my hunting desires. I want to kill it and eat it and the weird thing that desire runs deeper and stronger than I realistically value the meat..even though I love venison. If I go a long period without killing a deer I get hungrier like a lean wolf and try that much harder. My feelings even change towards the deer..they're not as nice and cute as before.

When I kill a few deer a few days apart the killing begins to get to me and make me question why I do this, etc.

Anyway, there's not a place on this earth I enjoy being more than in the deep woods on a bright cool fall morning.

[Scott E]

Nope. It is fun though but it's not a game.

[McDave]

I get the feeling that this question is being asked because some people think that calling bowhunting a sport somehow demeans bowhunting.  I've hunted and fished all my life, and for a good part of my life bought the things to do it with from "sporting goods stores," until they started branching out into more specialty areas with more specialized names in the last 20 years or so.  I can think of other areas of life where people weren't happy with the names they had been tagged with, and so changed them to something else, sometimes more than once.  I'm not sure it changed anything except the name, and people who were unhappy with the associations being made with the old name soon found the same associations being made with the new name.

Frankly, I can't think of anyone we would want to be associated with who would have a negative association with the words "sport" or "bowhunting" and if they do, I'm sure that won't change if we call it something else.  So I'm happy with calling it a sport or hobby or avocation or passion or anything else, as long as nobody stands in my way of doing it.

[koger]

I agree with the above post by Mackey, bowhunting is a way of life, to do it right, whether trad or wheelie, to be a good, consistent bowhunter, requires that you invest a lot of yourself into it. Time, patience and hard work. I also do it for sustenance, wife and I hunt hard to fill our freezers every year, and we depend on this meat by  choice, I might add. Same reason I grow a garden and  process fruit from my orchard, I like being, for the most part, self sustaining, gives me a sense of accomplishment like no other.

[Archie]

Interesting question!

I enjoy sport fishing, and consider myself a "sportsman".  Following the logic of that nomenclature, I guess that I'm a "sport hunter", and thus bowhunting would be a sport.  

But I don't like to think of the pursuit and killing of something as a game.  In that respect, I do not think of it as a sport.

How's that for a slippery answer?

   

[nineworlds9]

Originally posted by R. W. Mackey:
Bowhunting is not a sport my friend, it's A Way of Life. For those of us that have stood the test of time, it has consumed
Us, it is on our minds constantly, it is something we do in the best
Or worst of weather, it brings us great joy in way you can't put into words. It's not the killing although that is part of it, it's being one with nature, enjoying what God has given us, it's inner pease..... I could go on and on....

RW

Great great words!!  Well said well heard!

[ron w]

I will disagree.......Hunting with a bow, gun, knife, spear, sling shot, stone or your bare hands is a sport. You do not have to compete to be involved in a sport, example: mountain Climbing. But when it's all said and done......who cares, I like to bow hunt and will continue as long as I can!

[TooManyHobbies]

"Getting shot at is not a sport, it's a matter of life and death" - Whitetail Deer

[Stephengiles]

Too many hobbies......that is pure gold.

[overbo]

Hunting is a ''instinct'' that every predator has!

Hunting became a sport when man started keeping scores. P&Y and B&C club has made hunting a sport!

[Thumper Dunker]

I'm with Ron W who cares its something I like and love to do. You really don't have to do it to stay alive . If this is all you think about 24-7 you don't have much of a life there's other things out there. Family, friends other hobbies ect. Heck the world. Hunting can be a sport to some and to others not.   Lot of good stuff said.  

[bear mike]

Hunting for me means everything I think I was born to do and everything I love to do. Its the sun rises the sun sets the sounds of the woods waking in the morning and the woods calming at sun set. Hunting just isn't being out for a kill or a set of horns its a lot more than that its a way of life for me and my family. So I don't think of hunting as a sport but as a way of life.

[Sixby]

If you hunt out of ego driven motivation., Want to be recognized as the one that killed Huge Horn animal ect then it is competitive . Perhaps a professional sport. I personally see hunting as wonderful recreation with survival skill base. I am not in competition with any one including myself or the animal. I hunt to make food. If that food has a fine trophy set of antlers or is of an exceptional size then it is  bonus to me .

All that said IMHO the P and Y book ect is detrimental to archery hunting in general( strictly my opinion and worth only that) and is not a help but it is a negative factor driven and riddled with lies, ego and cheating to such an extent that it becomes meaningless.
This is so rampant that any time a huge animal is killed it is immediately attacked by other jealous snobs and the poor guy that killed it is almost immediately brought to question. Unless of course, he or she is in the clique.
JMHO and that's all its worth.

God bless, Steve

[Plumber]

archery is a sport,hunting is a skill. an man do I love it!!!! my 2 cents

[LongStick64]

If you are killing an animal to feed your family it is not a sport but a lifestyle.
If you are killing an animal to impress anyone by putting it's head on your wall, it's a sport.

[Possum Head]

Yep and one that us old coots can hold our own at. Cant wait until game day,(Oct. 15)