Why Do You Bowhunt?

[Doc]

So, as the title of the thread says ......... Why do you bowhunt? Is it just to extend your deer hunting season, or are there things about bowhunting that actually make you prefer to pick up a bow for your deer hunting and endure all the little (and big) frustrations that come along with the activity.

Doc

[ELMER J. FUDD]

Its a little of everything. The extra challenge, the increased opportunity. Life gets in the way sometimes, so I started bowhunting for more chances in the woods. With a longer season I can now make up for a weekend lost during gun season, say because of a wedding or some dadly duties.

[Doc]

Here are a few of the things that send me out with a bow every year:

As I've explained, I am pretty much out of the trees now and spend 99% of the time hunkered behind some deadfall or brush heap watching deer trails. Several times I have had deer almost within touching distance at eye level, and I don't think I have ever had another experience that got my heart beating and provided that huge adrenaline rush like that. Just being there eyeball to eyeball at that distance with a creature that for the most part has senses that simply make fools out of most hunters is an experience that I just can't get during the slam-banging chaos of gun season.

The challenge is something that complicates the harvest and always keeps everything over in the "question mark column" right up until I actually lay hands on that critter. Doing things the hard way (the archery way) provides such a feeling of satisfaction when it all finally comes together. The hours of practice finally pays off. The intense scouting and scheming to work myself within bow range, provides a pay-off that is truly something to be proud of. It's not like sitting on the edge of a field and popping a deer at one or two hundred yards. You have to know your stuff to get within 20 or 30 yards of a deer, and occasionally within a few feet. I didn't just get close, I got "bow" close. That's extra special.

The other thing that drives me to be a bowhunter is the fact that with the hunter density reduced, the hunting results are usually a product of my own merit. I am not counting on someone else accidently spooking a deer my way. If a deer comes within bow range it is generally because I scouted and read the sign well enough to get myself that close. i worked out the proper location at the proper time, and have removed the element of luck to a large extent.

And then of course there is the challenge of the weapon itself. Mastering archery techniques is not exactly a simple thing. So for those of us that do, there is quite a bit of satisfaction to that too. Developing the mental and physical disciplines to send that arrow into a rather small "kill zone" is not really something you have to worry aboutas much with rifles and shotguns. There is so much to go wrong in that final moment when you have to pick the right moment to draw without being busted, and have to achieve the proper anchor, back tension, arm position, head position, exacting stance, and then finally the follow-through, all while under the pressure of a deer, up close and personal .... Man that is some kind of satisfying achievement when you can make all that stuff happen. Absolutely none of that is required with firearms, and absolutely all of that is required with a bow.

All this doesn't take one thing away from my enjoyment of gun season, but the sense of accomplishment with gun kills simply doesn't measure up to my bow kills. It never has, and never will.

Doc

[burmjohn]

Ah bow hunting..  Well, bow hunting was the first thing I ever did.  I got my first deer ever with a bow, it was a doe walking under my tree stand at the age of 16 I believe. Wow that was 17 years ago!  I love getting out there early, before the crazyness of rifle season.  The weather is great during bow, its not to hot and not to cold.  You get first dibs!  And there is that thrill of having to get a deer pretty close to get a shot off, getting any deer with a bow is a pretty neat challenge (especially for me since I'm a shitty shot).

[Doc]

Getting a deer with a bow before getting one with a gun is a very unusual thing I think. I'll bet most of us went from gun hunting into bow hunting.

Doc

[burmjohn]

Tell you what it was the coolest experience ever.  It was my 2nd year hunting, no one ever got a deer with a bow in our group.  I remember shaking and shooting and dropping the deer.  Ran maybe 10 yards, I jumped out of my tree stand and put another arrow in her.  Then I remember walking over to my uncles stand. He looks down at me and goes what the F you doing! Its 9AM! I was like umm, I got one.  He goes get the hell out of here.  I said I dropped it, its under my stand.  I'll never ever forget it.  And the kicker is we went back to the camp to get the 4 wheeler to haul it out, and I'm riding back, and 2 yotes were about to dig in!

[WNYBuckHunter]

I started out bowhunting just to extend my season. The first season out, I was sitting in my stand when deer started walking in. The next thing I knew, I had 30 deer around me, some within 10 yards. The bad part was that they all seemed to be looking at me (maybe that was my imagination) and I never could get my bow up or attempt a shot, but it got me hooked for life. Now I bow hunt because I love getting that close to deer and it is a great challenge.

[burmjohn]

Its a great feeling.  Bow hunting is so nice, the deer are not stressed and it not freezing out

[Birdhunter]

My journey into bow hunting is a different one. As you can tell by my user name, I like to spend my Fall with my German Shorthair bird hunting. Even though many of my friends are bowhunters and they tell me how much I would love it, I knew that if I got involved with it, I would become obsessed with it (like everything I do) and my time bird hunting would be cut.

Things changed when I moved into my new place about 5 years ago where I can literally walk out my basement door and be in a stand in 5 minutes. I couldn't resist any more and I picked up a bow, practiced and was able to harvest a buck and a doe that first year......hooked! I have been sucessful every year with the bow and I have never been out with a gun.

My first GSP is now in retirement, but I picked up a 2 yr. old this winter and he looks like he will be amazing with the birds, so now I am going to be faced with a dilema come this fall. I will probably bird hunt hard in the first few weeks of the season, and concentrate on bow hunting as Halloween rolls around and into the begining of November.

[Doewhacker]

I have bow hunted since I was a little doewhacker, its in my blood and I love it. There is nothing like it,  its peacefull and the deer are more relaxed. I feel like I am a better shot with my bow than I am with a gun. Bowhunting is the best in my opinion.

[Fantail]

Bow hunting, is one of the best contacts with nature there is.

[6 Does n a Buck]

BowHunting brings me back to a simpler from of hunting, and the rush of being close to your pray can't be beat in my opinion.

[sits in trees]

i do it mainly for the extended season/more time in the woods and not to mention some real nice weather hunting....and secondly i love tinkering with my compounds and the added challenge....

[Fairgame]

The challenge of everything having to go 100% since you need to be so close to them. The adrenaline rush of waiting for that animal to get into range and waiting for the right opportunity to draw back.  The accomplishment of a challenging hunt.  The fact that it is the first season to open after 10 months of waiting for it to come back.  Silence in the woods.

I believe my bow kills are more of a trophy to me than any of my rifle or muzzleloader kills.

[sits in trees]

yes the fact that it is the first season after a long period of no hunting....you hit the nail on the head with that one...

[Doc]

So it looks like most are into bowhunting because of the challenges of mastering the weapon, the challenges of hunting skills due to the required close range, and the feeling of achievement and satisfaction with bowhunting success because it is recognized as not really being all that easy to do. Oh and possibly the quality of the hunt without the carnival atmosphere and a limited amount of people flooding the woods.

I think I agree with all that and hope that the future of bowhunting always contains those elements that make the activity unique and distinct from all other forms of hunting so that future generations can enjoy the same things about bowhunting that we do.

Doc

[sampotter]

I bowhunt for most of the same reasons already mentioned above.I matured to bowhunting from the way of the gun 6 years ago. I now could care less if I could never hunt with a gun again. I feel like a true predator when bowhunting. With a gun I am just a killer that has no connection with the prey. I learned more about deer behavior in my 1st bow season than I had in the 10 years of gun hunting before that. AND there is nothing like following a heavy blood trail after making a good shot.

[capt_terry]

To fill in the time between waterfowl seasons.

[fasteddie]

I started bowhung later in life and enjoy it more than gun hunting . Less folks in the woods during archery season . I like that . I figure as long as this 68 year old body can still draw 70# , i'll stick with bowhunting .

[burmjohn]

70#, thats a lot of draw.

[fasteddie]

70#, thats a lot of draw.

My Parker Phoenix EZ-Draw is 70# and my Ben Pearson TX-4 is set at 61# . The 70# compound is easier to draw than a 50# recurve .......

[Doc]

I started bowhung later in life and enjoy it more than gun hunting . Less folks in the woods during archery season . I like that . I figure as long as this 68 year old body can still draw 70# , i'll stick with bowhunting .

I wonder what bowhunting would be like if it took off and became almost as popular as gun season with a similar hunter density. It sure would be an entirely different kind of activity wouldn't it? It probably would lose a lot of appeal for me. So, I fully agree with your comment about liking the fact that there are "Less folks in the woods during archery season". That is a major part of the quality of the bowhunt. 

Doc

[burmjohn]

Even if there was a major increase in bow hunters, I do not think it would really matter.  Your shooting at significantly less distance then rifle, and the density in the woods with the leaves and everything still on the tree's your view is decreased as well.  no ?

[Doc]

I'm thinking that mobs of hunters in the bowhunting woods (similar to gun-hunter numbers) would cause all kinds of disruptions  and interferences in your hunt. Pre-season scouting would be destroyed by pattern-shifting hunter movement. Success would be more of a result of deer fleeing other hunters rather than well executed planning, scouting, and counting on habitual patterns of an undisturbed  herd.

Of course for those that own, post and control hunter densities on their own land, there would be no effect. Obviously, they would just offer less permissions and control the hunter numbers in that way. But I am thinking of those of us who are relegated to public land or wide open private lands where such a situation would be a much bigger problem than it already is since there is no way of controlling hunter numbers.

There was a lot of comments in the thread about how other hunters can irritate you, that point specifically to the kinds of interferences that you would see increasing to negatively change the whole quality of the hunt. Hunters tramping around your stand at inconvenient times, hunters setting up stands next to you, etc.

That is why I heartily agree with the comment by Fasteddie about how one of the great features of bowhunting is that there are less folks in the woods. To me that is a big factor that makes bowhunting so much more satisfying a style of hunting. It's the one big feature that allows you to use strategy instead of just counting on the luck.

Doc

[SteveMcD]

I enjoy wild places and wild animals. I like the challenge of hunting close. The beauty of the Autumn, it's sunrises and sunsets, the colors of the leaves. The deer runing time. It is therapy for my spirit, it slows me down in a world that moves way too fast. .

Perhaps Thoreau said it best, " I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."