I ask this out of my own curiosity knowing that everyone is different.
So how long after you picked up a traditional bow did you begin hunting with it?
Couple hours.
I had fooled around with kids bows for about a year,got a hunting weight bow at 15 and practiced with it a year before hunting.
been messing with bows for about 2 years, first year I didnt know what I was doing and shot in pretty irregular intervals with long times between shooting periods never really thought about hunting with it. I just shot because I thought it was fun.
Then the bug bit me and I got into it seriously about a year ago. Found some good info on the internet, mostly from this site here, and started really trying to improve and shoot more. About 6 months after that I felt good about going after big game.
It took me about a year before I was confident enough to take it to the woods. I miss ALOT in those early days but stuck with it. That was over 25 years ago.
Couple min. Still have seen anything close enough but how do I love it.
Immediately in my head. The following hunting season in practice which was about 11 months.
My shooting was quite rusty that first season but I kept my set distance at 15 or less. Didnt take a shot at a deer that year but I did see about 8 that were in the 20 yard range which I let walk. It sure was a great season.
When I switched back over I hung up the wheel bow right after deer season ended and then only shot the recurve and went out the following season. I haven't shot a compound in almost 3 years now.
I've been shooting pretty much every day for 8 months now, and feel comfortable out to 15 yards. With that said all my setups are for about 12 yards or so just to be safe. I'm just waiting on October!!
I pretty much grew up with a bow. I started with one of those green and white fiberglass bows, probably about 8 or 9 years old. Destroyed that bow- it kept getting caught in the spokes of my bike.
My friends and I shot at inanimate objects all the time, sort of a precursor to stumping, pretty good practise actually.
I guess you are asking about big game hunting? If so 5-6 years.
I shot as a kid but only at targets. Then I got out of archery for several years. When in college, I bought a recurve bow suitable for hunting in the spring and was hunting that fall. For a number of seasons, I shot the bow in bow season then used the rifle in gun season. However, this season will be 22 years straight using only the bow.
I grew up shooting trad. My dad let me start hunting around 12. I stopped bow hunting for a couple of decades and started again 3 years ago.
Somewhere around a year for me. I had the shooting ability in 6 or 8 months, but did not muster the confidence for a while after that!
Bisch
My answer "couple hours" might call for some explanation.
I got my first bow, a lemonwood self bow, and some arrows at age eight. A friend had gotten a bow at about the same time. We shot at a cardboard box for a little while and test off to "hunt". No squirrel, songbird or bunny was safe, although it was a rare event when we skewered one.
There is a big advantage to taking up archery when very young. It just seems to fall into place on its own.
I just completed a Hill style bow for a young guy who wants to hunt with my grandson. They are too far away for me to help him and when he received his new bow he had never shot a bow in his life.
I told him to watch all the Arne Moe videos on YouTube and he did just that. Now, several months in he is shooting 8 inches at 25 yards and will be hunting in a few weeks.
I tell that story to illustrate that it's a very individual thing. A different experience for any given person.
I got my first trad bow in Jan. And like many others I over bowed myself. So when August rolled,around I was still struggling with accuracy. So I put the recurve,away and hunted with my compound. The next yr after watching Rick Welches videoI got better and switched off between the two. Managed to take my first trad deer. Went all trad,from there. I then had the yr of a thousand misses. Worked through a bout of target paninick. Then we had a few,majorly bad winters,that wiped a lot of our,deer population out. And spending most of last,season trying to get my daughter to harvest her first,deer my shot opportunities have been bleak. One shot opportunity in 2 yrs. so there ya go. :rolleyes:
I hunted with mine the first year exclusively...missed out on some good opportunities due to inexperience and delelopong shooting skills the first two years and things finally fell into place the 3rd year.
II takes time, I wouldn't be afraid to recommend a point on style of aiming for beginners which can then change to an instinctive method later if needed.
Got my bow in January and I was ready to hunt with it when the season opened in November. I didn't connect with a deer for five years but that wasn't because of my longbow, it was because I was learning how to hunt.
This is a trick question .
I probably started hunting trad about 20 years after I started .
That's because it wasn't called trad . :laughing:
And it had been called Traditional for several years before I even heared of it .
I was just referred to as being a stick bow shooter buy the compound shooters .
One season of practice before I felt comfortable. Was determined to hunt trad or not hunt at all rather than go back out with the compound.
I can't remember the details anymore. I started my first season with a 45# Ben Pearson recurve when I was 14. That was 1980. Prior to that I shot at every critter imaginable including a mallard drake that made the mistake of swimming up the creek I was squirrel hunting on. I tried the mechanical arrow launching devices along the way, but they just had no soul.
I hunted with wheels for a lot of years (20+). I had bought a PSE Impala several years prior to my 1st hunt but I never shot it until one day in August. I was bored shooting the compound so I dug that recurve out just to see if I could even hit a stack of 3 hay bales. That's how it got started.
Two months later I found myself actually hunting with that bow. I killed a doe early Oct and then a 2nd doe in latter October. I haven't pulled the compound out of it's case since then.
It's been 8 years now, a lot of bows later and still going strong.
Got my Redstag longbow as a gift from my father for my 24th birthday 3 years ago (am 27 now), and I got confident enough to hunt at CLOSE range (15 yards and in) with it the first year and had a NICE buck come up at 15 yards and I hit him in the shoulder and he ran off across the river and never found him :readit:
Last year I shot an missed a doe at 7 steps of all things :knothead: shot under her and then I killed a small doe at 20 yards, took two arrows as the first one haunch shot her, waited an hour and then found her still alive but laying down and slow moving and then finished her off with a follow up shot through the lungs.
So this year I am hoping I can connect with a nice clean kill shot. As every year my shooting has improved and I learn something new :thumbsup:
I got my first trad bow in March or April of 2002 and hunted with it that fall.
Started shooting trad in November waited till the October to hunt. I didn't feel confident in my shooting capabilities to not wound any animals.
I picked up a recurve to play with, after a couple years I decided I was good enough at close range to to hunt with it. Heck most of the deer I was shooting with the compound were 10 yards or less. At those ranges I would pick a trad bow over a compound any day.
2 weeks this time around. Shot curves in the mid 90's and always shot really well. Had a bad day hunting (Blew a couple easy shots). Then took a big hiatus and returned in 2011-12 shot a deer first night out. My old Assenheimer was as if I never sat her down. Now I'm ate clear up with Trad hunting again and shoot everyday.
It took me about 7 months of intense shooting to feel comfortable with that first year. I took a big doe from the ground at 10 yards, then later in the season a little rag horn buck at 12 yards from a tree. Good grief....25 years ago.
Got my bow in July 5 years ago.started hunting with it that year. Wheels stayed in the case from then till this spring when I gave the whole thing to a young man that I could not talk into a trad bow.
I got my bow in the early spring and shot my first whitetail with it that next fall. By that next spring I was completely traditional. I quit shooting my compound, and never touched it again.
Funny thing is I went to a Colo bow Hunter banquet before I had a bow. The bug bit me there. That would be in April. A few days later I bought a ccccompound bow. I shot it a few months. Decided it was NOT a bow and sold it and bought an Asbel big horn recurve. Been 100 % trad bow since. I got my first deer that next season.. a doe, cedar shaft, red cresting with red feathers and a two blade zwicky broad head. I can still see the arch of the arrow as it flew to the deer. I can easily hear that deer running off and the curious sound of it crashing. I did not know what that sound ment. I can still feel the uncertainty as I took up the blood trail and the joy of finding that deer.
Twenty five seasons ago.
Joe
Ps. One week and three days and 7 hours til elk season
I killed my first bow kill Deer in 1976 with a K-Mag not sure if compounds were out yet in Louisiana did try a wooden handle compound in late 70's used it for a week and have never shot one since.
Kip
I got a recurve for Christmas one year and killed my first deer with it the following fall. Haven't shot a wheel how since.
I hunted with a recurve in 2012....and shot a nice buck to far forward. Got discouraged...and went back to a compound in 2013. Found out about eye dominance after 2013 season....and switched to left hand shooting. Havent looked back since!
I'm in my third year of trad shooting ( and archery overall). I took my archery hunter safety course last summer, and considered deer hunting last year-but didn't make the time. Honestly, I was not 100% confident in my abilities last fall.
I plan to deer hunt this year. Accuracy and confidence definitely better this year than last (finished 3rd in a state 3d shoot with a 40# 68" 1959 Bear Kodiak Special). Max distance for me will be 25 yards.
So for me, 3 years.
Not sure which bow I will use. I draw 30". I'm not sure if it will be my 40# Samick Journey (amo 64"), or a 41# 1962 zebra wood riser Bear Polar (amo 66"). Both draw about 46-47# @ 30".
Now, getting a trad SHOT at a deer will be the next "time table" issue...
I started bowhunting when I was 10, as soon as I got my first "real" bow (a red fiberglass Bear recurve). That trying to get squirrels at the time. By 12 or 13, I was able to do in groundhogs. Began bowhunting for deer when I was about 14.
5 or so years ago I bought both a recurve and a longbow. I didn't have much for instruction and couldn't figure it out so I ended up selling both out of frustration. I shot my compound through last season and decided to give it a try again. I bought a Ben Pearson cougar last winter and started shooting quite a bit. I then got my black widow and decided I didn't want to shoot my compound anymore. I've since sold the compound and am anxiously awaiting my first season with my recurve.
The better part of two years...I took the International Bowhunter Education Program back in the 90's when I was a compound hunter and they emphasize that one needs to be an archer before they become a bowhunter...it took me a couple of years of shooting before I believed I had any right to take a shot at a game animal
DDave