This may sound silly but for the past several years I haven't been able to shoot just one bow for the entire year. I know that to be the very best I can be I need to stick with just one but always end up grabbing one of the others just for fun. So this year I've decided to unstring all my bows but one and shoot it exclusively. I'm hanging my hat on my Shelby Longbow 80# @ 27" and sticking with my cedar arrows. We'll see how this goes!
Good luck. I know if I had more I would definitely try to shoot them some each year.
Good Luck. It ain't gona happen :D :archer:
It's in our blood!
Lots of guys stick with one bow for a long time. I know Guru has shot the same Kwyk Styk since 1997 and has only shot his schaeffer a couple times in all those years and just recently got a lighter KS. I hae been shooting the same bow for about 7 months now. Shawn
When I get my new Sentman Razorbak in the spring my goal is to only shoot it for the same reason as above....
One bow and one arrow setup....Well see.
I try to pick out my primary bow of the season, and I'll shoot that bow almost exclusively from late summer through the season. A whole year? Can't do it. :help:
I basically do the same as SlowBowinMO. I shoot several early in the year and settle in on a hunting bow for the season in late summer. I will sometimes go to a little lighter bow very late in the season when the weather is really cold.
I think the idea that one has to shoot one bow only to be the best is a myth. Folks say the same thing about guns. That's a myth too.
Hmmm, guess I'm the odd duck. I've got about 15 recurves and two longbows in the house and pretty much none of them get shot but my Lontree longbow. My recurves have plenty of dust built up on them.
Of course, I have to clarify, most of the recurves are light draw weights that I've picked up over the years so that my kids will have plenty of choices as they get older but I have three to five or so that are heavy enough for me to hunt with. I just prefer my longbow. It pulls smoothly to my 32" plus draw length and could easily go farther. Of my recurves, only the old Root 68" Target Master pulls as smoothly but it lacks the speed of my longbow. Probably because it pulls 50 at 28 instead of 60 like my longbow. That puts it at about 60 lbs at my draw instead of about 70 for the longbow.
And yes, arrows are a bugger. I have to foot them to about 34 inches then taper them back. My longbow likes about 100 - 105 pound spine...
I've had some jealous bows in the past. Bows that hated me shooting any of my other bows. I'd start to take another to a 3D and I'd just have to stop because of the nagging of a certain longbow. "What are you taking that recurve for? You know I'm your favorite!" I'd finish getting the recurve in a bowsock and I'd hear her continued. "If you shoot that recurve I'll never shoot right for you again. You know I mean it!" So I'd put the recurve up and take the jealous longbow. So I decided to send the lealous bow around like Faith and Hope and the LDB. 3 months apiece to 12 different guys all around the country. They get to see how well a Crooked Stic three piece longbow shoots and I get 3 years to play with other bows.
I sometimes will hunt with 2-3 different bows in a week, but during the summer I shoot all my bows alot, to the tune of a couple huge broadhead targets wore out and a 60# bag target shot to death. I just shoot the bow for about a hr. the day before I hunt with it to let my brain adjust to where it hits. Have always been able to switch back and forth, a bow is a bow just have to let the old computer upstairs adjust...JMHO
For years it was always the same. Start out with the 50 big 5, then jump to the 64lb. Schulz Legend, shoot the 96 abit in September the back to the 64 for the rest of the year. Worked great until I couldn't use the 64 for everything because of elbow injuries. Now it is musical bows, but I am trying to stick to one Robertson.
Well right now I have a few bows hanging. A Super Shrew , a TurkeyCreek, and a Saxon american longbow.I can pull any of them off the rack and send a few all with about the same degree of accuracy . The hardest part during hunting season is grabbing one Friday night sending a few and taking that bow in the woods the next morning.I guess I just like bows.
Sorry the saying is true, beware of the man who shoots jutst one gun or one bow, all th ereal great shots can shoot pretty good with most any bow with well matched arrows but when it come to shooitng and winning stuff and killing lots of critters they all shoot the same bow. Look what Hill shot and look what Fred Bear shot, they had one ot two favorites they did all their shooting with. Shawn
I do way to much trading around to shoot just one bow but Im going to stop doing that this year and settle on one bow. Right now I have 2 Griffin longbows that are very nice but for some reason I shoot a Hummingbird much better than I do any other bow so I thinking on selling both of them and having a new Bird built and just shoot that one bow . (If I can stand the temptation ). I know I will be a much better shot if I will just do it .
Mike
I am VERY guilty of swapping bows, from a longbow to a recurve, cedars and Aluminums, but all about the same 63@28. this year I swore i would stick with one bow throughout our 5 month bow season, for 2 months before season I shot pretty much the bow I was gonna hunt with, I shot a 63@28 PSAII widow recurve, so far this year,have taken 4 deer and a pig, and have shot better than I ever have in a year on game. But with one tag left am now thinkin i need to "finish out" on deer with a longbow.. I knew I could never make it.... But do feel shootin one bow is the way to go, if ya can do it.. personally I think i would go into withdrawls or something...
I shot my Schafer for nearly 10 years before retiring it to a Hill Longbow. Shot it for a few years before discovering bow making bug. Now shoot mostly primitive stuff that I've made myself.
The way I see it, performance is moot at 12-15 yards with heavy arrows!!!
QuoteOriginally posted by longbowman:
80# @ 27"
:eek: :eek:
Shawn, I actually think it should be refined to "Beware the man that has shot hundreds of guns, then decided on one and now shots only that one."
I am on my second logbow in fifteen years.
This is sorta funny. I thought I was just a little off center (probably am) and was the only person who did the switching non-sense. I thought I would just give away all of my bows except for the one I want to shoot and one for back up but nonbody ever wants them because they're all over 70#. I managed to give away a 74# Shelby longbow with Purple Heart riser and elm limbs to a good friend and he hasn't picked it up once in two years! I actually wish I only had one bow to shoot but what fun would that be?
I think C2 has it. Hill and Bear had their preferences, but they shot lots of different bows. Hill shot longbows, of course, and Bear shot mostly recurves. In Hunting the Hard Way, Hill describes taking several bows, usually ranging in weight from the high 70s to 90# on his hunts. Bear was continually testing and hunting with new prototypes as he developed them. Though he did develop a preference for the Kodiak takedown in later years, he certainly had and shot more than one of them.
I have a friend who is one of the top skeet and sporting clays shooter in the state. He has at least 6 guns he uses in competition and he's always trying out new guns, loads, etc., seeking to improve his performance and the performance of his equipment. He has more than a dozen different guns that I know of that he uses for hunting, and in any given fall,he uses almost everyone of them. And this guy rarely misses anything, whether it's made of clay or flesh and feathers.
One thing all of these folks have in common is that they shot and practiced alot. Practice is what makes one a good shot, not limiting oneself to a single bow or gun, though doing so probably doesn't hurt anything.
I did the same thing by switching to one bow only: a 67# CM Hunter II. I would have to say my shooting is the best it has been and my kills are way up. I just found comfort in one bow and seem to shoot it well.
That being said, I have braved the waters of trying to find a lighter bow to turkey hunt with. So I'll have a spring fling with another girl, but 9 mo out of the year I'll be with my true love!
Didn't make it,LOL!! I had a few really good quality bows this year and I loved something about each of them. I really wanted to have just one for a year, but something about a new toy is irresistable!
QuoteOriginally posted by mike g:
When I get my new Sentman Razorbak in the spring my goal is to only shoot it for the same reason as above....
One bow and one arrow setup....Well see.
Razorbak I am jealous. :archer:
Congratulations!!
I have my Sentman Competitor and 16 others.
I'll shoot most of them but my hunting bow is the Sentman.
When I went to Trad, I loved the simplicity, (stick& String) nothing else. Cheaper hobby maybe. Boy was I wrong. I spend more $$ now than ever before. Bows!! Arrows!! more bows!! But they always seem to be a Brackenbury. Got a bad itch for a new Kota Killum now though. I usually shoot the bow I will hunt with 90% of the time. There is something about even watching someone else shoot trad that is just plain neat. Go to a 3D shoot where compounds and recurves are mixed. At the practice range, the guy with a stick & string seems to always be drawing attention. Everyone wants to hunt with one, they just think they are not good enough!!
Some shoot many and have the choice, some shoot one out of habit and familiarity. I have a friend who is a natural shot with anything, bows, guns slingshots, drunk or sober. One time we were shooting his .22 and the rest of us were battling to group properly,one of us is ex special forces and can shoot REAL good but he was missing the odd one too. Well, mr Happy-go-lucky says, " 'course you shouldnt take the front bead too serious, it's loose!" He never missed a thing. The dog! You gotta know your gear. :biglaugh:
chrisg
I only have one so for me its simple I just shoot one.
I've been shooting my 60# Schafer longbow and 620 grains arrows since March. In doing so, I achieved a level of confidence and accuracy I never knew was possible. the only problem is that it's getting harder and harder to pull 60# as the weather gets colder here, and I've been sitting in ambush for a couple hours. I might have to get the exact same setup, but 5-10 pounds lighter.
I couldn't do it. Shooting different bows is one of the things I like about the sport. Limiting myself to one would be limiting my fun, which is why I shoot in the first place.
I do however tend to pick one main and a backup and stick with them when hunting season comes around. It has more to do with confidence then anything else.
I couldn't do it either. Too many nice bows I want.
I say I am every year, but that darn classified section here screws me up, everytime. :saywhat:
That old man is cunning and knew me better than I thought. :( :D
Mike :campfire:
i have 2 longbows at the moment and it is easy to pic up anyone of them and shoot it i just cant help myself. if i had more bows i would do the same. :biglaugh:
Earlier in the year I thought I would stick with one bow also...3 BOWS LATER!!! I am still shooting one...at a time!
Longbowman, build your own bow. Once you do that, it just isn't "fun" shooting someone elses bow. I've got a beautiful longbow and two ChekMate recurves gathering dust. I, too, typically stick with the "shoot only one bow during deer season" school of thought no matter what bow I'm shooting.