Hello guys. I need a little help with my mind set... I've not shot a deer yet this year. I've seen some, and had a good 8 pt. come close a few days ago, but no shot with the longbow.... In the back of my mind all I can think is, "If I had my compound, I'd have got him."
Or I could have nailed him with my 30.06 ...
Mind you , I've only been hunting a few years, and trad hunting 1 full year. I have shot 1 buck with my trad gear so I am feeling the need to shoot and kill..
Let me have it...
Steve
Steve,
If you are asking for help, you already know the answer.
Many if not most of us in this community have been where you are now. Not a year goes by where I do not see game that I could harvest with a weapon other than my recurve.
Each encounter teaches me something. Improved stand placement, awareness of wind direction(s), familiarity with the land I hunt, improve my skills with the bow...each time I come away better prepared for my next opportunity.
When it all does come together for you the satisfaction of having harvested game with your bow will outweigh the frustration from the encounters where you could have harvested with another weapon.
Steve I am reminded of something Gene Wensel said after telling a friend about a boone and crockett whitetail he encounted. The friend said man too bad you didn't have a rifle. He thought if i have to explain you wouldn't understand. I'm not stabbing at you. I've wondered the same things from time to time. But I realize how bitter sweet it would be for me personally. I have to remind myself this is not a competition.
Atually, it works the other way around too. If you go ahead and use your compound or rifle, you may very well finding yourself thinking afterwards - "I could have done that with my longbow!"
Personally, I've gotten over that feeling completely. I might regret a mistake I made in set up, poor shot, or whatever caused me not to take the animal, but I don't regret the weapon in my hand at all. What I hope will be my biggest screw up of my life was when I shot over the back of a 320 class bull elk at 25 yards. I think about that miss often, but I honestly don't think I have ever regreted carrying a recurve that day.
If you really do have the need to kill something then maybe the longbow is not the best weapon for you to carry. And there is really no shame in that. It's all just a matter of your own personal priorities. Do what is right for you, and don't worry about what anyone else thinks.
There is also no shame in taking advantage of mulitple methods to shoot a deer. Use what you want, kill what you legally can, enjoy yourself. Over time, you will gravitate more and more to a certain method for personal reasons but there's no need to get in a hurry about it.
Better to have a gun killed deer in the freezer and an open archery tag in your pocket than two open tags, an empty freezer and frustration in your heart.
Dang, shoot the deer with a rifle if you want. I would and do. The only one that cares what you use is you. Don't look to others to affirm your personal choice. My bow kills are no more valuable to me than any others. It's all meat in the freezer to me.
I have been hunting trad for 3 years and not gotten a shot yet (at a deer). The county I hunt is archery only. I have an old compound but it sits in the garage and collects dust, webs, dead bugs what have you. I haven't touched it! Due to work constraints this year I have only been out once (to hunt Deer). I have manage to bag 1 squirrel at 15 yards out of a tree. I look at it like this, my time will come. Be patient!
I could not agree more with Whip and Dave! :campfire:
It's your hunt, do it as YOU choose to!!!
I grab the gun when weather's bad or the freezer is empty (I don't need to eat venison, but my family WANTS to eat venison)... But I shot my best buck just heading out to put a little meat in the freezer stickbow close... Everytime I look at him on the wall, I wish I would had my bow with me...
I enjoy hunting deer, with a rifle I feel as though I am just killing deer... There's no real gratification in it... These days, i just tell myself if the Good Lord wants to bless me, it won't matter what I have in my hand!!!
Steve,
I enjoy hunting with all my weapons. If you have that empty feeling of no meat in the freezer then shoot one or two with a compound or gun to get over it. Then go back in the woods with the longbow, relax and have fun. You may come back with more stories than meat but I am sure you will have a smile on your face! That will be $160 thanks! LOL
I have been bow hunting ( ONLY ) for 35 yrs. I could have taken a LOT of animals with a different type of weapon, but I choose to only bowhunt. It is not just about getting an animal down each year. I just enjoy the bow and the time of year I get to hunt. The meat would be nice, but I could go to the store and get it cheaper. Just something mystic about the bow.
Very well said, Whip, Eric, Dave et al! I can't think of anything to add to it but my bow kills DO matter more to me and I wish everyone could feel the joy I feel when I take something with my stickbow but I wouldn't put down anyone who shot something with something else.
I reached a point where I started letting deer walk when I had the muzzleloader in my hands. I guess that is when I went to strictly bowhunting. That said, I may drag the muzzleloader out for a few days in December and take a doe or two for the local mission. Nothing wrong with a legally killed deer. You will know if it is time to stick with the bow.....do what feels right and enjoy the woods! Mike
Been a slow year for me to. Dinged a bear in September that ended up smarter for he troubles but not dead. Had few deer come my way during bow season also this year so opening day of gun season I sat in my tree with my sons gun. After two hours it hit me that this just isn't the way I like to hunt and I got down and when home while guys were banging away all around me. Longbows and wood arrows are my thing and I've been sitting in a tree the past 3 days during gun season with my bow and it feels just right. No deer yet but it's what I like to do. Do what you like to do.
Steve,
The limitations we put on ourselves as traditional bow hunters and accepting those limitations has a
wonderful way of helping us grow. Patience is such a strange thing to acquire.
Charlie Lamb said, "We take life in order to learn how to live life".
I know that I could have killed many deer if I had another weapon but in doing so I would have never matured as a trad hunter. These primitive weapons force us to experience a different level of being.They refine our decisions and teach us about ourselves. I remember early that I wanted validation-prove to myself I was competent as a bow hunter.Maybe prove to others also. Well that hunger eventually melts away and I enjoy the process. The grind of it all becomes comfortable and not being successful does not determine if I enjoy the sport.
I took my long bow to hunt bear this fall and 19 of 22 hunters in our camp were using rifles sitting on bait 60 yards way behind a black blanket with a hole cut out for the barrel sitting in lawn chairs. Archers were over the bait in a tree stand about 15 yards away. That was exciting!I think I had an experience that the rifle guys could not have/feel. I am not saying what they do is wrong just that trad weapons give you something in return for the passed shots.
Paul
I'd rather kill a doe with a longbow than a pope and young with a gun or compound...When i take a gun out hunting now...it just doesnt feel right.... it just has no meaning to me...
that goes for small game too.
Good post. I've tried the gun thing again last year.. I let some walk also.. Just not alot of fun for me...
I guess I just get a little jazzed up, because I've had two (one last year/ one this year) nice bucks, I just couldn't close the deal...
Shooting him with a gun might have been ok, but I just can't seem to break through to do it.. I'm committed to taking a nice buck with my recurve or longbow, but just wish it would HAPPEN!!!!! hhahaha
The weather here is rough today isn't Steve? Sounds like you've been cooped up like me and "thinking" too much.
I still enjoy gun hunting but but I honestly have no desire to kill a big deer with a gun. Especially the way they are "hunted" around here. The biggest deer I've ever seen while hunting would have been easy kills with a gun but I don't regret having had a bow in hand and watching them walk.
Hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving.
Mike
No need to justify/explain yourself to anybody else. Afterall, why do we hunt? For me, it is to enjoy time in the woods. Hunt with a spear and bowie knife if you want, as long as it makes you happy.
I get enjoyment hunting with a gun, compound and stick bow. The goals for harvest are different with each weapon, but the enjoyment is the same.
Carry what makes you happy....and stop thinking so much :-)
as others have said you need to do what your heart tells you. the only competition is in your head. if the thrill of the hunt & the kill is there with the gun or compound then you shouldn't feel at all bad about using one of those methods.
remember satisfaction should come not only from the end result but in the path that leads there.
I wish I could temper myself like some of you guys have. I'm OCD +++ .... Everything in life apart from my Relationship with God / Salvation is a competition with me... How do you get past it and just enjoy archery? Seriously... I'm reaching out here. hahahaahah..
I agree with Dave Bulla, dont limit yourself and burn out on trad archery, if season is about gone, need to fill the freezer, get her done. I ML and gun hunt a little every year just to be with some of my good friends, its about the fellowship we share. I bowhunt like its a second job, so havent had any trouble filling my tags the last 3 years, but if I didnt kill a deer with my trad gear, would still have the deep love for this tradition that i have for over 30 years. Dont want to see anyone quit trad, but dont lose sight of the big picture, which for me is making meat, and memories with my friends, we all wont be here forever.
One of the ways that you get past it, Steve, is to quit paying attention to the magazines, the videos, and even much of what you read here concerning what is considered success, and learn to force yourself to spend more time in the woods, enjoying the woods.
Hunt the way you like to hunt and use the gear you want to use and kill what you want to kill, and in the end walk way content.
Ask yourself how much of what you do is really done to appease your peers or fellow hunters, and what would you do different if peers and fellow hunters did not exist.
You must become a better hunter to consistently get close to animals and that in itself is success.
I agree with Eric that your trad success will far out weigh any other kills, which is a result of the extra effort you will have to put forth to accomplish them....but you will grow because of it.
Steve, This the year i decided to hunt only with my long bow, i sold off all my guns! this decision was based on several things! one was of all the deer i have taken in 35 years only two i couldn't have shot with trad gear, several with trad gear! i prefer to hunt with my long bow,so this year with over 200 hrs logged hunting,both during our reg archery season and sitting in the woods with gun hunters and my only chance in all that time i passed because it was a doe who just peed in the scrape i was watching and i thought mr buck would follow her before the sun set on that day!! he never showed and 3 days later my nephew shot him with a gun!! this has been the greatest hunting season ever for me only because i'm hunting with my long bow! Just can't get enough!! but thats me and my decision! i took me five years to get to this point and i find myself not looking back! you need to do what feels right to You,as others have said there is nothing wrong with taking you game with other means!! god bless and good luck!