Considering hanging up my guns.

Tradtical Commando · May 14, 2014, 08:38:00 AM

For a while Ive been considering hanging up my guns and going bow only with the exception of some bird hunting. Reading the book "Longbow" made me want to do it. How many guys have for the most part hung up your guns? What made you do it?

tradhunter · May 14, 2014, 08:46:00 AM

I may shoot less animals now that I gave up my Remington, but the satisfaction that comes with the time I spend in the woods is far greater. It is the close interaction, and the skill involved.....not to mention the shot, while so much closer is still always never a "sure thing". Just about the time that I take anything out that goes boom is my yearly run with my buddy, where all we take is our .50 cal. Hawkins out.

dbd870 · May 14, 2014, 08:54:00 AM

My daughter won't gun hunt; she has been that way from the start.

Biathlonman · May 14, 2014, 08:59:00 AM

Your pretty much where I'm at. I'll still go bird hunting with the family and maybe a pilgrimage back to the motherland for slug season but my heart just isn't in gun hunting anymore.

fnshtr · May 14, 2014, 09:09:00 AM

I'm probably 90% trad only. The only time I carry a rifle is late season with family for deer.

As others have said... just much more rewarding.

May 14, 2014, 09:29:00 AM

I cannot remember the last critter I have shot with a gun! I recently lost my hunting ground that I have had for the last 15yrs (too much oilfield traffic) and I took my shotgun with me on one of my last turkey hunts. The shotgun sat in the camper the entire trip while I hunted with my longbow.

Hunting with the longbow is just more fun and rewarding to me!

Bisch

Stixbowdrew · May 14, 2014, 09:33:00 AM

Three years ago I told myself I was puttin the guns down, but I have had a couple moments of weakness now an then but they all have ended up as misses

NBK · May 14, 2014, 09:37:00 AM

Feel similar.
Rifle deer season is more about tradition with family hence I'm spending more time with them in camp than in a tree. Also, now that my daughter has been eligible to hunt I'm her "mentor" requiring that I not carry a gun, only her. It wasn't a hard thing for me to do.

Keith Zimmerman · May 14, 2014, 09:43:00 AM

I havent hunted with a gun for 30 yrs. Except the trip out west with my brother and buddys for coyotes. Even carried a bow on a snowshoe hare trip to AK. My brother carried his .22 but quit and switched to his bow when he saw how much fun I was having. Guns are too easy for the most part.

With a gun, when u spot the game, its over. With a bow the hunt is just beginning.

NittanyRider · May 14, 2014, 09:44:00 AM

Last year was my first year hunting with a bow and arrow, and even though I didn't harvest a deer with my bow, I had a great time hunting... haven't had that much fun since I was a kid!

My plan for the 2014/15 hunting season, is to go traditional only... recurve and flintlock!

Danny Rowan · May 14, 2014, 10:14:00 AM

Been at least 25 years since I have shot anything except targets with a gun, as a Federal LEO I have to shoot and qualify every quarter, other than that I shoot my bows only.

T Sunstone · May 14, 2014, 10:19:00 AM

Over 30 years ago was the last time I hunted big game with a gun.

huntnmuleys · May 14, 2014, 10:25:00 AM

I haven't really shot a gun (minus some bird hunting) in years, but im actually leaning the other way. got a hawken styly muzzleloader and am dying to do some hunting with it.

old_goat2 · May 14, 2014, 10:29:00 AM

I hung mine up for the most part. Occasionally if really want to put some meat in the freezer I'll do a doe or cow rifle hunt and when I do that it's not about the hunt it's about the success, but it's still hunting and I enjoy it, it's just not as much of a feeling of great accomplishment as taking an animal with a bow.. If I was a more successful archer, the guns would never come out except for wing shooting.

MnFn · May 14, 2014, 10:42:00 AM

I usually do buy a deer license to use with a rifle, but only to use when hunting with a young man with special needs.

Most of the time even when hunting with gun toting family members, I use my bow.

I just get more enjoyment out of hunting with my bow, and in MN and ND, the earlier bow hunting seasons is just a more enjoyable temperature to be out in the woods.

Caughtandhobble · May 14, 2014, 11:23:00 AM

I hung up the rifle 30+ years ago... Now I only hung up the compound a couple years ago.

Caddo · May 14, 2014, 11:54:00 AM

Primarily, I only bowhunt, but there's a time and place for everything. Gun hunt with the Grandkids and will shoot a hog with whatever's available. Never pass a chance to kill a hog!

LD

centaur · May 14, 2014, 12:05:00 PM

I guess I should get my guns out of their cases and see if they need oiling; I haven't looked at one (long guns) in several years. I think I killed a deer with a rifle in the 80s, but that is the last one I remember.

Handguns still see some use, but after 28 years in law enforcement, I kinda feel naked without one of them around.

Hunting has been and will be with traditional bows; no interest in hunting with a rifle.

Red Beastmaster · May 14, 2014, 12:13:00 PM

Selling guns is a great way to fund bow purchases.

I still own a handgun but sold the rifle and shotgun many years ago. I don't ever miss them.

Izzy · May 14, 2014, 12:18:00 PM

There is something so much more satisfying to me when Im bow hunting but I still aint too proud to tote my Beretta 686 shotgun for grouse and waterfowl or my old Model 70 out now and again on a deer hunt with my sons. Bunnies with a .22 pistol still makes me giddy too.

The crazy thing is, every time I have a rifle across my lap I wind up killing a deer at spitting distance.

Maybe they're attracted to the smell of walnut and Hoppes.