lets hear some of your favorite trad bowhunting quotes or sayings

When I was contemplating taking the leap from compound to full-time trad, over the winter, I placed a thread asking how some of you other guys went about it.

Whether he knows it or not.....Orion said something to me that hit home like a ton of bricks.

I made the decision, shortly after reading it.  HE NAILED IT.

Here's the quote....

When how you take animals becomes more important than how big or how many, you'll make the switch. Simple as that. We'll be waiting. Good luck.

My "thank you" to him for those words.

GMMAT

That is indeed powerful stuff!!  That is now one of my favorites.

I may just ask him if I can make that my quote.

Aim small miss small is an all time great as well and just as important now as when it first coined.

" I have always tempered my killing with respect for the game pursued.  I see the animal not only as a target but as a living creature with more freedom than I will ever have.  I take that life if i can, with regret as well as joy, and with the sure knowledge that nature's ways of fang and claw or exposure and starvation are a fat crueler fate than i bestow."

"go afield with a good attitude, with respect for the wildlife you hunt and for the forest and fields in which you walk.  Immerse yoruself in the outdoor experince.  I will cleanse your soul and make you a better person"

"Hardships are quickly forgotten.  Intese heat, bitter cold, rain and snow, fatigue, and luckless hunting fade quickly into memories of great fellowship, thoughts of beautiful country, pleasant camps, and happy campfires."

"If your are not working to protect hunting, then you are working to destroy it."

all quotes are from the late great Fred Bear

The kill is the satisfying, indeed essential, conclusion to a successful hunt. But, I take no pleasure in the act itself. One does not hunt in order to kill, but kills in order to have hunted. Then why do I hunt? I hunt for the same reason my well-fed cat hunts...because I must, because it is in the blood, because I am the decendent of a thousand generations of hunters. I hunt because I am a hunter.- Finn Aagard


"And so again I am sternly reminded that the key to consistent hunting success - the key that I misplaced that last emotional evening- is to keep in mind, always, why it is we hunt, and adjust our expectations accordingly. If my motivation for hunting is narrowed to just killing more and/or bigger animals each year, then - in addition to trading honor for ego gratification, love for lust, the slow subtle pleasures of foreplay for the quick finalty of climax - I'm setting myself up for a lot of hard falls.

If, on the other hand, the real reason I'm out there is to relax, work hard, listen, learn, and overall to enjoy myself as deeply and broadly as possible - quietly rejoicing in the sights, sounds, scents, and solitude of wild nature - then I'm virtually guaranteed of success. Year after joyful year."


Another summer has passed away, another field has gone to hay.

It's close to season, another reason, for making Woodies.


The broadheads filed, the shavings piled, the nuts are falling....the squirrels are wild;

No need to reason....tis' just the season, for making Woodies.


When you have got the fever, there's nothing that works as good;

As gathering nocks and fletching, and working with shafts of wood....


So go ahead, and set the clamp; you need some Scotchgard...in case it's damp.

No need to reason, we need no season, for making Woodies.


" The Deer Hunter's Prayer "
by Dale Sunderlin

Heavenly father, to you I pray,
A majestic deer may come my way.
Let my aim be straight and true,
this my Lord, I pray to you.

A swift clean kill is what I ask,
Take his spirit swift and fast.
For his last breath should not be,
One of pain or agony.

Let his soul,
Come to Thee,
To roam your heavens,
Wild and free.

This gem was quoted from my friend John H. We were sitting in my truck trying to thaw out from a blizzard during the late WV bowseason. We clutched cups of coffee with numb fingers while the cold wind rocked the truck. With icy breath he stuttered these words............

"You know, I left a perfectly good naked woman to come here with you today. There is something very wrong with that."

Priceless.

"Does the wolf not love the caribou? And does she not, even so, undertake her daily hunts with enthusiasm and joy."

It's from my newest favorite read, "On The Wild Edge". And correct me if I'm wrong, but it's written by the gentleman who posted above me.

READ MY SIG  

Well my old man was never into archery. But he had a saying that made more sense the older I got. "It's not the type of gun or the how big the cartridge that kills, it's how well the nut on the trigger is adjusted."

SAL

Kinda like

"it's not the bow, but the man behind the bow, that makes the difference"

"...and in the end, when I can no longer draw the bow or watch the arrow embark its flight; When alas, I possess only the spirit of the hunter, I will hunt...if only in my dreams...because the hunt is born amidst my soul, and I... I am the hunter."
Pete Iacavazzi

One of the quotes I like is from somebody here on Trad Gang.

My biggest fear is that when I die my wife sells all my hunting gear for what I told her I paid for it.

I see and admire your manner of living, your good warm houses, your extensive fields of corn, your gardens, your cows, oxen, workhouses, wagons and a thousand machines, that I know not the use of. I see that you are able to clothe yourself, even form weeds and grass. In short, you can do almost what you chose. You whites possess the power of subduing almost every animal to your use. You are surrounded by slaves. Everything about you is in chains. I hear I should exchange my presents for yours. I too should become a slave. Talk to my sons, perhaps they may be persuaded to adopt your fashions, at least to recommend them to their sons; but for myself, I was born free, was raised free, and wish to die free. I am perfectly content with my condition. The forests and rivers supply all the calls of nature in plenty. Big Chief Osage

One of mine is here at the bottom.

BOB

"When the bow hunter is in a tree stand with high moral values and with the proper hunting ethics that hunter is 20' closer to God"  

            Fred Bear

Joe

2 Sam 22:35 (ESV)

He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

QuoteOriginally posted by PAPALAPIN:
SAL

Kinda like

"it's not the bow, but the man behind the bow, that makes the difference"

Yes It Is. But I like the way Terry said it in the DVD.

I could have killed him w/ a compound

"If its feral its in peril"

"THEY CAN HAVE MY BOW WHEN THEY PRY MY COLD DEAD FINGERS FROM AROUND IT". Also applys to my guns as the original quote stated.