Ok. I see all these posts about guns and everything but who here hunts with archery (real hunters). I shoot a PSE Fire Storm Lite with carbon arrows and 100 grain NAP broadheads. I switched from a handmade recurve, which was very hard to hunt with. Deer had to be within 25 yrds. for a clean kill. I love my PSE now and wouldnt trade it for anything. I still hunt every season that comes up ; archery, muzzleloader, and rifle, but I enjoy the pursuit of a deer with my bow, because its the most rewarding. So how many bow hunters are out there.

Oh and by the way has anyone else noticed that when rifle season comes around that everyone whith a high powered rifle becomes a deer hunter. That is one of my biggest pet peeves, especially when they brag about the deer they shot at 200 yrds.

 

PSE with carbon arrows tipped with 100 grain mechanicals. I can't remember the name, maybe terminators, but am unsure. Anyway, I'm good for 40 yards.

 

I shoot a Hoyt MT sport with a cobra easylide sight.(love the sight) carbon arrows with 3 blade 100 grain muzzys. I love my bow but need a new one. I'm gettin the new Mathews switchback this summer when i start gettin some more $$$$$$.

 

Good choices on bows, Bow hunting as a sport is growing. I cant think of anything better than a 10 to 15 yard shot at a deer from the ground with my bow. Beside maybe a perfect dune.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I shoot Easton Epic Carbonaero 340's sporting NAP Spitfire XP's in 100 grains through my PSE Diamondback. I'm comfortable out to about 50 yards though I did flat wiff from 40 during the early season...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img]

I'm back out again for the late season here in a couple of weeks. Rutting desert mulies...should be fun!!!

 

One of my pet peeves is "hunters" who slam others because they don't approve of their choice of equipment. The recurve guys that bitch about how the guys that hunt with compounds aren't "real" hunters. The compound guys who bitch about the guys who hunt with crossbows not being "real" hunters. The flintlock guys who bitch about percussion cap guys not being "real" hunters. The percussion cap guys who bitch about the guys who hunt with in-lines not being "real" hunters. The holier than thou archery guys who park their asses in a 30 ft deer stand above a deer trail and proclaim how much more of "real" hunter they are than the guy with a rifle who actually walks through the woods or god forbid takes a shot over 20 yards away. The bolt action guys who bitch about the semi-auto hunters. One of the most annoying I was witness to recently was a guy who was talking about how crossbows were so terribly unsporting and should be banned from the archery season. This as he was getting his 1000 dollar compound fitted with fiber optic sights. Oh, he was "an authentic archer" while the crossbow guy wasn't. His compound is made of more exotic materials than the space shuttle, he is using fiber optic sights, using a mechanical release, shoots carbon arrows tipped with mechanical broadheads and he is somehow more sporting than the guy who hunts with a crossbow. Um. Yeah. Ok.

Hey I killed a deer last year with a handbuilt arrow tipped with a handknapped obsidian arrowhead fired from a handbuilt recurve, guess that makes me a better hunter than everyone except those who hunt with an atlatl, a spear or the guy who whacked a deer in the head with a rock. Maybe we need to make some sort of chart to determine who is a "real" hunter and who isn't? I mean it isn't exactly difficult to kill a deer at 10 or 20 yards with compound bow especially when you are 20 ft. up a tree, wearing activated charcoal clothing and dousing everything around you with deer urine and cover scents. Killing a deer at 400 yards with a rifle is no easy task even with a high powered scope. Which one makes you the "real" hunter? The deer doesn't know you are there in either case. Having done both I'd say judging the wind and bullet drop at 400 yards is far more difficult than shooting the deer with a bow at 20 yards.

 

CaptainQunit - well said. You are probably going to stir up a hornets nest with your comments, but I, for one, support your position.
I just love to hunt! Deer, Turkey, Waterfowl, Upland birds, Hogs - you name it! Not only do I hunt deer with a highpower centerfire, scoped rifle, but I also hunt them with a caplock muzzle-loader using only black powder (no pyrodex) and lead bullets. Additionally, I hunt them with a recurve bow, wood arrows fletched with feathers from turkey I harvested myself and wolverine broadheads - no sights, no stabilizers, etc., etc.. All of this makes me not one bit better than anybody else - the point is this... I love to hunt, and hunt by whatever means is legal and available to me. Each type of hunting provides it's own challenges and rewards, and is very much a matter of personal choice. IMO (humble as it is), as long as we hunt legally and ethically, and feel good about ourselves for what we accomplish at the end of the day - then we should all be in support of each other. Lord knows, there are enough anti and non hunters out there just loving the division within our own ranks!
Once again - hunt legally and ethically - encourage and demand the same from others - and enjoy our sport while we still have it.

 

Dang Quint that was a fun post to read. I hunt like many people in all different ways. Killed deer with my bow, pistol, rifle, whatever. I tell ya though, I've spent some HARD time in the western Montana Rockies ( you boys down south would poop yourselves climbing these things) to get close to elk with my bow. Got there a few times. There are no tree stands up there neither. Stalked within bow range of a cow elk this fall, took me an hour to go the last 25 yards, got my shot broadside at 30 yards, let a perfect one fly (PSE compound) and the elk jumped the string. Just about left that bow on the mountain. Shot a bull once with my 270 at 80 yards and the outcome was much different.

Them indian guns are good for two things in my opinion (1) getting you in the woods during a different season and (2) shooting things absurdly close up. If it weren't for #1 I wouldn't waste my time with them, but that's just me. Shooting deer out of a tree stand with that bow is very easy and not too exciting to me personally.

Anybody who ventures into the woods in pursuit of game is a hunter. How hard you challenge yourself defines the type of hunter you are. You can talk down on modern weapons all you want, but I don't see many of those guys dragging a 700 pound bull off a 7000 foot ridge 4 miles from the truck either.

 

Looks like you opened a whole can of worms...I hunt with Bow, Crossbow and rifle.

I have a Hoyt Fast Flite with Easton 2217's and replaceable blade broadheads, forget what brand.

I also bought a Horton Hunter Elite 175 lb, Crossbow with Easton 2219 Bolts and Wasp jack Hammer broadheads (see my profile for a picture of my bull elk I got this year with it).

I also have numerous rifles, but my favorite is a Mossberg 30-06...

I hunt with these different tools to extend or enhance my seasons (open cow/calf/bull elk for archery) but only 6 point bulls once the rifle season opens. I don't do it because I think one tool is more pure or true than another, I do it cause it gives me more days out in the field and more opportunity to put meat in the freezer (antlers are a bonus, you can't eat them anyways).

This is almost looking like the old debate of Fords vs. Dodge vs. Chev, gas vs. diesel, Harleys vs. Sport bikes, etc etc etc...

To each his own, do what you like, just make sure you post the pics, cause we are all in common on one thing, we like to see pictures of the harves......"Can't we all just get along " - Rodney King....Was he talking to this thread....

 

The intention of the post was to see how many bowhunters are out there. There was no intention to "slam" anyone. I hunt on public land here in oklahoma, because I'm not privledged enough to have private land of my own. I hunt hard the first few weeks of bow (from the ground), and all the while there are only a few bow hunters out there and they have the common courtesy to ask me were I'm hunting so they dont encroach on my "spot". However, as soon as rifle season opens every idiot in Oklahoma comes out with their rifle and it sounds like World War III on opening morning. These guys have no respect for another persons "spot" they will sit directly across a ravine from you and point their gun in your direction, when they obviosly knew I was already sitting there. It gets too dangerous during rifle season here, there is 10,000 acres to hunt on and they have to sit 50 yrds. away form me. This is a very sensative subject with me. There, I slammed the sterotypical rifle hunters. There ARE people out there that are very skilled with a rifle and have respect for others, they just become few and far between come rifle season. Which kind of hunter are you!