Plain and simple, have you always liked shooting and hunting with your bow from the time you tried it? Or did it take awhile to find the enjoyment and appreciation in it? Is it your favorite way to hunt?
always...since my grandfather took me out for small game...even more when i harvested. bowhunting, especially with my longbow is my favorite way to hunt.
I Bow hunted years before I gun hunted and have been addicted since the first time I pulled the string!!
2 years ago I tried it and hunted one day and didn't really like it but that was before I had my drivers license and I wasn't a big fan of treestands or the dark. This year I tried it again and liked it and conquered my fear of treestands but still wasn't really hooked until i had a real close encounter with a small buck that i almost got a shot at. Then my parents suprised me with a new bow for christmas, and it wasn't that my previous bow was terrible just really outdated, but man now every extra cent I have I spend on new gear and the last week of late season I shot a doe and now I'm even more hooked. Used to waterfowl hunt all the time and never thought any kind of hunting would take priority over waterfowl but bowhunting is probably my favorite type of hunting
I didn't grow up hunting at all. Married into a gun hunting family and fell in love with the hunting lifestyle, but the season was just too short. Archery season here is basically 4 months long so I bought a cheap used Reflex Growler off Ebay about 8 years ago and haven't looked back. From the first few shots I was hooked. So much so that I have almost completely stepped away from gun hunting. I only wish I had been introduced to it when I was younger.
I gun hunted first, but quickly got into archery because of the extra time in the woods and I liked the close up encounters with the bow. I only hunt with compound bow and CB now. I don't gun hunt at all any more.
My first time bow hunting was when I was 9 years old. We went and hunted on public land in northern Indiana. It was cold, about 38º and it was raining/sleeting the whole time. It was terrible. I wasn't a very big fan of it, it was already hard getting deer close and being 9 meant I didn't have the will to push myself. Then when I was 10 I dropped my first doe, and that pretty much changed everything. I bow/gun hunted until I joined the military, and I was forced to take a few years off because of deployments and what not. Now I pretty much bow hunt only, unless I get offered to go on a gun hunt, or if I'm really hurting for meat.
When I was younger I would have never considered bow hunting, no way did I want to sit and wait for deer to show. I loved grouse hunting, ducks and geese. I did not hunt all when my kids were growing up. Once I was done coaching I decided to bow hunt.
I got my first bow as a kid and have never looked back. Twice I have given up gun hunting (second time for good after 2007) but I have never stopped with a bow.
Bow mania since day one for me. I started with bow hunting before i ever picked up a gun. First half hour of my first hunt in my life I killed a 2.5 year old 8 pointer sitting on a tree stump. That was it for me.... hooked for life.
I had a little compound bow as a child that my mom would take me to shoot at the local range. I always wanted to have a hunting bow and get into it, but didn't have the time or money to do it. My father was never a hunter or outdoorsman. I have ever hinted before and this should be fun,but I hope to put my first deer on the ground this fall.
I'm right there with you NY. I started bow hunting from the ground as well. I would find a dead fall and position myself next to or behind it. I'd even brush it in if the situation dictated it. This worked for a number of years, I actually killed my first 5-6 deer from the ground. Then tree stands came around and the rest is history.
Pretty much the same story. I gun hunted PA growing up and then switched to bow hunting to extend my season and hunt my home state with more frequency. I've pretty much abandoned gun hunting the past few years.
Hunted with the rifle for 10 years before I picked up the bow 3 years ago - Love both of them equally (obviously for different reasons).
LOL no. I reply to and discuss topics that are interesting to me and I treat every comment individually. We may not agree on some things but I don't dislike someone just because of one disagreement. We all have different experiences and opinions, I don't expect anyone to have the exact same ones as me. What happens in one thread is completely washed away in another.
Nor do I dislike you or anyone else on this forum who doesn't agree with me. It's all good. Just for the record, I'm spending so much time on here because of the weather in our area. I really do have a job, but doing the type of tree work that I do, we need the right conditions for things to be safe and stay safe.
When I was a kid I had a bow and would climb up in our tree and shoot the targets. I always loved shooting my bow but as I got older sports took up most of my time and then girls took the rest. Once I was out of college I found my way back to a bow and decided to try bow hunting. I love bow hunting and actually choose it over gun hunting when I am at our place in Indiana. If Illinois would change the laws I would probably use a bow there as well.
I got into bowhunting 30 odd yr's ago because it gave bowhunter's only the an extra month before season..has since changed to two weeks..dnr decided to give crossbow's n muzzle loaders second two weeks now..as well....at the time i was given a pse polaris as gift...i still hadnt had a gun kill at that time so i was lacking a bit of confidence n figured the bow be that much harder to score a deer with...if anyone owned that particular bow ..it was like a dinosaur..lol..i could barely pull it back n had to shoot right away...neevr did make a kill with it n since had a few more..love my new bow..n this past season was first yeaar i never took gun out once..n last season only few time's..feels wierd even takin a gun now...i dont put the pressure on myself anymore to shoot a deer..and i live to bowhunt..n fish too...
