I knew I was going to hunt ever since I was too young to even do so. My family has a long history of it, and it's a pretty deep rooted tradition in my family. However, no one bowhunts. After my first two seasons of only gun hunting, I actually was watching one of my buddies shooting his bow with his dad at our cabin. I thought it looked like fun, so I asked my dad if I could start. We went to our local Bass Pro (not chain store size, it was a privately run franchise), and purchased a Golden Eagle Talon. I didn't like shooting with a caliper release, so I shot the first two years with fingers (that was 1998). I had PLENTY of opps at various bucks (more than I do even today), but seeing as I was going in at this alone, I made A LOT of dumb mistakes. I've gotten more and more passionate as I get older, and I feel like I've made good strides in the way I hunt, but I'm still waiting on seeing some more results.
my buddy had a bow and bowhunted a little and came along with him for a hunt, and i loved it. He let me shoot his bow a couple times and i loved it. so went and got a parker spitfire, a release some arrows and heads, a target ,and case and never looked back, its probably going to take over rifle season. I cant see myself in a box stand 150 yards away from action ever again!
This may seem comerical but its true. I was watching a hunting video from one of the major camo companies. I saw that they were bowhunting and they had committed that how challenging this was, that you had to get close to the deer before you can kill it. i wanted to give this a try. I'll probably get cruxified for this, i used a friends bow that was old, i practiced a little and took to a tree, i seen several deer and a couple of bucks. nothing close enough to shoot except a button buck. i didn't want to shot him. That Spring i bought a Jennings bow and i practiced the rest of the year and shot a doe on OCT 30th. What a rush i was hooked, and i never looked back. i love everything about this, its just me VS the deer ('s). I love the kill :D
My dad got me into archery when i was 13. First bow was a High Country Split force. 13yrs later its still my favorite thing to do.
My dad got me a bow when I was 11. I think the main reason was he felt I was safer bow hunting than running around with the slug hunters. He had done some bow hunting in the past but never really got to the point of having much success. He gave me the basics but I pretty much had to learn how to be successful through a ton of trial and error. It took me six years to finally kill my 1st deer with a bow, a 118" 9 pt that still has a place on the wall. It's been 19 yrs now since I first headed to the woods with a bow and I'm as hooked as I ever was.
had an old ber whitetail hunter back in the day, gave it up for along time cuz I had no partners to learn from until my oldest boy started showing interest and I picked it back up again... now i'm learning a lot and having fun with the kids again..
i started as a teenager in the 80's to try and out do my dad. got out of it in the 90's. couldn't stay away and back at it again.
Truly unique, the road we each traveled to arrive at this destination 8) . Thanks for sharing something special. I know everyone on this board is enjoying each of our special journeys into the world of bowhunting...Keep 'em comin', fellas
I was very lucky and fortunate growing up. Both of my parents bow hunted long before I was of legal age to go bow hunting myself. My brother and I were shooting little longbows and recurves at the age of 3 years old. It was In us, we couldn't shoot them little bows enough. I remember sitting with dad at 5 years old In the deer stand when he shot a young doe, I thought that was the neatest thing ever!! My parents and their friends lived and breathed bow hunting 24/7 In the fall of the year. I couldn't of grown up In a better environment as far as I'm concerned. On June 23rd I turned 12 years old and dad said It's time to go shopping and get you a hunting bow for the up coming deer season that fall being 12 years old Is the legal age to start hunting. I was excited as hell and couldn't wait to get a recurve to hunt with but dad said oh no, no recurve for you yet son. Your starting out 1st with a compound and after you get a few down with that you can make the switch to a recurve then If you want. I was kind of bummed out being I wanted to be like dad and hunt with a recurve. That was the best thing dad could've ever done with me. His point In going compound 1st was get your confidence up and get a few under your belt 1st and then If you want to try out a recurve down the road It's up to you. Everyone on here knows I'm 100% traditional but If my daughter wants to get Into this bowhunting stuff too when she gets older she'll be carrying around a compound as well and will have the opportunity to hunt with a traditional bow If she wants to when she gets plenty of experience down the road. I hunted with a compound for 10 years and then switched up to the recurve I'm still hunting with yet today going on 14 years. I'll keep hunting with a traditional bow until I have problems with pulling It back and I'll then buy a compound when that time comes. 24 years this year.
I grew up in the country. My grandfather was my neighbor and he owned around 40 acres. I roamed the woods at a young age with a shotgun (shotguns only where I live) After not having much success I started to give the whole BowHunting idea a shot. I ended up killing a doe the first night I ever went out, I was hooked ever since! No one in my family really did hunt, my father never hunted, neither did any of my uncles,cousins,ect. It was just something I wanted to do. Must be that Indian in me:D I've also always had a very strategic mind, and I find bowhunting to be very strategic. I like to see a plan come together when you follow precise steps, and use a strategic plan. Bowhunting is a passion of mine now!
My dad and uncle always bowhunted when I was a kid. I really don't remember asking for or even wanting a bow, but I got one for my 12th bday lol. I started hunting that year and haven't stopped since. I will admit, I didn't take it serious at all until I was about 21. It took me 10 half-hearted seasons to finally kill my first deer with a bow! Once I got the first one, it was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I've killed at least one with the bow every year since then, and as many as 6. My 2 sons are hunting with me this year, they are so much better prepared than I was....its not even funny. Oh how times and equipment have changed!
started gun hunting in 06. i didnt shoot anything that year. the next year i got a yearling, and a 7 pointer. that night, we all got drunk at camp, and my buddy,(which, by the way is old enough to be my father, hes 47 and im 23) was ranting for about an hour about how gun hunting is rediculous compared to bowhunting. his specific drunken words were this..." your a real deer hunter if you can kill one with a stick and a string..a god damn stick and a string!". it was funny at the moment but that kind of stuck in my head and i bought my first bow 3 months later and i love it. best thing ive ever gotten into. but, to my wife, its the worst thing. haha. because now my season just went from 10 days to 4 months!
I have been shooting some sort of bow since I was about 5 yrs old. Just part of my growing up I guess
I didn't grow up with a dad that hunted. But as an adult a good friend invited me on a hunt and that hooked me on hunting. On the way home we stopped by a proshop where I shot my first bow and I knew that was what I wanted to use.
When I was a sophomore in high school (1989) I had a couple of friends from school that I gun hunted with and I knew they bowhunted too, but I didn't have a bow. One of them worked in a local hunting and fishing store and gave me a call to let me know they just got a used bow set up that was left handed. My parents took me down and I bought that Bear Whitetail Hunter set up with brass pins and a rubber flipper rest for $40. The rest is history. I still have that bow hanging in my basement.
My Dad's influence on me with his hunting of elk started it all. Whitetails with a bow100% self motivated.
I got into it when I was 14 and now am 34 when a buddy of mine convinced me to give it a try and the first few times I just sat with him and thought it was pretty cool, so then he hooked me up with my first bow from a buddy of his it was a Ben Pearson with an awesome elcheapo spring rest with the flipper tho:D. The next summer I shot and shot and shot and boy did I go thru arrows since my target was a old matress with a piece of 1/2in plywood for a back stop LOL Oh ya not to mention we could hold a 12" pattern at 20yds too:D...Back then tho I never heard of a release, so we shot finger tabs and our sights were second to none let me tell ya! What the hell was a peep back then either? My first bow had those awesome brass pins with a tiny ball on the end of them and they were painted white, dark blue, and of course red LOL! What the hell were we thinking? To cheap to buy a target, but hell we had plenty of money for new aluminum arrows weekly:D That fall he let me hunt with him in a very good area in the riverbottoms...but do you think I had a clue about scent control? HELL NO! Shoot I just put on his stinky treebark coveralls..yes I said treebark(which to me was a great pattern) that he pulled out of his trunk and went hunting...back then I knew no different so I just did what he told me to do! After all he was my mentor and I respected him! A couple years later he got married and didnt go no more for a while, so I took the bull by the horns and taught myself and am still learning constantly. So ya thats my story!
