Did you commit to hunting with a traditional bow prior to the season or did you wait until you felt confident via your accuracy before you hunted with a trad bow? I am on recurve hunting commitment borderline right now for the upcoming deer season. I feel as though if I commited to only hunting with my recurve, that my focus would improve that much more in my attempts to become more accurate with my recurve. It would also help me acquire the proper hunting mindset when using a trad bow. My current accuracy would allow me to confidently take shots out to a grand old 8 yards right now. I am a realistic person. I have good days where I shoot pretty good groups out to 15 yards, but on other days I am averaging sloppy 8 inch diameter circles at that distance. I am slowly getting my left to right misses to tighten up. But back to the original question....when did you know it was time to commit to hunting with a recurve or longbow? I am not a weekend warrior type when it comes to these types of things. It is all or nothing when I commit to an athletic type of activity. Thanks for any advice guys. Brett
All or nothing for me also. I sold my compound in '94 and everything that went with it and bought a longbow. Practiced all summer and had alot of fun(and alot of misses) and it took a couple of years to finally tag one. It's been a fantastic journey since day one
I took my compound out to sight it in, the day before turkey season - 2009. It just didn't feel right. I never hunted with it (or shot it), again. I sold it, shortly thereafter. When it's the only bow you shoot, you learn commitment (IMO) faster. You're "all in". Good luck to you, Brett.
Jeff, over the past 4-5 weeks, the recurve is the only bow I have shot. I have not even picked up the compound. I come home on my lunch breaks and shoot the recurve when I let the dogs out, I shoot it in my garage at 5-6 yards at night sometimes just working on form, and I run into the backyard and shoot it for 20-30 minutes here and there many times a day when I am free. I am in awe of how hard it is to become proficient and I love the simple beauty/killing power of the bow. I am obsessed about getting better at shooting the recurve. I estimate I have shot on average, 60-70 arrows a day over the past 30 days, and have only missed 1-2 days of shooting over that timespan....yet I still struggle. THAT is why it is so much fun! Here is something I am struggling with to be honest with you. Over the years I have worked so hard to learn more about the older bucks where I hunt. I am finally starting to reap the rewards by seeing and getting closer to more older bucks. I feel as though I am caught in a mental dilemma. The recurve just feels right to me, everything about it. I feel like I am really bowhunting the way bowhunting is supposed to take place in my mind. But my thoughts of going "all in" with a recurve are tempered by thoughts that all of my hard work scouting for those older bucks is going to be mitigated by my weapon of choice, namely my recurve. My effective range will drop from around 25 yards with my compound to around 15-17 with the recurve by hunting season ( I believe I can become very consistent out to those distances come season). I don't mean to ramble on and on but those are some of the honest thoughts that are running through my head. I don't mean to sound like an ego driven hunter because that is not the case. I went for many years hunting my butt off in sub-average areas to now finding myself finally getting better at tracking down older bucks......and I am a little scared that losing 8-10 yards on my shots might cost me. Just speaking the truth.
A man told me....when I was in your spot.... "Jeff....when the 'how' becomes more important to you than the 'how big' or 'how many', you'll make the switch. We'll be waiting". I'll never forget it.
Thank you for your honesty Jeff. I love the "how". I also love the thought of tracking down hard to find bucks. It isn't all about the "how big" to me, it is all about the hard work and skill....the by-product is the older bucks. That being said, I am very close to making the switch. I have this little quarter size mark on one of my targets and when I hit that mark or even come extremely close to that mark with my recurve, it is an awesome feeling..........I ponder.
Both sort of. Here's how It all went down for me Brett. It was either 1995 or 1996 (can't remember for sure) but during the archery deer season here I was getting fed up with compounds. Nothing bad happened to me hunting but I was getting sick of compounds and the technology going Into them and wanted nothing to do with that style of hunting, It had been building up for a while. There was 2 weeks left In the deer season that year and I told my dad I'm done with these things and asked him If I could use his back up recurve for the remaining 2 weeks of deer hunting. He had no problem In the least and said go right ahead. I've been shooting recurves prior to this for 15+ years so getting proficient with his Big Horn Takedown recurve wasn't going to take as long as It would for someone getting Into It for the 1st time. That night I threw the deck light on and shot for 2 hours and was ready to go for the morning hunt. I haven't hunted with a compound since. When my head told me so. To me the biggest struggle with many other upcoming traditional shooters Is that they don't 100% commit to hunting with one. To me your not going to get to that point until you 100% commit yourself.
All I know at this point is, that it's not anytime soon. Kudos to those that do. If it keeps your interest in the sport when the compound doesn't, that's cool. Right now, I just don't see that happening for me anytime soon. Maybe it's just because I suck at the hunting end of things.
OH BOY.....well this is a good a time as any to make a commitment to hunting with a recurve this season.
Brett, One thing I haven't heard anyone tell you is if you commit to recurve for the upcoming season, you had better start shooting out of a treestand if that's what you're going to use. It does make a BIG difference. If you want to commit to recurve only congrats I just don't know why you have to. I'd put a deer in the freezer first and get the jitters shaken off then go with the recurve.
Rob, thank you for the advice. Luckily, my house makes it easy for me to practice shooting from elevation. I have a deck outside my upstairs bedroom which gives me a good platform to shoot from ......it is about 15 feet high. I hear you on the jitters thing. I still have my compound and in certain instances I might use it, not sure. I am commited to using the recurve for the upcoming season. I want to get into a good mindframe well in advance of the season, so I can be at ease mentally.
Just yesterday I aquired a StickBow from a pawn shop for just $32.99, seem's one of our local Bowers made this one in my area some time ago. It has a rough finish, and will be redone gently but it compliments my recurve as well. Have I hunted with a recurve, never. But do I want to, absolutely. I have sold all my hunting rifles, and am dedicated to 100% bowhunting. With practice, I will get as good as I once was when I first started out with the bow some 41 years ago. I really lost touch with the traditional side of the bow, after getting my first compound bow. Here are my two traditional bows. Afraid I can't tell you much about who made them, because there is no names on either of them. Both are 45 lb bows, and are a pleasure to shoot. I just wish I was as accurate with them as I am a modern compound, but the path that I am now taking will lead me into becoming an even better bowhunter.
Josh, I hear you. My hunting set-ups and strategy will not change. The only thing that will change will be my effective range from a treestand. I don't know how many deer I have killed with a bow, I really do not. My guess is around 18-20. Only 3 or 4 of those deer I killed past 20 yards anyways. I like getting close. Nothing is going to change in the way I plan to set-up for bucks.
This is a good question. A few years back I "jumped" back into the trad game. Since then I've been up & down, sometimes taking it out, but most times not. I figure when the time comes to go over completely (if ever) I'll just know. I eventually think it will come, but I'm not putting a time table on it.
I didn't "plan" to hunt with a recurve this year. I started shooting the bow just for some fun about 6-8 weeks ago and something just felt right. I began hunting with rifles then moved to shotguns, muzzeloaders, compounds, and now the recurve. It seems like this is the natural progression for me.
