Bow hunting?

[harm]

oops sorry hoggernaut.
sure do.started last year, been on 2 hunts so far,no shots.going again in June,i hope to make some kills.
nice set up,i thought that was an Airborne.
i currently shoot a Reflex Bighorn,70# with Easton Axis or Excels.i have [can't say used,as i have not used them yet] Rocket fixed blades and Grim Reaper Razor cut expandables.
i have a PSE Polaris [80 #] that i hoped to make my 1st kill with as it was my 1st bow,but a month back i discovered that the limbs are cracking.i was disappointed,as it was a gift from my father,on completing school [dec '91].
i'm hoping to replace that with an Omen.

[HoggerNaut]

Good luck. June will be a good month for hunting. The felt is still very wet so it makes bow hunting a bit more difficult. An Omen will be a good bet!

[Triplequest]

As an avid bow hunter myself, I have taught my son to bow hunt as well and he loves it. We still hunt with rifles from time to time, but we would rather bow hunt where possible. The main thing with bow hunting is the challenge. The adrenaline rush you get from rifle hunting lasts only a few minutes, whereas with bow hunting it can last a few hours, depending on how difficult the stalk is or how long the animals take to come into a blind. I was always against hunting from a blind, but is has it's place in bow hunting and can also be very exciting. Bow hunting is NOT FOR EVERYONE , understand and respect that. If you enjoy it, do it. If you don't, leave the guys who do to carry on without judging them. We have hunted Impala,Warthog,Nyala,Duiker, Kudu, Rhebuck, Fallow deer etc successfully walk and stalk and from blinds. I still think that this is the ultimate hunting challenge.

[G-force]

I hunt with a bow aswell.Not a compound though.I use a traditional longbow or recurve depeding on how I feel.Neither have sights.You shooot on feeling and practise.I fletch my own arrows with real feathers and glue on the points ect.I stopped hunting for many years till i started bow-hunting.Now my love for it has been rekindled and I will hunt with bow,centrefire and muzzleloader from now on.Nothing beats putting an arrow through a kudu with a 50lb longbow without sights and rangefinders and trigger releases ect.

[SimonS]

Hi my name is Simon. I am addicted to my bowhunting. :D

[Dimitri]

Let's be clear about something: Sitting on a stool in a hide while waiting for animals to come to the water / feed / salt that has been put out ... and then executing the animal .... is SHOOTING i.e. no hunting skill involved or required at all, only shooting skills. Most bowshooters opt for the blind - it's a lot easier. But then they say that they have hunted. They have done nothing of the sort. Same goes for shooting off the back of the bakkie - not hunting, just shooting.

HUNTING = walk & stalk, crawl, leopard crawl, track, move slowly, move quietly, sneak past non-target animals, sweat, climb, persevere, be comfortable with not always making a kill, using the wind, using the sun, using dead ground etc etc AND marksmanship. It's a whole different ball game to shooting. When you have walked & stalked successfully with a bow then you have really hunted. It's not easy getting within say 30m of an animal. With a rifle you have the advantage of being able to take shots while lying down and by simply squeezing the trigger. With a bow you will have to be on your knees or standing (more movement) and then you have to draw your bow (again, more movement). Last year during a 5-day hunt I was between 8m and 20m from impala rams on 5 different occassions but was unable to take home an impala. Either I could not draw for fear of the movement being seen (and then the animal moved out of range) or I was spotted drawing my bow and the animals dispersed. But did I hunt? Oh yes I did. And it was great.

I hunt with my rifles and my bow. Both give me satisfaction. I do not take 300m shots with my rifles as, generally speaking, this means that I have not really hunted. Or not hunted hard enough (for me personally). Last year I shot 2 springbok and 2 gemsbuck in the Green Kalahari and the furtherest shot taken with my rifle was from 150m. The closest was 60m. I was comfortable that I had hunted even though I had a weapon capable of taking out an animal at 300m. I also filled my pockets, boots, rangefinder, binoculars, ears, nose, eyes and underpants with red kalahari sand while leopard crawling after springbok with my bow. I was able to get within 24m of a herd but was not able to take a shot because of reasons described above. And simply, it is difficult to remain unobserved at 24m from 30 pairs of eyes and ears. That, however, is what bowHUNTING is all about. The serious challenge it presents and the reward the hunter feels when he finally gets it right.

Do not confuse it with shooting from a blind.

[SimonS]

I have to agree. Walk & stalk is the ultimate... Have shot my fair share of game w&s

[Rainbird]

I agree 100% with Dimitri!

I've been bowhunting for the last 21+ years and I've done my fair share of W&S, as well as shooting from a blind.
If I owned my own game farm, I would prefer or rather insist on bowhunters using blinds. The wounding rate is lower under a controlled environment and you don't end up finding a dead impala two weeks after someone said they saw no game and therefore took no shots.

My single biggest gripe with shooting from a blind is that you spend all your time staring at the same thing. You don't get to experience the whole hunting area. You can however tick off a good number of birds in your bird book while waiting for game to come in.

[quin]

Hi guys

This is a very interesting topic and I would like to share my experience this might not be an explanation but maybe if you can imagine what I experience then you can understand why we try and hunt with a bow

I have been hunting with rifles since I was 10 year old, I grew to have a passion for hunting and the animals that I hunted. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to have hunted with a wide range of calibres ranging from .22 to 375H&H to semi and full automatic rifles.
I recently inherited my grandfathers Musgrave .270, not only feel a sense of pride and honour to now be the owner of this magnificent rifle it was one of the rifles that my grandfather used to teach me how to hunt.
I have used rifles on many a hunt from bush veld to open plains from 50m up to 300m all with great success and I will never leave the rifle/s for a bow and arrow.

But with that said 4 years ago I purchased a bow got it ready for my first hunt and headed to the bush. I still have to be successful with a bow in hand but the does not matter the feeling of stalking a quarry from 80m out up until within bow range. The adrenaline rush makes it all worth it.
For my first couple of hunts I had the same experience with rifle in hand later on I only got that when I targeted a new specie or a nice big trophy. As I said in the beginning try and hunt with bow and arrow. As it is not a guaranteed hunt (when you walk and stalk). Where with a rifle if you are within 100m and the animal presents a shot you can take it, it makes hunting easier in a sense

I believe that both ways of hunting is more the adequate to do the task at hand at the end it all comes down to the one behind the trigger and the shot placement.
But like I said it’s how I experience it

Lover of propellant and string Cheers

[imman meffert]

Hi all. I experiance it like this...
When I hunt with a rifle I like to hunt with old rifles. Hunting this way is a experiance where I can get close to nature and have a romance with a rifle. After the hunt I think about the places the rifle has been and what its sight have been lined up upon in its lifetime. Its like becomming part of its history.

When I hunt with bow (only walk and stalk, though hides do have their purpose like teaching beginners etc.) I get intimate with nature. Not just close but intimate. You can not be a succesfull bow hunter by means of walk and stalk unless you know and respect nature and learn not to rush things. The first time I took my younger brother hunting I insisted he had to shoot his first buck with a bow. I believe he is a better hunter for it now.

I would love to be on the level that G-Force is on and hunt with a traditional bow without sights, I will get there one day.

Cheers all