Bow Hunting

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There are many differences between bow and rifle hunting. I know there are a few bowhunters here and I'd love to compare notes and experiences. My first kill with my first bow was an accomplishment and an experience all over again compared to my first deer with my shotgun. After hunting with a bow, I continued the practice even thru shotgun season. Not because of the challenge, but because of the closeness to it all especially the game. I also fell in love with the fact that I knew every inch of the woods and no one knew I was there. Even some of the wildlife.

Trying to get closer to the game in their own home means paying closer attention to sign and habit. It also means refined accuracy when it comes to adding everything to the equation. And movement becomes your art. Anybody hate squirrels? No I love them, just not while hunting!
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Keep Bow Tight ~Sitting Bull
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/90682-i ... ooks-ahead

Re: Bow Hunting

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goosekiller wrote:
Sonofagun wrote:Anybody hate squirrels?
Especially when they run over me - i have had several use me as part of the tree. They ain't bad eatin'.
:lol: now that's blending. I've had them come 12" from my head, look me in the eye, freeze for a minute and take off back up the tree. Awesome. I love the little bastards though. I call all of them Ralph.
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Keep Bow Tight ~Sitting Bull
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/90682-i ... ooks-ahead

Re: Bow Hunting

4
I hate those little bastards when stalking or still hunting. Barking and alerting everything for miles that you're there. I've com very close on several occasions to barking back with a .50 cal sabot or load of 00buckshot.

I have a Bow and practice with it in the backyard regularly but have never hunted with it.
'Sorry stupid people but there are some definite disadvantages to being stupid."

-John Cleese

Re: Bow Hunting

5
Mason wrote:I hate those little bastards when stalking or still hunting. Barking and alerting everything for miles that you're there.
Then there is that. Crows were even worse - especially when i was stalking squirrels. The West Nile Virus has absolutely decimated the crow and bluejay population around here. They are migratory, so i would assume other regions have seen a similar decline.
"Endeavor to persevere."

Re: Bow Hunting

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We have these little red pine squirrels up here in Mn that are just a little bigger than chipmunks, they have always been the most aggressive and noisy critter in the woods but the last 10 yrs or so they have become much more polite and a friend of mine figures that its because the pineMartin and Fishers have rebounded and if they hear one chatter they will become as relentless as a Wolverine in hunting them down.
"Hillary Clinton is the finest, bravest, kindest, the most wonderful person I've ever known in my whole life" Raymond Shaw

Re: Bow Hunting

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goosekiller wrote: Then there is that. Crows were even worse - especially when i was stalking squirrels. The West Nile Virus has absolutely decimated the crow and bluejay population around here. They are migratory, so i would assume other regions have seen a similar decline.
And you would be wrong. All the crows are in Rochester, MN apparently.

http://www.startribune.com/local/138902104.html
Rochester has some unwelcome guests, as many as 20,000 to 30,000 crows that come in from surrounding cornfields at dusk and wreak havoc -- raucous thugs looking for trouble.
We have tons of them in Minneapolis too. I saw a huge murder of them the other morning.

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Re: Bow Hunting

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Over the last ten or so years we have a lot of crows that don't migrate they stay all winter. The same with Eagles. This year has been a real shocker red tail hawks that never left thats a first for me and my co workers, none of us ever remember seeing them around in Feb.
"Hillary Clinton is the finest, bravest, kindest, the most wonderful person I've ever known in my whole life" Raymond Shaw

Re: Bow Hunting

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eelj wrote:Over the last ten or so years we have a lot of crows that don't migrate they stay all winter. The same with Eagles. This year has been a real shocker red tail hawks that never left thats a first for me and my co workers, none of us ever remember seeing them around in Feb.
We have always seen red tails all winter here. We used to see thousands of crows migrating through, but not since the virus. Eagles are now commonplace, which is way cool.

I have said for years that anyone who does not wanna believe that global climate change is taking place needs to talk to a goose hunter. My customers used to drive 300 miles south to shoot into the same flocks of Canadas that we enjoy now. Someday soon the migration may stop even shorter. Let my fat ass retire first...
"Endeavor to persevere."

Re: Bow Hunting

11
Living in Northern Mn and being a RR trainman I get too see a lot of critters both at night in the glow of the head lights and during the day. about 15 yrs ago things really started to change, we never had wild turkeys before and they never planted them up here but the ones they released further south have established themselves up here and now we have opposums which are not native too Mn at all. We have sub zero nights but not like we used too and rarely have -30 or colder. I can remember going for days in Jan. wondering if it will make it above -10 for a daytime high. No more. We have seen a steady increase in Swans and this last fall we had them hanging around in huge numbers well into Nov. Geese are more common than Mallards, when I was hunting ducks you never saw Geese. The Deer population has exploded and what was once a one buck a season area is now a one buck and 5 bonus doe season area. I'm not a climate scientist so I can't say why but the weather is changing and very rapidly.
"Hillary Clinton is the finest, bravest, kindest, the most wonderful person I've ever known in my whole life" Raymond Shaw

Re: Bow Hunting

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I remember ice skating on ponds and snowmobiling on the frozen bays on Shelter Island when I was young. We could do this the entire winter, I was a great hockey player back then. Now you'd be lucky to use your skates once or twice before you grow out of them. So much for the pros.

Global warming is to me just something happening during the nature of things. Throw humans into the equation and walachia, all the sex we've been having is taking its toll.
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Keep Bow Tight ~Sitting Bull
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/90682-i ... ooks-ahead

Re: Bow Hunting

13
Shot yesterday, put my first two arrows in the dirt in front of the target. Could not see that my pin moved at all. Put my bow square on it and somehow the knock slid up 3/8 of an inch. Probably a piss-poor crimping job on my part. Re-knocked and this is what I got with my remaining 9 arrows at 30 yards. My intention has been for a long time to do an overhaul, I have the tools and the know how, just lazy I guess. I'm anxious to know if there's room for improvement in my shooting and if I ever get around to it, I'd like to post the results and exactly what adjustments and part swaps were made.

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Here's a shot of the other night when I had an itch.

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Keep Bow Tight ~Sitting Bull
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/90682-i ... ooks-ahead

Bow Hunting

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I'm primarily a bowhunter but I'll bring out the gun after Thanksgiving. I have killed quite a few deer and pigs with the compound. Never tried hunting with trad gear, but it might be a next step for me.

Todd


Sent via Todd's IPhone using Tapatalk.

Re: Bow Hunting

15
I used to bow hunt for whitetails a lot during my high school days 15-plus years ago in northern Wisconsin. I always loved it. I never shot a deer with a bow, but I had chances. I still remember the time I took a grouse from about 30 yards from a tree stand. It was part luck, but even so, I was a pretty damn good shot. I nicked it in the head with a judo point and stunned it. I got down out of my tree stand and walked up to and put it out with my hands. No meat wasted or damaged. Excellent eating.

I loved being out when less hunters were in the woods, just watching and listening to the fall sounds. And it felt nice to not have to wear blaze orange. I felt like less of an intrusion upon the woods.

I used to bow fish for carp a lot, too. Shot many, many carp during their spring spawning, and I felt I was doing the lakes and rivers some good. They make great fish emulsion fertilizer for the garden. I never tried eating them, though. Wish I would have tried it. I imagine they'd be good smoked.

Re: Bow Hunting

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JamesH wrote:I used to bow hunt for whitetails a lot during my high school days 15-plus years ago in northern Wisconsin. I always loved it. I never shot a deer with a bow, but I had chances. I still remember the time I took a grouse from about 30 yards from a tree stand. It was part luck, but even so, I was a pretty damn good shot. I nicked it in the head with a judo point and stunned it. I got down out of my tree stand and walked up to and put it out with my hands. No meat wasted or damaged. Excellent eating.

I loved being out when less hunters were in the woods, just watching and listening to the fall sounds. And it felt nice to not have to wear blaze orange. I felt like less of an intrusion upon the woods.

I used to bow fish for carp a lot, too. Shot many, many carp during their spring spawning, and I felt I was doing the lakes and rivers some good. They make great fish emulsion fertilizer for the garden. I never tried eating them, though. Wish I would have tried it. I imagine they'd be good smoked.
Sweet, you should check out the new "Osprey" from Oneida. Well, not so new anymore.
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Keep Bow Tight ~Sitting Bull
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/90682-i ... ooks-ahead

Re: Bow Hunting

17
I always used a crappy old recurve for bowfishing. I think it was about a 40 lb. draw. I used to wade in backwater sloughs in muck up to my thighs wearing shorts and sneakers, so I never used my good deer hunting compound. I took some spills into the water too. Haha... Man...that was a lot of fun. We used to get maybe 20 carp in a couple of hours! I hit a big old bastard once with my recurve and the damn arrow didn't stick. When I pulled the arrow back in it had a single scale about 1.5 x 1.5 inches stuck to the tip. That fish must have been about 15 lbs.

Re: Bow Hunting

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Sweet, you should check out the new "Osprey" from Oneida. Well, not so new anymore.
Looks like a nice bow, but YIKES! $745 for a bowfishing bow? Whoa. I don't bow hunt anymore, but I have an older XI compound I got in the mid '90s that I'd probably relegate for that use.

I see you use Oniedas. I think one of my high school friends use to have one of those. How's the speed? My XI (I don't even think they're a company anymore) last I checked only clocked in at about 250-260 fps with carbon arrows. I stopped using those because they always broke too much and went back to aluminum Eastons with an overdraw. I don't even know if people use overdraws anymore.

I'm so out of the bowhunting game, but it'd be kind of fun to at least start shooting again.

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