Taking the next step.

[SwampRabbit]

I'm curious, what was the length of time it took you from picking up a trad bow, to hunting big game with a trad bow?

It's been 5 1/2 months since I got my sage. While I was confident enough to go hunting small game with my setup, I knew personally, that I would want to up the draw weight and get a heavier arrow setup before hunting hogs and deer. I actually thought I might purchase a new bow just for hunting...

But, I dragged my feet on getting there before the season started. Stuff like discovering fly fishing and camping with the family and an overuse injury meant I didn't shoot my recurve much late in the summer. I have recently been shooting more often (but less reps) and have made that crucial step in upping the draw weight (now 50#s) and purchasing a bow quiver. All that is left is to find a good hunting arrow setup and keep practicing.

[caughtandhobble]

I think it was Glenn P that said something like "when you can run back to back 40 yard dashes then hit your target you're getting close to being ready to hunt". In that scenario it will likely put your heart rate close to what it will be like in a hunting situation.

I was a slow study personally... I decided that I was going to try some trad 3D shoots, that was good medicine for me. I was lucky to meet a couple great shots that were more than willing to share their knowledge with me. It was all down hill after that, my first weekend of trad hunting I was lucky to get a hog and a turkey. The confidence was slow coming but it was worth the wait. Only you will know when you're ready.

You are welcome to come and shoot with me sometime. I have a few different bows that you can try out and see what you like. Good Luck!!!

[jerp]

I got my first trad kill almost exactly one year after buying my first recurve - a 40# Sage. I shot that bow almost daily for 6 months before buying a 50# longbow. Six months after that I shot a pig. This is my third full season of trad-only and for some reason my confidence has taken an exponential leap this year. I spent a lot more time at the club shooting 3d this year which I think has made a big difference.

[muzzlebrake]

I started hunting rabbit when I was 10 with a bois d arc bow my grandpa made me. Didn't hunt deer until I was home from Nam in 68 at age 21. Took me 7 years to get my first deer(Red Wing Hunter). Of course it was all trad equipment back then. Killed a lot of stumps, beer cans, rabbits, dillers and robin birds that we ate along the way. Sure has been a fun trip.
The biggest change I have seen is in technique and camo that allows us to get so much closer to the animals. Equipment is better but not the biggest factor in our success. Knowledge is always best.

[BowBuddy]

I had a pse coyote with sights and killed quite a few animals with it. Than I got a custom recurvrecurve akilled

[Limbwalker]

I got an Assenheimer recurve in the summer of '88 and hunted that fall with it. I shot it every single day, and got to where I could group okay at 15 and sometimes at 20.

Best way to get started hunting with a traditional bow is to go hunt with a traditional bow. You gotta start somewhere.

Rabbits and squirrels make great practice by the way. Get a few of those under your belt, and then deer will seem much easier.

[Draco]

For me it was four years. With no one to show me, it was a slow learning curve. Once the first one went down, it got much easier. Several years ago I taught a young man that worked for me how to shoot a long bow. He started shooting it on August 10th and killed his first deer, a buck, on October the fifth. He shot the bow every day after work with me helping him get his form down and I'm sure that helped a lot to shorten his learning curve.

[moreammo]

been about 5 years for me. I am ready but made my first attempt at flying dove... so far no successful harvest

I hope to bag my first hog and or turkey this year... just need the time to get out there and get close to one!

Jon

[RickBarbee]

My experience/story is likely quite different from most where this subject is concerned.

I actually started shooting bows in 1966 ( I was 9 years old), and shot them on & off my entire life.

No compounds. Just recurve & longbow. I could shoot them fairly well, but in 1984 was when a friend of mine taught me how to shoot them better.

That same year the same friend of mine got me back interested in it from a hunting point of view. I picked the bow back up for the first time in several years on Saturday first week of April 1984. Took that friend turkey hunting with his bow, and called a nice gobbler in for him. The rest of the day was spent stump shooting with his bow, and him giving me pointers on my shooting & the importance of tuning. The next day I killed my own gobbler with my own bow.

My Dad would not allow me to bowhunt when I was under his roof, so even after I left home I hunted primarily with rifle, shotgun, and pistol, because that's what I was used to doing.

From 1984 to now I have been a bowhunter pretty much exclusively, and with exception to a short period of time of one year a trad bowhunter exclusively.

Rick