The long;
For many achery, regardless of type of bow used, is a non animal target type endeavor only. Some places you can peruse you don't get much for interest on a thread with dead animal pics. But start one about how many strands in a string or what type of tab or glove and you'll get fifty replies. Some you may even be accused of posing with a bow after you killed it with a gun.
I often wonder about posting hunting successes because in a way it seems like boasting. Don't get me wrong, it is pretty cool to be able to take the game like I do. Heck even having the opportunities to hunt I do is humbling to me. However for me it is exciting when a friend sends me pics of his latest kill, pics of animals he's taken in Africa to get me pumped up before my trip, pics of animals he has on camera he'll be hunting this season. Seeing your threads of success is a bright spot in my day.
Archers helping archers is a great thing. Bouncing ideas and experiences around helps all of us improve our abilities. Target archery is definitely in my repertoire of daily preparation and practice. Heck the work I put in for TBoT tournaments definitely made a difference for me in my preparation for my hunt at Sofala Safaris last month. Targets and foam animals paid off in real animals. And I'm darn proud of guys like BillyJack who's improvement in scores this season are phenomenal.
The short;
That said I'm in this for the hunt. I am a bowhunter. To me success is measured in short blood trails, meat in the freezer and good stories to share with bowhunting friends.​

Bowhunt is a form of hunting unlike anything else.

We like to share because we seek fellowship with other hunters

To be succesful in bow hunting consistently you will become a better hunter than most gun hunters.

Bow hunting also allows for much more time hunting by hunting bow and gun seasons.

Also I have enjoyed archery since I was a kid with a littke bow with suction cup tilled arrows.

Same!

This year marks my 28th year in the deer woods. When I was a boy, archery was ,at best , a sort of novelty, no one took it very seriously. At worst it was looked upon as ineffective or even cruel by rifle and shotgun hunters. More than one landowner express-idly forbid us from bowhunting on their land. Bill Jordan had just started producing monster bucks videos which brought bowhunting more mainstream instead of just a niche endeavor.

I’m glad that times and attitudes have changed since then.

I hope everyone keeps, or starts, posting their success stories. I know what you mean that it can look like youre boasting and that keeps me from posting any more than I do about my hunting. I just like to see big deer so keep em coming(bow or rifle.)

TX I have leased from one landowner like that, didn't really like it but it was a great place 1000 acre near Adamsville, TX that if you just wanted to fill out your 4 tags you could do that in one weekend and some on the lease did just that. I quit counting at 200 deer one afternoon in the oats fields, they were still piling in at the point a buck I liked the looks of showed up.

I was still in High School in Mississippi when I started bow hunting, got my first deer with a bow a spike at 10 yards with a 45lb recurve, wooden arrow with a bear broadhead in October of 78. Deer were not as plentiful around my area back then as they are today, but were bigger generally speaking with a 1.5 year old buck weighing about 140lbs on the hoof. Now one from the same place will weigh about 100lbs. Less farming and more pine timber plus many more deer and the sizes have dropped a lot.

When I was 13 my step dad rented some warehouse space from a couple of guys who were into bowhunting. Neither one of them were super experienced hunters but they had gotten the archery bug and we sorta joined in with them. This is when Mathews had just introduced the SQ 2 solocam so the year would have been around 1997-98’. I ordered a bow from Pat’s archery up in Oklahoma; a Martin Jaguar that maxed out at 40 lbs. it was all I could do to draw that thing at the range but that was the legal minimum at that time. I doubt I could have pulled off drawing it on a deer. Shot Easton 1816 arrows with NAP thunderhead 100’s. No one paid any attention to FOC, kinetic energy, slug momentum or anything like that. Only animal I killed with it was a squirrel. Bow hunted during archery season for a few years and had some close calls, but never connected on a deer or pig. Ended up pawning the bow when I was 16 to pay for gas money to fund some adventure we had planned on a whim.

Didn’t get back into the game until 2008 or so when a buddy who had some family land wanted to get into it so I bought another bow and that was the start of the second chapter

I grew up buying bows at yard sales snd tearing them up. I got a 65 pound PSE compound for Christmas in ‘95, at age 15. It had steel cables and plastic cams. At that point I had no place to hunt and no one to hunt with, but i was completely obsessed with hunting and fishing. Lake Ray Hubbard was right out my back door so I bowfished.

Mom took me to a bow shop and they got me all squared away. Peep, sight, arrows, quiver, also a bowfishing spool style reel and fiberglass arrow. Had a two pronged arrow rest. By the time it warmed up enough to wade the shallows I had gotten bored with using the sights.

The very first arrow i released at a fish, my line was wrapped around my pinky finger. That 80 pound dacron braid popped so fast i didn’t hardly feel it and honestly it didn’t hurt at all, but losing the arrow burned lol.

I never got another bowfishing arrow. I just ran around popping gar with easton aluminums i got from Walmart. I shot them with field points, broadheads, and even shot them with aluminum arrows i chopped off diagonally at the tip. Shot them with arrows that were not even perfectly straight, missing fletches, etc. No one believes me about shooting gar like that but I did it all the time, i didn’t know it “didn’t work” so it worked pretty darn good. I just aimed for the gill flaps, they just swim around in circles until they run out of energy or die. Used weedeater cord for strings on recurves too, when i was a little boy. Some up to 35 pound draw. And made arrows for them out of broken fishing poles from the trash! Nobody believes that either lol.

Age 19 i bought a .308 and planned a deer hunt when I was 20, but was offered a bonus to go to boot camp before Christmas and I went for it. Pawned my rifle and bow. Didn’t start deer hunting until I was 36 or 37 years old.

Wife got me a cheap compound off Amazon two Christmases ago and now I am 3 bows in and completely obsessed with it. Almost like a midlife crisis. Strictly hunting with my bow, haven’t killed anything yet Bow season starts in 5 weeks!

A lot of great bow hunters got into hunting later in life.

I never started bowhunting as a way to have a more challenging hunt or to prove anything, it was due to the opportunities that existed with archery equipment that didn’t exist with a gun. I found that people were more apt to let you hunt with a bow than a gun ( complete 180 degree turn from when I was a kid ) and out of state you have much better opportunities with a bow in terms of draw odds and seasons. Even now, it’s much easier to get a bow into another country than a gun, typically seasons start earlier/animals are unpressured vs. firearm.

I love guns and enjoy shooting an animal with a gun but I now find a bow a much more natural and oftentimes more suitable weapon for hunting.

The first couple of animals are the hardest to get under your belt, after that each one gets a little easier, but you will never stop learning and never stop being amazed after each animal you kill.

Bowhunting has completely changed my life, and made me a better hunter, too. I have seen all sorts of things that i didn’t even know we had. Almost stepped on a ring tailed cat creeping through the woods. They are not even supposed to live here in Missouri but i’m pretty sure i still have a video of him watching me after he scrambled up a sapling. Watched the otters play 10-15 feet in front of me. Been pretty closely inspected by hawks and owls, too. Coyote almost ran me over sitting still in the sumacks. And more than one raccoon climbed down the same tree i leaned up against in the evening.

It really does cleanse the soul.

Close encounters with them deers, not many lol. But i have spotted a good sized non typical buck a couple of times. I still don’t know how many points he has, but i know him when i see him.

He haunts my dreams

Keep in mind all of this in less than two years time. I have probably seen more of nature in the wild in the last 1.5 deer seasons than most people will see in their lives. Especially non-hunters, and i am only off one day per week.

But probably not to this group lol

My story is a little different considering I am just getting into my first season of hunting as a whole, but decided to start with bow hunting. I have always been interested in the outdoors, as well as history. Combining the two hobbies made me want to try hunting, specifically bow hunting. I have only been hunting twice to this point, both times with a rifle but I plan on going out this weekend with my bow, hunting for hogs. I love the challenging aspect of it, and actually being out in nature instead of just sitting in a deer stand for hours. The raw nature of bow hunting is an entire different experience that I am ready for.

I really appreciate you guys posting these stories about bow hunting, it makes me even more excited to be able to share my own in the future. Being that I am new to this game, any advice would be welcome, my PM's are open. There is so much to learn, so I am open minded to any words of wisdom.

Read what you can get your hands on, I like Chuck Adams, Fred Bear, G. Fred Ashbel, Fred Eichler....old school bowhunters. Do not fall into the new school like Ranch Fairy, etc. Watch some shows online, Hunting Public is a good one. Use video and print media to learn as much as you can which will help you when you get into the woods.

Like anything else, this is a trial and error game. There are few shortcuts. You will fail more times than you will succeed, especially at first. Little things will screw up a slam dunk opportunity, and then an extremely low percentage scenario will present itself as a lay up right in front of you .

become proficient with your equipment, shoot at varying ranges but keep your on-game distances short. I personally prefer 17-21 yards with a compound bow if I can get it. shoot as often as you comfortably can. Try and find a hunting mentor who can show you the ropes and pass down what knowledge they have accumulated

Yeah be careful with Ranch Fairy. While he does offer some good information, he is little more than an internet bully trying to make a buck off what Dr. Ashby professed. And if you comment on his videos anything marginally contradictory to his methods, he might make a video *just for you* to humiliate you publicly. That gives me bad vibes. I would just avoid him.

It is a matter of time before THP cuts ties to Ranch Fairy.

I have been listening to alot of John Dudley’s content lately. (Nock On). It is eye opening to say the least.

There's nothing I don't like about bowhunting, but this sentiment pretty much sums up why I love it.