bowstuff

Sixteen or so years ago I was bowhunting with a friend. He had anouther older man with us that day hunting with a longbow. I had never even seen a longbow or recurve bow except in the movies. I wondered if it was legal! I was in my second or third deer season hunting with my compound bow. I had killed maybe one deer with a bow at the time. With all the technology and hype that I had gathered from TV shows, I knew that the compound bow was the ONLY way to hunt deer. That 'Indian crap" was right out of the dark ages! Who in there right mind would use something like that when compound bows were so fast and easy to shoot? How could you possibly hit anything without the aid of sights or shoot without a release?

The man ( I do not remember his name )got out his bow and it did not even have a string on it! After stringing the bow he set a paper cup about 10 yards from him and started to shoot wooden arrows at it. This fellow missed the whole cup once. Man could I have given this old fellow some shooting lessons! Out of respect for an older person I just kept my thoughts to myself. He asked if I would like to shoot his bow, but I declined knowing that I might break that skinny little thing.

At the end of the day I had missed a deer clean at 25 yards, sending the other deer with it out of the area at the sound of my shot. The old fellow had killed a doe at a distance of 6 yards! But what really amazed me more than anything else is the fact that he missed the first time and killed her on the second shot! While we were making our good-byes the old man took out a marker and made a small dot on the inside of the bottom limb of his bow. After asking what it was for and him telling me he made a mark for a deer killed, I saw that there were 37 other dots on what I know now to be a selfbow!

Well I have never forgot the lesson in life that hunter gave me without knowing it. The thought of that second shot at 6 yards has come back to haunt me several times over the years until I finally had to try my hand at shooting a longbow. My only regret is that I did not have an open mind and accept his offer to shoot that bow. I have had fun and killed numerous deer with my compound bow ( none on the second shot) since then but it might have been different if I had just shot that bow.

This will be my first hunting season to hunt with my longbow. I started to learn to shoot a recurve and longbow last year but did not feel that I could shoot good enough or felt confident in my ability to use it in the deer woods. After months of practice on targets, stumps and carp while bowfishing during the spring, I am going into this hunting season with both the ability and a confidence level that I know will result in a great season. I look forward to hunting season ever year, but this year I am more excited than I have been in a long time. Wish me well and keep an open mind!

James Wrenn