How did you start out bowhunting?

[CaptKeith]

My uncle gave me a used bow and a quiver of used arrows on my 12th birthday. 53 years later I still love to hunt and shoot with a bow!

 

[Ray357]

In my opinion, an over draw bow when being used is much like dry firing.

Depends on the bow setup. I shot a 90 pound fire flite express for several years. It had a 8" overdraw. 32" draw length. 2216 was still plenty heavy. The Al arrows with overdraw still lot heavier than full length carbon.

 

[Son]

yes, a heavier arrow will help an overdraw

 

[Kris87]

I started way back in the day, before anyone else here did. I was maybe 6 or 7, can't remember. I had a 120# homemade osage orange longbow with some arrows I whittled out of cedar. I hit everything I shot at back then. I remember there was always a big debate about shooting with one eye open, both open, etc....so I shot with both closed to show it really didn't matter. Those were the days.

 

[Raylander]

I had a toy bow with the suction cup arrows. I thought I was an Indian..

Fast forward to 15 yo when I got my first compound. I’ve been hooked ever since. My addiction seems to worse every year ?

 

[GeorgiaGlockMan]

I started out with a bear recurve shooting fish in my grandpa's creek in Missouri.

I had a Garcia Mitchell 300 reel duck taped to the bow upside down on a bracket that was at least for that purpose and a heavy barbed fiberglass arrow.

I didn't get many but it was Heaven on earth when I did.

I kept talking about seeing "sharks" in the creek at about 10-11 years old...they thought i was crazy but did say "shoot one". A few days later was when I learned about sturgeon fish....oops.

 

[Mr Bya Lungshot]

I was tired of waiting on dad to pick up his bows again. Started with a early fiberglass parker small round wheel compound set to 50lbs max. Tuned it down so I could pull it. We had a recurve but I was a 1985 fan so compound bows interested me. Nobody wanted to shoot it so one summer I committed to killing a deer with it. Got good arrows a tm hunter type rest and finally a release. Then bought a bear whitetail to go hunt with. Two or three or eight years of missing game and I bought a good book and then a mathews. I still play with recurve rarely but don’t play around when I’m huntin. I dont wanna shoot a spike with a recurve or a booner with the latest and greatest bows. I do but really I just wanna shoot a deer and eat it with friends and family.

 

[jbogg]

I started hunting in my mid twenties. I was working as a sales rep covering all of central GA. I didn’t know anything about hunting, and did not know a single hunter either. I just knew it was something I always wanted to do. One day while working my way home I stopped at a pawnshop and the guy talked me into buying an old PSE compound for 60 bucks. It had a 28 inch drawl length and I am 6’5”. I also purchased one of those ball bearing releases and had the wrist strap extended as much as possible to make up for the short draw length. I hunted with that Thing for two or three years before somebody asked me why I did not have a bow sight on it. Another lightbulb moment. My first deer was a massive button head shot straight down at about 2 yards.

After a couple of years my next bow purchase was another used bow from a bow shop in Thompson Georgia. It was a High country Safari, and now I felt like I was cooking with gas. It was still not the correct size for my draw length but the guy at the bow shop worked some magic with longer string or cables so it would work. In doing so the minimum poundage was now 80 pounds and could not be adjusted lower.

Nearing 60 now and some old shoulder issues have caused me to move to a crossbow over the past few years. I have a couple of hunting buddies who are Trad fanatics and have inspired me to see if I can strengthen the shoulders to at least be able to hold a light recurve. About to dip my toe in the trad waters hopefully.

 

[Havana Dude]

About 45 years ago, middle school. Started with a bear white tail compound. Never killed a thing but time with it. Second and last long bow was a Pearson I think is the name, with an overdraw. 23” arrow was near impossible to see in flight. Next and current bow is a Xbow. Ive only killed a handful of deer with a bow.

 

[BOWFINWHITT]

I started with an old PSE with a flipper rest in 1987

 

[TomC]

When I was kid back in the 80's dad bought me Hoyt Pro Hunter strung to about
45 lbs, some orange XX75's, WASP broadheads and a fold up seat Summit. That SLOW combo did a lot of damage to those tiny deer out in Wilkes county. Back in those days the big deer out there were still little but there was a bunch of them. Been hooked since!

 

[hancock husler]

The men in my family shot bows for fun and not so much for hunting, let me shoot with them around the age of 8 years old. Talked my parents into getting me a bow that winter so me and dad loaded up and headed to sportstown on memorial drive and purchased a pse whitetail hunter. Dad didn’t have a bow yet and was probably waiting to see if I stuck with it, 4 months later he had one of his own. We had a ton of woods behind the house and near my grandparents house. During archery season we would go over to my grandparents house and I would hunt while dad and grandpa would talk about old men things and I would hit the woods. Built me a 8 foot ladder stand out of scraps grandpa had and put near a creek in the horse pasture. Had a bunch of does come in one afternoon feeding under a huge oak tree and I let one fly and connected. Walked up to the garden where they were talking and said hey y’all gonna help me get this deer or what. They hopped the gate and said where is it at? I’m not sure who was more happy me or them, so I took them to the spot and we started tracking and 70-100 yards we found her. My dad hugged me and grandpa said “boy your granny ain’t gonna believe this”. We got her back to the house and my grandma called my mom ,aunt , and uncle. I was the first to kill a deer with archery equipment. From that moment on me and dad were bowhunters and still to this day hunt together we can. Them Easton aluminum arrows and thunderhead broad heads were deadly.

 

[thumper523]

I started when I was 16, guys at body shop I worked at after school got me into it.
I got a ProLine Typhoon Mag and started using it. Got my first deer at 18 on Oconee WMA. Killed a lot on West Point WMA when it was a great place back in late 80's,early 90's. Between back and shoulders, I've had to switch to a Crossbow.

 

[huntfishwork]

I went backwards. I started with an expensive Parker crossbow. My first season hunting with it a bachelor group came in so close I could’ve jumped on them. The biggest 8 pointer I’ve seen in North Ga was in that bachelor group. I hadn’t shot the crossbow often because it was like a gun out to 30 yards. When you cocked it you could pull it to a point and it would catch the string but if you didn’t pull a little further it wouldn’t engage the trigger. Needless to say that’s exactly what I did that morning. I watched those bucks walk right by me and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. Traded that high dollar crossbow for a used Mathews Switchback and killed a doe with it that same year. Wish I would’ve kept that switchback. I shot that bow more consistently than any other.

 

[bfriendly]

I got a Xbow so I will have more time and chances to kill a deer.....that was maybe 5 years ago. Last year my limbs started to split, I kind of freaked out and started shooting my sons PSE Infinity. I’ve never been good with a bow, am a lefty with shoulder issues I bought my own bow once I learned to NOT hit the inside of my arm, but my shoulder situation requires me to shoot right handed. I had two golden opportunities to kill bucks and have had epic fail both times. ive worn out a homemade target, a purchased one and well on my way of destroying the next one.......
I have the PSE set up for me and hope to get another chance this year.......I’ll be 54 next week and I’m just getting started

 

[rutnbuk]

I started "carrying" a bow to the woods around 1990- but not sure you could call it 'bowhunting'- smile. I was so proud I could hit an empty milk jug at 15 yards with an ole hoyt bow my uncle gave me. I remember draw weight too high, overdraw, mismatched arrows, mismatched broadheads, a peep that always twisted the wrong way, and a stand that was a full 10 feet off the ground...yep I was just carrying a bow to the woods- lol. I wouldnt trade it for nothing though- learned a ton through bumbling mistakes and lessons like drawing back WAY TOO EARLY. I lucked up on buttonhead one morning sneaking through the woods like I knew what I was doing. It was my first one with a bow and all these years later I remember it like it was yesterday. When the lady at the deer cooler said "that's a littlin" it didnt even phase me- I was the next Fred Bear in my mind- lol. It took a few more seasons and a bunch of misses to finally connect again. Somewhere along the way it came together and I became a bowhunter. Started at 20, and I am now 51 and I still learn every year how to be better! That to me is what makes it such an exciting sport. Finally, the the excitement level of drawing back on big OR small OR medium deer has not decreased one bit in 30 years- for that I am most thankful! To quote a dear departed bowhunting friend of mine "just got to see it happen one more time"! Describing the flight of an arrow hitting its mark on a whitetail deer!!

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

I caught ‘ bow fever “ when I was around 8 or 9 I reckon. Dad bought a old green looking Jennings bow, didn’t even have a string, at a yard sale for around a dollar. That would have been around 1976 or so. Back then the only stores we had were Heck’s and another called Harts. You could buy strings in little plastic tubes and wooden arrows. The only target I had was about 35 yards away. I would pick out a certain board on the out house and see if I could hit it. That came to a halt one day when I was shooting and daddy was in the outhouse. I think that bow was around #45 @ 28. I wasn’t drawing it near that far tho. There wasn’t a ground hog, ground squirrel or tom cat safe for miles. When I got out of the service, a boy I worked with at the the glass factory got me back into bowhunting because we finally stated having some deer in our neck of the woods. I went and bought a Bear whitetail 2. No deer stand....no ideal on how to deer hunt....but we went anyway. First hunt I forgot my release. I stepped off the hill onto an ol haul road, bow in my left hand, right hand in my pocket. I looked to the right and there stood a buck right in the middle of the haul road looking right at me . It was raining a little and I don’t believe he could make me out good. I got caught with my britches down more or less. He started walking toward me and I got to thinking. When he steps in that little dip in the road, he might drop his head and give me a chance to get squared up and fling one at him. Sure nuff he did. I flung a 2117 and a 145 grain wasp right between his horns. Poof, he was gone, I didn’t even scratch him. But it was enough to start a life long addiction that I hope never goes away.

 

[Evergreen]

I bought a cross bow at 21, never killed anything with it and was pretty awkward in a climber, sold it and went a few years without anything archery, then my then girlfriend (now my wife) wanted to get engaged, so she ended up with a ring and I ended up with a bear attack, this will be my 11th season with it, I will probably never get rid of it for sentimental value, and it still groups tight, it's been restrung a few times and just never found anything else I'm totally in love with to sideline it.

 

[bfriendly]

I don’t hate anything except carrying a Xbow........the bow is actually a joy over ANY other weapon to carry into the woods.

 

[tell sackett]

I "got started" bow hunting by buying my first bow (xbow) this year. I'm hooked and I'm looking forward to my first season hunting with it this year.