How did it begin for you?
General Topic
So.. I was thinking about how and why I began bowhunting? I think question arose in my mind because most guys you run into are rifle hunters. So curious, how did it begin for you??
For me... I grew up in a hunting family.. my dad was a rifle hunter primarily and my brother was older so I would tag along on the elk and deer hunts before I was old enough to hunt. I remember I got my first real bow when I was about 8 or so, it was a compound, Bear Sunbear I think was the model.. Only good for killing dirt hills and the occasional rabbit or gopher. We lived on 4 acres in eastern Colorado and I could spend all day toting that thing around... My dad was relocated to Arizona a few years later and I was old enough to big game hunt, it was discovered that to get drawn for a rifle deer tag was going to take time but we also discovered that an archery buck tag was OTC and so it began. My dad really wanted me to be apart of the experience of hunting so, we went down to the local archery shop and got set up with a couple of used bows.. We set up some bales in the empty lot next to the house and shot just about every night. We didn't know much about archery hunting we were 'winging it' for sure, but my dad did his best to get some knowledge and teach me what he could. We would spend weekends in the mountains outside of Flagstaff chasing mule deer.. we were never looking for anything big, just anything legal to shoot.. I remember one of my first experiences, we hung a tree stand that I would sit in and my dad would go sit by a water hole about 150 yards away... Well, it didn't take me long to figure out that sitting in a tree stand sucked.. I got down within an hour or two and started slowing walking through the timber. I came across a game trail and slowly worked my way down it and all of a sudden I heard a noise in front of me.. I didn't know much, but I knew I better step of the game trial, as there might be something walking down it toward me.. So, I stepped the trail about two feet and stood next to a stump. Sure enough, a big doe and a fawn showed up and walked up the trail toward me so close I could have touched them as they walked by... My heart was pounding out of my chest, I had never been that close to a live big game animal.. It was at that moment I was hooked!!!! that same trip, I almost shot a little spike buck moving through the forest in the same manner and one morning we saw to bucks sparring about 80 yards away on the walk in to our stands.. It took me a few years before I was able to harvest my first animal with a bow, but it didn't matter. I was in the woods with dad and getting up close and personal to critters and it was cooler than any rifle hunt I had ever been on. And 30 years later, I still prefer to go out with a bow rather than a rifle.. Just something about it..
As a kid, Saturday afternoon sitting in the movie theater watching Fred Bear on the big screen.
I started hunting birds with my dad at 13; had started shooting archery a few years earlier at scout camp and loved it, so my younger brother and I spent most of our pre-teen and early teen years shooting whatever bows we could get our hands on, and when we ran out of arrows, we had wrist rockets.
Got the big game itch from reading OL & F&S magazines my dad brought home from his office when they got out of date.
But what sealed the deal for me was reading Hunting With The Bow And Arrow by Dr. Pope.
I think it was watching Fred Bear on American Sportsman.
Santa brought me a bow and arrow set when I was 11. Bowhunting evolved from there.
My Dad never killed a deer with a bow, but he would take my Brother and I out during bow Season, to "pursue" them. All three of us missed quite a few of them, in my younger years.
When I was 15, I broke the mold, and killed my first archery buck. The hook was set!
Dad built longbows and recurves as a hobby.....was shooting longbows when I was four......never used anything other than bows from then on out. Over 50 years of pulling strings now and wouldn’t change a thing.
Uncle Charlie
Uncle Charlie
Excuse the gun... My uncle billy.... He just had a stroke and he’s unable to hunt now.
Excuse the gun... My uncle billy.... He just had a stroke and he’s unable to hunt now.
In the Pope and Young museum... Roy Cases buck and long bow and a photo of another one of uncle Charlie’s bears below
In the Pope and Young museum... Roy Cases buck and long bow and a photo of another one of uncle Charlie’s bears below
My Great Uncle Charlie was a “well known “ bowhunter back in the 50’s -60’s. In fact guys like Roger Rothhaar, Fred Asbell and Gene and Barry all mentioned to me how they looked up to him growing up.
While he was too old to hunt when I started I remember his stories very well and they lit a fire in me. Most of my uncles hunt and we would all pile into one of their vans 7/8 of us and go hunting. What I wouldn’t give to have just one more of those trips up to north jersey with them. As I well up writing this.. Enjoy every minute afield!!
My Dad made me long bows out of green hedge limbs with weedeater string. He bought me a Bear compound in 2nd grade which shattered in the sunlight sitting in my Dad's 78' Chevy. Luckily the sporting goods store gave me a new one. I started rifle deer hunting in my early teens. My dad had never hunted deer before but he gladly took me. The 2nd year I hunted, I'd ride the school bus with my 50# Browning compound to a friend's ranch and hunt til dark. I did my own scouting, and designed a portable ladder stand out of an old aluminum ladder. I'll never forget my first sit with a bow, I had a doe and a couple yearlings come right by my stand ... on the wrong side. Very exciting. The following year I shot a doe with my bow and was hooked from then on.
My son got me into bowhunting.
Awesome pic Shug of "uncle Charlie". Getting it done without gadgets or camouflage
Got to love it!!!
It all started in the back of a 1985 Pinto.
Dad built longbows and recurves as a hobby.....was shooting longbows when I was four......never used anything other than bows from then on out. Over 50 years of pulling strings now and wouldn’t change a thing.
I started bowhunting in '83 to kill the month of October before trapping season opened.
1975 or so growing up in NorCal on border of CA & OR...Two of my dads friends got him involved in Archery, that's all it took...I was hooked also!
Wasn't until I got back stateside in 1986 that I went fulltime Archery and never really looked back...
I was the youngest of 5 with 3 older brothers and a dad that all hunted. From the time I was old enough to talk the only thing I wanted to do was hunt. I was infatuated with guns, bows, and anything weapon related. I remember getting a little fiberglass bear from one of my dad's friends and then graduated to a small hand me down compound. I remember getting frustrated during backyard shooting when the big boys would move back to 20 and 30 yds because my bow couldn't shoot that far!
By the time I was legally old enough to bow hunt (12) I had a fire that was out of control, and hunted every chance I got. Probably spent more time hunting in my first year than most average adult hunters do. Killed my first deer the next year out of a homemade ground/box blind that my dad built and we had spent the night in. Overall, I think the biggest key for me was that I had much older brothers that hunted and I spent my formative years desperately wanting to be part of "the club" and when I became old enough things were intensified because then I wanted to prove myself to them. All that caused me to want it more than most kids, and when I was finally successful it was after paying some dues and putting some time in. All these years later I think the fire might never get under control. I love this way of life!
I’ve had a life-long love affair with elk. Killed a few cows with a rifle, but never a bull. I finally decided my best chance to kill a bull was with a bow. I was right. ;-)
I was in a woodlot around 12 with 32lb kinda recurve. 32lbs was very important to me as legal for deer in Maryland. By the house was about a 500 acre woodlot. I had new arrows and my dad let me mount 2 blade zuickys. Well a chipmonk was at the base of a tree and I let her rip. Been hunting with a recurve ever since.
I gun hunted when I was in high school. Graduated HS in 1980. Joined the military, spent most of my time overseas, did not hunt. When I moved to Colorado in 2004. Around 2007 I realized that I had great opportunity to hunt again, but I wanted to do it with a bow. I bought a bow, and that's how it began.
I started young, going with my dad. I remember this day like it was yesterday. The night before we sat in a jackpine tree and he shot this doe. He let me blood trail it. 1968 - I was 4.
Dad has been gone a long time, but I still have the bow.
Gun hunted most of the time with my dad in my teens. I went into the military in the early 1980's. I had a military friend from OK who bowhunted and told me to buy a bow. I purchased one and was hooked.
I'm a Wisconsin country boy, raised by a great dad who loved to hunt and fish. Started hunting squirrels, rabbits, pheasants, and grouse with him at a young age. Gravitated to the bow a couple years later, and still at it since.
That start was in the mid 1960's...dad's been gone for many years, but I still feel his presence.
Bow hunting meant I could hunt deer in Michigan a month and a half before rifle hunters could. Started right at legal age but fell off for a few years in late high school/college due to football. It’s been all I think about since moving to colorado in 2013.
Had no hunters in my family but we had a fishing camp in Pennsylvania that was the heart of dear hunting in the 70s and 80s. I watched rabbit and deer hunters for years. A good family friend that owned a local sporting goods store took me gun hunting at 12. I bought a recurve at 14 and never looked back. That was 36 years ago. Time flies!!
I was 12 years old, alone in my room and it began!!! JK. Kinda…
Seriously, I had a few recurves and long bows as a kid, but truthfully, at about 17 or 18 years old for me, and it has been my obsession ever since. An older friend that was an Olympic archery got me into it and I have always loved archery, bowhunting!
So….I didn’t come from a hunting family. My dad fished, but wasn’t a hunter. He did take me out for doves and small game but it really wasn’t his thing. When I was old enough I was out every chance, small game, waterfowl, ran a trap line.
Summer of ’79 my one hunting bud stated “We’re going bowhunting this year!” I thought cool, what the hell is bowhunting. Well a trip to Kinseys, the local archery shop, and I was outfitted with a Bear Kodiak Hunter #45 draw, with a quiver full of gamegetter arrows and Bear broadheads. We picked up several hay bales and started to shoot. All summer long, back and shoulders grew stronger as the groups got smaller. I’ll never forget the sight of the red and yellow fletching spinning in a rainbow arc towards a paper deer target.
We decided to hunt a public hunting area near a local power reservoir. I remember the anticipation as dawn slowly came. The eastern horizon slowly turning lighter and lighter, then yellow orange and finally the sun peeking over the ridge. I remember seeing a ton of deer. I remember working my way thru the woods to where it dropped off to the river. I remember stretching out on a large rock, looking at the autumn colored hills overlooking the Susquehanna . I remember drifting off, sun warm on my face. I remember knowing I was hooked. For life.
That was 40 years ago. And nothing has changed. I still love to shoot. I still am as excited as a little kid at Christmas the night before bow season opens. I still love my naps, with the sun warm on my face. My heart still races when a deer walks in range, doesn’t matter if it’s buck or doe. Each day in the woods is special, whether it’s early season, warm and buggy, or a day in mid November where it’s so gray and overcast that you know at dawn this is as light as it’s going to get.
Yeah….I’m a bowhunter. It’s my life. The rest is just details…..
Nobody in my family hunted or went to band camp.
Well this one time In band camp.......
For me, I turned twelve (the legal hunting age in Pennsylvania) in 1991. Prior to that, I absorbed just about every hunting magazine and hunting story I could. Out of all, it was Chuck Adams’ stories of chasing and completing the Super Slam that enthralled me the most, and despite having no other bowhunters in the family that was when it began for me.
I grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey to a non-hunting family. But since I was a little boy watching Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett on TV I wanted to hunt. I started trapping when I was twelve with some school friends, and that was when my dad in his wisdom connected me with one of his best friends who became my hunting/fishing/outdoor "father". He hunted EVERYTHING with gun and bow and taught me the same.
I began at 32 as a rifle hunter. When that got too easy, and was like a war zone, I bought a bow 12 years later and haven't looked back.
Didn’t take much growing up where I did, in the family I did. Thank my lucky stars every day.
I envy you guys that grew up in hunting families. I feel I lost so much time.
My dad hunted with my grandpa - mostly birds, small game, and shotgun deer. But he married my mom who's always been an antihunter so he gave it up. She was ok with fishing (never understood that) and so scuba diving for lobster, abalone, and spear fishing was our hunting.
Through my 20s, my passion was long-distance wilderness backpacking. I took up archery for stress relief and fun because work was killing me and I needed something. On the first hike I took after my first shots with a bow, I came across a doe/fawn mulie. I found myself crouching down, stalking, and the hair on the back of my neck standing up.
I knew right then and there that I was a hunter and had always been. I just hadn't realized it.
It's driven a passion since that has changed my life and made me such a happier person. And I've been able to couple it with my passion for back country wilderness backpacking. I feel like I "found myself" just by picking up a bow one time.
My stepdad was a gun hunter and used to let me tag along. He died before I got into it so I forgot about hunting until I was around 20. I had two coworkers who were into bowhunting and I’d always have to listen to them talk about it. One day, the coworker gave me his old bow. I went out the next morning and had a ten foot encounter with a stomping, snorting doe from the ground. I’ve been hooked ever since. I still use that same old bow to this day.
my first deer in 1962
my first deer in 1962
this season's elk
this season's elk
(not me in picture) We use to spear carp in the marshes of Lake Erie, I was 12 years old. (1952) We kids made homemade spears, or just a pitchfork, or mom's butcher knife taped to the end of a broom handle. Prior to that we made bow and arrow out of anything that worked. Cowboys and Indian comic book and moves were the rage.(b4 the broadhead) I like the Indian side of all of that. Tired of loosing her knifes, parents bought me a recurve bow, fiber glass arrow with carp tip, and an attached alumn reel with line. That was my start 67 year ago and still at it. Picture of this seasons elk.
I grew up on a farm in north Ga. Growing up deer were few and far between . My Dad killed this buck I was 4. I was blown away. The fire was strong and has taken me place I never thought I would go.
Dad comes out next week for a deer hunt. Special times now as always. Great post Guys!! Hunt
i grew up in an hunting family and rifle hunted . Than i meet Gentleman Jim Pickering in 1973 in college at Rangely Colorado. Worked in his bow making company called Ramco made my first recurve and later compound bow, I still have them. That was the beginning for me. Jim would use his own voice calling elk. Pretty cool. He was amazing shooter too which i learned from him and Pete Carroll.
Grew up in rural southern Indiana where dad taught me squirrel and rabbit hunting with firearms. Deer populations increased enough in my teen years that I found some local places to hunt and killed a few with a gun. Then during college years I tried deer hunting with a recurve bow that I'd bought at a yard sale. Without an experienced archery mentor it was a slow learning process. Missed a few with the recurve before finally returning to mostly gun hunting. A few years later I met a bow-hunting fanatic at work, who coaxed me back into archery hunting again. It wasn't long before I had the hang of it and started killing a few deer and turkeys with the bow. Next the work friend & I made a trip to Colorado for OTC archery elk & deer. This trip was the key event that opened my eyes to the magic of western hunting. Within a few years I became bow exclusive in big game hunting and remain so today. The appeal of archery hunting seems to create a relentless thirst for more that I doubt will ever be quenched.
My dad put me in a big trappers basket and carried me on his back since I was a year old. By the time I was 4 I was shooting bows and killing everything a BB gun could kill. My brothers were all older but took me hunting all the time. I got mt first shotgun at 7. My Dad took me to a local gun shop and said if you can cock it you can have it. Single shot Ithaca and I had to hold it between my knees while sitting on the floor but I got that hammer back. After a couple weeks I could cock it pretty easy but could not uncock it without it going off. We did a lot of bunny hunting and lots of times by the time I got it cocked the rabbit would be gone. My brothers would get so pissed having to walk over and uncock it that after a while they would yell, just shoot the F'ing thing in the air!! My brother Lance started bowhunting in 1974 and I was 10. He got me into bowhunting and I killed my first deer at 12 with a Rad Wing Hunter recurve standing in the crotch of a huge willow tree. A very nice 8pt. It took me 17 years to kill one bigger. My Dad made us all good hunters and if it was not for his love of the outdoors none of my brothers or I would be the men we are today!! I miss him more than anything but I know he would be proud of my hunting and fishing accomplishments. Shawn
I am the first hunter in my family going 4 generations back. Everyone before me was either a farmer or a merchant / sailor. I started bow hunting at 45 searching for more challenge. Eight years later I moved from compound to traditional bow and the next year from tree stand to ground stalking. Two years ago I shot my first deer with a traditional bow from a tree stand and this year the first deer with a traditional bow from the ground. I am going to plateau at this challenge level for few years before moving to spear or knife stalking in just a loin cloth; just kidding. Or maybe not!?
I was a rifle hunter for deer, starting after college, in a Texas. Killed 3-4 deer a year with rifles. Job took me to Mississippi. Joined a hunting club. They hunted with dogs, buck shot and rifles. Lots of deer wounded. I absolutely hated that style of hunting. So I took up bowhunting. Loved it and have been almost entirely a Bowhunter for big game, for last 43 years
A fellow I knew was a part time bowhunter, and along in that time period Texas got its own archery season plus deer got to be fairly plentiful here in East Texas. Up until that time October was squirrel season for me, but listening to him I got the urge. Bought myself a Bear Whitetail II and proceeded to arrow two deer the first season. It was all downhill from there.........(until the second and third where I went hungry) ;-)
I was raised in a family of gun hunters and at 14 I decided I wanted to get out before the orange army. I grabbed my dads old Bear bow that squeaked when drawing, with a draw length to long. My parents would drop my somewhere why they set out scouting for rifle. I also had a place close to town I could ride my bike to. Never killed anything with that bow and hunting from the ground but it got me started. My dad got me a new Darton for Christmas 2 years later.
My dad was not much of a hunter but I had the bug as a small boy. Fascinated with bow and arrows since childhood. I started with fiberglass bows but traded a belt buckle for a maple recurve at age 12. My buddies and I rode bikes to shoot fish and small game until age 16, when I bought a '57 Willys with money I'd saved up from delivering papers and seining minnows. After that, all hell broke loose and I never looked back. Bowhunting ig game became my passion and still is today, 50 years later.
As a kid chasing rabbits w/ a 15# fiberglass bow w/ my big brother back in the early 60s, had more fun flinging arrows than using the slingshot, the only thing is not to look down the other end of a culvert when brother is shooting, could be a dangerous situ.
When I was 10 my dad wanted to know if I wanted to go bowhunting with him. Said if we went every Saturday that I would see “a” deer. We did and I seen 1 small buck. I will never forget that. Keep bow hunting but it was more for scouting for the shotgun season. In 84 that changed due to not getting any vacation off. So I grabbed my browning cobra compound and went out every chance I got. Missed 8 deer that year (no wounding) and had a ball. Next year got a new bow and shot constantly. Killed a 6 pt. Been bow hunting seriously since
Lots of memories conjured up here ty....As a kid I hunted rabbits and squirrels in the green strip in the circle... yes that’s Manhattan and the freedom tower in the background. The big building in the circle is my high school.
Dad got me interested in hunting at a young age, primarily rabbits and squirrels. I was in the 5th grade when my aunt married a bowhunter. He didn't have a place to shoot, so he came to our place and used the dam of the pond as a backstop. It was my uncle Randy that introduced me to archery and bowhunting. Killed my very first deer with a bow as a teenager. By my late 20's, came to realize bowhunting deer meant so much more to me than hunting with a firearm....so I hung up the ML and slug gun for good. Spent the next decade+ bowhunting whitetails across the Midwest. At age 40, made my first trip west to Colorado for elk and you might say I got hooked on Western bowhunting. :^)
Dad shot a recurve often, I wanted to be with Dad, it was only natural.
Shot my first gun (12 gauge) at 8, hunting license at 12. Got a kmart plastic long bow at 13. First hoyt at 14, second hoyt at 16. Bowhunted thru high school then got away from it after. I bought a powermax this past march after watching cam hanes and dudley videos on youtube. I love it, dont know why I ever stopped shooting bows. I'll be upgrading to a better hoyt next year.
peer pressure, the guys I liked to hang with bowhunted, so I bow hunted. oz
At a young age (teenager) I was told I would never be able to kill a deer with a bow and an arrow by a condescending adult. That lit the fire. Proved that person wrong yet again last Friday night.
There's some great stories on this thread.
