Contributors to this thread:
Archery and bowhunting present many challenges within the wide range of competency of each.
What is your next challenge?
To learn how to make your own arrows? Rattle in a buck? Hunt a swamp successfully? Perfect your shooting form? Buy your bowhunting Shangri-La? Mentor a new bowhunter? Set up a target at your cabin, in your base,emt? Get your first deer? Put up with the neighbors next to where you hunt? Build your own bow? Become a trad shooter? Shoot a 300 - 60x?
You get the point, you know what I mean.....what's your next bowhunting challenge?
A goal I've had for a long time (but somehow have never gotten around to pursuing it) is to learn to knap arrowheads from stone. I just think that would be so rewarding, to learn how to and then create a functional arrowhead from a natural piece of the environment. And then maybe actually hunt with it! Talk about a sense of accomplishment! Wow!
Become a trad shooter.
Making arrowheads to hunt would be the ultimate ! I imagine it would take serious skill to do it right. But life isPretty busy now so that will have to be another day
Go trad and shoot my biggest buck to date on public land.
Building bows, retiring, opening up my taxidermy shop.
Getting my grand daughter shooting a bow and being successful with it. Hopefully that process will start this summer.
Same as the last 2 years, a book buck with my stickbow. Unless I change my tactics the results will be the same, i.e., don't even see a mature buck.,
My challenge is to regain any drive to do the bowhunting thing again. I lost any interest in the sport last year when a TIA took most of the vision in my left eye (left-handed shooter). Could not figure out how to shoot well left or right handed. Some genius on this site referred to "old dogs-no new tricks" . Real smooth. I had a bow in my hand in Newfoundland to Montana to New Mexico to Wyoming. Hope the enthusiasm returns....
Well I built Bows, Arrows, strings, Tomahawks, knives, & yes those flint & Absidian arrowheads.
I was lucky 1 of my pipefitters out west was a Native Paiute . We spent 1 entire day making arrowheads .Yes I'll help someone out on a seperate thread .
I spent 15 years trying to arrow a top 10 Whitetail . A few of you know I had one at 52 yards & didn't take the shot. That dream is gone now .
We talk about the importance of replacing ourselves with another hunter . My Challenge is to replace me with 10 .6 down & 4 to go . At age 73 the clock is ticking . this is my only hunting priority at this point . The pic is daughter #3 . 3 of her kids are now bowhunters .
Mine is definitely shoot a deer, ANY deer, with trad equipment. I have a recurve and long bow, and have been practicing for 2 years now. I just picked up a Saxon American Recurve made by the late Randy Denhel. Sweet shooting bow. Can’t wait to shoot all year and hit the woods!
All I want to be able to do is consistently get within 10 yards of mature whitetail bucks and the weapon I will be carrying will have nothing to do with it
Keep the challenge going, hunt on the ground and have had much success with it.
Hoping to shoot my 1st mature buck from a ground stand this year. I have hunted tree stands exclusively until last year. I don't sit very still so I will be using several ground blinds set in key rut/funnel locations for my hunting Oct 26-Nov 15. For me this will be hard as I find ground blinds boring compared to tree perches. Only switching due to back surgery complications/knee stability issues.
Sounds like a lot of hunters interested in the trad bow thing....I got the bug myself last year and have picked up a few different bows. I hope to hunt with one the fall for deer.
For those wanting to go Trad. Watch out, it is addicting, but a great addiction. Learn to shoot first so you have good form and release. Then learn the correct way to tune your bow and arrow to bow. Then just enjoy. It's hard to stop shooting.
As a 59 year shooter of stick bows & recurves it warms my heart thqt theres still a following .
I coyld tell there was a resurgance . 10 years ago sales were tough on used . This fall & winter I got top dollar for 10 bows & 300 arrows . Good news .
I have 2 grandkids shooting recurves . 1 of them is eyeballing my Blackwidow .
It gave me a new perspective and resurgence of shooting bows. I started with one years ago, but knew nothing compared to what I know now and my shooting ability has increased dramatically because of what I have learned.
Self guided Colorado Moose, I should be drawing a tag this year, or 2020 at the latest. We actually see as many Moose in my area as Elk.
My goal every year is to kill a buck 4.5 yrs old or better. Also a yearly goal is to help my dad and my girlfriend kill mature bucks. Long term goal is to kill a boone and crockett typical and/or a 200 inch non typical. This year was the first year I had one of each of those on the same farm and they both made it. So hopefully it is actually a short term goal.
Same challenge as always...find someplace QUIET that nobody else has found...and hopefully a deer or two if I'm fortunate enough.
Trapper, I have always wanted to do at least one Moose hunt in my life. We had one all booked and ready to go up in Northern Ontario. It was a bowhunting only place, fly in, cabin, and one guide. We had 4 tags for 4 people, 2 bulls, 2 cows and a calf. It all fell through when we could not take meat through the border because of Mad Cow Disease. We all decided if we were to take an animal and not get any of the meat, we weren't doing it. We did get our down payment back, but lost the experience of it.
Challenge is staying healthy to allow for another bowhunting season....
Probably the enthusiasm part won't happen. We are going back down south on the first of October through February, so I'll probably spend a good deal of time liquidating my hunting gear. Anyone ever have to deal with this sort of thing????
There's not things to hunt down south?
There is always something to hunt down south, just have to get after it, been there.
Looking forward to a good healthy hunt, the last two seasons been very limited with being cripple up.
The places I've seen down south only make me think of? nothing. The only excitement for me would be to wait to die or sit and do, nothing. I didn't care for sea fishing, bass fishing you can have, don't like the hot weather, and there seems to be a lot more undesirables down there. But for those who like it, enjoy.
Lame , Consign your "Stuff " to a well know auction house .
People show up at auctions figuring they have to buy something.
A few weeks ago I watched 200 outdoor items go thru an auction & Never bought an item . Most went for over retail.
There are exceptions . I have buyers that pay big for WW2 items , Small gauge shotguns , lndian artifacts.
Having owned a Florida vacation home for 21 years, and even though I greatly dislike the snow, wind, cold and ice, I can say that selling that home was one of the best days of my life. I've fished back waters, offshore and deep water in FL. I've killed hogs, deer, turkey and gators in FL. Yes, I may visit for a short vacation (leaving tomorrow), I will never consider spending more than a few weeks there and only in the dead of winter. That said, to each his own. It is simply not for me.
We are only down there October through February. Guess I didn't explain very well....I've lost interest. I LOVE fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Have caught fish that make northerns feel like a number 11 boot. Thanks Ruger
Lame, we should all do what makes us happy. Years ago, I was a national champ trapshooter. One day I decided it was more work than fun and I quit. Have never regretted it. At this point in my life, I still bow hunt and fish because I enjoy it.
"...more work than fun..." A very understandable position and one of the reasons why I am not as active in archery as I once was. When a person realizes the negatives outweigh the positives of any action they make changes. At 74 I am making some of those changes and predict there will come the day when you do too. The goal is to be comfortable making those changes.