Anyone here hunt with longbows or recurves?

It´s been a while. I was into both recurve and compounds. Mostly target shooting though. I´ve been wanting to start up again. I miss it quite a bit...

I hunt with a recurve. For some reason, I could never hit anything with my old compound, but I'm a pretty good shot with my recurve. Plus, it adds a certain sense of self respect to hunt without all the fancy contraptions they sell for compound bows nowadays.

The Janitor

i think it`s called traditional archery. i have been shooting recurves and long bows since i have been a kid. killed many of deer with them. also love to hunt treerats with my blackwidow recurve.

I shoot a PSE Recurve. Mostly targets but I do take it hunting occasionally. All the crazy compounds with fiber optic sights just don't feel like a real bow to me.

Due to a shoulder injury I cannot hold a recurve or longbow in full draw long enough to hunt with anymore. In my younger uninjured days I had a recurve that I would shoot groundhogs with that would get into our garden.Now I have to get reaquanted with bows and aquanted with the "new" compound bow I have to get back in the hunting scene.

No, I've never been an archery hunter. Just black and smokeless powder rifles and pistols. I do however miss seeing the old black and white Fred Bear TV shows. I'll never forget my excitement at seeing him hit flying pheasants...and my dad's remark that we didn't have enough money for arrows to allow me to take it up.

Jim...wishing some channel would start reruns.

i have nothing against compounds. as long as you do it legal i have no problem with what weapon anyone uses. i love the recurve but have used compounds, i shot recurves in archery tournaments when no one else used one. they thought i was nuts. but now they have made a come back. takes a lot of practice to get good with one. i have taken many deer with black powder. bought my first black widow new for 420.00 and now they go for 800 and up. use what you like to hunt with just do it legal. it`s amazing how many hunters don`t no who fred bear is. good vids on you tube of him.

Yeah Byron Ferguson lived right down the road from the archery store where I practiced with my Bear recurve as a kid. Not sure if he still lives in Alabama. He was always a really nice down to earth guy.

The term "classical" archery was coined by a fellow named Dean Torges who has a video out teaching how to make your own bamboo backed longbows out of osage. I've got 2 of these bows, and they are so lightweight and whisper quiet to shoot. They are a little more challenging to set up since they are not built centershot, but they shoot great when tuned properly. Plus they are as lightweight to carry as a broom handle. I also enjoy making cedar arrows. It's really therapeutic spending a couple weeks building a dozen in my spare time.

The weather has been really great here lately and I've been enjoying going down to the local archery range and smoking a few bowls of briar in between sessions.

Here's a link to Dean Torges site if anyone is interested in making their own bamboo backed bow.

http://www.bowyersedge.com/index.html

Trying to get back to the recurve following major shoulder surgery. I am not there yet but the strength is returning. The archery season in Michigan usually has nicer weather than the firearms season. I hope to be able to use a bow by this fall. If not there is always a shotgun and the dog(s).

Stinger

Anybody shooting their recurves now? I've got a 1974 AMF Redwing Hunter that I'm having fun with.

It´s been so long now, doubt I could draw a recurve for very long anymore. I had a nice PSE when i lived up in the states and enjoyed that quite a bit.

I haven't shot in many years. Nice Black Widow pic.