Friday, February 10, 2012
Bow hunting..... for me!
My hubby bow hunts. Elk, deer, bear. He loves it! I want to do it as well, for a host of reasons. I want to have an alternative to guns for a TEOTWAWKI situation. I also want to do something with him that he enjoys so much. He thinks that with the advances that have been made in the bow world we should easily be able to find a bow that I can handle even with my muscle issues. My sweet brother in law who I know loves me had an immediate response that I would never be able to pull it back. That tends to be his response to things. He thinks my writing is a joke and my dreams of doing anything gun related are completely stupid. He loves me like a little sister and he would do anything for me but he comes from a world where women sit down, shut up, and do nothing and having goals beyond that are not attainable to them. So I am looking for thoughts and ideas. I still am planning to get recurves for us all, I think they will be handy to work with. What thoughts do you all have on compound bows for women? Any amazing finds out there you want to share with me?
4 comments:
We love comments! We are happy to answer questions, join in debate and conversation, or just say hi. All we ask is for respect. Respect us and others. Keep it civil. Obviously we aren't afraid of cussing but we don't like anyone degraded or invalidated.
We also know we make mistakes. Feel free to call us out. You can't improve things that need it if you aren't aware of it.
If you have an opinion share it but know if it is going to cause hurt to someone we care about we will not approve it.
Most of all have fun!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'll have to pass, I don't know jack about bows...
ReplyDeleteIf you have any kind of muscle issues, traditional long and recurve bows are probably not the best solution. Compound is definitely the way to go. I am not up on current brands and models. The Matthews Solocam was hot a years ago for what it's worth.
ReplyDeleteI applaud your desire to get into archery, especially with your husband. Your brother is totally wrong, especially if you have the desire, then you have the ability.
ReplyDeleteAs to bows, a compound may be the way to go if you're petit, but that does not mean you can't handle a recurve or longbow. I don't know what your state laws are, but they probably have a minimum draw weight for hunting bows, so you have to consider this in your selection.
MN has a minimum of 40 pound draw, which is pretty low but efective for white tail and black bear. For larger game, it could be effective, but that is more hunter related skills than the bow.
A short length recurve will be harder to draw than a longer bow of the same draw weight. Your arrow length will also be determinate: you may not be able to draw a full 28" arrow, so the bow may have to be a heavier draw to get the same effective weight.
In that instance, I'd recommend a compound. You can get extremely complicated compounds, or a plain run of the mill compound with pulleys instead of cams- cams will be spendy. Jennings makes a bow a lot of people like, Martin is another maker a lot of people select. Bear is another, though not as popular these days as when Fred was alive and hunting.
Regardless your choice, find a dealer and take it to a range for trial. If your hubby is already a shooter, then you may have a built-in instructor and helper.
I could'a made this shorter just by saying to 'go for it- you'll never regret it'. And you'll have fun. Stay away from mechanical releases, though, until you learn to shoot well without one.
One form of exercise is very good for archers, oddly enough. Swimming. Doing the back stroke, crawl, and butterfly build the back and shoulder muscles required for shooting a bow. (Yes- the back is more required for proper technique than the arms.)
Good luck, God bless.
Shy III
While it takes a certain amount of strength shooting a bow (particularly a compound one) capable of taking deer sized game isn't like bench pressing 300 pounds or doing a one armed pullup. You might need to work at it a little but it is not like you are a one armed quadrapalegic or something.
ReplyDeleteFor practical use hunting a compound bow is almost always the way to go. Pulleys make it much easier to pull back a given draw weight and "let off" makes it so you can hold the bow back (like waiting a second for a shot) than recurve.
That being said compound bows are not well suited for a long term mad max scenario. They require special (not wood) arrows and a variety of things that are impossible to produce primatively. Eventually when arrows are lost/ broken and or parts of the bow break they are dunzo. So they have all the same limitations a gun does but well, they vastly inferior as they are a bow. Basically the worst of both worlds. For this sort of situation a recurve which can shoot wood arrows and could use a primative string would be the way to go.