Longbow Hunting
Longbow hunting can be very effective if you spend your time practising but the more archers you talk to the more you’ll realize that hunting with a longbow is more about the process than the kill.
Dont get me wrong, every time I go out longbow hunting I want an elk, deer or moose but if what I was really after was the kill, I’d be hunting with a further reaching tool. Like a nuclear warhead or a high powered scope and a tripod.
Some say longbow hunting takes a lot of patience but the word patience implies that you would prefer things to speed up some and that’s just not the case. Well, that’s not entirely true, I get impatient in tree stands but to each their own. That’s why I like to glass and stalk. I’m looking, I’m quiet, I’m calling and my bow has an arrow nocked. It’s totally a package deal though. I like everything about it except the cold and that has nothing to do with if you are using a longbow or not.
Our last hunt out, I decided that the tree stand sucks butt so I wanted to try a ground blind. Boring. I went stalking. Really I was eating an apple and walking in the woods. At any rate, as soon as I got tired of sitting (I started off longbow hunting in a ground blind) and stood up to look around, there was a deer in the field. Of course, right in the spot I could not see from the blind. Too far away to get a look at the sex. I could have got out the binoculars but decided to hunt my way around it for a closer look.
Eventually I got there and off to my right I see the quick movement. I look right and there are two dark eyes and a nose, frozen, looking at me. We started at each other. Now for this years longbow hunting season I have tags for antlerless mule deer but not white tail. I’m not the quickest at this so I waited to see her butt. I didn’t want to take down something I didn’t have a ticket for obviously and that was when I saw the second batch of legs…
Now I have two does standing next to each other touching noses and rubbing necks. I lowered my bow. If you’re like me, you know why. Let’s just say I’m happy they were white tails.
Longbow hunting is indescribable. You want meat for the freezer but you want to “earn” it. You are happy when you accomplish the goal but sad that something had to die. This is the nature of life and death. I think longbow hunting is just like life.
I guess to some people longbow hunting seems like a waste of time but these are the same people that spend their lives looking for outcomes and not enjoying processes and moments. Small victories and personal accomplishments and self reliance are huge on the list for most longbow hunters.
I know when I run into another stick hunter that we are going to have some good conversation. They probably won’t be in too much of a hurry 
Since I have been longbow hunting, I have run into some awesome people. People that are willing to help and share what they know. It’s just an amazing community.
The best thing about longbow hunting is that I am back in the woods. Listening to squirrels kick up a ruckus. Watching them run around and break branches making me think a bull elk is on the way. I get to scare the crap out of birds that don’t know I’m there and I get to lay down in pine needle beds to munch on a sandwich. I look out and see the rocky mountains and feel like my soul is growing outwards. I love this sport.
2 Responses to “Longbow Hunting”
sam on August 22, 2010
I really like your longbow hunting article. I am 68 and this is the second year I have hunted with a longbow. I have no plans on taking my compound to the woods nor do I intend to take a gun. I will be hunting from a ground blind and stalking as you said in your article. I can sit only so long and there is so much to see and experiance in the woods. I have informed my hunting buddies of my decision to only hunt with the longbow and they think I’m nuts. I don’t care so much about a kill as I have taken many deer with a gun and compound bow. I’m looking for the fun of being in the woods and doing a very slow stalk. If I get a shot so be it if not that is fine to. Have a nice day and keep the good writing on longbows coming
Sam
Richard on January 22, 2011
yep,,
i like using small caps and stickbows.. the game wardens love me. we are one of the last of the mochians. i get a big laugh on the outdoor channel when some dude looking like a squirrel in a tree nails a 12 point or non-typical buck with a x-1 dual cam ulta-non-sound crossbow held in a vertical position and he or she calls themselves a archer. they have taken 2 days before the season to PRACTICE their center shots at a snuff box 20 yards away , then they go out and shoot 6 deer like a woman i knew a few years back. she shot 5 does and one buck.
then, they wonder why the states deer herd is down.
ARCHERY IS A PERSONAL AND BEAUTIFUL OPERATION OF BENDING A BOW AND FOCUSING ON YOUR TARGET SO EVERYTHING AROUND YOU BECOMES A BLUR. THE SUB-CONSCIOUS WILL TELL YOU PLUS YOUR MEMORY MUSCLES WHEN THE RELEASE SHOULD UNFOLD.
IT’S a 4-7 days of practice per week to satisfy a gift we have, and that’s wonderful.
THE QUESTION I AM ASKING NOW…IS THIS.
WHEN WILL ALL THIS TECHNOLOGY STOP??
Richard
90lb
73lb
65lb.
made my own bows,,,,and shoot wooden arrows and fixed broadheads,
65 years old and still shooting after 61 years.
CAN’T GET ANY BETTER.