Congrats and I'm excited for you. I'm primarily a recurve shooter and have been since the 90's. I killed 3 deer beyond 50 yds back then with a compound and never picked one up again. As I aged, I couldn't pull back the recurve (62#) I had hunted with for 20yrs without pain. I then got a x-bow and had a hoot killing hogs with it and still do. I killed 17 pigs last year with various weapons. I took a nice buck a couple yrs. back with x-bow but have since got a lighter recurve to get back to my passion. I like shooting and you must practice more with recurves and longbows. But when scouting new areas or stalk hunting, I like the x-bow except for the weight. Best part about the x-bow is like OKRuss said, they're like a rifle. Tune and hunt, check zero occasionally but mostly there is little practice needed.
Nothing is cheap anymore. I have lost a bolt or 2 and coupled with a good broadhead it's a fairly expensive shot. But bolts are still a little cheaper than arrows. Plus having the ability to shoot without disturbing an area as opposed to a firearm is quite the advantage when killing pigs while deer hunting. The accuracy and range of the x-bow is about that of a shotgun and slug with non-rifled barrel.
When I hunt in Arkansas October deer & bear season a couple guys had fancy crossbows. One was an AR upper design with 10" limbs mounted on standard AR Lower.
The other was a limbs parallel to stock.
Usually we hunt archery a few days before black powder season.
Both were heavier than my TC Hawken. I took my Hoyt compound and use a bow sling.
The other was a limbs parallel to stock.
Usually we hunt archery a few days before black powder season.
Both were heavier than my TC Hawken. I took my Hoyt compound and use a bow sling.
Kudos to those of you who shoot actual bows and arrows. That is archery. For those of us who shoot compound bows and crossbows, that is just physics.
Archery or physics, the deer doesn't know and the freezer is full.
There are times filling the freezer is the reason. But having done a multi year bowhunt for a Pope & Young measure buck on good habitat, that is it's own special jazz.
I had multiple blown opportunities 3yrs in a row with a really heavy rack 9pt with a big wide profile, big droptine and some palmation & spiked brow tines. I figured he might measure 180+inches. Saw him alot, always wrong wind, wrong location, busted by does, too far. launched 4 arrows at him and had muzzleloader misfire over the tìme I hunted him.
Here is the worst part. This land was beside
I-435 just north of Missouri river bridge west of Parkville NE of KC Metro. A car getting on the interstate ramp hit the deer doing 70.
He got hit by a caŕ, driven by a guy I know from Parkville through Masonic stuff, totaled his Taurus. Bucķ ended up in passenger seat, crushed the winshield scared the guy half to death. Definately that big buck. He weighed well over 300lbs they get big around there. Broke the rack in several places, sad. Game warden took the rack. I was crushed looking at the pictures which is all I got to see.
Basically agree. Job 1 is having fun. Job 2 is filling the freezer. Decided to add to the physics and ordered a Garmin crossbow scope for it as I don't have time to practice at different distances, inclines and all that. Probably not needed as most of the time I'll be hunting over a feeder or a food plot with known distances. Price of the scope will be decent after my Expert Voice (retired military) 15% discount from Ravin and a $400 rebate from Garmin.
To bad you didn't have a crossbow. You probably could have saved your friend a lot of damage to a car.
