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Is Variety Truly the Spice of Life?

tyson12590

tyson12590

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
287
Location
Coldwater, Michigan
I recently watched a video from Chris Spikes where he shot his 50th deer with his Centaur longbow. What an accomplishment! That got me thinking, I have killed 4 deer with traditional equipment and I have used three different bows. Id like to hear from people who uses one bow for a long period of time and people who switch bows often? What are the pros and cons to each. Most importantly, with so many bows available how do you know when you have found a bow that you should stick with? I know it comes down to personal preference, but I'd like to hear about those preferences.
 
So my goal going into this year was to shoot 3 deer with 3 different bows but, I am in a little different situation then many because my retired father builds recurves for a hobby so I can have gorgeous custom recurves built for the cost of materials. This spring I had dad build two bows plus I had a longbow I traded @kbetts for last summer. Those were going to be the three bows I tried to use for my goal. I struggled to get one of the bows dad built to tune properly and season was fast approaching so I scrapped that goal and just decided to hunt with the one bow that I was shooting the best.

My new goal is to eventually kill at least one deer with every bow that I have. Problem is right now I have the second bow my dad built this year, a 50 yr old Bear Grizzly that was my dad's first bow, an older Browning recurve, a Hitman longbow that I mentioned above, and I just recently picked up an older Shakepspeare Super Necedah from another member on here. So my bow collection is quickly outpacing my hunting abilities. :)

I don't really have a desire to buy any newer Trad bows but, I do really enjoy picking out wood combinations, watching my dad build a bow from them and then hunting with that bow. Plus I am starting to get into finding old vintage trad bows that maybe aren't being used and kind of bringing them back to life. If I keep collecting bows at this pace I will have to become a much better hunter to kill deer with them all.
 
GCTerpfan said:
So my goal going into this year was to shoot 3 deer with 3 different bows but, I am in a little different situation then many because my retired father builds recurves for a hobby so I can have gorgeous custom recurves built for the cost of materials. This spring I had dad build two bows plus I had a longbow I traded @kbetts for last summer. Those were going to be the three bows I tried to use for my goal. I struggled to get one of the bows dad built to tune properly and season was fast approaching so I scrapped that goal and just decided to hunt with the one bow that I was shooting the best.

My new goal is to eventually kill at least one deer with every bow that I have. Problem is right now I have the second bow my dad built this year, a 50 yr old Bear Grizzly that was my dad's first bow, an older Browning recurve, a Hitman longbow that I mentioned above, and I just recently picked up an older Shakepspeare Super Necedah from another member on here. So my bow collection is quickly outpacing my hunting abilities. :)

I don't really have a desire to buy any newer Trad bows but, I do really enjoy picking out wood combinations, watching my dad build a bow from them and then hunting with that bow. Plus I am starting to get into finding old vintage trad bows that maybe aren't being used and kind of bringing them back to life. If I keep collecting bows at this pace I will have to become a much better hunter to kill deer with them all.
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I am kinda in the same boat it seems like I have an addiction to older bows that far exceeds my funds!!!!
 
GCTerpfan said:
So my goal going into this year was to shoot 3 deer with 3 different bows but, I am in a little different situation then many because my retired father builds recurves for a hobby so I can have gorgeous custom recurves built for the cost of materials. This spring I had dad build two bows plus I had a longbow I traded @kbetts for last summer. Those were going to be the three bows I tried to use for my goal. I struggled to get one of the bows dad built to tune properly and season was fast approaching so I scrapped that goal and just decided to hunt with the one bow that I was shooting the best.

My new goal is to eventually kill at least one deer with every bow that I have. Problem is right now I have the second bow my dad built this year, a 50 yr old Bear Grizzly that was my dad's first bow, an older Browning recurve, a Hitman longbow that I mentioned above, and I just recently picked up an older Shakepspeare Super Necedah from another member on here. So my bow collection is quickly outpacing my hunting abilities. :)

I don't really have a desire to buy any newer Trad bows but, I do really enjoy picking out wood combinations, watching my dad build a bow from them and then hunting with that bow. Plus I am starting to get into finding old vintage trad bows that maybe aren't being used and kind of bringing them back to life. If I keep collecting bows at this pace I will have to become a much better hunter to kill deer with them all.
Click to expand...

That is a neat goal. My traditional hunting mentor usually shoots all his deer with a different bow, switching after each kill. He is also an excellent shot. I am not a very good shot so for me sticking to what I shoot best is probably wise. I do want to kill a deer with one of the Osage bows I have made but after I do I will be going back to my "go-to".
 
I switch a lot. At one point is was bad....trading and buying almost every couple of weeks. Now I'm getting older and shooting lighter bows is more in order.

Right now, it's a 60# Kimsha longbow. The 50#, aluminum riser recurve got broke out last weekend.....I forgot how accurate it was. If I score with one of those, I'll eventually carry my Bear t/d cause it's cool. So many bows, so little time.
 
At one point, I had around 15 trad bows; mostly Great Northerns, with a few Morrisons and a gorgeous Dale Dye I couldnt shoot worth a hoot. 6-7 years ago I thinned the herd; kept my favorites...two GN Lil Creep flatbows, a GN Ghost, a Black Mountain Sheepeater and an Ed Scott selfbow. The Lil Creep takedowns are my main bows, but I'd love to take a deer with the Owl selfbow.
 
I used the same Mathews LX for every deer I killed from 2003-2019. During that same time, I probably used 10 different saddles and at least 20 different methods to get up the tree to kill those deer.

I currently have one bow, 8 saddles, 8 platforms and probably close to a hundred steps, sticks and other climbing devices.

I think we all have different preferences for which gear we like to ‘set it and forget it’ and other gear that we are always tinkering with.
 
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