Bow Hunting & Buck Fever

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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
The big game wild animals here are not going to allow you to stick a flint spear in their guts. By then, they may have stomped you to a pulp. Serves you right.
Little flint tipped arrows bounce off the bison, if you can ever get close enough.

Read about the proliferation of "buffalo jumps" where #2 falls on the horns of #1 and Mr. Neolithic hunter then finishes them both off with a spear. Let's see a herd go over the edge.

Tight corrals of logs, hidden in bluffs of trees, were efficient traps for a few animals at a time.

Very dead Grizzly bear in YoHo National Park. Speared to death by Mountain Goat horns in what must have been a failed predation attempt.
 

Spirit fish

Banned
Aug 12, 2021
338
73
31
Doncaster
The big game wild animals here are not going to allow you to stick a flint spear in their guts. By then, they may have stomped you to a pulp. Serves you right.
Little flint tipped arrows bounce off the bison, if you can ever get close enough.

Read about the proliferation of "buffalo jumps" where #2 falls on the horns of #1 and Mr. Neolithic hunter then finishes them both off with a spear. Let's see a herd go over the edge.

Tight corrals of logs, hidden in bluffs of trees, were efficient traps for a few animals at a time.

Very dead Grizzly bear in YoHo National Park. Speared to death by Mountain Goat horns in what must have been a failed predation attempt.
Hunting a buffalo or grizzly with dogs is probably 100% suicide ,but a pack of big lurchers, "hunting dogs" and a spear would get you a normal sized elk for the pot no problem if it was legal
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Elk here are in matriarchal harems. 4-point and up bulls hang around the perimeter, hoping to cut out some cows for the breeding season(right now).

You can watch a herd of 40+ elk cows and a few 5 pointers but they are out in the open with nothing bigger than a blade of grass to hide behind.
Tricky business to hunt elk, even with a rifle.
 

C_Claycomb

Moderator staff
Mod
Oct 6, 2003
7,354
2,365
Bedfordshire
I don't have chance to practise... bowhunting is illegal in the UK ,I could trap with nothing but it's not legal!! thanks for your informative comment seems your in teedees gang
I am not in TeeDee's gang, as you put it. In this case our perspectives happened to align and we both found what you said quite funny.

Let me explain the humour.
Since joining you have made quite a big thing about your interest in primitive technology, and low cost skills based bushcraft. You have been very critical about things that you see as commercial and at people who spend money on equipment. You have been quite vocal on the subject. Then, when you bring up the subject of hunting an elk, you say you would love to hunt one using a high tech modern mechanical arrow flinging machine, the development, marketing and sale of which is one of the most commercial things in hunting! Mechanical bows allow hunters to hit accurately more easily, and shoot accurately over greater distances. There is a monetary cost to buying these advantages. They reduce the level of skill needed both in shooting and in woodcraft and stalking.

You may not see the irony saying this is what you want to use, but TeeDee and I did, I thought it registered around 8 on the Richter scale.

We all know bow hunting is illegal in the UK. What has that got to do with anything? You were talking about hunting an elk, in the US. If the costs and logistics of the trip were no hurdle, practicing in the UK would not be a problem, and would not entail breaking laws. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would be pretty good.
 
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Spirit fish

Banned
Aug 12, 2021
338
73
31
Doncaster
I am not in TeeDee's gang, as you put it. In this case our perspectives happened to align and we both found what you said quite funny.

Let me explain the humour.
Since joining you have made quite a big thing about your interest in primitive technology, and low cost skills based bushcraft. You have been very critical about things that you see as commercial and at people who spend money on equipment. You have been quite vocal on the subject. Then, when you bring up the subject of hunting an elk, you say you would love to hunt one using a high tech modern mechanical arrow flinging machine, the development, marketing and sale of which is one of the most commercial things in hunting! Mechanical bows allow hunters to hit accurately more easily, and shoot accurately over greater distances. There is a monetary cost to buying these advantages. They reduce the level of skill needed both in shooting and in woodcraft and stalking.

You may not see the irony saying this is what you want to use, but TeeDee and I did, I thought it registered around 8 on the Richter scale.

We all know bow hunting is illegal in the UK. What has that got to do with anything? You were talking about hunting an elk, in the US. If the costs and logistics of the trip were no hurdle, practicing in the UK would not be a problem, and would not entail breaking laws. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would be pretty good.
Your just being pedantic , a compound bow is a lot cheaper than a woodlore knife the price range is vast on compound bows with regards to logistics of going abroad,practising in the UK would be a huge problem because shooting live quarry isn't allowed
 
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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
If you can't shoot straight, can't consistently hit the killing spot on a target,
there's no hope here to drop an elk. Plus, you have no chance at all to ever enter the tag lottery draw which is 6 point bulls only.

My former neighbor was the most successful big game hunter that I ever met. All summer, he shot 25 arrows each day at a standard game target butt in his back yard. Both standing and kneeling. He filled every tag he ever bought. Bear bacon is good.

You can look into the services of a guide/outfitter which the law requires you to do anyway. People come from all over the world to hunt big game here.

These are nice guys to hook up with. I'm the dude on the home page in ghillie camo with the first Merriam's wild turkey (20 lbs). Click on the images to see a gallery. The cats are impressive. Mel is the guy with the strange looking conical black hat

 

pete79

Forager
Jan 21, 2009
116
9
In a swamp
I just took a moose a few days ago with a rifle. They're quite something when they're in the right mindset in the rut. He came in grunting and thrashing trees.
 
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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Congrats, Pete. Hope he isn't stinky yet. Quite the deal to drop something really ugly (aka "swamp donkey") and the size of a horse! The rut here is commonly the third week in October and a bit of a second one 30 days later.
 

pete79

Forager
Jan 21, 2009
116
9
In a swamp
Congrats, Pete. Hope he isn't stinky yet. Quite the deal to drop something really ugly (aka "swamp donkey") and the size of a horse! The rut here is commonly the third week in October and a bit of a second one 30 days later.
Only ever had one that was really stinky (had to throw away my clothes after field dressing) and never had a bad tasting one. I never shoot any big mature bulls if I can avoid it, and target the medium sized to smaller guys. This one was a medium sized bull. Really cool thing is.......he had a bullet lodged in his antler and I don't think it's mine.
 

Buckshot

Mod
Mod
Jan 19, 2004
6,466
349
Oxford
practising in the UK would be a huge problem because shooting live quarry isn't allowed
then how do these guys do it?
www.britishbowhunterassociation.co.uk/page1.php
Practicing is just that, practice.
You don't need to aim at live targets for that.
in fact, you should not, and certainly not when starting out. If you are learning and can't hit the kill zone you should only aim at non living targets anyway. No ethical hunter should be happy with a wounded animal.

I do find it ironic here in the UK we have a bow hunting association - as you say it's not allowed here.
However, the world is a small place and it's easy to practice with field points on straw targets until you go abroad - if that's your thing.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Practice? Simple. Read my post#30.
We have bow hunting target club competitions here all the time.
Full sized, foam plastic replica targets of all sorts of big game.
The targets are sort of hidden in the forest. You approach them at shooting stations.
 

Spirit fish

Banned
Aug 12, 2021
338
73
31
Doncaster
then how do these guys do it?
www.britishbowhunterassociation.co.uk/page1.php
Practicing is just that, practice.
You don't need to aim at live targets for that.
in fact, you should not, and certainly not when starting out. If you are learning and can't hit the kill zone you should only aim at non living targets anyway. No ethical hunter should be happy with a wounded animal.

I do find it ironic here in the UK we have a bow hunting association - as you say it's not allowed here.
However, the world is a small place and it's easy to practice with field points on straw targets until you go abroad - if that's your thing.
Target shooting and shooting moving animals is a totally different ballgame hunting isn't easy far from it
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Try trap shooting and skeet shooting. Birds on the wing doing 40-70mph.
I have clocked the local Canada Geese, the little 8kg birds. They can cruise at 70 kph. If they really work at it, I have seen them do 90 kph.

In the Olympics, a little lauded sport is "Running Game." I won't spoil the surprise, you look this up for yourselves.
 

C_Claycomb

Moderator staff
Mod
Oct 6, 2003
7,354
2,365
Bedfordshire
Target shooting and shooting moving animals is a totally different ballgame hunting isn't easy far from it
...says the guy in his 20s to the former game keeper and deer stalker in his 50. :rolleyes: :lmao: :banghead2:

No one here has said that shooting targets is the same as shooting at an animal, nor have they suggested that hunting is easy. It is like you post something that reads like ignorance of the subject, people reply with better information, and you pretend that they have said something completely different and reply to what you imagine they have said.

In itself this post isn't exactly wrong, although the purpose of good practice/training is to make the difference between practice and match day reality as small as possible, but as a reply to Buckshot's post, which was a reply to one of yours, it is non-sequitur. As an attempt to support your assertion that the only way to practice something is to do that thing, that there is no value to breaking things down, starting small and working up to the goal, it fails.
 
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TeeDee

Full Member
Nov 6, 2008
10,447
3,652
50
Exeter
...says the guy in his 20s to the former game keeper and deer stalker in his 50. :rolleyes: :lmao: :banghead2:

No one here has said that shooting targets is the same as shooting at an animal, nor have they suggested that hunting is easy. It is like you post something that reads like ignorance of the subject, people reply with better information, and you pretend that they have said something completely different and reply to what you imagine they have said.

In itself this post isn't exactly wrong, although the purpose of good practice/training is to make the difference between practice and match day reality as small as possible, but as a reply to Buckshot's post, which was a reply to one of yours, it is non-sequitur. As an attempt to support your assertion that the only way to practice something is to do that thing, that there is no value to breaking things down, starting small and working up to the goal, it fail

Chaos theory conversational skills.


Get with the program Chris. :)
 

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