Bow hunting or bowhunting is one of those sports that you either love or you hate – a little like fox hunting in the United Kingdom. Town people abhor it and anybody involved with it and country people see it essential to cull wild animals that could otherwise become a nuisance.
Despite its macho image, which was encouraged by the film the Deer Hunter, there are increasing numbers of women who go bowhunting. The big distinction between hunting with a rifle and hunting with a bow is distance. A hunting rifle with telescopic sights can deliver enough punch at 600 yards to kill a deer with a single shot almost wherever it is hit in the chest.
On the other hand, a hunter using a bow with a fifty pound draw weight will have to get to within about forty yards to be able to deliver the same sort of lethal punch, if the shot is accurate to the heart.
This means that if you seriously wound an animal from 600 yards, it will probably be dead by the time you get there, clambering over fallen trees and rocks, but if you severely wound a deer from forty yards you see its pain.
This has a salutacious effect on most bow hunters. The vast majority of bow hunters do not want to see this and they do not want the creature to suffer either, so they wait for the right shot. If it is not there, they do not shoot.
A hunting bow needs to have a draw weight of at least fifty pounds to hunt large game and that used to mean quite a sturdy recurve or longbow, but the compound bow was developed in 1966.
A compound bow makes use of pulleys to help with the draw, which permits less beefy people to accomplish a draw weight of fifty pounds, which has opened up bowhunting to women and adolescents.
Large wild animals are dangerous and some will attack without warning if they feel in danger. This creates a danger zone around wild animals. Every sort of animal has a danger zone, for a lion, that could be pretty large and for a stag less so. This danger zone is an locale outside of which you are fairly safe.
If you are hunting with a rifle, you can stay outside that danger zone without difficulty, but with a bow and arrow, well, you often have to go within it. This increased danger provides a superior rush for bow hunters – a bigger thrill. Especially if they are hunting bears or mountain lions.
In contrast to the Deer Hunter, most bow hunters go on prearranged trips these days. The hunting trip is organized through a specialized firm which will provide guided trips into areas known to have large numbers of the animals you want to pursue.
These professional guides know how to bait areas to attract your prey; they can advise on safety aspects and they take a big gun in case a hunter is too stupid to take their advice. Unfortunately, the gun is for use on the animal, not the idiot.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on various topics, but is presently concerned with compound hunting bows. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.
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