"Auf wiedersehen, baby."

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#6035

A great post about giving up the compound for good from Chad Love at the blog, “Mallard of Discontent:”

“…I didn’t want it to come to this, wanted to spare your feelings, but the truth is yes, I’m leaving you for the stickbow and I’m leaving you for good this time. No more releases, no more sights, no more stabilizers, no more carbon arrows, no more cams or idler wheels or marketing babble about the wonders of parallel limbs, carbon matrix fibers and offsetting harmonic convergences….”

Link

[David Petersen]

#47767

Beautifully stated. I have always felt a great sense of freedom from avoiding “stuff” both in hunting and in life (which two are getting ever harder to distinguish). Why buy, maintain, and haul useless junk around with us when it slows us down and the net gain is marginal at best. Bowhunting is full of such albatross-junk, far beyond wheelie bows themselves. While we traditionalists are hardly free of the tendencey to bog ourselves down with stuff, we definitely go lighter, and thus with more freedom, than the typical techno-junk addict. I don’t feel superior to them so much as I feel sorry for them. dave p

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#47803

Yeah, I’m loathe to say that one is “better” than the other (though I obviously have my own bias), but they really have become two increasingly separate paths. What’s particularly interesting to me is how all of that gadgetry is leading to a very different approach to hunting. A loss of being able to shoot instinctively, a loss of stalking and ground hunting skills, an assumption that you have to be in a tree stand, and as you point out, an increasing amount of stuff that many people now just assume is “required” in order to hunt, are all being traded in favor of an easier proficiency that doesn’t require as much practice. Trad bow hunting vs. compound is really becoming two very different approaches, far more than just the differences in the choice of bow itself. I’d rather go light and simple, and not have all that stuff to carry and maintain.

[SteveMcD]

#47905

Yup.. some of my best friends shoot compounds. And I can tell you they are superb hunters in their own rite. But, I agree. We are all of two different paths.. the compounder always thinks, why do we traditionalists handicap ourselves so much. While we on the other hand, pride ourselves on mastering the bow, the essentials of woodcraft and eliminating the junk.

I would never start a fight in church, but to me. The compound is not a Bow. By any definition – it is a machine. And that’s a fact. It’s an arrow launcher aided by cables, cams and pulleys.

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#47944

SteveMcD wrote:
The compound is not a Bow. By any definition – it is a machine. And that’s a fact. It’s an arrow launcher aided by cables, cams and pulleys.

Interesting thought…

[Cottonwood]

#48641

Funny… I can hear Lee Marvin’s voice with that “Interesting thought…” statement.

I to feel the same about why I left the compound bow, and have the same feelings as David and SteveMcD.

[WICanner]

#50354

I agree with Steve on it being a machine. When most need a mechanic to work on their bow, then it is a machine. And most compound shooters that I know, do not work on their own bows. It’s amazing how so many today who do not want to or cannot do for themselves. Canning and preserving food, growing a garden, hunting, collecting the bounty of the woods, all lost arts on so many. Food to them comes in a bag, a box or is wrapped in saran. Leaving a compound behind is to maintain another piece of ones independence. At least that’s the way I feel about it. No need for extra parts and the complexity. A stick and string will do.

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#50452

WIcanner wrote:
It’s amazing how so many today who do not want to or cannot do for themselves. Canning and preserving food, growing a garden, hunting, collecting the bounty of the woods, all lost arts on so many. Food to them comes in a bag, a box or is wrapped in saran.

I take heart in the fact that when the zombie apocalypse happens, these people will be be the easy fodder.

[W David McLendon]

#51217

WIcanner wrote: I agree with Steve on it being a machine. When most need a mechanic to work on their bow, then it is a machine. And most compound shooters that I know, do not work on their own bows. It’s amazing how so many today who do not want to or cannot do for themselves. Canning and preserving food, growing a garden, hunting, collecting the bounty of the woods, all lost arts on so many. Food to them comes in a bag, a box or is wrapped in saran. Leaving a compound behind is to maintain another piece of ones independence. At least that’s the way I feel about it. No need for extra parts and the complexity. A stick and string will do.

So true, more than a small portion of society will have taken the the streets in desparation mere days after the power goes off and the microwave stops.
I have friends that come by after I have made a kill to see me process the meat. They are amazed that I know how to break a whole animal down into portions ready for cooking by myself in a very short time, conversely I am equally amazed that they don’t.
I have friends imprisioned by the wheel, they see my Shrew as having too many limitations and unnecessarily difficult. I see their compound arrow launching machines a having far more limitations than my equipment. I can shoot sitting,crouching or standing from any angle and not just straight up and down, I don’t have sights to not be able to see when the light fades, distances to measure or angles to check.
They clamber through the woods with all of their stuff and scratch their way up their chosen tree and are bound to a very limited set of circumstances. When an opportunity presents itself it becomes a panic situation with them struggling to line everything up, range it and get all the bubble levels lined up while all along being an alien to the hunt unfolding before them.
I have never had anything but a stick bow and would want to give up the feeling that I get with it being free in the woods trying to be quieter than what I hunt.

[james gilmer]

#51985

heck I thought the compound was a machine way back in 1985! There is an old duffer up in Michigan still bow hunting in his uppers 80’s . He says it looks to o much like something that fell off the tractor.

[JasonJelinek]

#53279

SteveMcD,

Any bow is a machine, it’s just that most traditional bows have less parts than a compound. 🙂 I do agree that a compound is a more complicated machine and I like to take less with me in the field. If the gear you bring into the field is of your own making all the better.

[W David McLendon]

#53286

I kind of think of my bow as a spring, except when I draw it and then I prefer not to think of it at all.

[Author]

Posts