[LEskew]

in reply to: 4 wheelers, Dave Peterson #50602

Fist-pump and hearty hugs, Dave! I’m one of those stealth readers, but your percipient notes lured me into the open. After converting to a recurve 50 years after you, I’m crankier because I have to get a lot closer to my prey than the 70-yard compound machine shooters that FLOOD through Colorado in September. I have nothing against them personally, except that there are too many of all of us at one time (archers outnumber smokepolers 5 to 1), thanks to State mismanagement. Industry is more than happy to fill the bottomless pit of licenses with the matching equipment, and I can’t fault it for making money — except that now it’s so easy to shoot the modern bows (albeit not accurately) that the only mystery to using them is what gadgets need adjusting. It’s like the national shift from horses (and legs) to ATVs: with an ATV, there’s little to nurture or train or learn, no mystery except for checking tire pressure. . . . Each technology upgrade erodes the mystique of hunting a little more — puts more space between us and the raw beauty that initially attracted us.

Agreed: We need more better hunters, the kind who still value the mystery and raw beauty. The rest can kiss the backside of the quads God gave me.

[LEskew]

in reply to: 4 wheelers, Dave Peterson #49317

ATVs do suck indeed, but I think the sheer NUMBERS of bowhunters in the Colorado woods have damaged far more hunts. All I have are anecdotes but they’re disturbing nonetheless: Last I checked, there were 13 times as many elk tags issued in Colorado than in Wyoming. This year I packed 6 miles into a northern Colorado wilderness area; on the first morning, I was literally aiming at a bull when he suddenly bolted away. Ten seconds later here came two clueless compounders on a mission, loaded down with gadgets. Over the next several days I ran into no fewer than 15 bowhunters, including a couple of trads (one a CBA area rep!) who carved out a new permanent spur trail with their 9 — yes 9 — horses. My point: even in some ATV-less areas, we have too many of us to have the solitude we crave. The archery industry has made it so easy for any clown to shoot a machine (I defy anyone to call it a “compound bow”) that you don’t even have to touch the string to shoot it! Colorado is overrun more by bowhunters than ATVs.

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