This is my first year to have my own place to hunt (wife's family land) so I have been busy getting everything how I want it. Of course it involves some costs every weekend. I also want to start bow hunting, but something new is not in the cards financially right now. A co-worker brought me a bow today to check out and might just give it to me. We have no information on it. It is a Pearson Striker. The length and any other information is not on it. I'm thinking it might be older and might even be a piece of manure. Any recommendations on what to do with it? I'd sure love to bow hunt next season.

Thanks!

If I were you I would take it to a pro shop and have them check it out and have them help get you started. Beware once you get into bowhunting it will be hard to get out!!

I just don't want to get laughed at if I bring in a complete piece of junk not knowing what it is.

The way you embarrass yourself is to pretend you know more than you do. Anything else is perfectly acceptable.

Ha dnt worry about it being fancy...shoot it and if it shoots good use it...then laugh at them when you do kill somethin

Yep. I killed many a deer with a $60 bow while a friend used a $700 bow. It's hard to measure but I don't think his were any deader than mine.

Absolutely accurate.

Where do you live bro? I'm in Burleson, I'd take a look at it for ya. (for free)I don't charge for what I do for other, just ask those on this forum I've done work for.

I am near San Antonio. I am a high school football coach and one of my ex-players wants to measure my draw this weekend and let me use his rig he just replaced. Said I could use it to learn with until I decide what I want and get it funded. His brother took me and my 7 year old out to fill a doe tag this evening. We didn't get to shoot, but enjoyed catching up and watching the bucks.

Thank you for all of your responses! I sure cannot wait to learn to shoot a bow!

Actually I found the opposite is true. I shot competitive archery as a kid until I was a Senior through 4-H shooting sports, and bowhunted quite a bit early on.

I had not bow hunted or owned a bow in 15 years and I bought one in 2008. It was a $850 bow at LL Bean in Freeport Maine. Got it fitted to me, got it set up and I ended up selling it a year later for $350 on ebay. About as interesting as a shovel when your a rifle crank. That and the personal limits I gave myself after shooting daily were 50 yards broadside.

I never lost an animal, but I had some very close calls. The margin of error is horrible.

To say the least if you want to learn how to curse better, become a bowhunter.

Archery is an odd animal. You often start out with simple, low cost equipment. You get jazzed up about it and want more gadgets and more techincal stuff. $100 for a stabilizer. $100 for a rest. $100 for a sight. $100 for a dozen arrows. $100 for a dozen mechanical broadheads. $800 for a bow. For most people, the more gadgets you add and the more technical the equipment gets, the harder it is to master. Before you know it, you look like something out of a Transformer movie and you have to be perfectly precise with every little aspect of every shot. That's when it gets to be too much for some.

This is the fork in the road. One fork takes you out of archery. The other fork takes you back to the roots of archery; shooting traditional. Depending on the person, either fork may be the correct one. It's not coincedence that a lot of traditional shooters have moved through the ranks of the techo-bows, found no satisfaction, and embraced traditional archery. For sheer enjoyment of shooting, nothing compares to it.

Yeah, I know. Compound shooters brag about shooting 1" groups of 10 arrows at 40 yards. As I've said before, good groups don't kill game. One single well placed arrow kills game. If 10 shot groups turn you on, maybe the compound is for you. If watching a single arrow almost magically hit a point down range simply because you are looking at that spot is your thing, you can't beat a stick and string. Both have their place in the sport.

I started out primitive. Yes an $1000 compound is a fiberglass space aged pile of junk that isn't the least bit traditional. The 30-378 Weatherby came out in the 1950s as one of Roy's original attempts at getting a mil gov contract. Any new compound has more science in it than any $5000 sheep rifle.

Shot competitive with a long bow and recurve then switched to wheels when I got my [censored] kicked and we didn't have our own division in 4H.

Still shoot the old bows when I am home, but not interested in hunting with them. Too many "what if's". I had a liver shot wildboar in Spain that took a 9 hour 2 mile on dry dirt tracking job. Finished him off and said to myself, I am done!

I know lots of bowhunters that brag that they have only lost 1/3rd of what they have shot at. We need an ethics update in bowhunting. Or at least the ones that need the ethics update need to get knocked back by the old school hunt to have hunted crowd.

Well said, and lots of truth in that!

You are correct that today's compund bows are very advanced. The difference in bowhunting is that you are 20 yards away from deer versus 200 yards. It takes much more skill (and maybe some luck) to get that close and not get busted. You have to play the wind right and then once the animal gets within range you have to try and draw on them without being noticed. Too easy to sit back at 200 - 300 yards and watch the animals with your rifle IMO. If you put in the practice then you can be proficient enough to hunt ethically with a bow. Sounds to me that you are talking about those who want to pick up a bow, shoot a few arrows through it, and then go hunt.

I'm not interested in getting into a big debate about lost animals. I have no idea what other people have done. Me personally (JUST ME); I have lost exactly one deer that I hit with an arrow. I gut shot a doe and never found her. Another thing I'm not intersted in is keeping score. I can't tell you how many deer I've killed with a bow. After a day of bowfishing when my shooting partner askes "How many did you get?". I just say "Whatever the total is minus your fish". But I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I've killed over 40 deer with a bow. Probably closer to 50. I deeply regret losing that 1 deer. It was my third year of bowhunting and I made a bad shot. But it didn't stop me from bowhnting. It didn't turn into a pattern of lost, wounded deer.

I've talked to a lot of people that use a styrofoam plate as a target. If they hit that plate, they consider themselve good enough to hunt deer. I use a 1" circle. If I can't get in or very near that 1" circle, I don't consider myself competent to hunt any animal. I listened to a salesman behind the gun counter of a sports/clothing/hunting/fishing store tell his co-worker that he had wounded 3 deer so far that year and figured sonner or later, he'd recover one. To his credit, the co-worker looked at him and said "Dude, you have no business in the woods and I'd rather not hear your stories".

As stated earlier, it's all about self-imposed personal responsibility. If you don't have any, you're a slob.

The problem that I see happening on the "forums" is someone ask about getting in to bowhunting or is excited about getting a bow and looking forward to getting in the woods. No sooner than they submit the post someone Is putting doubt in his/her head. He asked about a bow and now we are debating ethics and bowhunting. I have killed deer with a gun and killed lots with a bow, have I lost a deer yes I have, am I proud of it NO. I hunt with traditional gear and have had no greater thrill in hunting than killing with a stick and string. Axe man take the bow and have someone look it over and set it up for you, then shoot it and get comfortable with it. Take the summer and shoot as much as you can, try and go hunt pigs during the off season the look forward to next October. Good luck bro, bowhunting is an addiction that gets in your blood, I bowhunt 12 months out of the year and will do so as long as I'm physically able. Don't let one or two people who dislike or can't bowhunt turn you away from something that you will get lots of enjoyment from.

Well, I'm not discouraged. As a coach, I'm used to all kinds of talk! LOL I want to get cranking so I can get to practicing. I will not shoot at a live animal until I feel I am proficient enough to have a clean kill. I already had the idea to hog hunt first when I feel I am at that point. Until I'm up and shooting, I'll just have to keep reading on here and watching the shows!

As a fairly new bowhunter I can say the best thing to do is take the bow to a pro-shop, learn the proper shooting technique and have the bow tuned and set to your proper draw length. If your in San Antonio, you can try several places wheelers,or gassmans archery.If you don't have it tuned by someone knowledgeable it can be very frustrating trying to do yourself. Im in San Antonio as well so shoot me a PM if I can help out at all. As others mentioned it can be very addicting.

The neighbors are great but the HOA dues are outrageous.

Don't do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


























It is addicting

I got into archery this year and managed to Does with it this year. I dont want to use the rifle as much anymore but i love archery. Use what you have and if it works go with it. its a great time.

Thank you all for your replies! I have my ex-player's Mathews Switchback. Wow is that fun! I shot it quite a bit yesterday and am feeling it today!

Also killed an 8 with 16 inch inside spread on our family land. This is the first animal we have harvested there, so it is exciting! (killed with my Winchester Model 94 30-30)

Lets get back to the original topic at hand! The man asked what he should do not your bad shot stories! IMO, if your player has a back up bow you can use, use it and get the fundamentals down. Decide if you even like archery, its not for everyone. At this point it just sounds like a good idea to you! Let it get in your blood before you go out and drop 600-1000 bones on a rig and sport you know nothing about yet.

I shoot a longbow and recurve, traditional all the way. I can shoot quicker and more accurately than I can with a compound. Don't worry about what kind of bow you have just learn to pick a spot and hit it.

The Mathews Switchback is awesome! I've shot several hundred arrows the past week and love it! Yeah, koolade has been drank!