?? I was told crossbow can be used in the second half of archery season, the winter months.
Ag-tag is just permission from a farmer to shoot a deer on his land. We have a gigantic problem with deer here. They run around all over the place and smash into peoples’ cars. They’re dumb animals indeed, but they taste great! We really need more deer hunting.
I want to up the ante a bit and suggest you look into the world of primitive archery. (Recommended forums: Primitive Archer and PaleoPlanet.) Bowyery isn’t really very hard and I think there is much satisfaction to be found in taking game with archery tackle you made yourself. You can even take it as far as learning to knap your own points (check local laws, some states allow their use) but in truth that takes a bit of time and determination to learn. If you don’t care to learn the craft their are many excellent bowyers who sell their wares.
Regardless of what style of archery you decide to pursue I further suggest you investigate and learn instinct shooting. This style does not use any artificial aids such as sights, but rather relies upon those wonderful sighting devices, the human eye and brain.
All of that said I want to reinforce what some others have said by saying you should practice until you can readily hit a practice target kill zone 8 or 9 times out of 10. If you don’t I can pretty much promise you’ll get much practice following a blood trail and probably have to learn to dispatch your prey up close and personal.
Oh, by the way, compound bows are tools of da Debil.
Lots of great advice in the thread. Some additional comments that I don’t think have been covered yet.
Arrows are slow compared to bullets or slugs. This has a few effects. Due to their slow, heavily bowed trajectory compared to that of a bullet or slug, range is going to tremendously vary the impact point. You want to get very good at estimating range and checking your estimates with a good rangefinder. From your tree stand, you should know to the yard, your distance to a variety of aiming points—stumps, rocks, etc…so that when the buck shows up, you know it’s 37 yds, and therefore know where to hold your aim. Also, since the arrow is slow, you’ll often have to hold your draw in order to prevent the deer from moving in response to either the string noise or the sight of the flying arrow. You might have read of deer “jumping the bow string”; this is what the term means. Waiting until their head is turned is usually sufficient.
Further, the high angles common in tree-stand shooting are going to alter your aim somewhat over shooting the same distance on flat ground. Get really comfortable taking lots of shots from your stand. (With a safety belt please. It’s easy to get so caught up in your shot that you overbalance and possibly fall out of the stand. With sharp broadheads and high stands, falling can be fatal.) Even if you have the distance down, get a good idea for the trajectory of your arrow, so you’ll know that your shot won’t hit a branch, etc… I recommend arrows with “judo” points for that sort of thing, even though they will fly slightly different than arrows with broadheads that you’ll use for taking deer. (They’re a lot easier to find afterwards, as the prongs grab vegetation.) On broadheads, keep in mind that they are supposed to be ridiculously sharp. As in, they’re exceedingly dangerous to you if you ever cut yourself on them, as might happen if you try to walk with a nocked arrow and fall. Keep them in the quiver until you are ready to shoot. Their different flight characteristics also require that you practice a bit with broadheaded arrows to determine where and if your point of impact changes. Most of my target shooting/practice was done with target points though.
Get really good at determining wind direction as it’s going to dramatically affect your ability to have game get close to you. Similarly, your attention to camouflage is going to have to be a lot more intensive than it might be for rifle hunting. As for your OP, I’d go with a compound bow: easier to hold a draw weight acceptable for taking medium game, accurate enough at hunting distances, “feels” more like archery, as distinct from the feel of a crossbow, higher rate of fire than a crossbow if it comes to that, (though bowhunting IME is really a one shot only kind of deal. Deer react quite strongly to the sound of a bowstring and the sight of a rapidly skittering aluminum arrow). In many states, crossbows are unable to participate fully in archery hunting seasons; I do not know the laws of Indiana.
As I said, we learned of the restriction some time ago, it may have changed. It was just a suggestion to double-check the regulations before you start shooting.
Is the Pope in charge there? Other events in Indiana could lead to that conclusion also.
Indiana’s 2010-2011 Deer Hunting Guide. (PDF warning.)
At page 8,
So, you need not be disabled to use a crossbow, but you can only use it during certain parts of the deer hunting season.
A guide to who can shoot what, at which deer when, can be found at Page 9 of the linked pdf. There is additional language about what constitutes a “bow” for archery.
Information on disabled hunters and the permits they may obtain to allow them to, e.g., use crossbows during the early archery season, may be found here.
Bah. There is only one way to do this properly. 
It depends on how much overhead you want to put into it. I am an instinctive archer and I shoot recurves at the range and on the trail. I have never gone hunting with my bow.
Instinctive archery is quite difficult, to be honest. You will probably want to put in a large number of hours training first before you actually try to shoot something that runs faster than straw. If you love it, that’s awesome and welcome to the club. If not, better you find out sooner rather than later.
If you have a serious disability that prohibits walking, and they let you hunt from your car, how do you get the deer meat? (See post 26)
Hire a homeless to fetch and dress the carcass?
Maybe they just presume disabled people have friends to help them?
I took a deer last year* with a crossbow. It was my first time hunting with any type of archery weapon. It was fairly similar to shooting with a rifle, I just had to wait for a much shorter range shot. (Being fairly new to the weapon, I refused anything but a perfect shot.) FWIW: I found it fairly difficult to draw the bow in the confines of a tree stand. In addition to your on-the-ground practice, you might want to try shooting from a tree-stand before hunting season to get the full effect. I spent a few days (before season) in my stand practicing hitting styrofoam targets placed at likely spots around my feeders.
*I know crossbows aren’t legal in Texas. My deer lease is in another state.
Archery, the sport whether it be targets or hunting, is not always equal.
Many people are not capable of shooting a true bow and thus go to a cross bow because of it’s likeliness to a rifle.
Many people can’t pull a recurve, longbow or reflex-recurve bow back because of the lack of strength in the upper body. They go to the compound because it makes up for that lack of upper body strength.
Both reasons are legitimate, all men/women are not actually created equal.
As for what you choose to shoot, it’s your choice. For me there is no talent or pride in using a cross bow, plain and simple. It’s just an opportunity to use a rifle that shoots an arrow/bolt in archery season.
Compound bows are good for open shots or shots that you have an 80% chance of a good hit. It takes 3 times as long to reload a compound bow than it does a recurve or reflex-recurve. A top flight recurve bow archer and a top flight compound bow archer if they were to stand side by side and be judged on how many arrows hit the bulls eye at 30 yards in 20 seconds would soon find the recurve archer out of arrows while the compound archer is still loading and shooting. It’s just the facts.
A recurve bow with instinctive shooting is much more accurate and faster than a compound. I say this because archers using compound bows now generally sit in wait for a deer. Typically a recurve archer goes after the deer in more of a stalk/wait/stalk/wait manner. It’s more of the true spirit of hunting. It’s all for the meat, but one is a tradition and one is not, or at least not yet and compound bows have been around for 40 years? in some form or fashion.
Shoot what you like, accept the mantra that goes with each type of bow:
Crossbow: Not enough strength to shoot a compound or recurve and likes the rifle like set up since it’s a no brainier to use.
Compound bow: Not enough strength to shoot a 70 pound recurve but wants the kill power of the traditional bow. Not that 70 pounds is required to kill a deer but 70 pound recurves do take a man to use. A simple 40 pound recurve with a 600 grain arrow traveling a mere 190 feet per second is like a 40 pound projectile hitting the deer at 190 feet per second. Simple math tells you if the aim is correct, you’ve got a deer.
This brings me to the last statement.
What you shoot is not anywhere near as important as your shot placement. And it will never be regardless of the type of bow you use. Traditional hunters are like knife throwers. They can spot game while loading an arrow, pull it up, draw the string and fire in less 5 seconds. It takes a compound bow hunter that long to get an arrow nocked and the string pulled, now he has to find the game.
I for one just really respect the stalk/wait/stalk/wait hunter regardless of the bow they use. It puts man against game and the game have the advantage. So if you go out on a daytime stalk/wait/stalk/wait and are successful, you have performed far beyond any stand hunter regardless of the weapon they choose to use.
Hunting is for meat, fun, adventure. I hope you all experience these on your next hunt.
CYa
Doc
Doc says:
I don’t disagree completely with your statement but then again I do. Confused yet?
Shooting a recurve or reflex recurve is not difficult at all.
You need:
The right poundage bow to start off with, say 30 pounds.
You need to shoot arrows equal to what you will hunt with.
You need to perfect your stance, your draw (i use a kisser button) and your aim. All of these are simple one at a time. Putting them together may take some a bit longer but once perfected it will become natural. In one day (8 hours) a person that never shot a bow should be able to put all the arrows in an 8 inch grouping at 15 yards. Once that is perfected (in one day) the archer can step back 5 yards on the next day and learn to correct his/her aim for that distance. Once the archer has been able to do this up to and including 30 yards, and shooting at different distances every other shot they are ready to move up in poundage. This whole effort should not take more than a week and a weekend if one is serious.
After you have found your comfortable poundage and the weight of arrow one will hunt with the big skill comes in the field. Shooting from a crouched position, even sitting if getting up will spook the deer is where the art of hunting comes in. Even harder is the stalk/wait/stalk/wait and shooting at times through limbs, brush, etc.
Shooting the bow is rather simple if one gives it their all. Killing game is much harder because adrenaline, buck fever, excitement, pushing the shot, not waiting, and many other things come into your existence that you have never felt on the archery range. It’s like practicing golf all your life on a driving range and the first time you get to actually tee off, you are on tv. It can be really nerve racking to the new bow hunter.
Nevertheless, it’s a huge triumph when you go hunting, whether or not you get a kill.
CYa
Doc
No. I think we agree. It’s not the mechanics that are so difficult, but as you say:
This is what makes it difficult. I suppose it must be the same for rifle or crossbow hunting, but that is far more mechanical than using a recurve. Missing outright is fine, but injuring your prey without killing it is pretty terrible. I would not want to take that chance unless I am confident enough in my marksmanship, which I think is harder with a recurve than with other instruments.
Not that anyone is likely to care, but I got a compound bow - a G5 Quest “Hammer”. This was months ago. I have been practicing with it a few times a week. I can consistently hit the kill zone on the deer targets from 20 yards, and the center circle on a paper target. (Not the bull’s eye, just the general circle area.) The bow is set to 45 pounds, which is very easy for me to draw, but I was told that it’s enough to kill a deer so I guess there’s no reason to make it any higher.
I do hope if you, your father or grandfather ever fall victim to a disability that someone is around to help them, since you appear to be someone that would not.
Hunting is for everyone. Young and old and disabled. Men and women. It’s the hunt that is the memory maker, not the kill. Maybe one day more people will realize this and have more memories to treasure than complaints about last years hunt?
Wishing you and yours the very best.
CYa
Doc
There is a kinetic chart on the web you can find and calculate the kinetic hitting power in terms of pounds that the arrow delivers to a deer.
Your compound bow set at 45 pounds with a 400 grain arrow, a good one, not some target arrow with a broad head, will end up delivering a 40 pound or more impact on the deer traveling at @ 225 feet per second. That’s a lot of mass hitting a deer at 50 feet or less and travels that distance in literally the blink of an eye.
If you shot placement is correct, you’ve got a deer.
My best to you and yours.
CYa
Doc
Doc says,
Injuring an animal and allowing it to go off and die a slow death is not hunting. I agree. The use of any type of archery really comes down to your use.
If you are going to stand hunt, anything will work. However loading a compound bow with an arrow, in most cases, requires the hunter to look away from the game. This is the first no no that I have when I hunt. Your eyes never lose the target. Here is why. When you see game and you keep your eye on it you naturally see openings coming up or that have just passed. Openings that you may or might have used to make a good kill shot.
With a compound bow, and I assume no one keeps one drawn back with an arrow nocked all the time waiting for game, you have to grab an arrow without dropping it from the blind, nock it, draw the string and then take aim again. Lots of movement where you can be seen.
With traditional hunting, stalk/wait/stalk/wait, using a recurve or reflex recurve you have an arrow nocked and are already prepared to draw and shoot while never losing sight of the game. This 10 or 15 second difference can actually mean the difference of a hit, a miss or even game running off due to being seen or a bad shot letting the prey run off and die a slow death. Not good.
Still hunting is great for any kind of bow but the recurve and reflex recurve are the simplest to draw and shoot and have been the sole tool for world archery, olympics included. There has to be a reason for it’s 5000 plus year survival.
It is not intended to imply that compound bows are not as good as recurve or that one should not shoot one. It’s a more complicated shoot. Evening and early morning shots may not have as much sunlight for pins to light up clearly enough to give one confidence in taking the shot. Do you want the light turned on all the time while waiting? Do you want to take additional time to turn it on (if you have a battery powered lighting system with your pin sight). With a recurve the whole horizon is lit up and you have a huge painting in front of you with a deer/game somewhere in the picture that your eyes never lose sight of.
Try it if you have not, you may gain a new friend in a recurve. Don’t quit shooting your compound if that’s what you like, but give the recurve a chance. You may be surprised at your natural talents and how quickly they will please you.
My best to you and yours.
CYa
Doc
Thank you. Well spoken. Once again, well spoken.
Dawn: "I told you, I don’t leave crossbows around all willy-nilly… Not since that time with Miss Kitty Fantastico.”
