Who taught you to bowhunt?

[Stateline]

A friend of mine is an outstanding bowhunter. He religiously kills huge bulls in Wyoming on public land archery hunts, and quite often here in Idaho, too. He passes up large 6 points on a regular basis (some of which I've seen videos he's taken) that guys like me would love to just see, let alone pass up. This year he added a 210+ mulie buck to his archery wall. He is outstanding, and yet very humble. As I congratulated him on another great year, he simply said, "I've had some great teachers." Well, that got me to thinkin'.................I'm basically a first generation archery elk hunter. I never had anyone to teach me the tricks-of-the-trade first hand. My hunting buddies are the same as me, and we're learning a lot (I think), but our success is a very small degree of this individual I'm talking about. His family, on the other hand, are avid archers and have been for several generations. Those (father, uncles, brother) are the teachers he referred to. Thankfully to people like me there are "Elknuts" and others out there that are willing to share info with us. Thank you!
Now to my question.............if you want to add to my little survey...........are you a first generation archer (like myself), or did you have mentors in line in front of you. If so, how much credit would you give them for your success? How much success did they have before you? For those of you like myself, what has been the single thing that taught you the most as you've strived to learn this crazy thing called elk hunting? My hope is to learn what I can so that my 2 sons (and beyond) can maybe say that they "had some good teachers" someday! Thankfully I did get the first one under my belt this year. May it be the first of many. Thank you again to those of you out there that share!! Great website Paul!!

[cnelk]

My dad taught me how to bowhunt, or hunt overall.

The below pic was taken circa 1968.
I remember sitting in an old jackpine tree one evening and this doe came out.
After the shot I was the one who got to do the blood trailing and I remember finding her

That was a long, long time ago...

[ctdad]

Dad taught me to hunt but he didn't bow hunt. My neighbor when I was a kid helped me learn to shoot a bow. Learning how to bow hunt was a process that I can't really credit to any one person but I have many to thank including many of you on this forum

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

Well, my dad got me into bowhunting, but he and my grandpa mostly taught me how to hunt with a rifle. The bowhunting I've learned for myself. This year I finally shot a bull. I would argue that finding animals is the tough part. Pulling the act together to yield a shot is mainly learned through hard knocks in my opinion.

[mandrroofing]

I taught myself,my brother's liked to rabbit ,frog hunt and fish.there was just something about the the challenge of bow hunting that sounded Awsome and boy was I right.now I'm teaching my kids and they love it!they don't hunt yet but I to take them out ever year and set in the blind or what ever.we shed hunt and mushroom hunt.I want my kids to enjoy the outdoors as I do.I believe anyone can love the outdoors if introduced properly

[mtnmutt]

First generation bowhunter. I don't really have any hunters in my family. Only fisherman.

Mentors: mostly ElkNut forum.

I have not gotten my first game animal yet. However, this season, I had 5 bow range big game (2 elk, 3 mulies) encounters versus my past average of one per season. I have hunted 4 elk seasons and 1 deer season.

[Jaquomo]

Nobody - my dad liked fishing but was never really a hunter. I learned on my own, with a couple friends. Started bowhunting when I was 17. Back then there were no videos, no internet, no bowhunting magazines, only a small local archery shop in the basement of an outdoors store where some older guys with more experience would sometimes amaze us with stories of actually killing a big game animal with a bow.

We learned everything by trial and error, mostly the latter.

[Elkduds]

My dad's best friend and hunting buddy Sam was archery hunting before I was born (195x). He had "progressed" to shotguns for birds by the time I was old enough to join the annual Kansas bird hunts he and Dad did for 30 years. He was my inspiration, though he never advised me about archery.
I had fun shooting stick bows at scout camp, then got a compound in about 1985 and began applying my rifle hunting experience (thanks, Dad) to chasing deer with a bow, around Crested Butte. All self-taught. Have you ever seen camo spandex? Some diehard bowhunters had that, most of us had surplus camo or none, back in the day.

[>>>---WW---->]

I don't have anyone to blame for my bowhunting addiction but myself. I suppose I was about 7-8 years old when I cut a limb from an osage orange hedge row and tied a carpenter chalk line on it for a string. I used horse weeds for arrows. Been doing it ever since. When I finally graduated to whitetails, I sad on the limb of a white oak tree for my first deer. No one had even thought about such a thing as tree stands back in those days.

I'm self taught and from the school of hard knocks. Learned a lot from my mistakes and still learning. I kinda like sharing what I've picked up over the years with others. Now days we have TV, books, and the internet to teach us. I still think the old school of hard knocks was a better way to learn!

[Z Barebow]

Tough to answer.

My dad took me hunting, but he only liked shooting rabbits with the 22. (Which is fun!). I wanted to hunt birds, so I got a shotgun. (Bolt action .410). Migrated to a 20 guage in High School. My dad was never a big game hunter either. But I bought a bow around 16 years old. I would describe my early experiences as taking my bow on long walks much more than "bowhunting". After college my first job out of school was in southern MN. The only way to deer hunt around there was with a bow, unless you had family. Farmers wouldn't let you gun hunt, but some would let you bowhunt. (They had family or established parties who already hunted their land with slugs). I met a few people who knew the finer points of bowhunting deer, but for the most part, self taught and school of hard knocks.

As far as bowhunting elk, it is the elk part (and the country they live in,,, and don't live in!) which I has me on the biggest learning curve right now.

[Swede]

Dad loved hunting, but wanted nothing to do with a bow. He got me into the outdoors a lot, and I learned to love the forest from his mentoring. Dad was an excellent logger, but he never really understood hunting. Fortunately, years ago, you could be successful by just going out and looking for game. I believe it was easier then. To be honest I learned the skills of hunting , especially bow hunting from reading and by trial and error. As Jaquomo commented, mostly from the errors I made. I learned a lot the year I went to Tucson, and went to the PSE dealers school and shooters school. That sure helped me become a better over all archer.

[Olympus hunt]

I learned from my dad. He made a ton of mistakes and I was able to see what not to do. LOL.

Actually....a funny story. The very first year he took me bowhunting we saw a herd way off in the distance and we snuck up around them to set up. Mysteriously, the entire herd suddenly erupted and took off. It sounded like a freight train rolling through the timber. I was below my dad and I came running back to him, wide eyed, asking him what happened. Why did they spook? We talked about the situation and I told him I saw a HUGE bull below me. Dad says....you realize if you were seeing him, he probably was seeing YOU! I felt kinda sheepish at that moment. Oooooops.
I got quite the education on their senses that year. Evidentally elk have eyes too!

[AmericanBwana]

Al Gore! He invented the internet didn't he?

Oh, seriously, mainly self taught, leveraging traditional media, and internet forums.

Bullnuts, and WW have been very helpful (met on another forum site). In fact Bullnuts allowed me to be part of his camp one year. Great teacher, and pretty darned patient. By the end of the week I was calling in elk every trip out.

Now going out of my way to help teach the next generation. I've actually learned more as a mentor / teacher over the last few years than on my own the previous 10 years or so.

AB

[WapitiTalk1]

My dad taught me how to hunt and how not to get myself in trouble in the mountains. He was a rifle hunter for the most part. Way back when my dad was a young hunter, bow hunting was only a small niche sport. I guess this can be contributed to the generous hunting seasons in MT in the 60s, 70s. No reason really to hunt with a bow when you're mainly concerned with knocking down meat for the year when you get to hunt with any weapon from early SEP into NOV. I remember him telling me he and my uncle used to call elk by whistling in a dirty thirty shell .. Ahh, those were the days. I picked up my first bow while in high school in the late 70s. It was a Darton SL50 if I remember correctly. Dad started bow hunting a bit after that point and I would call for him and my older brother. We had some success but I had a long way to go to be proficient.. Come to think of it, I still have a long way to go, LOL. So I guess I'm more of a self taught bow hunter who's father taught me the basics of hunting.

[Indian Summer]

Completely self taught. I think one of the biggest hurdles for new hunters is the fact that many are not first woodsmen. When I grew up there were only really two places you could find my brother and I: In the woods or in the creeks. The only stuff on television other than the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour that interested us was Grizzly Adams and Daniel Boone. There was no such thing as hunting shows or internet. Imagine that! I did tons of reading.

By the time I was old enough to hunt I already knew every deer trail in the woods surrounding our house in Pa. Obviously there was still a lot to learn but the fact that I was completely at home out there helped a lot.

The other day someone asked me how long I've been shooting a bow. At the age of 48 the answer is 42 years. My mother was a target shooter and as soon as we could pick up fiberglass stick bows we were 100% success on milk jugs in the back yard.

It took a long time to become an accomplished hunter though. I can't remember how old I was when I took my first deer, a doe. But I was 21 when I shot my first buck. I guess if you go that long without punching a tag and still have an interest you must have been born a hunter huh? No question I was.

These days I pass on a lot of animals. I love the satisfaction of letting them go to grow. I have nothing to prove and I'm running out of space on the walls too so I just enjoy my time out there and hope each day brings something interesting or unique. That can be anything from just seeing elk or deer to seeing a lion or wolf which most people may never see. Maybe watching animals of any species interact.

Time in the woods hunting is also time to think. To evaluate or reevaluate life's priorities. It makes me cringe when I hear people refer to hunting as a sport. The word sport means there's some kind of competition going on which couldn't... or SHOULDN'T be further from the truth. Hobby may be a better choice of words. To me it's a way of life. I think the fact that it involves taking a life separates it from other activities that people take part in. Also that we provide food for ourselves in the process.

[ORelksniper]

My Dad and Grandpa taught me to shoot, how to hunt, and how to be comfortable and at peace in the mountains. Those were the days when mule deer were seemingly behind every tree. We ate a lot of venison. I started bow hunting a few years after my tour in the Army. Bought a recurve, some arrows, and a book called "Zen and the Art of Archery". My first three years I killed 3 elk and 2 bucks...and then reality set in. As my archery equipment has evolved my success has not kept pace. Not what I would expect, but then again, hunting is not what it use to be in my neck of the woods.

[stringunner]

My dad for sure. Been following him in the woods since I could walk. He is 100% bowhunter. I have learned a great deal on these forums and through various books as well. And then just by being out there and getting it done. First hand experience is one of the best ways to learn.

[Broken arrow]

My father taught me to shoot. We had lots of bows growing up. My father and grandfather worked for York archery. Learned to bowhunt on my own (dad was a wingshooter) Took me 5 years to take my first whitetail with a bow.

[JJ Overkill]

ive always been into the outdoors. I was big into fishing as a kid. my dad had taken me out hunting a few times. I went out a few times with a family friend but nothing really serious. when I turned 14 I could hunt by myself. that's when it all began for me. Ive hunted all that time with a rifle. a couple yrs ago I found I wanted something a little more challenging and decided to pick up a bow. the first yr with it I shot a smaller 3x4 whitetail in MN. that following yr I decided to go on my first elk hunt, and went archery. I missed a good cow that yr and blanked out on deer. ( lost my deer drive after being out west) I learned tons of my hunting knowledge from blown encounters with deer. when it comes to elk ive gotten lots of help to get me up to speed. elknut, trophyhill, phantom16, and a guy known as GSelkhunter on another forum. Mr GS has taught me the most overall. hunting with him is like taking an exam while in the woods. Hes always asking me questions about what I see and don't see. ive heard people say forget everything you know about deer hunting when going after elk, but sign is still sign and reading it, interpreting it are the same. but the calling is the part of the game I love.

as far as bow hunting goes, once I started I got hooked bad. ive turned into a bow techy. im always looking at how to change my setup and improve on what I have. once I find I cant fine tune it anymore, I get someone in the family a new bow to play with its hard making a great shooting bow better. im always looking at ways to make things better, broad head arrow setup, vane helical, vane length, fletching styles, 3 fletched or 4. its a bad addiction

[pointysticks]

i dont think i've learned how to bowhunt yet..so the answer is "nobody".

ive only been trying since 2008. i havent taken that much.

[pikemaster]

I have a couple people that helped me out along the way. One being my dad he taught me a lot about hunting and fishing. As soon as he would let me go I was tagging a long learning everything I could. It's amazing the stuff I still use that he taught me when I was 12-13 years old. The other is cnelk I have known Brad for 16 plus years we have been on many hunting and fishing trip together. I learned most of my elk calling tactics from him.

[flystrait]

I started picking up a bow around 23 years ago. The only hunter on both sides of my family was my grandfather, I can't remember a lot about him as he past away when I was around 8 years old. I met several people over the years that have given tips along the way being the archery shops etc. But ultimately It's been many years of long walks with my bow that I have learned the most. I still do that occasionally I find bow hunting very humbling and rewarding at the same time for many different reasons, It's part of who I am. I will always bow hunt until the day it is not possible. As the years have passed I have been passing any knowledge I can to my son and at 16 years old he is light years to where I was. So If he is on a forum such as this years down the road and the same question is asked a little part of me would like to see him say his Dad!

[Glacier Country]

I had a Grandad that was widely known as an excellent rifle shot. Hunting to him was different though. Go to the neighbors farm. Shoot the first legal buck, be home by noon. I think he mostly went because of me. He taught me gun safety, and I shot birds and rabbits at the farm as a kid growing up. Looking back I can't say anyone person taught me to hunt. I just picked up little things reading magazines and renting videos. I had a friend in high school that bow hunted with his dad and so I wanted a bow so that I might get to bow hunt with them. I ended up getting a bow and getting permission to hunt Whitetails on the river, so I never actually got to bow hunt with my friend Scott. I shot my first whitetail that first season with my bow on the ground. I have learned a lot of things from alot of different guys along the way but I, met some fantastic elk bow hunters back when I was in high school. Some of them made annual bow hunts for elk and the stories of calling them in just seemed cool. My dad had some sort of a curly elk whistle I liked to mess with when I was about 10 or 12 so maybe that, and the stories of calling in elk, is why I was so drawn to elk calling. I learned about using a mouth call from Danny Moore and Glen Berry way back then. So I learned how to call and then just kept messing up on elk and asking questions of the guys who seemed to know more than I did. So a lot of self teaching with some help from various guys along the way is how I learned.

[easeup]

no mentor here either. just learned from a lifetime of mistakes.
I never picked up a bow until I was 48. But it sure has stuck and has been great fun.

Even as an old grey hair, I am still learning from everyone who posts here.

as far as shooting a bow, I think the single best thing I did to get to be a better shot was entering 3D tournies. that was a big eye opener for me.

[ishy]

First was my Dad, like a lot of us he was a rifle guy. We did always have bows around when we were younger. We spent a lot of time in the desert calling predators. I think it saved our relationship as we spent endless hours out calling. Then at 14 while scouting for an upcoming rifle hunt we were in one of limited entry units on September 15th and had one of "those" mornings where the canyon was lit up: nonstop bugling, antlers crashing, hooves thundering all around. I havn't been the same since. Sports and school were a priority, but archery was now it for me. From then till mid twenties everything was selflearning. Got some great learning living in Jackson Hole for a year, and working for an outfitter for a couple. Then I actually got a number from a friend for a guy that might have been avalaible to help me pull out my first bull...he wasn't available, but I got the bull out anyway. Later we finally got together and have learned a lot of the archery basics that I had skipped. We spend countless hours all summer tweeking this and that, pouring over maps, and shooting trying to improve and keep learning anything to get better.

[Stateline]

Great pic cnelk! Thanks for the replies. Surprisingly enough, most of you are self taught. That gives me hope that I may catch on to this yet. I too grew up hunting deer with my rifle. Dad was (and still is) a crackshot. He taught me so much about hunting, but it was southern Idaho open country that you could "push" game out in the open at times. This elk hunting in thick timber and brush is quite a different animal. It's almost like starting over at square one. What an awesome experience though. I live in some prime country now where I can literally listen to elk bugle and watch them from my back lawn. A guy can't ask for much more. Just need to learn more and build up my confidence. Thank you all for giving me hope.

[elkmtngear]

My Dad taught me to shoot...I was 4 years old with the little yellow fiberglass recurve, circa 1965.

I taught myself to bowhunt...killed my first buck at 15, a 3x3 blacktail, spot and stalk. I got much more serious about it after that.

I've learned a lot from some really great bowhunters over the years, but I'm mainly self-taught.

[Mojostylee24]

Well, I would like to say I am self-taught...more like I have learned what not to do by myself! I also am thankful for internet forums like these (especially this one ). Without all of your shared knowledge I dont think I would have the gumption to even try to learn to bowhunt.

THANK YOU Elknuts!

-Mojo

[Vanish]

This is a tough question for me to answer. I learned about hunting from my grandfather and father, but I wouldn't say they taught me.

My father has hunted for over 40 years, mostly whitetails, mostly gun season but also archery, and we talk hunting a lot during hunting season, but I never really felt like he taught me how to hunt. When I was old enough, he took me to the hunter's safety course, gave me a slug shotgun and turned me loose. I've never once hunted with him. Sometimes I read stories of families hunting together and the joy they share, and I understand them because I've been there teaching my wife, but it wasn't like that with my father. I can remember getting my first buck with a gun and running over to tell him, and his reaction was akin to "how am I supposed to shoot anything with you down below my treestand?" He's a bit better in that regard these days.

1999, I bought my first and only bow. We would practice together, but hunting we would go our separate ways. I scouted my own territory. Built my own blinds. I managed to break my collar bone a week before the season opened, but still went out every weekend.

Then I went to college in Chicago. I skipped the first hunting season, and I hated it. From that point on I always flew home for the annual deer gun season. I didn't own a car and none of my college buddies hunted. Oddly enough, considering we didn't hunt physically together, hunting by myself out of state never even crossed my mind, it was something I did with family. So for 5 or 6 years my bow sat in the closet.

I moved back to NY in 2006 after convincing my boss to let me work remotely. This is when I really started to get into bowhunting. I took my first archery buck on the last evening I had planned to hunt that year. For the 2007 season, I realized I could hunt the land behind my house, not just the weekends at my father's cabin. I spent portions of over 30 days in the field, mostly 90 minute stints near dark, hunting that year. I ended up missing a P&Y buck in the wide open, misjudging the range in the waning light. Western hunters will giggle at this, but the big thing I learned was it WAS possible to spot & stalk deer, something nobody I knew did.

2011 was my first season in Colorado. The whole tag system bewildered me, but I knew we were residents and could buy OTC Archery Elk tags. I didn't know then, and I still don't know first hand any archery elk hunters outside of our little group. Everything I have learned about elk, I have learned from these boards and the hard way.

First buck ... not nearly as old of a photo as cnelk's

[Trophyhill]

i'm learning as I go. dad never hunted and as far as I know I'm the only one of all my relatives that hunts. started Bowhunting in '08 and it's been a great ride so far.

[easeup]

hey vanish,
great story of yours and thanks for sharing the honest truth.
there have got to be others out there saying,,........look at that guy, if he can do it, I should try also.

[ElkNut1]

I'm self taught. Started out with a recurve at 10 years old. Never killed anything for man y years, it was a pretty tough road to hoe as I was amongst non hunters my entire child hood. I turned that around though! (grin) I've taught my kids to hunt & enjoy every minute with them still, at least the ones that want to hunt.

ElkNut1

[NCelkhtr]

My Grandpaw is who taught me, dragging me though the woods and trout streams since I was old enough to walk. The day i got my first bow he was out holding a spot light in his back yard until 10pm cause i was so excited and didnt want to stop shooting.