Bowhunting Popularity

[S.Clancy]

Curious what everyone else is seeing. I'm in Montana and the last few years during bow season there are rigs everywhere. We still find/kill animals, but way more humans. However, after opening day of rifle season, no one to be seen in the same areas, which is awesome. I guess an excuse to wear all their sweet Sitka/Kuiu gear?

 

[Brendan]

My guess is it's a lot easier for someone with less experience or local knowledge to get it done in milder weather and during the rut. In my case - been to MT 3X in the last 5 years, and all three times it was the middle two weeks of September.

And, Bowhunting's just cooler...

 

[NorthEast]

Joe Rogan reaches over 16 million people per month and is huge bowhunting and healthy lifestyle advocate. This is an audience, at this scale, that has never been reached. It is on a rise for this reason.

 

[elkduds]

My guess is it's a lot easier for someone with less experience or local knowledge to get it done in milder weather and during the rut. In my case - been to MT 3X in the last 5 years, and all three times it was the middle two weeks of September.

Not in CO. Elk archery success rates are below 12% even though most tags are either sex. Rifle elk success rates are above 20% over all rifle seasons, w few either-sex tags.

 

[Coastiehunter2]

Maybe just hunting the elk rut? No better time.

 

[Nate_Beres]

Joe Rogan reaches over 16 million people per month and is huge bowhunting and healthy lifestyle advocate. This is an audience, at this scale, that has never been reached. It is on a rise for this reason.

A college buddy from San Diego just bought a bow and will be joining me next fall thanks to Joe Rogan.
Between all the private timber land closing access and I'm learning myself, I wouldn't mind if the number of hunters stayed the same.
I am aware that we are stronger in numbers though.

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[missjordan]

Seriously your preaching to the choir! Although it seems like after September 30th the crowds do a good job of disappearing too.


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[HookUp]

the archery boom in MT started over a decade ago.

http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/articles/2008/bowhunting.htm

 

[SWOHTR]

We still find/kill animals, but way more humans.

Phrasing!!!



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[Kevin Dill]

You might well laugh at this, but there was a time when swearing allegiance to a hunting bow was something akin to announcing for the priesthood and taking a celibacy vow. In those days we knew it meant lots of struggle and very few punched tags. We didn't encounter very many guys who were truly dedicated to bowhunting first and forever. Most hunters looked at bowhunting as too hard, too limiting and too likely to leave them with clean knives.

There's no question about bowhunting's explosion in basically every state. I recall 40+ years ago when it was fairly unusual to be a really dedicated bowhunter. These days it seems like fully 50% of big game hunters own and hunt with some form of archery tackle during the year. My belief is the advancements in technology combined with widespread knowledge (of animals, hunting techniques, and archery tackle) makes it at least 10 times easier for a guy to pick up the gear and be accurate...and then successful. The learning curve is now very short and not so steep. Toss in crossbows and compounds which are both routinely accurate to 50+ yards (or much farther for some) and it really opens a lot of doors.

Incidentally, ever consider what increased range means to a hunter's chances of killing with a bow? I shoot a longbow and my typical effective range is 20 yards which computes out to 1256 square yards of actual shot area from my position. This is just over 1/4 of an acre. A guy who routinely is accurate at 40 yards gets an area of 7852 square yards which is 6.25 times as much area (versus 20 yards) in which he is accurate. The few who can hit at 80 yards are covering 20,100 square yards and 16 times more shot area versus my longbow. By comparison a rifle hunter limiting himself to 200 yards is covering 125,640 square yards or 30 acres. No matter how you slice it, increased range equates to increased area and therefore increased opportunities to kill with accuracy. I think that's one obvious reason why modern archery is so attractive to people.

 

[SoDaky]

Right on.Ah for the old days!

 

[cnelk]

Even with the the so-called explosion of archery hunters, the success rates have barely wiggled.
That includes compounds and xbows.

 

[Bowhuntone]

Also with states like Montana where you can hunt both archery and rifle and not have to choose one method will increase the number of archery hunters because there isn't a penalty if you aren't successful in archery season you can just continue in rifle season. Obviously more beneficial to resident hunters than non resident due to travel time and expenses. And we all love more time in the woods which hopefully leads to increased opportunity.

 

[Antarctica]

I got my first bow when I was 18 (I'm 48 now). I came from a non-hunting, non-gun family (it just wasn't something they did), so it was the easiest path to going hunting. Getting a gun would have been met with much more resistance. That said, I think the reasons for bowhunting's explosion of growth on the east coast (which may influence growth elsewhere in the country) are for the following reasons, in order:

1) More seasons. Ditto this for Muzzleloader. In Maryland, there's about two weeks total time for 'firearms' season. If you bow hunt or use a muzzzlestuffer (or both), your season is 5 months long.
2) More places you can use it. I've never lived in an area that I can hunt with a rifle. Shotgun only in firearms (or ML or bow). The population density precludes use of a long range weapon (or at least that's what our commie legislators have decided). Also, the standoff distance to hunt from occupied structures is dropping in many populated areas. Here, with a gun, its 150 yards. Many counties have dropped it to 50 yards with a bow. Exploding deer populations are driving this. Standoff safety distance significantly affects what properties you can hunt in a populated area.
3) The performance of bows jumped dramatically with the compound. And its increased since. In Maryland, a crossbow is also now legal and considered a bow. People can get profiecient much more quickly than they could with a recurve back in the 70's.
4) Once people are drawn to it by 1 &2, and develop skills rather easily, by 3, they're more likely to want to use it in more situations.

That said, when I get out west, it will be with a rifle, mostly because I don't want to be fighting the heat with a kill down, trying to beat the spoilage clock. Same goes here in the east. Even if its archery season, I don't hunt unless the temps are down. Just no fun hunting in the heat.

 

[S.Clancy]

Phrasing!!!



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Yes...phrasing....

 

[Titan_Bow]

I think in particular to western mountain hunting, the podcasts and social media have been one of the biggest drivers. I live and hunt Colorado, and while there has been a steady increase in people at the trailhead opening day, what I have specifically noticed in the last two or three years is every out-of-state truck now has a Kifaru bumper sticker and various podcast bumper stickers along with their Sitka, Kuiu, and First Lite bumper stickers, AND they are going in deep and high in elevation. 5 or 10 years ago, I didn’t concern myself too much when I saw a bunch of nonresident trucks, because chances are, they were not going in that far off the trails. It seems in the last couple years that’s changed dramatically. (At least in the area I have been elk hunting)


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[mfllood3800]

As I watch other aspects of "Archery" getting more popular, I see it's not just limited to "Hunting" with a bow. Archery in general is seeing huge advancements in popularity. For instance Indoor and outdoor archery tournaments. Places like Redding, Ca, The Vegas Shoot, The Lancaster shoot.....

The Vegas shoot saw 3600 registered archers last year and expect more this year. People from all around the globe, or across the earth for you "flat earthers" out there are into it one way or another.

Archery in general is hot thing right now, so it makes sense hunting with a bow would also see increases in popularity

 

[Kevin Dill]

I can tell you with 100% certainty that Ohio's percentage of deer killed by archery has been increasing steadily since 1990. In 2012 archery kills matched the gun total and in subsequent years archery kills have actually exceeded gun kills here on a percent-of-total basis. Our ODNR says more nonresident deer hunters kill their deer with archery tackle here versus firearms, and that is way contrary to what it was in the 1980s when hardly any nonresidents (I'm talking substantial numbers) came here to bowhunt. Our region would explode with nonresidents in firearms season back then.

I will also hazard, without proof, that archery hunting is often far more acceptable to landowners, farmers and rural residents who hold much of the keys to productive hunting areas. Right or wrong, many people simply don't want guys with guns on their private property. I understand it, but don't agree with some of the reasons for it.

To me, it looks like archery hunting is so popular it's actually overtaking guns and exerting a downward influence on gun use here. I say this because our DNR has actually been taking steps to increase opportunities (and desire) for firearms users. An example is the relatively recent step of allowing straight-walled rifle cartridges/calibers during the general firearms season. The guy who once was limited to a smoothbore shotgun and maybe 100 yards of accuracy can now opt for a 300 yard cannon if he wishes. I support that by the way. But it's interesting to see archery grabbing a bigger piece of the pie.

 

[cnelk]

Based on what the OP posted, I was referencing 'Western Hunting' success rates.

 

[mitchellbk]

^ a nameless popular western hunting state

Personal observation: Almost all the rifle hunters I run into are older than me.

I'm not complaining!