Archery in a rifle dominated hunting world

[BoomerUSAF]

I’m the opposite. I grew up bow hunting. I used to be very passionate about it. But the only critters I’ve wounded were with my bow. I practiced every shot with my equipment. So I put the string and stick down and picked up my model 70 and never looked back. I felt like I was restricting myself at the cost of the critter. So I promised myself to never wound an animal again! I mean after all, what the hell am I out there for? Enduring the cold and wind to not bring home meat? I like to think of myself as a hunter. Growing up in MN, the average shot distance is sub 100 yards. Once I lived in SoDak, I started getting comfortable with further shots, none being over 400 yards.

To each their own, it seems. I enjoy processing meat almost as much as the pre-hunt planning. It seems like the cool thing now is to bow hunt, so I would agree with others, saying it’s not rifle-dominated rather archery-dominated right now!

 

[Elkmagnet]

Exact opposite for me... archery in a lot of CO units is up as much as 800%, some units are now 70% NR. Meanwhile rifle hunting is down.

Every bro from Utah to Florida wants to fling arrows at elk from 80 yards and then talk about how hard their dry/warm September hunt was, and post cute little photos of their hot tent.

I have a longbow, it's a blast to shoot, have zero desire to be in the woods with Chad and Dylan bugling off of every ridge.

MA same thing... dudes everywhere in tree saddles during archery, not a person in the woods during muzzy season.

Seems like a lot of us want to go against the grain, so net net it's the same thing method IMHO doesn't matter, but I think for millennials it's 80/20 bow to rifle.

I was really into bow hunting in the late 90's and into the 2000's sometime between 2015 and now archery changed it became the "cool" thing to do. Today I find myself wanting to rifle hunt more often it seems I can get away from the crowds better during rifle and I definitely have less "Bro's" to deal with.