If I had discovered archery in high school, I probably would have spent my life bow hunting, but at 38, the first piece of archery equipment I bought was a compound bow, and I loved it. I appreciate the aesthetics, physical and mental challenges of a vertical bow, and I respect the work it takes to dial in and stay sharp with a compound bow, and beyond that a traditional one, but therein lies the rub.
You have to practice. You have to be able to practice… or at least I do, a few times a week, to feel like I could pick up a bow at any moment and make a lethal first shot… and as a dad with three young kids who lives in the suburbs, I just don’t have the time. I still might aspire to hunt with a vertical bow one day, though for now, I am perfectly happy to shoot my crossbow, despite the flack it gets from people for whom bowhunting is an identity and not a means to an end (albeit a cool one). For me, it’s sheer practicality.
Living where I live, constrained in my inability to practice archery in my backyard, there is no shortage of archery-only hunting opportunities on public land for white-tailed deer and turkeys. Except for the odd muzzleloader or shotgun, virtually all hunting in the suburban and even proximate rural areas, is limited to archery equipment, and so to enjoy and take advantage of what’s around, shooting a bow of some kind is a must.
As I began hunting with a compound I had these realizations as I came tantalizingly close to tagging a deer, but ultimately failed. I was getting close enough, but I just couldn’t rely on my ability to use the gear, especially as I was trying to modify it to suit my developing needs and understanding. Though I knew that a crossbow could potentially be easier to get dialed in, I had never considered one, I guess for aesthetic reasons, until I picked up a Ravin R26 one day as a bow tech worked on my compound. It was light and handy. It seemed futuristic.
When my desire to harvest a deer overcame my desire to master the pursuit of archery, I finally got a Barnett Whitetail Hunter STR that I used almost immediately to take my first doe as an independent hunter. At the time I was still entertaining the idea of ultimately using the compound bow. When I gave that up, I got the Excalibur Mag 340 that I use today. I liked the Barnett- it is smooth and accurate- but it is front heavy, and I had dreams of spot-and-stalking into bedding areas (fueled by my early luck finding deer). The Mag 340 is from Excalibur’s micro line of recurve crossbows, making it both somewhat compact and easy to understand and maintain.
The Mag has been rock solid, and building out the platform (bolts, broad-heads, nocks, shooting sticks, a cheek rest, etc.) has been an educational process. Though it took several years of trial and error, I believe I have a reliable tool for archery hunting, and I have taken three deer with it so far, including my first small buck, and the first deer I took on public land. I look forward to using it for years to come.
I’ll wrap it up by saying this about horizontal bows- State game agencies appreciate that these methods of hunting have comparable rates of success. Regular people appreciate that they present comparable (limited) risks to adjacent properties. Only people who shoot vertical bows and base their identity on it differentiate crossbows from other archery equipment by the level of difficulty and dedication required. No one else cares about how much harder a bow is to shoot. I want to hunt, and harvest deer. I’m just using the best tool I can to get the job done.