WHY should you get into Bowhunting?
Tim Burnett: Okay. So, Chandler.
Chandler: Yeah.
Tim Burnett: Today I'm excited to start a new video series on becoming a bow hunter.
Chandler: Oh, wow.
Tim Burnett: Yeah. So we have a lot of new people in the shop that are new into hunting in general. And then there's also a lot of people getting into bow hunting that are hunters. And then there's a lot of people that are getting back into it. So we're going to start this little mini series. Don't know how many there will be, but we're going to go over why do you want to get into bow hunting? Or why should you get into bow hunting? Or why should you get back into bow hunting?
Chandler: Okay.
Tim Burnett: So Chandler, what are some reasons why a person should get into bow hunting?
Chandler: Because it's lot more fun than rifle hunting.
Tim Burnett: Okay.
Chandler: In my opinion.
Tim Burnett: Okay.
Chandler: It's just harder. I mean, the thrill of actually getting in close to something much better than sitting from far. I mean, realistically with rifle hunting, depending on the shooter, you could spot an animal and the hunt's pretty much over. Whereas I mean, spotting an animal's half the game, it's really just kind of beginning with archery. You got to still stalk in and that's where the main hunt is. Whereas again, with rifle hunting, a lot of guys can sit on a road and drive up and down all day and [inaudible 00:01:18] the road and be like, "Oh, there's a deer up there. Let's go kill it." And you're like go a couple hundred yards maybe and then you just shoot them from 500 yards. Whether the bow it's like, "Okay, can I actually get up there today?" "No, you probably can't." "Okay. Let's see if he does it again tomorrow, then we'll try to get ahead of him tomorrow." I think it's a lot more calculating. It's a lot more strategic than rifle hunting.
Tim Burnett: And I think that it kind of depends on the seasons. Right?
Chandler: Sure.
Tim Burnett: That's one of the things that I think is really cool about archery versus some of the gun hunts is the time of the year that the hunts actually take place. So here in Nevada, the bow hunts start really early. I mean, you got to go out there in August and September when the weather is awesome and you're going to be chasing deer and elk during those times, which is pretty cool. And then sometimes the archery seasons are later, so they're either post rut or sometimes, a lot of times in the Midwest, they're during the rut.
Chandler: Yeah.
Tim Burnett: And you don't always get those opportunities during the rifle hunts. It seems like they issue the rifle hunts in the absolute crappiest time to hunt deer or elk and that. So those animals are a little bit different. So I think bow hunting early season is awesome. I think bow hunting late season is awesome. So the weather's nice. The days are long so you can get in a lot of activities. A lot of the hunts that I go on, I'll throw in my fly rod and I'll be able to do some fishing, go to the hot pots, do whatever you got to do. It's just you have a lot of time in the day during that time of the year. There's other recreational activities that a person can do. And I feel, to me, it seems like there's fewer people in the woods. Like that time of year, versus a gun hunt.
Chandler: There's definitely less tags.
Tim Burnett: Yeah. And I don't know if it's just that there's less people out in general, but there's generally less bow hunters than there are gun hunters. In some cases there's actually more archery tags than there are gun tags in some areas.
Chandler: Yeah, absolutely.
Tim Burnett: So that's actually one of the other points that I wanted to go over was the opportunities with archery versus that. And then also August, September, October, November, December, if you've got coworker situations, a lot of your coworkers want to take time off during the summer, spring and summer to do summer activities. So maybe that frees up a little bit of your time in the fall, unless you happen to work in a bow shop or somewhere else where everybody wants to take off at that same time.
Chandler: Why don't we just close?
Tim Burnett: Yeah.
Chandler: We just close the shop.
Tim Burnett: That's what we need to do.
Chandler: They got to understand. We're hunters too.
Tim Burnett: We need to get in the habit of closing the doors. Yeah. So I think that's really cool is the time of year with it. Wildlife behavior is way different.
Chandler: Yeah. Now, that is very true. Yes.
Tim Burnett: Way different. So what do you see difference during ... I guess you said you don't [crosstalk 00:03:55].
Chandler: I'm not a huge rifle. I mean, I've gone and I've done it, but it's not something I want to do. It's just I have no drive. I don't even put in for rifle tags. Unless that's the only tag is any legal weapon, then that's what I put in for. But other than that, it's all archery.
Tim Burnett: The thing that I see that's different is that, and we'll talk mule deer for a second, is mule deer in August and early September they're kind of lazy. They're not really focused on survival as much.
Chandler: No.
Tim Burnett: They're more visible. They're out in the open. They're in the velvet. You see them in the mornings and in the evenings. I feel like they're a lot more approachable until you bump them that first time. Once you bump them the first time than it's tough.
Chandler: See, I feel like they're easier to see in the winter because you have snow everywhere.
Tim Burnett: That's the other one.
Chandler: Right? So they're darker and they're out. And the other thing is they're out in the sun. Whereas in the summer, they're up underneath the aspens. They're just like five foot outside that aspens because they don't want to be rubbing their velvet but they're still trying to find that shade. Again, they're all lazy. They're just laying there in the shade, waiting for that sun to go down and then all of a sudden move down to the water. But I feel like for me personally, in winter, what I've seen is like deer up and moving throughout the day.
Tim Burnett: Late season is the other awesome time to hunt deer. The rifle hunts are usually in October, which is crap because they've just shed their velvet. They're getting a little bit angry with each other. Their testosterone levels, they're in the thicks. It's a lot harder. So I feel like during the rifle season is a terrible time to hunt deer, but maybe that's why it's still hard even though you've got a rifle in your hands.
Chandler: Yeah.
Tim Burnett: Elk, same way. The bow hunts generally take place during the rut, which is when you want to be in the elk woods. That's when you want to see and be around elk, just because they're vocal. So that's awesome. A lot of the gun hunts are generally later.
Tim Burnett: So here a couple of key points here real quick. We don't want to make this too long. There's sometimes more opportunities to get a tag, so there's fewer bow hunters. And then a lot of the draws are higher draw odds. So I was actually able to here in Nevada to draw, this was the first year they did the archery only sheep tags, and I was able to draw one of those tags and was the first ram killed with a bow on the bow only, archery only hunts. So that increased the odds traumatic.
Chandler: Yeah. And that one's a huge one too. Because realistically, there's guys who never draw that tag and that just opens the door wide open for a lot of guys. Because a lot of guys who have a lot of points, I mean you are gambling it.
Tim Burnett: Yep.
Chandler: When you have, I mean, however many points you had, a lot of people don't want to risk that. It's one thing to go out there in any legal weapon and go, "Well, I'm going to take my bow." Right? And then you're like, "Oh, Hey, I've got this many days so I'm going to go four or five days with my bow." And then all of a sudden like, "Oh, I'm not getting close enough. I'm going to shoot them with a rifle." But to know that you only have a bow, for a lot of guys it's too high at risk and they won't take it.
Tim Burnett: Yeah. Yep.
Chandler: So that opens up for a lot of guys, for sure.
Tim Burnett: It does.
Chandler: That's a big one.
Tim Burnett: It does. Some of the other things here real quick. Wildlife intimacy, it's fun to get up close. You force yourself to get in with the animals. You force yourself to spend more time on the mountain. Again, the weather's generally pretty nice during that time of year. So there's a lot of reasons to just get in tight and close and just live in the wild more so than ... When I go on a rifle hunt a lot of times I just think, "Oh, I just got to see them. I just got to find them. If I find them then it's over."
Chandler: See, that's the problem with it.
Tim Burnett: So you're hunting differently.
Chandler: That's just the problem with it.
Tim Burnett: Yeah. And then I throw in the cameras into the mix and I hunt totally differently from that point too. So get closer to wildlife. You're living in their environment. You tend to move slower and quieter so you see more. You spend more time sitting and listening so you can feel more. You're just absorbing everything a lot more. And I think at that point too, whether you're doing tree stand hunting for bears or for deer or anything else, you get to see their behavior. They're acting in a way that's unintrusive. You're not bumping them. They're acting more natural, which I think is really fun. And then there's pride and accomplishment behind it, which I think is really fun.
Chandler: Absolutely. That one's a big one.
Tim Burnett: I think that's a huge one for me.
Chandler: Yeah. Again, I think goes back to what I was saying earlier. You just put a lot more time. Well, you should put a lot more time into it. Again, you can go out, confirm a doe card really quickly and say, "Yep, these are good," after five shots. You do that with a bow, you're going to be probably pretty rough. It takes some time. It takes a lot of focus to really be really repeatable and repeat everything back and forth and being almost as close as to a robot as you can. And actually putting the time in to figure out what is my arrow going to do at this when I'm shooting at like these angles. And when I'm sidehilling am I actually truly traveling true or is my axis off in my sites? There's a lot of intricacies that goes into the bow and the setup as well as the hunt when it comes to archery. Whereas with rifle, I don't like it. You're not that connected to it.
Tim Burnett: And that leads into what we're going to talk about next time, which Chandler didn't know because I just sprung this on him this morning.
Chandler: Yeah. He had a notepad, everybody. I didn't. I literally walked in here this morning, he said, "Put this mic on," and then got to have this conversation.
Tim Burnett: That's right. If I've gave you notes, you'd have been-
Chandler: Yeah. I'd been more prepared and probably not sound like a dumb ass.
Tim Burnett: Well, it's all part. That's all part of it. But I'm excited to bring this to you. I think I've got some really good ideas and notes jotted down. And that's the next thing that we'll step into. We wanted to talk to today a little bit about why you should get into archery, why you should get into bow hunting? And then on some of the next videos, we're going to talk about actually how, how to get into bow hunting, how to get into an archery setup? And what Chandler is really good about in qualifying somebody that walks in the door and just getting them set up perfect so they can be as confident as they can be.
Chandler: Definitely try.
Tim Burnett: All right. Thank you.