The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Why get a gun? Go to Australia and go after the ferals with a Bow and Arrow.
http://www.bowhunterslodge.com/

or just go to Spain http://www.hunttripspain.com/bow_huntin ... unting.htm

Get nice and close, make sure it's a good heart/lung shot and don't move until it has stopped!

I remember a NZ bow hunter telling me he learnt the hard way about keeping still. He got a clean shot through the heart and lungs of the pig and then in his words,
"I had my head up my a**e, that day. As soon as I shot it, I went to have a look and the bugger saw me. I thought my tree climbing days where over, until saw that big b*st*rd charging towards me. I went up that tree faster, than a rat up a drain pipe!"

Whether it was true or not, I don't know, but I did see the scars from when he was hunting boar with a rifle. He slid down a small slope and landed amongst some piglets. The sow caught him on the ground and gored his leg and he was only able to use his hunting knife on the sow. He said when he was found, his mates said he was barely conscious and still stabbing it even though it was quite dead. After that, he decided to call it a day with the pigs - twice was enough.

Unless you hunt it with a knife, it's about a close as you and the boar are going to be on equal footing. :-P

I do have a nice long bow with which I can hit score to within a minute of goblin at 150 yards but sadly hunting with bows is illegal in the UK as apparently they aren't powerful enough. There's many a deer would testify otherwise, ditto over 250,000 frogs, but that counts for little in these times...

meles meles wrote:I do have a nice long bow with which I can hit score to within a minute of goblin at 150 yards but sadly hunting with bows is illegal in the UK as apparently they aren't powerful enough. There's many a deer would testify otherwise, ditto over 250,000 frogs, but that counts for little in these times...

Minute of goblin :lol: Mind you at 150yds you should going for the mens Olympic comp that's only 100yds.

I thought it was a combination of welfare and poaching concerns that makes bow hunting illegal in the UK?

Ah yes, but in the Olympics they use modern carbon fibre bows with wheels and pulleys and all sorts of modern trickery. A true now is nothing but a hefty yew stick strung with a length of hemp or flax cord propelling a quarter pound of birch, iron and goose feather...

meles meles wrote:Ah yes, but in the Olympics they use modern carbon fibre bows with wheels and pulleys and all sorts of modern trickery. A true now is nothing but a hefty yew stick strung with a length of hemp or flax cord propelling a quarter pound of birch, iron and goose feather...

Compound bows aren't allowed in the Olympics and I was wrong about the distance it's 70m (75yds).

Given the Olympics target is 122cm you are doing very well out to 150yds. Even at my hunting best, I was only able to keep my 6 arrows between the gold and the black at 70m.

What poundage are you drawing? Unless, you're quoting ancient text, a quarter of a pound (113.5 grams/1750grains) is a bit excessive for a modern day "traditionial" bow, drawing between 30 and 75lb?

30 to 75 lbs?

*snorts with derision*


We're talking about a proper bow, ooman. A warbow.

What of the bow?

The bow was made in England:
Of true wood, of yew wood,
The wood of English bows;
So men who are free
Love the old yew tree
And the land where the yew tree grows.

What of the cord?
The cord was made in England:
A rough cord, a tough cord,
A cord that bowmen love;
So we'll drain our jacks
To the English flax
And the land where the hemp was wove.

What of the shaft?
The shaft was cut in England:
A long shaft, a strong shaft,
Barbed and trim and true;
So we'll drink all together
To the gray goose feather
And the land where the gray goose flew.

What of the men?
The men were bred in England:
The bowman--the yeoman--
The lads of dale and fell
Here's to you--and to you;
To the hearts that are true
And the land where the true hearts dwell.

Sandgroper wrote:Why get a gun? Go to Australia and go after the ferals with a Bow and Arrow.
http://www.bowhunterslodge.com/

or just go to Spain http://www.hunttripspain.com/bow_huntin ... unting.htm

Get nice and close, make sure it's a good heart/lung shot and don't move until it has stopped!

I remember a NZ bow hunter telling me he learnt the hard way about keeping still. He got a clean shot through the heart and lungs of the pig and then in his words,
"I had my head up my a**e, that day. As soon as I shot it, I went to have a look and the bugger saw me. I thought my tree climbing days where over, until saw that big b*st*rd charging towards me. I went up that tree faster, than a rat up a drain pipe!"

Whether it was true or not, I don't know, but I did see the scars from when he was hunting boar with a rifle. He slid down a small slope and landed amongst some piglets. The sow caught him on the ground and gored his leg and he was only able to use his hunting knife on the sow. He said when he was found, his mates said he was barely conscious and still stabbing it even though it was quite dead. After that, he decided to call it a day with the pigs - twice was enough.

Unless you hunt it with a knife, it's about a close as you and the boar are going to be on equal footing. :-P

in Aussi they use dogs and a knife! unlikely to be accepted here tho Google NSW

Kenny,
And the dogs even get body armour!

Badger,
Are you saying you're shooting a 120-150lb warbow? The type of bow that took years of training and practice to build up to? The bowman able to draw such could be identified from his skeleton because of the way his body grew during the years of training and practice.

Is this that what you are saying?

I starting shooting when I was 15 and shot virtually daily until about 19 and I could only ever manage a draw weight of 60lbs from a hunting style recurve.

Hats off to you, because if that's the case, you're someone who hasn't been seen in these isles for a long time!"

There's far more to drawing a 100 + lb bow than simply brute strength. Most people take hold of the bow in their left hand, raise it to eye level whilst holding it in front of them at arm's length, then try and pull the string back. That may work for recurve and compound bows but not for any half decent long or war bow. A real archer will stick his arrows in the ground by his side and nock them by placing the string across them where they stand. He'll then take hold of the string in his right hand and pull it back towards his cheek as he raises and levels the bow, pushing forward with his left hand and thereby uses his shoulder and back muscles to draw rather than his arms. If done properly in a smooth movement, the bow will come on aim just as the right hand reaches the right ear and the arrow is then loosed. Some six seconds later and three to four hundred yards distant a frog will be magically converted to a porcupine. A skilled archer can loose 12 arrows a minute for three to four minutes, then drops down to around six arrows a minute as his muscles tire. A good warbow, of 150 + lbs pull, will only last for about 60 shots anyway afore it too is shot out. At Agincourt, Crecy, Poitiers and so on the real problem was maintaining a supply of arrows and fresh bows to the archers at the front.

Ah.... that sort of frog and there was me wondering why anyone would hunt small amphibians with a bow and arrow