Got some money to burn, what would you chose? New bow or new rifle?

Buy a bow, practice 10,20,30,40, 50 yards. Bow hunting is time consuming sport. My bow hangs in the garage, it does not need to locked up. Chuck Adams has a few good collection of books how to set your rig.
 
Sbarkowski said:
I do need to look into reloading. Buying factory ammo is costing me a fortune. I've also been looking into the Marlin 1895SBL in 45-70, but it's about 400 more than the 336BL. Beautiful gun though and should be more than enough for anything I'll ever be hunting.

This isn't working out as planned. I started off looking to get either a bow or a 30-30 lever. Now I've come to the conclusion I should probablly get the .30-30 and a crossbow. Now its a 45-70 and a crossbow. My wife is going to divorce me.. oh well, at least she can't take my guns :p
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Get the terdy-turdy and the fortyfive-seventy, more bang, less twang............
 
Bow hunting is tough for rifle hunters. I live in southern Ontario and bow hunt with a crossbow and have had a two eight points, a six point and 4 point all at 60 yards and was not able to take the shot. Really depends where you live. If I lived in sask that had longer ml seasons I would sell all my crossbows and keep my rifles and upgrade. Bow season in southern Ontario is 3 months long so more time in the field. Look at a good used excalibur. Can be purchased at the right
Price and may find a trade for one of your guns you are not using. There will be alot for sale once bow season ends.
 
op, why not find a local archery range? there are range bows, give it a try and see how you like it, then decide
too many ####s on the internets to actually make a good decision based on other's experience, its a fifty fifty draw pretty much(in this case)

muckwa said:
Screw the bow stick with the rifles, shotguns and muzzleloaders. I was pondering the idea too but I just don't like the idea of being in the field and seeing the buck of my dreams stroll by at 100 yards and I can't do nothing about it ( happened to my dad, he spent all rifle season looking for that deer). At least with a rifle I can reach out and touch it. To each his own though.
Cheers
Geoff
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that is when you tap into inner connection to your ancestors and stock the :bigHug::bigHug::bigHug::bigHug: out of that buck :) the hunt shouldnt be only about getting the game, it aslo should be the story on how you got it, how challenging it was ;)
but you are absolutly right; to each his own
 
Sbarkowski said:
What kind of reloading setup were you using?
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RCBS Rockchucker....but lets see, first you waste a day polishing brass in a tumbler, not that you cant walk away but it is a day to tumble all the brass first( day1), then it was measure it all to make sure it conforms to length and isn't stretched. If it is then trim it all. Next set up the deprimer die then deprime and resize it all(day2). Then set up the bullet seating die by putting a bullet or two in empty cases setting the dies up to seat the bullet to proper length. Then you take your unprimed, resized, clean brass and clean out the primer pockets(day3).......Now you can reprime all your brass, get out your scale and powder measure. Weigh EACH load because they cant be out by a 1/2 grain if you want consistency. Next load a few casings with powder, seat a few bullets and go shoot them. Go back to the bench and repeat because you wan to find something that is both fast and accurate. Once you have wasted another full day building up and testing 9-12 bullets then you are off and running(day4). Then you can load each bullet one at a time repeating the weighing of powder every time you drop to ensure consistency and make sure the bullets are seating the same depth consistently(day5). So 4-5 days later you have a couple boxes of ammo loaded. I have better things to do with my time than sit at the bench for five days to load 100 rounds to save a few $/box!! I can load 100 rounds of 12 gauge at a single stage press like my old 700 Versa Mec in an hour! I'll stick to buying factory rifle rounds, thank you!!:cool:
 
I'm going to say get the bow. To take that a step further, I'll say get a compound,and not a crossbow. You are correct in your assesment of a crossbow being a rather cumbersome and unwieldy thing. They are much easier to shoot,but if you have time and some space,you can learn to shoot the compound very well. Like you said,it opens up much more hunting time,and personally I love being out there when very few others are,much less competition and the deer are calmer and more patternable.

I bow hunted in Ontario with a crossbow for several years, and now hunt with a compound in Alberta. Since picking up the compound 4 years ago, I find rarely hunting with a rifle anymore. I still shoot,and hunt coyote's and small game, but for deer season it's pretty much striclty bow. I find the rush of getting in close and trying to get a shot is just greater with a bow. Still enjoy rifle hunting,and may go after moose with one next year if I don't get him with the bow first, but given a choice I'll take the bow every time.
 
As much as I appreciate all the information, it seems my wife is way ahead of all of us. I had mentioned to her a while back that I wanted a big loop, short barreled .30-30. Today I told her I wanted to go to the local gun shop to check out the Marlin I had been looking at and I was going to buy it if it was still there because they are difficult to find. She huffed, rolled her eyes at me, called me "something" under her breath and came back a few minutes later with this..

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Apparently I spoiled one of my Christmas surprises and she was not happy. Lol, what a wonderful woman! I better get her something good this year..
 
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