Its illegal to hunt anything with the bow in the UK full stop .
I thought you could still shoot a welshman on sundays in Chester or somesuch.
On the topic of ray mears - he was taught how to make bows by Chris Boynton - one of the best makers in the country. So I would hope he can make one that's up to the job!!
He never killed any bunnys with a bow nor would he in the UK as it is illegal, but a primitive bow is an efective way of taking small game, most indigenous peoples use a bow for close quarter hunting. I for one dont think that hunting with a bow in the uk is a good idea and think that taking large quarry is best with a high powered rifle, ive seen some real crap shots in my time but enough arterial/shock damage is done with a high powered rifle to succesfully track the animal down although its very bad form and bad practice in my opinion and the shooter should practice more , if an underpowered badly aimed arrow was to strike a deer say in the shoulder it could travel a hell of a distance before bleeding to death, which is why most abbo's use a poison to speed up the kill.
Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 6848 Location: Staffordshire
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 9:07 pm Post subject:
Marts wrote:
bodger wrote:
Its illegal to hunt anything with the bow in the UK full stop .
I thought you could still shoot a welshman on sundays in Chester or somesuch.
On the topic of ray mears - he was taught how to make bows by Chris Boynton - one of the best makers in the country. So I would hope he can make one that's up to the job!!
As for the rest of it....what Bodger says.
It is not a question of how good the bow is. I know Chris makes good bows, but longbows are by far the most innaccurate bows you can get. But even recurve and compound bows are not good enough to shoot live animals with.
I didn't see the programme the other night but if it was a repeat I have I believe seen it before as I distinctly recall an episode where they made a bow which was intended to be along the lines of the ones we have archealogical evidence for from our primitive ancestors. I do recall Ray Mears distinctly saying that bow hunting is illegal in Britain.
I too have made my own long bow. It would be perfectly capable of taking small game but it is solely used for target shooting when the mood takes me and I get the time. It is very satisfying to shoot with a bow and arrows you have made yourself. But it wouldn't be accurate for anything at distance and while I generally limit my target shooting to 35/40 yds in the garden I wouldn't rate the bow or me as sufficiently accurate to hunt any living creature with it at that range even if the law allowed me to.
Modern US/Canadian hunting bows and the arrows made specificly for hunting are a different kettle of fish to a traditional longbow in terms of accuracy. If bow hunting were legal here I would certainly like to use one in preference to either the air rifle or the shotguns which I currently use. I think it would add a degree of purity to the pursuit but as things stand, that's not likely to be something I'll ever find out. At least here in Britain.
gingerwelly
Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Posts: 419 Location: Wales ...in cardiff at the mo but from mid wales
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 06 10:36 am Post subject:
i dont trust Ray Mears .... how come if he lives for weeks on end ...on nothing but roots and berries is he so plump?
and i think it was last season he was camping in a desert next to a palm tree (hmm) ...a palm tree that had 2 blue tags on the trunk... they were tags that my marine biology tutor had put there a few months before . the tree was planted on a beach not a desert , and it was within a hotel complex in Palma ... had the camera man moved a few meters to the left you would have seen the hotel and a nice big swimming pool.. but although I dont trust him he still has some intresting things to teach people... think about all those flim you have seen,plane crashes in snow, cars stuck in the desert ... if only they had seen Ray Mears
..i will shut-up now !
, if an underpowered badly aimed arrow was to strike a deer say in the shoulder it could travel a hell of a distance before bleeding to death, which is why most abbo's use a poison to speed up the kill.
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