Stick and a String

It’s not that Curt Lytle has anything against hunting deer and other game with a gun. He grew up doing that. These days, he just wants something more, something that gives him a stronger connection to the natural world and a greater challenge. That’s why Lytle made the easy decision to give up gun hunting in 2007 in favor of bow hunting.

“I feel like I am participating in nature instead of observing it when I hunt with a bow,” says Lytle.

“I can walk over a hill and see an animal and shoot it from 300 yards away with a rifle, but with a bow, I have to get in its personal space. That’s not easy. Carrying a hand-made bow through the woods is very fulfilling and having a successful hunt is even more rewarding.”

There’s another reason the 48-year-old Suffolk, Virginia, resident traded in his gun for a bow: Most states offer separate archery seasons that start before general firearms seasons.

That means he gets a few weeks or even a month or more to hunt before countless other hunters descend upon the woods.