Free New Hampshire Blog

I headed out to the sand pit a few miles from my house today to do a bit of archery. I used my foam turkey target but today I didn’t use my usual arrows. Instead I used some cheaper arrows I’d bought at Walmart the day before.

I’d been avoiding buying arrows at Walmart but there was a significant cost savings so I thought I’d try some. Well they shot well enough, I had no problems hitting the target with them. So I was pleased as the day before I had broken two arrows simply by shooting them into the foam turkey target. Given that the cost of 6 arrows was about $36, I was NOT happy that the tips broke off in the turkey target.

So I experimented with some cheaper arrows and it worked out well. The arrows flew well and the tips I bought didn’t break off. In fact they went in smoother and were easier to get out in general than the other ones. So I ended up being very pleased with myself though feeling a bit guilty about buying from Walmart instead of my local archery shop.

However, the whole thing got me thinking about hunting equipment in general. While I’m happy that we have a fine hunting industry that produces all kinds of great stuff for us to use, I wonder how much of it we really need? And does the more expensive stuff really make that much of a difference?

Think about how the indians used to hunt buffalo. They certainly didn’t use carbon arrows or fancy GPS devices while harvesting meat. They used basic equipment and clever hunting techniques. If they could get by with primitive hunting equipment and still eat well then what exactly is our problem?

Do we really need the coolest, neatest, shiniest doohickey to go hunting? Or are we buying the stuff because somebody in a magazine article says we have to? Or because some famous personality recommends a particular hunting product?

Just got me thinking about all of this today. I think maybe we’ve overcomplicated things to one degree or another and that perhaps less really is more in the end?

By the way, I will still be buying stuff from my local archery shop. I want to make sure that they’re in business for a long, long time. But, given how easy it is to destroy an arrow, I will use Walmart to get cheap practice arrows. If one gets destroyed then it’s not as big a deal to me.

What’s your take on hunting equipment? Is cheaper better? And do we really need all the shiny doodads that are out there on the market?

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1. Free Evening Hunting Seminars: Scouting and Patterning Bucks, Upland Bird Hunting, Fall Turkey Hunting Tactics, Sea Duck Hunting
2. The Democrat’s Budget: Turkey Hunting Fee to Go Up
3. Hunting: Facing Reality Versus Being in Denial
4. Turkey Hunting: I Bought a Foam Turkey Target!
5. Hiking Rescues Cost New Hampshire Lots of Money