I long ago tired of reading the "If you could only have one bow what would it be" threads. Yet here I am with only one bow. I still own and shoot just a bit fewer than 30 bows but I am working a six month term job about a 9 hour drive from those bows. I was not sure of my living situation when I left home so I decided to travel light, meaning not only one bow but a compact one.

1962 Kodiak Magnum is the one that is in my truck.

May it serve you well Dave! Good to see you back around the LW.

I only have one bow with a batch of arrows tuned and built for it.

I have one other bow in the same weight range but it needs a different arrow setup so I'd have to build some arrows before I could take it hunting.

If I had money to play with, I guess I'd buy some cool hunting trips (or fishing trips) before I bought a bunch of bows. The bow is just a tool. I have one. What I need is something to shoot at.

In a perfect world I guess I could do both. LOL

I have, throughout my adult life, bought and sold numerous (hundreds) of guns and bows, hardly ever using the same for more than one season, sometimes for only a day. Growing up I recall my dad and grandfather had their one deer rifle for their entire lives. I had friends and mentors that used the same bow for as long as I knew them.

There are times I wish I only had one bow (well, maybe with a backup) and focused on shooting that one bow well. When I think of how much money I would have saved, how much less space I would need to store all my accumulated arrows and other paraphernalia it seems like a good thing. But I must have this addiction or personality trait that won't let me limit myself to one bow and when I look at them hanging on the wall the beauty of them makes it very difficult deciding which ones to let go.

The reality is that as I age, move to a fixed income and likely smaller house, I will have to start reducing the amount of bows and archery-related stuff. Maybe that's the only way it will happen but I'm sure I will never be able to decide on just one bow.

I really am a one bow guy, problem is the bow in question is not being made anymore....so the only solution was that while they were still available to buy a back up and then a backup to the backup just to be safe! So I have three, but they are the same, just in different poundage. I have been pulling 60 #s for what seems like forever, but my backups are at 55# and 50#...just in case I grow up and get old someday. Meanwhile as my family says Peter Pan is still alive and well and shooting a recurve. TLM

You can count me in that group now. I have a Tall Tines recurve and a Shrew Classic Hunter and have taken plenty of game with both but I have been flip flopping back and forth. Today I shot both over about an hour and a half period, came in the house and broke one down and packed it away then got out the torch and pulled all the broadheads off the arrows for it so I wouldn't backslide and put them away as well. I am now committed to one bow for the rest of the season.

I am hunting with just one white glassed Sunset Hill, dual shooter, I may go to my Berry dual shooter with no white glass during the early muzzle season, if there are too many muzzle boys that are blind and trigger happy around. Shoot one bow? We should should also be shooting one arrow. However, I shot at dove right handed Saturday, going from left to right, my arrow was about 18" behind it at 30 yards, I think my arrows must be over spined.

I decided this year to focus on one bow. I ended up keeping my BW SAB. I shoot it well, but now that it's my only bow I'm getting better, specifically past 30yds. Maybe I'm able to be more consistent as it's the same bow with the same features. I'm glad I did it, no regrets.

Both of my two are great bows, but they are two completely different animals and switching back and forth just doesn't work out. I thinned out 23 other bows a little while after becoming single again, these two are the survivors but for the foreseeable future I'll just shoot one.

If I had to be stranded on a forested island with game and one bow, it would be...Dave's 1962 K Mag.

I tried to focus on just one but then I bought several and sold several and there was the mandatory testing prior to selling, etc.

A sixty two Magnum was my hunting bow for several years, Dave. They are handy and will get the job done. They are small, easy to pack, and easier to hide than some one piece bows. I can understand why you took that one with you.

Oh we'd need another thread for stranded on an island, I wouldn't have trouble picking a bow but I have a list of other stuff. Like lot's of good Linguini and White Clam sauce for one thing, and real Parmigiano Reggiano, not that dried up crap in the green shaker can, just for starters ;)

I'm getting close now, but I had Phil's illness for a long time. I never bought a lot of guns, but bows....yes. I'm down to two now and it seems weird. But as I continue to shoot the Carroll's, It's getting like that old friend again. I'm already retired and on an unfixed income...so spare cash is well thought out. For me that is likely a good thing.

I was a one bow guy for years until this year when I bought 4. Luckily I went 5days a week to the 3D course and shoot them all in rotation. All 5 are great old shooters: 1970 BPH70, 1993 Mamba, ‘60 Kodiak, 1992 Royal Hunter and 1976 Bear SK. I am done buying, but If I would be forced to chose for travel I would just close my eyes and pick one. Or get the take down - Royal Hunter.

I just have two, but am thinking I do want one more - a takedown recurve for travel and backup to my Hill-style longbows. I need an excuse to own a recurve just cause they're so pretty. Maybe a 3-pc Bob Lee in 64" for my long draw.

I am a 1 bow hunter, I hunt with a 45# Samick Sage that I made more waterproof. It shoots the same arrows that my backup, a 43# Ben Pearson Colt 707 made in 1966. I got the Sage after a hog hunt that got my Colt so wet that I had to refinish it. The Sage killed both deer I shot at but shots don't come very often. No deer sightings yet this year, 10 days of season, I have only hunted 2 days. Today the weather got out of the 90's. Maybe tomorrow I will see a deer. At 68, I treat every hunt like it is my last, nothing like being in the woods hunting deer. Kenny

My original intention, when I ordered a bow, was to have ONE good bow and a second set of lighter limbs for it to cover any kind of hunting I was likely to do. Then I found out I really like more than just one kind of bow. Desire is a fickle mistress. I now have 8 different bows and not much room to store them. Im looking to thin the herd.

I like two, one for back up. One is none and two is one.

I've been hunting with the same bow since 2011. That's a long time for me.

I like lotsa flies in my fly box

I like lotsa wool in my hunting totes

I like lotsa bows on my racks

Its all relative in my book.

I've never bought into the concept that shooting one bow will make you better. That's been proven otherwise too many times, right in front of my eyes.

Pearl Drums, in Japanese MA there is a saying: "One mind, thousands weapons". You will shoot all the bows you have the same - with a minimum accommodation with the particularities of each bow. You can't shoot one very good and other one very bad.

One bow is a pipe dream. You need a back up at the very minimum in case your bow gets lost, stolen, broken, etc.

I have only one hunting bow at the moment need to get a back up but I have several low weight bows my daughter's shoot from time to time ,, I believe I'm gonna buy one after the holidays and hopefully that's all the bows I need I feel once you get one you shoot well just stay with that one and you'll shoot well all the time.

I always try to commit to one bow as the season gets here and I feel I owe it to the animal to be on my game with my weapon. Sometimes I have more than one that I shoot very well. Right now I stuck to a plan of selling off some bows to stick to one only in hopes of improving my shooting. And it really worked. But now that I have a deer in the freezer already I'm looking to play with more bows again. Thinking another rich emery stik is in the future. But also wishing to try a kodiak hunter as that's one of the popular bear bows I never tried out.

Meigs bamboo longbow #46@28. Only bow I have hunted with since 1985. I have owned over 100 guitars since 1957 though. Down to two Gibsons and a Martin now.

Reddogge X2

The attached pictures is why it is total folly to only own one bow or only shoot one bow during the season.

What on earth are you going to do if this happens?

And it will...B-50 string...just shooting away...came back to full draw and BOOM!! Bow exploded.

A tip can be damaged in a fall, the string or nock can break and destroy a bow...all sorts of ways for the one bow to be out of commission.

If that happens hunting season is now over for the one bow folks.

Always have a backup...always.

I have a few recurves with grips that fit me really well and shoot where I am looking. If I want to switch between one or the other 15 minutes of target time and a few shots with judos and I am good to go.

I keep trying to simplify and minimize possessions in general but it's hard to do with bows. There's always something that is new to me that I want to try out. I was down to two bows early this year and now there are seven hanging in the shop. I retire in Feb '18 and will not be to afford this habit so it will stop soon.

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