Chris Green explains why so many bow enthusiasts are unable to stop buying outdoor gear and bowhunting equipment.

It’s okay, we are all friends in here. My name is Chris Green and I have been buying outdoor gear and jackets for twenty years now…

In conversation with an archery friend recently, we found ourselves discussing arrows and he revealed that he ‘has a habit’. “Chris, I buy a few hundred rands’ worth of arrows a month!” After my initial surprise I had to admit to myself that I have always been on the search for the ultimate hunting jacket – one that I can almost get away with wearing to friends for dinner, or to the mall or to the movies. It will be my favourite, remember? Of course, each and every purchase of this nature is vitally necessary and will absolutely guarantee a successful hunt. So you buy it and the wife sighs. This is not to say I don’t buy other stuff too.

Hey, I am on a different level here, and I accumulate a large variety of “stuff” – tools, back packs, hats, bows, bones, dung, and useful-looking bits of wood, along with various points, feathers, arrow shafts, nocks, etc. Of course, any self-respecting archer has to have some choice of tips and nocks. I just have lots!

On a recent count I found I possess over fifty fletched and finished hunting arrows. Now, how many animals do I loose a shot at a year? Let alone actually hit? It matters not that you can only shoot one bow at a time – there are men out there who own thirty or more.

When I was a fly fisherman, it was the same. I had three rods, about five reels, and hundreds of flies. Interestingly, I mostly used one rod and two reels – one with a floating line and the other with a sinking line and about five different fly patterns. I tied my own, but I also garnered others from my dad and friends. You know how it goes: “Oh yes, this one! Now, this fly is the ultimate see-in-the-dark-killawhale-and-drag-im-home! It’s your lucky day, I do have a couple spare that I can let you have.” And so it goes.

This is an old chestnut. Women are no different and are supposed to love shoes and handbags. I guess it can be called human nature: we retain stuff that our ‘rational’ subconscious recognises as having future potential usefulness as a tool or for some other purpose. It starts when you are very young. As adults we merely continue the quest. There is no limit, and some folk are not totally happy unless they can take over a small country. Or at least all the resources in their own country.
Way back, in rougher times, a tribe that held choice resources saw the winter out in safety, whereas a tribe that did not have enough food or shelter would die out – unless they had skills as tool makers and could use their wits. This aggressive use of resources started with humans understanding the migratory movements of fish, animals and birds. Such understanding carried over to early agriculture. Control of resources meant control of your future. The Neanderthals are believed to have lost out to Cro-Magnon (aka modern man) not because of their poor hunting ability, but because they were not as aggressive in their defence of their food resources. They were ‘too nice’ – and hyper-competitive modern man wiped them out. So there is never ‘enough’ and having lots of options in your tool set, including social organisation, means better prospects. The iceman Oetzi, whose 5000-year-old frozen body was found high in the Alps on the Italian/Austrian border, carried with him a remarkable collection of equipment even for someone who lived so long ago. Included in his kit was a copper axe – a find which pushed back the accepted date of the use of copper by a couple of thousand years. After several years of speculation, it was found that a stone-tipped arrow killed him. We’ve been at each other’s throats for a long time. The European pioneers in South Africa soon learned to fear the San Bushmen, who fought to protect their territories ferociously – but vainly. In the end the Bushmen were driven out of choice areas or wiped out trying to defend them. They understood what it meant to lose a resource and go hungry.

The point is: we like tools because they give us options. Luckily, as modern-day bowhunters who do not depend on hunting for survival, we can entertain many different options when it comes to gear. The world is one marketplace now and the range of goods available is truly staggering. Whatever floats your boat, it’s there. It is a fun journey, no longer fraught with danger. What is the favourite piece of gear or bit of archery equipment that you are forever seeking? Of course you need it, we know that, just share with us! You never know, some lucky guy or gal might just need one of those…