r/bowhunting • u/No-Entertainment7074 • 1d ago
Iguana bow hunting questions
Iguana bow hunting questions
Iguanas bow hunting question
Trying to Decide Between a Hunting Bow and a Bowfishing Setup for Iguanas
Hey everyone, I could use some advice on a setup for hunting iguanas at around the 10-25 yard range. I live in Miami and iguanas are absolutely on every street and they get huge so they make some fun sport to shoot with bow and arrow. Back to the poent I’m deciding between using a hunting bow or a bowfishing bow. I know hunting bows have the range and precision I want, but I also like the idea of having a reel for retrieving arrows, since iguanas can be in dense areas where arrows might be hard to recover and since they are really small targets and really hard to make a kill shot in the brain so usual if u don’t make a kill shot they’ll run off into the nearest tree or body of water and die there. The issue is, bowfishing arrows don’t seem to have the same accuracy or range as hunting arrows because they’re heavier, lack fletching, and have line drag. On the flip side, tying a line to a carbon hunting arrow feels risky and unsafe because they’re not built for that kind of stress. Has anyone tried adapting a hunting bow for bowfishing-style use? Or should I just commit to one type of setup? I want precision and easy arrow recovery without compromising too much. I have a PSE Kingfisher recurve bow fishing bow and there’s a huge difference in between the feel of that and the feel of a hunting bow especially in accuracy and range. Any tips or setups that worked for you?
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u/f4ydfinale 1d ago
This seems like a fun Florida pastime, yet another reason I wish I lived there as an angler/hunter. The stress on the bow of not using as intended is a good point along with the retrieval of using a regular bow. I'd maybe consider asking a local archery shop that's more familiar with bow fishing setups or a local that already does this as a hobby. Or maybe comment on a video online and see if someone has already tried both
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u/No-Entertainment7074 21h ago
Yeah I’m for sure going to a local shop on the archery subreddit I think I’ll probably just mod a hunting bow with a reel and do some work with some local shops to find a bow that works for me
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u/Wapiti__ 1d ago
bow fishing rig would allow you to responsibly shoot them off tree limbs too since you can shorten the line to stop the arrow from hitting whatevers in the distance
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u/Professional-Sink770 17h ago
100% go for the bow fishing rig, iguanas will run and it’s always into the water
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u/LXIX-CDXX 1d ago
The videos I've seen, the guys were using a standard bowfishing rig. I'm sure you can kill them with a regular bow, but your point about difficult retrieval is a good one.