Hi all, new member and new hunter from region 4. I took my PAL and core a while back with the intention of getting into hunting with a rifle. Been saving my pennies for a while to purchase my first rifle and get into shooting but I’d like a bit of advice.

Ive had an older entry level Excalibur Axiom crossbow for a few years now and thoroughly enjoy shooting in my homemade range in my back yard. I can shoot out to 40 yards, which is more than enough to practice. Sometimes I get carried away and putting 50–60 shots into the target in a session isn’t unheard of. I’m pretty well set up with the bow, arrows and quite a few broad heads now. Last spring I took my first spring gobbler with the bow, loved the challenge of sneaking up to around 15 yards, beating the bird at its own game and getting a perfect heart shot which busted a wing on its way through.

now I’m looking for some advice, I’ve saved enough pennies and I’m ready to purchase my first rifle to get out for whitetail this fall but I’m wondering if I’m better off focusing on hunting and mastering what I have for the time being. I don’t live close to a range, but have a lot of crown land where I can safely shoot and get proficient with a rifle. Problem is, I’ve only got so much time to devote to getting away from home life for shooting, scouting and hunting. The beauty of the xbow is I can shoot targets in my yard whenever I have a spare minute or hour. It’s cheap, good fun and I’m already quite comfortable with my limits with the xbow. Realistically I know that my first whitetail season or two will mostly be spent scouting and I’ll be lucky to take a buck in the fall no matter what I’m hunting with.

What do the experts say? Seems to make sense to stick with the bow for now, leaves some extra money (I’m poor) to buy a few pieces of gear I don’t have yet like a couple game cams and better glass and put more gas in my old 4x4 in the fall. On the other hand, spending the time and money to get proficient with a rifle now opens up more possibilities on a hunt in the future. I’m torn.