RE: How long is the gun season in your State ?
In MD:
early MZ season - 9 days
yough sseason - 1 day
firearms - 14 days
late M - 13 days
late firearms - 2 days
That adds up to 39 days of guns being shot at deer. I used to gun hunt and don't hate gun hunters although I now exclusively bow hunt for deer - even during the gun seasons. What I dislike is some of the hunters around here that follow the, "if it's brown, it's down" philosophy. Rickmur and I overheard conversations on opening day of hunters around us who didn't even know the sex of the deer they were shooting at. One hunters was heard to say, " oh, I thought it was a big doe. Good thing I didn't hit it. I probably hit one of the branches that was in the way." This idiot was shooting at what his friend said was a small buck and he was shooting through a bunch of branches at a running deer that he thinks he missed -- I bet he never went over to check. After hunters like this shoot at deer for 39 days, it's very hard for bowhunters to go back out and even SEE a deer, much less get one to come in close enough during daylight hours to get a high percentage shot.