I have two deer seasons behind me and the first season I used a bow the whole 3 months of our season. I had two shot opportunities one was a hit with my new bow and one was a miss. This past season I hunted with a muzzle loader and my bow,killed two with my bow and had only one clear shot with my ML. The bow is my favorite way to hunt but I hope to take one with the gun this year as well as the bow. You can learn and have success with the bow your first year but it is a greater challenge in many ways. I'd do both but I would not miss out on all that time given during bow season for anything. We get almost 11 weeks to bow hunt in Indiana and just 4 total for Gun/ML. So the bow gives better odds in some ways because once the shooting starts the deer tend to scatter and come out later.