Catny, Man I'd like to know where you used to bowhunt, that you guarentee a deer with a bow from a treestand that early in a hunt! Personally I've been bowhunting for almost 20yrs, and I've NEVER found archery season to be easier then gun season. Sure the deer are not as spooked during archery. But yet you have to pattern their movements, and make your setups so get that deer to pass within 30yds for a possible shot. Then just becasue you do get that deer within range, doesn't always mean you'll get a shot. I've harvested alot more deer during regular seasons, then archery seasons. I'm also wondering why you gave up bowhunting? If you found it so easy from a treestand, and admit ground hunting with a bow is more difficult. Was that bowhunting challenge too difficult for you to pursue. Ever try still hunting-stalking with a bow? My preference is to bowhunt from a treestand. But I also enjoy a variety of bowhunting ways. I'll also ground blind, and still hunt with a bow. If we get some fresh snow in archery season. I'm off tracking down a deer. In fact some of the most fun I've had bowhunting is tracking a buck through the woods for several hrs.
But as I wrote in my post on the youth hunt. I'm not for it, becasue I can't understand why the DEC couldn't have purposed the wknd as the wknd just before the Monday opener. I fail to understand the DEC's reasoning. I'm more for lowering the age limit, and I've sent letters out on this issue in support of lowering the age limits. I'd much rather see youth in the woods bowhunting. Learning how deer are under a more natural state. Learning 1 shot 1 kill. Then starting out in gun season waiting for some other hunter to push a deer his way! I believe archers are the most ethical hunters in the woods, and teaching ethics is a must!