This thread has really spent some time hashing over this issue. The way I see it, the elitist attitude is unfortunate, and doesn't belong in hunting, period. I have bow hunted since '93, and this year I killed my first deer with a gun. I have always enjoyed bow hunting, and found gun hunting no less enjoyable. I approached the gun season the same way I would have if I was bow hunting. I scouted, placed a tree stand in the same place I would have had I been bow hunting, and I took all the same wind and scent precautions. I hunted just as seriously, and put in the same amount of time I would have if I was bow hunting. I didn't shoot at, or even see any running deer, as some posting on this thread have implied is the norm during gun season. I'll gun hunt again, as will I bow hunt again.
The elitist attitude I feel developes when people fail to see why each individual chooses to hunt. I enjoy every aspect of hunting. I basically subscribe to the meat hunter philosophy, but perhaps some what modified. I will shoot the first mature doe, or the first buck to walk by. This is to ensure I will be eating venison. After that I hold out, and hope for a bruiser to come along. This is how I operate with both the bow and the gun. Why? It's what I choose to do and it's legal.
Why people choose to only gun hunt, or not to bow hunt is their decision to make. A lot I have read here indicates that bow hunters are "elite" because they choose to use a more "challenging" method. Well so what? I face many challenges in my personal, and professional life, and so do probably everyone reading this. I don't always want a "challenge" , and hunting is challenging enough. When it is time to hunt I want to be in a comfortable (relatively speaking), enjoyable situation. Some times the most challenge I want to face is forcing myself not to shoot a legal 5 or 6 pointer, because I know there are plenty of nice bigger deer around.
The real issue should be ethics, as written in the game laws. When I gun hunted this year, I did so seriously, and with respect to the game I hunted, the land owners who gave me access to their land, and to the other hunters in the area (thankfully there were only 2). Being a good outdoorsman, sportsman, or hunter is not limited to any particular method of hunting. I know bowhunters(bow only) who are "good hunters" because they kill so many deer each year. These guys always shoot more than their limit, seldom tag their deer, and routinely sneak on to posted land because nobody will know they're there. Elitist? You tell me.