I personally love hunting, I love the outdoors, but here's my dilema.

I don't want my season to be over early so I'm almost hoping early in the season to be unsuccessful. Here's what I would like to do.

Get some sort of a dart tipped arrow that would knock out deerso you could go get them take some pics celebrate, then let them revive and live another day. I'd be more than happy only shooting does w/ reg broadheads so I can enjoy the tasty meals that they provide but would allow me to do more hunting.

It would be like a catch and release program for hunting.

(BTW the fish below was released soon after this pic was taken.)

How 'bout just sitting in your stand with a good camera? It's gonna be about the best alternative you've got available.

Mammals don't take to being tranquilized too well. It is a shock to their system and you run the risk of death. Biologists usually give animals a booster shot to help ward off the negative effects but it's not 100%. Would waste a lot of decent deer.

I do that, but the difference isthat just because I can "shoot" them with a camera, doesn't give you the same rush and satisfaction or mean you could have "shot" them with your bow.

I just think it works so well w/ fishing that if it could be done safely w/ deer too, it would be a great idea.

Take a paintball gun up with you. Then when one of your buddies shoots that deer and starts bragging aboutit butthen mentions thatthere was ablue paint splot on it, you can have the last laugh.
(Actually, the paint washes/wears off easily, but what the heck, it was a fun thought.)

Just take out the Nerf bow and foam arrows.

Well it will never happen because I believe poison tipped darts or arrows are illegal in just about every state if not all of them. That would fall in that catagory I believe.

I don't like the idea because every time a deer gets shot at or shot and lives he gets educated and more skittish. It would just make them all that much harder to kill the next time. Which in your case would be good I guess? Besides shooting them with darts or something just seems mean to me? I feel there is a big difference between harvesting an animal cleanly and just tormenting it. I feel using a dart gun or paintall gun would be cruel and the animal activists would jump all over that.

I don't think the survival rate of catch and release fishing is all that high either. I bet alot of those fish die later unless you barely hooked them. I like to fish, but when you step back and take a look at it it is pretty cruel on the game.

I agree, just use a camera, or maybe mount one to a rifle stock or something with the trigger activating the shutter? It would take some ingenuity, but it could be done. I have seen it already.

Or you could make your hunts harder by hunting off the ground if you don't already and being more selective about what you shoot. Like pick a specific buck and pattern it. That is truely hunting in my book and takes a great deal of skill.

I sort of see your point though. You practice and gear up all year for this and then get lucky and tag out on your first day. Now what do you do the rest of the season? If you can get doe tags that is an option, and give them to charity if you don't want all the meat. Some mature does are just as hard to hunt as bucks. If not harder sometimes. It's not too bad in MI if you hunt private land. We can get an archery deer and another in gun season if you get a combo tag. And one doe tag a day. And you can use your bow in both seasons if you want.

Don't any one take my post the wrong way and think I am an anti or something, I'm not. But sometimes it helps to look at things from the other side of the fence. And I do have a lot of reverance for the game I hunt.

Paul

My thoughts exactly

To knock then out with a aroow you would have to make a hit to the head.You risk putting a eye out or brain damage doing this.So i would say it isnt worth it.Do what I do.Take plenty of does and wait for that buck that you just cant live without on your wall.