The longest period I have went is 4 years. I started bow hunting when I was 16 and took my first deer when I was 20. However, that long stretch was not due to the lack of deer sightings or those within range. I was holding out for a "good" buck....good have taken shots at many of young bucks and plenty of does. It didn't stop me from being hooked though!

Well I've been bowhunting about 12 years now, give or take a year or two. I can't tell you what my longest streak without a deer kill is because keeping that precise a track of numbers just isn't that important to me. Just like I can't remember which year, exactly, that I started bowhunting. But I haven't shot a deer with a bow for probably 3 years. I've had plenty of opportunities but just haven't pulled back on them for several reasons:
1)Making a kill just isn't as important to me anymore. At least not just any kill
2) I've started passing up deer for opportunities at a "good" deer, not exactly a book trophy but a decent buck by my standards.
3) I've had lack of facilities to store meat and my son's illness limited time out.

Now that I'm in my new house and have a freezer I plan on taking some does out of the herd behind my house with a bow. I just have to decide when. Early in the season I figure it's a good time to get a decent buck while he's in his summer patterns still, then all the mast in my yard comes ripe (pears, apples, chestnuts) and the deer are pouring down the mountain to my yard, so I think I can get a shot at a hungry decent sized buck. Then it's the rut so I don't shoot the does because they may lead a buck by. After that sightings get scarce. I wish we could shoot two deer a day like the eastern part of the state can. It would make it easier for me to decide.

i've been lucky to take one every year of my bowhunting career so far...(goin on4 years) ... i'm not a trophy hunter thats for sure... all my bow deer have been does...bucks have been with guns but at bow range... hopefully i can get a nice buck with my bow this year... i've passed on several bucks last year with my bow

Two years for me because I got target panic so bad I coud not hit hit the broadside of my mother in laws wide behind. I figured I owed it to the deer not to hunt with my bow but they still were not safe from the old smokepole. I beat the panic and have taken at least one deer a yearwith my bow since.

I started hunting at age 12 but didn't get my first deer until I was 30. Where I live we just didn't have many deer. I was in the Navy and didn't get to hunt for a lot of seasons as I was over seas. But when I was stationed in Va. things started comming together for me. That was in 1984 and only 2 seasons since then I have been blanked out. Now that I retired from the Navy and am back home there are a lot of deer here in Mass. but not as many as a lot of states but I seem to do OK here. Plus I hunt in CT. and Maine. Mike