Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

Just joking , but honestly, it is a real problem here where I live in N Ga. The first seaon I hunted here, on opening day of bow, Icounted 26 gun shots! I was slipping along to a stand once and somebody shot within about 75 yards of me, and I was ready to hit the dirt--right after I cleaned out my drawers!People here are definitely more inclined to poaching than anywhere I have ever experienced. What's it like in your neck of the woods?

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

Its not bad on our property but i am surrounded by semis. There is an occasinol hunter by my house but its my neigbor that i dont know all that well

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

It used to be a lot worse here but they still take some nice bucks, and we even found 2 big boys that somebody had poached and left there. And a friend of ours found a guy that had poached one and was cleaning it out, the poacher ran away and when our friends called the cops they didnt even care much. They said theyd meetour friendto try and catch the guy or to find more evidence but they never even called.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

They like to shoot dear at night where I hunt. I'm no stranger to hearing a high powered rifle at night.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

How do you know they're poaching? People do shoot at other things, targets, animals, etc..
Just wondering

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

I know from experiencing it season after after season. The close shotI spoke of was not only from someone gun hunting during bow, but a trespasser as well--I confronted him. My first year here, I was in a hardware store that sells camo , etc. andI asked the owner about the hunting.He introduced me to a guy in overalls with no shirt under them, and few teeth--not kidding a bit--! He asked him, 'How many deer you got this year so far?" He replied, 'Oh, shoot, just 13, and the biggest was a 3 pointer.'This was 2 weeks beofre gunseason and this guy wasn't bow hunting. Georgia limit at the time was 2 bucks and 4 does. I've taken 2 bear here, and the DNR tags them,and immediately goes to the site of the kill to investigate. On my second, the reanger told me that 80% of all bears killed in Gilmer County are illegal. If you need more , I'll be glad to continue.If you lived here youi woul dhave no problem understanding what I am talking about.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

I don't even hunt with a gun during gun season....lol.. It's bow only for me. Your not alone with the poaching problem though. I found 4 deer carcusses about 500 yards from my home last year. I hate poachers!!![:@]
Steve in KY.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

Here in RI bow season starts on 1 October. It goes all the way thru 31 January. Somewhere in between are gun seasons. Small game starts 2 weeks into the bow season, Muzzle Loader starts around the beginning of November, and Shotgun in December some time. With the exception of small game, the months of October and January are bow only (there may be some exceptions in some areas). Public land is rough bow hunting when pheasant season opens unless you are somewhere where they do not stock birds. Anyway, to answer your question, I do hunt with a gun during bow season, because if I want to hunt with a gun, I have no choice but to do so.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

Does deliverance come to anybody elses mind after reading this?

I have heard gun shots, but it was from a semi-automatic .22 that a kid was shooting when him and either his father or grandpa were out collecting dead wood....before rifles were legal during gun season. you could hear rifles all the time.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

LOL! Believe it or not, I am located about an hour away from where Deliverance was filmed. It's bad here, but not quite that bad!

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

As much money and free stuff (pro staff) that people get for killing a monster deer these days, poaching has only gone up. How do we know that these huge deer that people kill, maybe even here on Huntingnet, that they are killed legally. With tags being called in over the phone or over the internet, you dont even need to physically check the deer in in a lot of states now. There are so many deer at these contests and shows that are killed illegally and people are so proud of them.Some of the biggest deer you see are killed illegally. Its the easy way out for these people. They dont want to work for it. Its only a mirror image of our society nowdays. For what these guys get when they kill a monster,poaching will never end. You dont have toreally prove how it was killed.Poaching is a problem everywhere!

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

It is truly sad if you read this and you are one who has killed a deer illegally and brag about it!

You will have to look in the mirror and talk about how great a hunter you are!!

I hate poachers just like many others here!

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

AND MAKE SURE YOU PUT ON YOUR ALUMINUM FOIL HATS SO THEY DON'T GET IN YOUR HEAD AND MAKE YOU POACH!!!

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

Poaching has been a problem here in Missouri but not as bad as it used to be years ago.We have the call-in Telecheck system and it has worked really good around here.When someone calls in and reports they shot a Doe orsay a 8 Point Buckand there is point restrictions in that area they have had Game Wardens go and check out to see if the Hunter is telling the truth or they have gone to the local MeatProcessor's and verify the deer the individuaul has harvested.Last year after Rifle Deer Seasonsomeone was shooting deer at night in our Eastern County and taking only their Racks...they ended up catching 2 guys that were caught riding around late at night with a spot light and a rifle.Not sure if they confessed to killingthe Bucks but I'm sure they were fined severly and will be watched for many years to come.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

I would place a bet that the odds are that someone has read this and is feeling a little antsy right now--or maybe smug![:-]

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

I agree 100% on that statement!

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

manuman,

I'm sure in your case you know what you are talking about and have ruled out other possibilities,
but I just want to say that just b/c someone hears a shotgun or rifle during archery season doesn't
always mean its a poacher. Last year I was bowhunting and some jack#$% was squirrel
hunting along the ditch that divides our property and shot about 10 times. Of course, its his
right, and I wouldn't say anything about it, but it is still frustrating. We also have an early
teal season, and you can hear the shotguns booming for that. And sometimes guys are
out sighting in their rifles.

So hearing guns doesn't always mean people are poaching, but I'm sure it goes on.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

Here in Louisiana, the problem is not just gun hunting in bow season. There are a significant number of people who hunt year-round. "Nightcapping" deer is a pretty common practice as well.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

When me and a buddy got done duck hunting. A guy was like. Well i better get goin, perfect time for spotlighting some deer with my bow. I thought he might have been joking, but he did tear out of there pretty fast.

Then today at work a guy told me about how his cousin shoots deer year round, and most of the time he just leaves them out in the open for coyotes to come feed off of them.

Another guy I know was talkin to me at the bar one night and was like, would you get mad if I told you somethin? I just said, depends on what it is. He then says, I shot a goose today. That was in like March or somethin, not during a season I don't think. And either way he wasn't license and it was a canadian. He said he just fed it to their farm cats.

I couldn't do it, don't see the point. I still have venison in my freezer from last years gun season.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

Hey BigTiny,

Don't go tarnishing Louisiana's sterling reputation.

I know this stuff goes on, and in the "good ole days" we used to have some problems at our hunting
lease (not our property), mostly with people taking a buck the afternoon before buck season
opened (field dress and pull out in morning), or taking 2 deer and letting another hunter claim
it, but even among some of these "outlaws," they never spotlighted or hunted completely
out of deer season.

Over time, with good examples, explaining how it hurts the deer herd, and enforcement of rules,
that crap doesn't happen at that camp anymore. Its known that these practices are not tolerated.

So, other than a few vigilantes, in my neck of La. most of your regular hunters seem to be
sticking to the rules. That and we have some super aggressive game wardens living in the area. ;)

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

I understand what you are saying Lebeau. You would have to see it for yourself to grasp the severity. You can go to the processor on any given weekend and see the does stacked up, even though we only have about 10 doe days total. Besides, I know the diference between shotguns, .22's, etc., and high powered rifles. We have another wonderful contingency of coon hunters that see no problem with coming on a lease that someone has, and turning their dogs loose at night, and then having the gall to ask you to unlock your gate so that they can find their dogs the next morning on your way to your stand! Their justification always is the same--'We lived here and hunted here all of our lives before this was timber land, and we ain't gonna stop now!' Last year I had 2 guys arrested on private land that I had exclusive permissionto hun for trespassing and hunting without orange or licenses. One was so high on meth, that he was shaking and flinging his arms and legs, while attempting to hide behind a tree about 75 yards from my stand. He was coming off of a several day binge. I told the game warden that I thought that he had tourette's syndrome, but he informed me what was actually the case. Incidentally, meth is a major problem here for whatever reason, as have come to learn.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

I hunt with my bow fairlyoften during gun season. Mainly because several of the places I hunt have strict bow only areas. Even some of the other place I hunt where firearm season comes in Oct 1 and there are not bow only sectionsI still like touse my bow because a lot of the places are near roads, neighborhoods etc. I just feel safer using my bow in some of those spots.

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

i havent but I am going to in the future. A friend of mine shot a really nice buck with his bow during rifle season last year

rick

RE: Do you hunt with a gun during bow season?
 

Yeah but having to wear that damn blaze orange (which is a requirement in Washington state) during gun season would blow chunks.. I rather the gun nuts didn't know where I was. ;)