My passion is definitely bowhunting, however the time spent with family and friends during rifle season will continue to bring me back. I may find myself carrying the bow more and more during rifle seasonin the upcoming years, however it is nearly impossible to see much less kill a 3.5 year old animal during rifle season anyhow in the areas I hunt. They are there, but they are few and far inbetweenand honestly my best chances to kill those animals are during the almost non existant pressure of archery season even though I'm carrying a primitive weapon at that time. I've had exactly 5 encounters with truly maturebucks over the last 5 years, and 4 of those occurred during bow season.

I will also probablyhunt this year with my girlfriends family in the heart of the Adirondack big woods as well. This is a place where you are likely to only see2-3 total deer per solid week of hunting if your lucky with maybe one antlered animal per season......your more likely to see bears and/or moose than deer in most of theseplaces. I will be carrying my rifle there because the primary means of hunting in the Adirondacks is snow tracking an animal for many miles before getting lucky and maybe having a shot. Anyone that feels this is less work or easier or less impressive than sitting in a tree over an agricultural edge and sticking one with a bow really needs to get themselves into the big woods to see what it's really like......[8D].

I am with Rick on this one. My passion is bowhunting whitetailsbut I really believe that its not for everyone.On the flip side, using different weapons affords me more opportunities to hunt with good people, family etc during arifle season.I find thatvery rewarding initsown right. I dont discriminate withthe weaponspeople chooseas long as its legal, ethical,fair chase, wild, free range hunting. I really have no respect forthe shooting of conditioned critters. I'd raise beef if I wanted to do that.I chose to hunt with my bow during rifle seasons for whitetails because I just simply enjoy trying to get close and I don't care if I "could have killed him with a gun". I'd rather not kill him with a bow and learned from it. For me these days its not about how many heads I have hanging, its about learning more and striving to become the best hunter I am capable of being and letting the chips fall were they may.

As my sons grow older I plan on rifle hunting with them, teaching them the ins and outs and having them with me even this year at 4-6. I care most about making memories and strong relationships. All the critters we kill and leave hanging on the wall won't go with us when we are gone, I just hope my kids appreciate what they learn over their lifetime from hunting and takethose life lessons and pass them on to thier childrensomeday.

Hunting period, is just fun.

Bow or Gun?

Gun. My 15 year old daughter will not bowhunt with me. She will however rifle hunt with me. I'd prefer to be out there with her and my gunthan to be alone with the bow.
I really don't care what weapon i am using

I also have some meat and gun hunting buddies. Nice part is I can still use my bow during gun season.

We can't use our bows in Illinois during gun season.I just walk around my property and make sure no trespassing.