quiksilver

So I'm presuming that you selected option #2 then? You really don't want "everyone" being successful in "your" woods, just those who you hand-pick?

Pa Trophy Man

Frequently having my window panes rattled, a car with a bullet hole in it, and a wounded horse...I hope they all trip n' fall in mud-and never make it into the woods with the frickin things until they make IQ tests mandatory to get a hunting license.

NY/Al

Well it would only make sence for one to root for the bucks not the hunters. The land i hunt it 120 acres privatebordered by about 500 acres public, since i do let bucks go during bow it would seem that my intention is for them to live to next year when they are bigger, so i can shoot them then. The whole idea is for these smaller bucks to live for next year which in turn, means i dont want anyone to shoot them with anything, gun, bow, spear i dont care i just want them to live. Once shotgun opens up its just me praying for those little guys to make it so that they can make a name for themselves next year, or the year after. Well that about sums it up!


Disclaimer: I have NOTHING against gun hunters, heck i hunt with gun myself sometime, if i see a big rack hanging out of the back of a pickup i will no doubt go up and congratulate him, just dont shoot my babies!!![:-]

Germ

No I want all hunters to do well. What does it matter where they hunt? In college I was for my buddies scoring, just not with my girl

Lanse couche couche

In Illinois, the first gun season (3-4 days) is preceeded by six weeks of archery season.Then, after the first gun season there aretwo weeks of archery hunting, then 3-4 days of gun season, then another month or so or archery. So, there are lots of opportunities to hunt deer either or both ways. Lots of guys hunt both ways. Because of the number oftags allocated for bowhunting for residents, my father takes a lot more deer with his bow than gun every year. I have found as many (or more) dead deer in the woods after hunting season with arrows in them as gunshot wounds.

Here's your sign......

Ben / PA

I root for hunters everywhere that practice quality management. I don't root for the gunners that misrepresent our sport by trespassing and using illegal means to harvest their kills. (happened to me this year)

Doegirl75

I'll be out there with the orange army. I prefer bowhunting, however. Nothing makes deer disappear faster than that first gunshot. In Ohio, many deer have already gone nocturnal due to the pressure and intrusion of rabbit/pheasant hunters. The DNR plants pheasants on certain public lands and you could just imagine the mayhem. I guess we just need to be big boys and girls and share the outdoors with other types of hunters, despite the headaches it causes.

MGH_PA

When I first read this my post, my initial reaction was "oh great, another archery elitist thread". However, I do agree with what I believe was Quick's intention, somewhat. I'm a gun hunter myself, as well as archery. I started out with firearms and grew up with the two week PA season being a family holiday as much as Thanksgiving and Christmas. I will always consider myself a gun hunter, because of the enjoyment I find in spending the two weeks with my dad, the members of my cabin, and simply being in the woods at that time of year. It's a pastime that's engraved into my being...it's simply a part of life for me, and the hunt iitself is such a small (if insignificant) part of it. I do enjoy bowhunting much more for various reasons (which I won't dwelve into as they've been discussed on here many times), however, like many of the posters on here I support all ETHICAL and MORAL hunters. I find myself often stereotyping many of the PA gun hunters (hey I'm one as well) as "weekend warrirors", a bit "sloppy", and even "reckless." Is this a fair stereotype? Of course not, and I don't truly feel that way about the MAJORITY of gun hunters. However, their are the "slobs" and unethical sorts in ALL aspects of hunting, not just gun hunting. Those are the people for whom I root against. This idea that many people seem to hint at (although many don't openly express it) that bowhunters are the upmost ethical and moral elite of all hunting "classes" is foolish. Do I believe more bowhunters as a whole are more serious about the sport than the same given number of gun hunters? Sure. More ethical...ehhh...that's a fine line. I know of MANY bowhunters in my area that have made very unethical shots, stuck deer often, hit deer and lost them, etc.

I agree with many of the people here that we as hunters are the "group" not different groups according to our choice of weapon. If anything we should have two groups "ethical" and "unethical", because EVERY "group" of hunters be it gun, bow, muzzleloader, etc, have their fair share of each.

Now as far as quick is concerned, I found myself initially wanting to "attack" your comments when I realized I often find myself thinking along those lines, but under certain circumstances. During gun season, my neighbors pack the woods (all private land) and just murder does left and right (one season they took 9 in one day off a ~100 acre tract). They also have shot numerous deer that then run onto our property only for us to find them days later because they never bothered to track them. These our the "sloppy" hunters, and I do find myself rooting for them not to get any deer. I even go as far as to "count" shots from their property during the season to make guestimates on how many deer they may have downed.

Just my opinion on the subject.

rybohunter

I used to get all worried and fired up about who shot what in gun season. A lot of that was because people broke laws and/or were slobs. They shot illegal bucks, and if the deer didn't drop in sight they didn't bother to follow up on it.

But now a days, those things may or may not still happen, I just prefer not to know about it. I'll just go out the next season and work hard to find what did survive from the past season.

If you are a decent person and follow the rules, I hope you have a great time and get what you are after. If you are a scumbag and even if technically you don't break laws, but you act in a manner that gives good(properly behaving)hunters a bad name, I hope your gun jams and your shells misfire.

Now, to say that I'm not a little excited that few bucks were taken in my area this season, I would be lying.

AR Bowhunter

I do not care, just wish that the guns were not any louder than a bow when you shoot.