After posting my percentage rifle percentage bow question I started thinking about the saying of "once you make a bow kill on an animal you won't want to kill that same animal with a rifle". I know this is all personal opinion but I would still like to know how this crowd feels about something I hear muttered all the time.

It's only "that way" to the person saying it.

Means NOTHING to anyone else.

All the preparation that goes into bowhunting makes the shot very memorable/exciting to me. Add the proximity of the animal to you and it makes it so much more exciting than when I used to gun hunt.

It is hard for me to say that a bow kill or a gun kill is better than the other. I love bowhunting, I could not imagine myself never bowhunting. I grew up bowhunting and gun hunting, but then did not gun hunt for about 8 years. I started gun hunting again with a group of friends and I really enjoy it more. I guess the difference is, I enjoy hunting with a bow, but I enjoy the good times we have in deer camp with the guys during gun season. It is all different, IMO one is not better than the other, just different.

I enjoy bowhunting more...plain and simple. I spend about 10X the number of days bowhunting each year than gunhunting.

But they're altogether different...at least where I hunt. The animals in bow season are undisturbed and fairly calm when in the woods. After the first couple of hours of gun season the animals are on the go and they are alert as hell. Rare is the shot with a gun on the calm unsuspecting deer where I hunt. Even on my own land, which is a fairly large area with a small number of hunters...the deer know when the gunshots start.

Purely a personal preference. I gew up gun hunting and got into bowhunting about 3-4 years ago. I now only bow hunt unless its getting close to the end of season and I still have no meat in the freezer (then out come the rifle).

My personal opinion is that I just do not find gun hunting as challenging or rewarding as bowhunting. But everyone is different. I don't have anything against gun hunting it's just not my thing.

I think it is a personal choice, I have taken 3 times the deer with a bow than I have a rifle - I go to pieces after taking a deer with bow, it just isn't there with a rifle -

perfectly said .... I still LOVE killing deer with guns ...and this may be hard for some of you to believe, I like it just as much as bowhunting.. as far as the kill goes ..... each type of huinting has it's own attraction to me ...

I like hunting period. Any means available.
Heck - If I could get close enough, I'd choke them to death!