Actually it used to mean alot more to me years ago. Back then we would camp (friends and i ) for the last week of bow season and the first weekend of gun season. It was exciting as you mentioned Tony expecting the unexpected But since that we have gotten older, started familys, had kids and got away from the camp scene [&o]My Dad never deer hunted so i missed out there. I still go out with my kids for the gun opener and love watching them getting it done. I have a blastbeing with themeven if im still toting the bow. I kinda got away from hunting with my smoke poll in 2005 even after i killed my biggest ever a 155" er with it. There is nothing wrong with doing something you love doing I just have more liking of the bowhunting.

I still gun hunt and still enjoy it,but I'm not as serious about it as I am bowhunting ,my approach to gun hunting is different than bowhunting and I will sit longer and hunt harder with my bow than with agun,I mainly got into bowhunting to exstend my hunting season but it rapidly turned into a passion and obsession.

My ass is hurting by the time I start gun hunting from all the bow hunting, but I still love to hunt deer with a rifle. I am one with nature, no bullets wizzing by my head, no orange clad hunters ruining my hunt, complete solitude while I'm going one on one with a buck, and usually hunting alone, not only while bow hunting, but also while rifle hunting. I don't have a camp full of family and friends.I picked up deer hunting, with gun and bow, on my own, so thereis no tradition, but I still love torifle hunt. I love to bow hunt. I love to gun hunt. I love to deer hunt. Let's all get along guys.

Schultzy,

I refuse to surround myself with those types of hunters either, bow or gun. I don't think you fully understood what I was saying. For example, I am getting to the point where I cringe at the thought of going to one of my local Pro Shops because what I end up listening to from other supposed "hunters" is pure bow hunter elitist crap, it's enough to make you sick.I do my thing, get my range time in and leave. From listening to these jokers you'd swear that the only "real" hunting was done with a bow.[:'(]Pure BS from narrow minded, uneducated, uninformed, unlearned know-it-alls who do nothing but give a black eye to not only bow hunters but all hunters in general.

I see it here as well, hardly a week goes by where someone isn't spouting off about how gun hunters are slobs and bow hunting is the cat's meow because you have to get up close, hold your fire till you see the whites of their eyes and whisper sweet nothings into the deers ear before letting the arrow go.By making statements like that, done with the explicit intent to put down gun hunting and bolster what obviously is a self esteem that is in dyer need of a boost it only perpetuates to rift between the two styles of hunting further dividing hunters as a whole.....And for what? so someone can sit up on their high horse and proclaim to the world that the way they hunt is the hardest and most challenging and only the most skilled of hunters can do it therefore vicariously elevating themselves into the "super hunter" status.

I don't think we need the gun seasons to control the deer populations, I think we need it sohunterscanget out and enjoy the great past time that is hunting. You make it sound like once the population is controlled by them "mouth breathing cretin gunshooters" us "hunters" can go about our business. I'm pretty sure you didn't mean it that way but go back and re-read your sentence. You've pretty much relegated and lowered gun hunters to "population control specialists"only servingthe purpose of keeping the herd numbers in line....for the real hunters.Again, I don't think you meant it that way but it sure came off like it.

Don't fool yourself Schultzy that's the main reason why this junkverbiage is passed around like candy on Halloween, sofolks can say "look at me, I'm the great bow hunter". Half the guys at the Pro Shop I shoot at,I think only bow hunt for bragging rights and could care less for the real hunting bliss bow hunting offers.

Yes gun hunters are guilty as well for some of the nastiness that spews out like a septic tank overflown but from what I've seen and read over the years it pales in comparison to the elitist "better than thou" attitude coming from the bow hunting camp.

No I don't associate with those typeeither, I hang out with hunters.........

I don't think about the difference, because frankly I do not care. I just hunt. I am not better, I am not worse. But one thing is for sure, I feel a heck of alot better with a bow in my hand than when I used to gun hunt. I love it.

Yeah, I agree with that. Lots of clowns these days at the Pro Shops. Had one Superman tell me he could tell where a whitetail was from by the sheds/antlers. Since I've gotthem from Virginia, Michigan, Maine, and Maryland, he soon had his a$$ handed to him. He took a short vacation from the Pro Shop.But,I sure understandthe distaste for gun hunting by some. Had a guy a few years back, trespassing on myBud's property, waiting for the dogs to come through. Another friend and I told him he was trespassing, but since it wasn't our land, he ignored us. Deer pops out, he shoots it, then stands around and watches the dog as it tries to eat into the rear end of the deer, which is still alive.Asked him nicely to put the deer down, get the dog off the animal, and move on with his kill. It got ugly. He didn't get the deer, was prosecuted for trespassing, and the hunt club had one less hunting dog.

The closest friends I have in the world are all hunters, but to put it in perspective the biggest assclowns I have ever crossed paths with have also been hunters.[]

Not just bow huntersor just gun hunters, just plane old slob hunters.And our ranks have more than enough to go around.[:@]

That is absolutely true bawanajim,and there lies the dilemma.There are some styles of hunting that don't particularly appeal to me but I respect those who choose to participate in them.(provided they are legal)
The issue is always with the hunter or criminalas the case may be.There are a low of bowhunters that are idiots and there are a lot of rifle hunters that are idiots.It comes down to the individual.
How many times have you been in a pro shop or a sporting goods department and were sickened by the conversations that were taking place? Either the stupidity or the ego driven horse s--t you hear.I am not at all coming from an elitist perspective I am referring to very basic right and wrong kind of stuff.

I 100% agree BigJ. I don't put myself in them situations anymore and go to these places. It makes me sick listening to these guys brag about taking there 50+ yard shots and thinking there the "Man" for doing it. There not a "Man" to me, more like a person who needs to get his stuff together and learn how to hunt instead of shoot! Bow hunting from what people use to do is way beyond what people do now, I don't care for it one bit so I don't put myself in that position anymore, you should do the same if you don't want to hear it!

Gun seasons in certain places are better/worse then other places. My neck of the woods most are slobs and could care less about anything. Up where my dad lives in Northern Minnesota its a completely different story. They take pride in there deer hunting up there, I wish more were like that around my place. The gun hunters in my area feel this way also, they don't care to be out in the havoc but they have no choice being they only have a 2 week season for slug hunting. I feel for allot of the people who take there hunting serious but at the same time they have to put up with the idiots of the sport.

Again your way off with me but I'm starting to get use to that in this thread. My phone is ringing off the hook during gun season to go out and help the gun hunters that I know and some I don't to help them out in a track job. Many friends of mine tote a shotgun around for deer hunting, most of these guys are quality hunters. I BS with these guys about hunting story's just like the folks who hunt with a bow, actually I talk more with guys who use a gun being bow hunting isn't nearly as popular as it once was. I don't dislike gun hunters one bit, I just can't stand the gun hunters that are "slobs" around my area which there is plenty of them. What I said is true that gun hunting keeps the population in control. Big deal if I said that, its the truth. Yes there's so much more to it then just that but I was stating a very important fact. When my cousins get together for slug season its neat as hell watching them interact with each other on the story's and the BSing, I love it! Ease your sensitivity button down a bit, your ego might be taking a hit otherwise.[8D]

Again quit putting yourself in that position BigJ. You don't need to hear it, the hell with them guys. I've heard it too and I no longer go to these places. My back yard does the trick.

This may be true where you live and or read in a bow hunting forum of some sort but Its the farthest thing from it where I live. I don't care for people like this whether there shooting a gun or bow, It don't go in my book. Its jealousy on both sides when you hear the stupid "I'm better then you" comments coming from both bow and gun hunters. It will never go away BigJ!

By the way BigJ I think some of the best deer hunters I've ever met are gun hunters. Thats the truth!!!



Great post to there Scot and Jim!!

Worlds apart. I live & breath bowhunting. I don't have much tradition or comraderie in gun hutning but I still go. Typically it's just another day to be out. lately I've been using gun hunting to try different areas and weapons. Sometimes I have to rely on it a little more than I wishI needed to when i have a thin doe harvest in archery season.