buttonbuckmaster

Gun season is more..."exciting" maybe IMO. Hearing shots that are nearby, never knowing whats coming through next, firearms season is a fun time to be in the woods. I really enjoy bowhunting, butI'll be honest though, I only bowhunt becauseit allows to hunt ALOT, not because I think it makes the hunt more special/meaningful etc.I'd be out there with my potato gun if there was a season for it.

PreacherTony

Jeff ....... trust me ....your missing out ...... read Jim's posts ........ I'm not saying there aren't other things ..... all I am saying .... nevermind ... you can't miss what you never had, I guess

GMMAT

Tony:

If I lived in a state that didn't allow me to bowhunt during ALL open deer seasons.....I'd gun hunt them. I'm sure I'd learn to love it, too.

I'm just afforded the luxury of being able to hunt them with the bow (on relatively unpressured land) the entire season. I'd also have ONLY one place to hunt them if I gun hunted.

Like I said, though.....as hard as it is for you to relate.....I KNOW (for myself) that I'm not "missing out".....as much as you know you're not missing out on hunting them in a pen (and I am NOT correlating the two....at all).

I'm sure your experiences gun hunting ARE special, to you (and others). I wish I felt that way. I just "don't". Kudos to you guys.

_Dan

While I agree with something everyone has said, this statement is very true.

I hunt with anything and everything. Up here we have 2 weeks of bow only, then 1 week of bow and ml, then rifle kicks in and they all end on November 15. My brothers, dad and other friends come up and hunt for the first 2 weeks of Novmeber with what ever weapon they choose. When I look at deer hunting I don't put a prefix on it....bow, gun, or ml.....its all hunting.

A lot of times I wake up in the morning and pick up whatever I feel like hunting with that day. If I grab the bow, I never feel like I'm better than the rest of the guys who are using a gun that day. On the flip side, if I grab the ml or rifle, I never feel like I'm less of a hunter than my buddy who only hunts with a bow. He looks at it the same way.....its just hunting.

Also, I have never shot a deer at under 30 yards with a ml or rifle and thought it would have been so much better if I would have brought the bow that day. Conversly, I have never sat with a bow and saw a deer at 100 yards and wished I had brought the gun that day.

Dudes, its just hunting, as long as its legal.......get out and do it and encourage everyone else to do the same.

TexasBowHunter

I am on the fence with this one because I see both sides, I grew up with the deer camp every year gun hunting, with all the normal traditions.....I started bowhunting in my early 20's, and over the years have a bunch of guys that I bowhunt with, we now do all the same stuff as before but it is with bowhunters instead of gun hunters and sometimes a mix of the 2 at camp. In Texas's general season you can hunt with gun or bow, I still hunt with my bow as does several of my other buddieson the lease but we also have some oldr gents that gun hunt only....I don't think the two different ways of hunting have to be totally seperated but again in Texas you can hunt with what you like for the most part of the season......Us guys that bowhunt get a month in the woods before the general season yet we still have all the same traditions just with a few less guys than in the gun season....I can see both sides but can't relate as much to the solitude of it as wenormally hunt as a group, hell I like it when the gun hunters come in, they generally push the deer out of a lot of areas that they would normally hide in....With my job taking me overseas I have a lot more time off now a days and have started doing a lot more hunting during the week by myself and it too has it's positives.....

joshw020

PT, I can definitely relate. OH's short gun season resembles a family reunion at the cabin. The "usual suspects" are always in attendance, usually so many that the floor is covered in sleeping hunters (or hunters TRYING to sleep ). The neighbors are stoppingby through out the days to swap stories and food. It's an excellent time for all!
To me, bowhunting is a part of my everyday life (one ofmy favorite parts ), while gun hunting is definitely an event . . . a MAJOReventindeed! And if I take a plump doe with my shot gun, it's a bonus. It's the part of my season where I just don't feelany pressure to put a deer down. It's far more about the experience than the take.

Rob/PA Bowyer

PT, I feel the same as mobow and GMMAT. I cringe when our PA season comes around although I understand what your saying with the tradition and cabin thing etc. I'd like to belong to a cabin for nothing more than the tradition though I'll never hunt the rifle season with a rifle. I would do it with a bow. The way I read your post though, it has nothing to do with the weapon but the gathering and traditions behind the scenes. It would be the exact same way if the entire event happened with bows but that's rarely if ever the case.

What sums it up for me is something an older WY'r said to me when I was out elk hunting in WY. After I took my bull I was in "town" Sheridan. A guy saw our vehicle plates and asked " You guys hunting? " Sure are I said. " What for?" he asked. I replied, "Bull elk". He astonishingly asked, " With a BOW?" , yeah, why I asked.......

I thought, here we go, and he said, " You know I envy you guys". So I asked why. He said, " I'm a rifle hunter, I see an elk and I shoot it, you see an elk and your hunt begins".

Again, I understand the traditions and the camp camarodorie etc.... but when rifle season comes in this great state of PA, I feel sorry for the deer. Yup, sorry. Damn things run around frantic, orange behind every other tree, lead flying everywhere, bam, bam, bam, bam as deer flee across the fields, zing goes a bullet..heard too many of them. Signs get shot, litter along the back roads, orange in the bars, orange in the stores, orange at the gas station, beat up truck here, out of state tag there. Orange standing on the black tops. Radios chattering constantly, slow moving road hunters on most back roads.

Yeah, it might be different where some of you live but I cringe when our rifle season rolls around. [&:]

But I understand the tradition and camaradory.

GMMAT

The camaraderie associated with deer camps (during rifle season) seems to be the "kicker". So I'll ask.....if the SAME guys all bow hunted.....would that "disappear"? Be "different"? How so? Just curious.

YooperMike

I grew up gun hunting, since the time I can remember, gun season was a big deal, the biggest to exact. I would be excited for months leading up to it. School was cancelled for opening day, so of course we were always up at camp the night before. Everything that went into the hunt was fun. Some of my fond memories come from the shopping trip the day before to stock the camp with food. All of those things we couldn't have the rest of the year were fair game, if we wanted Snickers for breakfast, have two! That tradition is what made me the dedicated hunter I am today.

I came in to bowhunting later in my life (I'm not old (26) but I didn't start bowhunting until 14, and then took off for about 9 years because of sports) and now I bowhunt hard, and love to do it. I bowhunt here in IL, so there is always excitement. I do wish I had some of my friends from gun season that I could bowhunt with, the commaraderie is just not quite the same. There's something about hearing that gun shot and wondering if it was my brother/dad/friend who shot. Can't do that with the bow...or shouldn't anyway!

Lanse couche couche

It's all good and depends on the person. Otherwise, you might as well try to argue which is a better experience golf or tennis, fly fishing versus bass fishing, boxers versus briefs, sandals versus flipflops, taste great versus less filling, etc., etc. As for me, I consider myself to be a hunter and don't choose to define myself by my choice in weapon or hunting style.