early in

Point well taken. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought for sure Jeffposted this thread.Anyway, I think it'sjust the little EXTRA details you need to take care of. Like letting him/her get close enough, drawing the bow without being detected, ect. This subject could go back and forth forever though. Hence my first statement.

smokyghost

I think bowhunting is much more involved, practicing hrs and hrs,figuring the deer patterns, setting stands at different areas, and setting them for the right shot. playing the wind to get in undetected so you can get close and harvest a deer. I think bowhunting gives the deer a chance. you have to place the shot just right to make a clean kill. you might have to grunt to get him in to 20 30 yds and hope he gives you a good shot. with a rifle you got to place the shot right, but he dont have to be within 25, 30 yds. you might be able to shoot thru a few limbs too. if he runs off and stops to look back at ya, you might be able to get off a shot, with a bow thats out of the ?? I hunt every area with a rifle too. Ijust jump off 50 or so yds, and alot of times wish I had the bow. But to me every deer taken with a bow or rifle is a trophy. just more rewarding with the bow.and some good eating

Phil from Maine

For me I am alot like davidmill, I hunt for the steaks. After having said that I find shooting a deer with a bow is alot harder to do. I can shoot a deer running with a rifle at 100 yards. Now you take a bow and there is no chance of me trying that even at 10 yards..All my hunting is from the ground,walk and stalk or just sitting there waiting for one to come by. Here in my area there is not alot of deer to be found. Coyotes and bears pretty much keep them a bay so hunting them my way is very hard to do. But all in all I have shot 4 deer that way and all of them made some great eating. I have never tried muzzle loading so I can not comment on that one. For as far as shotguns I have shot a few that way as well and can also hit them running. So shooting one with a bow to me can leave no greater feeling than to know you out foxed a deer in the deers own terf. That alone makes it some sort of a trophy that will serve me and my family just fine on the table for dinner..

JoshKeller

I wont say any deer I've taken is a trophy. I look at them all as accomplishments, but my reason for hunting is enjoyment and food, not trophies.

Paul L Mohr

To me any deer on the ground is a trophy and meat in my freezer. I am just as proud and appreciative of the deer I take with my ML as I am of the deer I kill with my bow. Same would be true if I could use a rifle in my area.

Don't think that just because you don't use a bow it is easy. I know people that have hunted for years with shotgun, ML and rifle and have never killed a deer or killed very few. I manage to take one every season I hunt. I feel that is an accomplishment. If it was that easy everyone that had a tag would take a deer, and that simply doesn't happen and we all know that.

However for me it is not a competition, I don't care that you killed more deer than I did, or less or how you went about it or that yours was bigger and older than mine. It simply doesn't matter to me. And I can't for the life of me figure out why it would matter to anyone else, unless they are of the mindset that they just have to be better than someone else.

If you don't "feel" right taking a deer with a gun or taking a young deer or doe then fine. That is your personal goal, just don't impose it on anyone else. If you don't want to hunt with a gun, then don't. Like I always say, I could argue you are less of a hunter by not using the best weapon available to you, or that you let deer walk by waiting for something better. I could also argue that bow hunting is less ethical than gun hunting. I'm sure you wouldn't like it if I told you that. The purpose of deer hunting is regulate the population, not let them walk by waiting for something better. If that were the case I wouldn't need a weapon, I could just get a nice camera.

I can't understand why someone feels the need to undermine another persons accomplishments. Like say a coworker has been hunting for 4 or five years (started as an adult) and finally takes a deer. He is excited and tells you he killed his first deer, or second or third for that matter. And it just happens that he did it with a .243 at 120 yards. Why would someone say "Well yeh, but you did it with a rifle, I'm a real hunter I use a bow." What purpose does that serve other than making someone feel bad and stroking your own ego?

It MIGHT make you a better hunter, but it certainly doesn't make you a better person. At least not in my book.

And by the way, I killed a deer my very first time in a stand with a bow. First time I ever hunted for deer, half an hour into opening day. Wearing black jeans and a cammo T-shirt, no scent lock or anything like that.

Paul

MNpurple

I hate the word trophy, its just so subjective, and means so much to different people, which why I dont use it.

All of my deer kills whether they be withbow orshotgun are accomplishments to me. I do not shoot a deer just to kill it, I shoot it because I want to harvest that particular deer. This applies to anything from a BC buck to this years fawn. If I am succesful in harvesting that deer, I have achieved my goal and am very proud of that fact and that alone.

Transcendstime

Any deer on my dinner plate is a trophy. Rifle/Bow/Shotgun whatever. Doe and bucks a like. Hell, if me and a friend went out with the exact same setup and I came home with a spike and my friend came home with 200 points. I'd still think "MINE" is the trophy just cause it was mine.

cooter144

I actually think it's funny when people say "anything I shoot with bow is a trophy to me".

I don't see many people puting fawn and doe heads on their wall.

I don't even like the term "trophy" being used when it comes to hunting...trophys are something you get for winning a game or competition.

Hunting means much more to me than any game.

Just my .02.

Cougar Mag

"Any bow kill is a trophy"
"Any bow kill is an accomplishment"

Same thing in my book, just use which word makes you more comfortable. Last year my son shot his first deer with a bow, a doe. It sure felt like a trophy to him.

Many years ago when I started bowhunting compounds were still relatively in the developmental stages and deer were not nearly as plentiful, at least in Illinois. We were allowed one deer permit with bow and if you were lucky enough to draw a permit one deer with firearm. My fatherinlaw who got me started in bowhunting told me the same phrase. Where he read or heard it I don't know. I'm pretty sure the "any bow kill is a trophy" phrase was started long before that.

wis_rifle_hunter

any buck is a trophy to me. because this is only my 3rd year deer hunting. i havent shot a buck yet so any buck is a trophy for me