NEW61375

Every time this topic comes up it baffles me how most only compare the actual taking of the animal(like shot distance, ease of shooting chosen weapon, etc).

I tend to compare seasons Bow Season vs. Gun Season.

Bow Season to me means lots of food sources, less hunting pressure, summer feeding patterns still(early anyway), pre-rut/chase phases, more daylight, and lots of other advantages.

Gun Season to me isa great first week followed by lots of hunter pressure, less food sources(often visited after dark), less daylight, rut action slows after the first two weeks(here anyway), and some other stuff I would call disadvantages.

I don't base trophies or successes on my chosen weapon. I chose the weapon and I should put myself in a position to kill with it whatever it may be based on deer activity and if I am not successful rarely is it because of my choice of weapon, usuallyit is some other mistake I made along the way.

So to answer your question Wash, No I don't believe in that mindset simply because bow season is a very good time to be in the woods and haslots ofadvantages thatmany have not even mentioned here, IMO the advantages far outweigh the disadvantage of a shorter range weapon.

bigtim6656

10 pages easy maybe 15.

I see any legal ethical kill a trophy.
I did not feel this way until i started bow hunting, but bow hunting is by far more difficult then a 200 yard gun hunt. Though i do think a gun hunter should follow all the same rules as a bow hunter because be it 10 yards or 100 if there down wind and you stink they know your there.

I would be happy with a 200 yard gun kill or a 20 yard bow kill. All these holyer then thou crap needs to stop. We all hunting not bow hunter or gun hunters but hunters first second and last.

I see myself having three priority's in life my family my fellow countrymen and my fellow hunters. It is hard to pick weather my fellow hunters come before my fellow country men or the other way around. I look at it this way if i had to pick the side of a normal American or a American that hunts well sorry for the none hunter.

So lets just all forget what we hunt with and how close. because there is all ways someone doing it harder and closer then you

my7pointmonster

Every Bow kill is a trophy to me, Accully every kill is a trophy to me, because its more about respecting that animal, now dont get me wrong i value my Bowkills a lot more than my rifle kills. But with my rifle kills i will only take hard shots i.e. i shot a doe at 100 yards running away from me in the back of the head, I've accully never shot a doe in the body with a rifle, to me thats no fun its the size of a freakin half sheet of plywood for crying out loud you have a highly efficient rifle in your hands, if you cant hit the chest on one you need to get back to the range and practice brother. BUT I also have missed my fair share by making my rifle shots challenging, but with a bow, its ALWAYS a challenge. To me that makes it quite a bit more of a trophy to be like hey look what i did!!!

Ryan.

cooter144

Does it really make sense to try to make your rifle shots MORE difficult than they need to be?

Head shots at running deer?

Doesn't that increase the chance of a poor shot resulting in a wounded animal?

I think you need to learn to respect the animals you hunt.

BigJ71

I don't look at any of my kills as a trophy whether they be gun kills or bow kills. I think they (Whitetail deer)are great animals and I've had some bucks over the years mounted but only because I think they look cool and not because they are a "trophy". To meit's just hunting and I realize it for what it is....a pastime, a hobby, something I do that's fun and challenging.

Critr-Gitr

A SHOOTER tries to make his shots difficult to bolster his own ego, a HUNTER tries to make them as easy as possible to respect the game with a clean kill. 10 yards with a bow, 100 with a rifle, I'll take them all day long. Intentionally making shots achallenge isfor the range, not live animals.

early in

I shot this little spike thinking it was a doe. Watched him drop 30yrds away.The spikes were hidden by his ears. A legal (at the time)bow kill? Yes. An accomplishmentwith a bow? I like to think so. A trophy? Not at all. Actually,I call it a mistake because that ended my buck hunting that year (2002).[&o]