My grandfather didn't dig bow hunting.
 

He gave me some of his early 1970's Outdoor Life magazines to read in 1978. There was a feature on bow hunting in one of them. I asked my grandfather, a strictly rifle-only deer hunter, what he thought about bow hunting. He said, "Go on kid, get out of here!" He frowned upon scopes on hunting rifles too and thought only idiots would fire a 22 at a deer.

So, my grandfather was not a man to make a grandson enthused about archery. I do know hunting deer with a bow is much more prevalent now than in 1978. I once read an older dictionary. Under HUNT, one of the definitions had to do with killing animals and birds with a GUN for sport. No mention of bows. Too many cartoons, TV shows, movies and children's storybooks over the decades have portrayed hunters (modern American men of European decent, British, European settlers and colonists and Europeans) with guns. A bow is not something automatically thought of to me whenever HUNTING is mentioned in the context of an American sportsman or a sportsman of the European-language-speaking world. I think of archery as primitive, medieval or tribal. Of course, the utterance of Robin Hood or William Tell doesn't plant visions of guns in my head either. I think of muzzle-loaders as a bit quaint too.

Does anybody else here think modern sport hunting is chiefly stereotyped with weaponry than goes BANG? For most of my 57 years, HUNT has gone with GUN as BACON has gone with EGGS.

If you want to really learn how to hunt deer, hunt with a bow. Bow hunting will make you a better rifle hunter. Rifle hunting, comparatively, is more or less just getting groceries.

This is true allot of times. You will definitely learn more about deer behavior and how they interact. And if you put time in scouting (enough time to be regularly successful) you'll learn about deer habitat and how they live as well.

But the reverse can be true. Some of the pressured public lands I hunt in Ohio and Pennsylvania I can kill a doe or a small buck in early archery pretty easily. Here in Ohio I can find an early season six point on public land every season if I wanted to. Try finding a single deer during gun season though, it's tough.

-Jake

Well my grandfather once said he stopped buying a hunting license because (It wasn't a cheap way to get a steak dinner anymore) I don't want to paint with to broad of a brush but.I believe may older hunters in especially PA.Was literally away to get red meat fairly cheap.Maybe they enjoyed hunting with friends and family but it was about meat in the end.I myself never hunted with my grandfather he is still a live.He did not believe in bowhunting, Taxidermy,but if he shot a buck he would keep the rack.I never would really would think of him as a sport hunter.More of field to table hunter and not the new wave hipster kind.Meat is meat cut into steaks an sausage that was he was about.I myself I consider myself a sport hunter I eat the meat but I love the adventures and time spent wondering around chasing critters deer, Stingray, hogs whatever.I think it was probably just the way some older people were raised to think.No different then the way some people believe hunting and eating meat wrong.It is just there perspective on there reality.Do'nt mean they are right it is just the way the think.

I have mixed opinions on it. I don't think any type of hunting is a slam dunk like getting groceries in a store unless you're hunting in a pen or some small fenced in area. I can often get a buck or 2 if I put the time in but it's definitely not a guarantee and I have to put in the time hiking to find them. I don't bowhunt but have nothing against it. I'm not sure I'd want to bowhunt a bear but that's probably another story. :D