Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Archery vs. Rifle

I like both. In northern states where I hunt (NY, Mass and a lesser extent VT) there is a very different vibe to the different seasons. In the much longer bow season, there is very little pressure even on public land. You hunt deer as they feed, breed etc, Couple this to the more moderate weather and its a more relaxed season. The gun seasons have much more pressure and even on private lands the deer pretty quickly give up their normal patterns.

I wish there were liberal deer seasons like archery open to revolver hunters with open sights only. Most would be held to about 40-60 yards for shots or if really talented perhaps 80 yards. I see the open sighted revolver to be somewhat like archery in its distance challenges and very effective at putting down game. Like archery some would be more proficient than others. Most hunting shows never show the archery disasters that take place or for that matter even rifle screw ups. I do not believe an open sighted revolver should be constituted as a rifle season firearm. Understand now that the 460 S&W and 500 S&W bring in a new breed, but perhaps limiting revolver case length to 1.4" would eliminate that concern. Still hunting in deep woods with a 41 Mag, 44 Mag, 480 Ruger, etc., makes for some great excitement. Should have the opportunity to hunt both revolver and rifle just like the bow hunters get without being restricted to a two week season.

You are a stupid ....

Fine with me, but you get in line behind the rifle hunters like we have to do with the archers. Seasons would be bow first, then rifle, last handgun.

My way would be you choose your weapon when you buy a license. You get one choice. Would be interesting to see how many bow hunters drop out.

I like that idea!

Really? We added a law to allow dogs to track wounded game. When you can name every whiz bang rager broadhead matherson bow scent snooper clothing and by God lets put your 2yr old daughter in the pic of the buck you lost and had to pay a houndsmen to find your kill you shot at 21 steps we have a problem.

When you post you feelin really bad you made a perfect broadside double lung shot but cant find him what would you do? And 380 people comment dont worry it happens a lot you misjudged the shot it happens to all of us move on theres more buck out there.....we have a problem.

We dont have to mention the numerous pics of deer shot in the ass, forehead, brisket, gut, etc etc found later by dogs. Or the photos of deer posted with puss sacks overgrown around broadheads found while gutting your deer.

Might be worthy to note the amount of weekly photos posted asking what "this" is an its a basic anatomy photo. Most recently pic of lymph nodes and more than 10 people said cancerous nodes, 3 buckshot, and over 30 people stating dont eat its CWD!!

Archers are by far the most stupid hunters ive ever come across, most not fit to hunt. If that makes ME stupid in your small mind so be it.

And just like that, shotguns-only turned into sabot slugs and ML season turned into scoped in-line season.

Very few people have the time or desire to be saddled with the inefficient BS.

If this is to be another bash on bow hunters thread, I'm done here.

Well, not quite, but the second part is certainly true. The same attitude was prevalent when compounds first came out. They'll get over it when they get old or otherwise have trouble shooting their wheel-bows. The hunters in my small circle are deer hunters, and don't care what anyone uses.

I got a crossbow so I could hunt longer and without dodging the crowds on public land. So far the experiment had been a huge success with two down and one more tag to go. Been passing on does with my rifle, but that nonsense stops Thursday. Overall, I think hunter numbers are down where I hunt, and I've seen little or no evidence of deer kills by other hunters, by any method.

You are. You evidently have never known a good hunter, especially a bowhunter, but you just go ahead and live in your world. You are an elitist snob and you are welcome to your opinion.

I, on the other hand, embrace the outdoors and hunting and enjoy all offered and have killed from 3 steps on the ground, with a homemade recurve all the way out past 800 with a rifle and all kinds of in between. My wife is about as capable. MZ, Shotgun, pistols, bows, you name it, we enjoy it. And we realize their are differences and enjoy those and don't live to b i t c h about others. Well scumlord is a rare exception.

I"ve seen more lost deer by guns, than bows. Simple math would verify that truth too. If anyone would think about it. How many killed by gun, how many killed by archery etc...

Crossbow, check, got it when I injured my shoulder so bad as a volunteer firefighter, that I could not draw my recurve. Trying to save 2 kids in a house fire. Guess how far I've used it? I won't shoot it past the distance that I won't shoot my other bows. Basically 15 steps max. I"m not saying thats what all should do but I'm tired of people not backing others choices and just continually damning each other though we are SUPPOSED to be on the same side.

I believe you agree with me there.

I suspect your circle is small, like ours, because there are not as many good humans out there anymore like there used to be.

Oh yeah lets go one more since I'm tired and grumpy. We have a trailing dog. A rescue we didn't really want. Turned out great. We have been called all over our county and where we hunt also. Dog has gotten nice tips from some folks. In about 4 years now he has found close to 40 deer. I've not had one single call from a bowhunter. Trust me I know plenty of them, wife and I each have taken over 100 animals with a bow..... My last bow shot went about 30 steps and fell over. No need for a dog.

FWIW I almost enjoy watching the dog work the trails that the gun hunters can't find, and watch him locate the deer for them. But don't fret, we know how to track and trail too, hunted since the early 70s without a dog and learned how.

I know many hunters, including myself, that are excellent hunters. I also know some award winning archers that do NOT hunt, but own a very well known archery business and their opinion echos mine, that the majority if todays archers are inept. My bitch isnt the excellent hunters, theyre a rare breed. Apparently youre too phuggin stupid to understand that. Now if what I said above about 99% of bow hunters today is acceptable to you, youre really one stupid MFer! As to your comment on the numbers of deer lost rifle/bow, of course rifle hunters lose more simply because the number of rifle hunters outweigh archers. Thats just common sense. Which apparently you lack heavily.

40 deer? Thats it??? I can show you a facebook group where ONE man and his dog found close to 60 this year alone! Hunting Pennsylvania Close Group. Check it out.

I just never could really like bows. If they made one that went "boom", had recoil and shot copper jacketed arrows 3000 fps I might get interested.

+1

Me too. Hunting feeds my interest in Rifle shooting, not the other way around.

I live in PA and honestly, I bow hunt just to have more time in the local woods. If I had to pick between rifle and bow hunting, I would definitely pick rifle hunting. Bows/crossbows are as interesting as a shovel to me, but I love being outdoors. Honestly, I’ll bow hunt less next year, I took a morning off this season to go squirrel hunting, and wonder why I got away from small game hunting- had a blast that morning! Whatever keeps me in the woods is what makes me happy though, so I’ll continue to do all of it.

I had a guy from work ask me about bow hunting (a non-hunter), as he said he watched some shows and listened to them talk about it making it seem like a more exciting hunting. I thought about it for a second, and told him I didn’t think that was true. Setting up for archery hunting and getting a closer shot is great, but it’s not like all rifle shots have to be 300+ yards. If you get your jollies from taking a deer at close range, that’s fine, but whether you have a bow, crossbow, or rifle in your hand doesn’t really matter.

I just generally dislike the concept of boutique seasons. Ought to be just one season - deer season, pick your poison.
But then the archery Co.s would go out of business.

You would like what they do in VA. The limit is 5 or 6, including 2 or 3 bucks, depending on which side of the Blue Ridge you take them on, and it matters not what you take them with. They still have seasons devoted to different weapons, but you can always drop down to something more challenging. Not quite what you want, but it works pretty well, and their seasons are long, and drawless.