Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Archery vs. Rifle

Winner, you are on ignore.

Love em both.

If you're going to argue that hunting with a rifle doesn't make up for a lot of opportunities lost in comparison to a bow, you are either heavily biased or moronic. What is required of you to hunt with a gun isn't even remotely close in comparison with long bow. You could continue the comparison with a long bow vs a spear vs a sling shot vs a hunting with only a knife.

As far as a skillful hunter is concerned, there are way too many variables at play that would determine one's quality and it isn't what they are carrying in their hand.

I bow hunt. I gun hunt.

I enjoy both immensely. I’ve killed 5 does with my bow this year and 3 with a gun. I still have my buck tag and bow hunted today. Muzzleloader starts Saturday and I’ll use one of those for the next week or so. If I don’t see a buck I want to shoot during muzzleloader, I’ll get back after it with a bow until season closes.

If there was a F-16 season I’d use one of those too. I like hunting and I like shooting stuff. The weapon in hand doesn’t mater. I’m the weapon.

I’m just a hunter, regardless of weapon.

F16's are better than guns or bows, as they are also useful for making booty calls!

I like this response. I never intended what seems to be a typical ‘Fire heated response to archery vs guns, I simply wanted to know why there are so many bow hunting shows rather than rifle.

Years ago I purchased a very nice long bow because it was just so cool. But the time required to get any good with it was significant. Within 15 yards I could keep most all my shots within a 4” circle, but if I stepped back 5 more yards I was all over the place.

Bowhunting here is before gun season.

So the deer haven't been pressured, plus here we get pre rut and often start of rut.

X bows considered reg archery gear in most places now. Putting a hurt on vertical bow sales.



Shot my Blackwidow recurve today. Fun

As for rifle vs bow...............see through rings make one superior.

LOL

I don't see that happening at all. I"ve hunted general gun seasons with all kinds of weapons. By choice.

Would it cut down on sales of other things, like bows, handguns, blackpowder? Yes of course some only do it to get more time in the woods. Who can blame em for that? If you don't want more time in the woods then you dont' have the real drive IMHO.

Its about the end of our general season here, we'd be hunting with bows if the owner allowed it, as is we are still hunting with glocks though time is running out and there are a few deer that need to be taken out, not deer we WANT, but deer we NEED to take out, ( our opinion) and they may have to fall to a rifle but we'll see.

It’s all hunting.

Exactly! Just remember with any weapon if you collapse BOTH lungs it die fast.

P.S. I know about main arteries, brains and spines.

But NOTHING other than CNS is 100% sure. Even a double lung deer can clot, heal and live... though I should probably say main arteries I've never seen fail or a hole in the heart, though a hole in the heart has covered up to 500 yards a few times.

I will hunt with my x bow in ml season and rifle sea. will hunt with x bow &muz. in rifle sea. don't matter to me

Now how about we continue with your scenario of taking the best archer from Iowa and a average rifleman from the northeast. Only lets even the odds, by giving both the same rifle & ammo. Ill argue that an experienced Archer will more frequently put themselves in the right place at the right time. I hunt with both Archery equipment & rifle. While I have over time become quite proficient in archery hunting whitetails. I generally have seen a rifle hunt as a meat hunt. That is I generally know if I see a deer & choose to shoot from 5 yards to 300 yards Ill be hauling meat out of the field in short order.

On the other hand while archery hunting I can't count the number of times I have been within 30 yards of a deer Id like to take, yet had no viable shot. Give me a rifle & even if we increase the range to 100 yards & the level of certainty of connecting with lethal shot-placement improves massivly.

To put this differently I am a much better hunter, rifle or Bow today due to my Archery experience. With my level of proficiency with a bow Ill need to close the distance on a deer to inside of 30 yards to make a kill shot with any certainty. Put my rifle in my hands & If I am able to develop a good rest my comfort zone may stretch as far as 300 yards.

I enjoy hunting with Bow & rifle. As I get older & my feet are giving out on me (plantar fasciitis) If I wish to be assured of putting meat on the table, Ill apply for a rifle tag & get her done in a day or two.
If I wish to spend time in the field I'll apply for an archery tag. Then if the deer of a lifetime provides the shot of a lifetime on opening day, I stand to be disappointed if I fill that tag on my first day out of the season. I am often disappointed when tagged out with an archery tag early in the season.

Tracking distance for both Archery & Rifle shot deer seldom exceed 60 yards anymore for me & surprisingly often have resulted DRT with bow & rifle. BTW my favorite deer rifle today happens to be chambered in 6mm ARC

I bow hunt during bow season, rifle hunt during rifle season

What's funny is I will hear dumbasses up on the public ground fire five or ten times at deer all the time.

Private ground is no golden ticket to a successful hunt. In fact, my biggest deer have all come from public ground that I access from private ground. Guess what? You can use game cameras on public ground just the same as private. I see lots of them put up by rifle hunters.

Today's hunters....rifle hunters, for the most part suck at hunting. I couldn't tell you the number of wounded deer I see in rifle season, some with their jaws blown off or shot in the rear quarters.

Archery, in my state at least, gets shut down in the middle of the season for a youth hunt and rifle season...which all occurs directly in the middle of the rut. Archers are denied the rut, but we can have Sept and early October. Then we get a couple weeks in December (we can archery hunt during muzzle loader season which occurs then, and we get January.

One of my favorite things about archery hunting is I don't have to worry about getting shot by the 99% of idiot rifle hunters. I can't remember ever hearing of an archer sticking a cow, but almost every year, some dumbass shoots a cow with a rifle in close proximity.

I can tell you for sure, my success rate in seeing a deer and harvesting a deer are near 100% every November. But with a bow it is less than 10%. It is much more difficult. Rifles are like cheating.

Yup. Me too.

i love the outdoors and have always worked my entire life outdoors in all Minnesota weather condions. during bow season i use archery equipment,rifle season i use a rifle, muzzle loader season i use a musket. but my favorite time to hunt is last week of December in Minnesota which is also the last legal week of archery season in Minnesota its very cold ,absolutely no persons but me in the woods and once in a while i see a huge Whitetail buck , that gets me excited even if i don`t get a chance at a shot with an arrow. my all time true love is archery season when that old buck is so close you can see his eye lashes and that buck has no ideal i am above him 15 feet.

Here in WV, if you have all the legal toys you can hunt deer and bear from the opening of the pointed-stick season until December 31, and then four more days in January during the Mountaineer Heritage Season. I'm not crazy about hunting in late September because it's hot and buggy, but getting a doe down early satisfies the Earn-a-Buck requirment in my county, allowing me to shoot whatever walks by, within the bag limits of course. With generous limits and special no-tag-required opportunities for geezers, I can theoretically put a lot of meat in the freezer, but the main draw for me is the 3-month+ window to enjoy the woods with the possibility of taking a deer included.

Our bonus tags are weapon-specific and you have to buy them before each season opens, but if you make your meat early with say your bow, you can forgo the extra expense of the other bonus tags.

Three antlered-buck limit, whatever way you take them. One buck per day as well.

Longer seasons and usually earlier in the year. Lets them film more shows in better weather. That is just a guess since I don't watch any of them.

I’m gonna say there might be some crow eating going on.