Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Archery vs. Rifle

I never found bow hunting to be all that difficult. I only did it for 4 seasons but easily killed deer every year. Several times on the first day I hunted, including my first season when I took a doe at 10 yards from the ground on opening morning. Last season I tried crossbow for the first time. Took a doe at 30 yards on opening morning an hour and a half after climbing into my stand. Second mornng had three bucks go past my stand by 9:00 am but none came within my self imposed 40 yard limit so didn't shoot. Third morning killed a six point at 17 yards 5 minutes after climbing into my stand. Yeah real fuggin tough. Bow and crossbow hunters needn't be breaking their arms patting themselves on the back for being such great and skillful hunters.

Yeah, well, I could kill a "doe" eating shrubs around my pool with a rock from my back door.

Killing mature, quality bucks is a whole 'nuther ball-game.

All bow hunting is to me is an early jump on filling the freezer before rifle season starts. I've never really liked bows or bow hunting because I don't like static hunting from a stand or blind and prefer to hunt afoot either tracking or still hunting and find both the compound and particularly the crossbow excessively clumsy for such use. I do tire of bow hunters patting themselves on the back because bow hunting is so tough and takes hours of practice and dedication because unless they're hunting with a longbow and cedar arrows it's mostly bullshyt. I can pick up my old compound after not shooting it for a year and be sinking arrow after arrow into the kill zone of a deer target from 30 yards in one afternoon. Last season I shot one arrow out of my crossbow from 20 yards and one from 40 yards to check zero {both were in the 2" bullseye} a week before the opener and then went and filled both of my archery tags in short order. The majority of the deer I've killed with a rifle in my life were within 50 yards and a large percentage within 30 yards or easy bow range. It just isn't that hard to get within bow/crossbow range of deer and it isn't that hard to shoot accurately enough with a compound or crossbow to consistently hit a deers vitals unless you're an uncoordinated, clumsy ass retard.

Modern crossbows are deadly accurate although long distance shooting is out of the question; it is an archery tool after all. Last few years, I've travelled to hunt within restricted zones with my friends. Crossbows are allowed and we have brought home much tasty venison harvested at fairly close ranges from climbing tree stands. I foresee the day when there will be much more restricted lands and rifles will not be authorized. But archery hunters probably will benefit most.

Sherwood

Long before picking up a crossbow I learned that deer moved more naturally and were much more relaxed before the orange invasion began. Not all that long ago I still-hunted to within about 20 yards of three bucks feeding on acorns and after I finally stopped one of them fed to within about five yards of me. None of them ever picked me off and they finally drifted off. I was squirrel hunting, but any of those bucks would’ve been an easy shot for my x-bow, or even my recurve, back when I was in practice anyway. That relaxed attitude is a huge advantage for bowhunting, maybe as much as the rut, and here the pressure from bowhunting (and squirrel hunting) is light enough that it remains for the most part until the opening of the rifle season, which is after the peak of the rut. Dog walkers and other “civilian” foot traffic probably are more disruptive then than hunters actually.

I started out bow hunting and kept it up until my shoulder went bad in 2007. I live outside Cincinnati, and if you look on a map, we're a just a few miles from Kentucky and Indiana. Bow hunting is different in all 3 states. When I got into bow hunting in the early 80's, I was the only person I knew doing it.

Ohio was much more of an archery-oriented state. At the time I got started, it was still shotgun only, and the modern weapons season started after the rut. Kentucky was and is much more oriented to rifle hunters. Indiana was kind of in the middle. The firearms season was shotgun only in my day, but it started in mid-November, during the rut. Indiana also had a lot more hassles for non-residents compared to the other two.

As far as popularity, (I'm hunting in Kentucky exclusively these days) KY takes 72% of its deer harvest with a rifle. Archery and crossbow account for most of the rest and are evenly split.

Both IN and OH have liberalized their modern weapons seasons to include centerfire rifles of various ilk. The main reason I see is that deer populations were exploding and there weren't enough deer being taken. You're starting to see complaints in all 3 states that the deer populations may have been over-corrected. Overall, I'd say the archers get the worst of it.

Where I am in KY is in Zone 1, which means unlimited antlerless harvest. I can take up 4 deer on the regular tags and then keep going at $15 per 2 tags after that. I normally kill 1 or 2 per year; that fills my freezer. However, the archery guys can start in September and keep on hunting until January and take as many as they want.

Honestly, I thought I'd miss bow hunting when my shoulder went. In truth, it was the best thing. I was having to devote a heck of a lot of time practicing, preparing and hunting. Once archery was no longer an issue, I recovered all that time and found I could enjoy other fall activities like squirrel hunting and such. However, I can be more laid-back about it.

As with most things, follow the money. Archery seasons are long, providing plenty of time for creating content. Archers buy a lot of doodads, made by companies that fork over a lot of cash to sponsor shows that feature them, overtly or covertly. Even more so than with rifles and cartridges, there seems to be a constant flow of new technology, real or just promoted, in bows, broadheads, shafting, scent control, stands, yadayadayada, to keep the troops buying in hopes of gaining an edge. The majority of rifle hunters are not Loonys, and buy less stuff in general than archers, and are also more likely to wait until just before the season to check their guns, buy some grub and maybe new socks, and go hunting.

Since I don’t have cable, the shows I watch are limited to ones on YouTube. If memory serves (!), those shows are much less likely to feature celebrities, long drawn-out story build-ups, and other “entertainment” than the cable shows, and also more likely to teach me something, even if it’s just deer behavior.

Shaman, when I buy tags, I’m buying opportunities (and maybe providing myself a little incentive) to hunt, not really more deer. Like you, one or two will keep me in red meat. I enjoy the Fall and Winter woods, and hunting gives my time there purpose, and makes me more observant, especially when I sit still. The “civilians” that use the same property I hunt just blow by most of the good stuff.

I don’t know how you could choose one over the other. I do both and enjoy both very much for different reasons. I do however like the challenge of archery and really being able to get in close with the deer.

I most prefer hunting with a bow, because lately I haven't been getting as exited when gun hunting

One thing I noticed post-bowhunting was that I actually had more deer-related experience. When I was bowhunting, I spent a heck of a lot of the fall up in a stand. After the shoulder went, I did a lot more scouting and other things that got me out and about and I actually saw more deer. I also found the deer on my property became more used to me and spent much less time on alert. I'm much more a part of their everyday experience than when I was hiding in a tree for 3 months out of the year.

The other thing about bow hunting was it was like having 3 sports in one. On the one hand, you had the actual bow hunt-- sticking a shaft through a deer. However, there was also the archery part-- the constant practice away from the hunt. That was a sport unto itself.

For me, climbing treestands were a 3rd sport. Schlepping a 50 lb climber into the woods at 3 AM and getting set up and doing it without getting soaked in sweat was a challenge. Not freezing in your gear was another. Not falling was still another.

I am so much happier that I can now wander out to my ladder stand about an hour before the Rifle Opener starts, pull up my rifle, watch the forest come alive, have a cup of coffee, and be well assured that when the right rack shows up, I'm not going to have to participate in a goat rodeo chasing it down.

I didn't stick with bow hunting because there are other things I'd rather be doing that time of year. Like hunting small game, upland birds and waterfowl.

I hunt with both but a bow is just a way to extend the season. I’ve always been an avid gun guy that likes taking various guns out to hunt with. I think of guns as heirlooms of future heirlooms an old bow is just an obsolete garage sale item.

You’re spot on that MI caters to bow hunters. The long archery seasons probably made sense back when archery was still a niche sport and guys shot recurves and hunted out of brush blinds on the ground. It makes no practical sense today with scoped crossbows and hunting out of a shooting house. It’s easier to kill a mature buck with a bow in MI than it is with a rifle given the 6x’s longer season and first crack at the deer along with the rut. In a heavily forested state like Michigan where most deer are shot within about 60 yards even with a rifle. You’re not giving up much with a good scoped Xbow, not when compared to the season differentials.

I’d like to see the rifle season extended to three weeks starting one week earlier. It would basically split the peak of the rut between bow and rifle seasons and the extra week would help to take at least a little pressure off of having the woods so crowded for what’s a really concentrated firearm season. It will never happen but there’s no reason not to do it when MI hands out licenses left and right and claims that we have to many deer.

Bow hunting is exciting as hell, they are so close to you. I’ve killed deer, bobcats, coons, bunches of pigs, several Aoudads too. I like the sound an arrow makes when it hits. It took me 40 years to get a Turkey with a bow, killed 4 so far. They SOBs have good eyes and there is a bunch of them except in the Spring. Got this little Aoudad a few years ago. They spook easier than a deer.

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When I first started deer hunting, I did a lot of bowhunting, mostly because the season lasted so long compared to rifle season. In some ways, it's probably easier to get a chance at a trophy buck with a bow than it is with a rifle. Over the years I've lost most of the interest in hunting with a bow, although I do crossbow hunt now and then. If I could still shoot a bow, and I can't because of shoulder problems, I might take bowhunting back up.

I too see it as a way to extend the season. I hunt with rifle and bow and love being in the woods as much as possible. Only problem here is the heat during bow season.

Where I live you can start bowhunting on September 27th and it goes through January 31st and you can hunt every day of the week. Rifle and smoke pole gives you about 5 weeks total beginning the third Saturday in November. It is a no brainer if you want to make the most of your allowable time in the field. I like to hunt and will take it however I can get it. I have been shooting a bow since 1976 and guns before that. What I have come to dislike over all those years from some not all hunters I have met is how they need to inform you of how superior they are because they only use (enter your favorite primitive weapon here). I've taken enough game with each weapon I like to hunt with to understand that each one makes me just as happy at the end of the day. Last years bow buck was taken at 31 yards , last years rifle buck was taken directly under my feet literally straight down. Whether I'm backpacking or flying in for a 2-3 week stay in the bush or I'm walking in from the truck I'm just happy to be hunting and really don't care what the weapon of the day is. Hope you guys enjoy your time out there too and good luck.

To me bowhunting is hunting. Rifle hunting is just gettin' groceries.

I couldn’t disagree more. I bow hunt mostly because it’s easier.

I’m a gun guy at heart. I’m sure that a bow out west in the wide open is a big disadvantage but in Michigans thick cover where nearly everyone hunts out of tree stands or box blinds, hunting swamp edges, funnels, or food plots. A typical rifle shot is only about 60 yards. It’s no big trick to close that another 20 yards for archery gear. Especially if hunting with a scoped Xbow. I’ll give up 20 yards or less practical effective range for a 5x longer season that includes the first several weeks pre gun season and the rut.

Most of the big rack hunters in the Great Lake States focus almost exclusively on archery gear because the seasons favorite it. In a vacuum sure a gun is easier but the seasons and lengths there of make archery gear easier. IMO. The days of Fred Bear hunting out of a brush blind or stalking deer with a recurve and wooden arrows are long gone.

Spot on.

I bow hunt for the long season and extra opportunities. I hate hearing guys go on and on trying to convince their wives or themselves that Midwestern or back East bow hunting is difficult. Literally most big buck hunters gravitate towards the longer archery seasons that usually include the pre rut and rut.