It seems that a lot of the archery hunters I've spoken to are seriously into archery hunting, so much so that they don't hunt with a rifle any more. They'll hunt just about anything they can with a bow, even turkey hunt as an example.

So I'm curious to hear your opinion. Do you also hunt with a rifle when firearm season rolls around or are you purely an archery hunter?

I hunt with all, Bow, Handgun, Rifle, Muzzleloader.

Bowhunting has been my passion for 35 years. I would be okay hunting only with a bow only if I lived in an area where hunting big game was "easy", but here it's not. I like to kill stuff too.

All but there is a certain adrenalin factor that makes hunting with a bow worth its while......

Only hunted with a compound so far, looking to get into recurve or long bow hunting just so I can say that I could.....

You probably didn't see my Tennessee hog...

I hunt with bow muzzleloader and rifle. If there was a season for Atlatl that gave me more days to hunt I would do that to. I just like to hunt.

ltppowell,

nice hog!

Yes sticker of the pig....I did see your hog and the nice bow you were sporting also.....

You my friend are the one that has gave me the fever.....

Why are there no arrows in your quiver????

another reason i'm looking into archery is that i'm in slug gun area and hate getting the snot kick out of me, lol!

Also the season runs longer as well.

Still not sure if archery/bow hunting is cheaper overall than rifle hunting?

I bowhunt simply for the extra time in the woods. One more week and then i can take the rifle

Archery is a return on investment, same as gun hunting. You don't need a $1K bow, but it will most likely be of better quality than a $300 starter. You don't need a $1K Zeiss, but it's probably going to last longer than a $100 Tasco. Bows do not hold the long term resale that firearms do. Ask any of these guys that have traded up bows in the last couple of years!

Arrows last longer now, but need replaced as they break, wear out, lost in the woods. Quality arrows cost money same as premium ammo.

I wouldn't consider archery cheaper, just different way of staying in the woods longer.

I like the rush I get from bow hunting. It's all different when you have a deer 20 yards or less and you have to get drawn and make a shot. I will prolly hunt more with my bow this year than my rifle. That being said the farmers that allow me to hunt just want deer killed so Ill have to take rifle to help thin the herd some aswell.
A doe with my bow is more satisfying than a decent buck with my rifle

After shooting a few with a bow, rifle and muzzleloader don't get the adrenalin rushing any more. Shooting a deer with them is like shooting a paper target for me.

Now give me a bow and let one get inside 20 yards and I turn into a wreck.

I still hunt with them, because I like to eat venison and my odds of killing one with a bow aren't as good.

But bowhunting is where the adrenalin is at...

I rather have my bow in my hand than a firearm...

October 15th I am taking bow and rifle for deer hunting. If I get the chance I rather arrow my buck, but will use the rifle towards the end of the week.

In November I am taking the girlfriend turkey hunting, I will be using my bow and she a shotgun.

She does have a bow but does not have the passion for it like I do... That being said she did buy me this for my birthday

I started bowhunting in my early teens to get the extra 6 weeks at the start of the season. Now I mostly bowhunt, especially if I'm tagged out buck wise and need to shoot does. There's not much to shooting does with a rifle and I really burned out on it trying to tag out all my management plan tags a few years in a row and having had a collection permit at one time.

Most places I hunt you can't see past 40 yards anyway. Favorite technique of mine is to get into the really thick stuff that you really can't even walk thru with kevlar chaps on and cut a tunnel in it with loping shears about 30 yards long paralell to an edge you know deer are using and sit at one end and wait for the deer to cross thru it. Often times I have found thru direct observation and camera use that deer will stack up in that lane no wider than a deer a good half an hour before going out to feed in a more open area before dark. It has been deadly effective about 10 yards inside of clearcuts that are getting head high adjacent to white oak flats when the acorns start dropping. Guy taught it to me about 25 years ago but I never really used it much until about 10 years ago.

^ This ^. + more time in the outdoors

The quiver has a cover on it!

Archery hunting is the best. Up close & very personal. Last year I killed two deer with the bow, then killed with the rifle, ML & handgun.

I enjoy all my days in the woods, regardless of the firearm in my hands.

I do both and I have the legal requirement to have a firearm in Africa with clients. However I don't mistake the term hunting for shooting.

Until your hunting involves actually hunting and being within the distances true archery hunting involves, it's mostly shooting by todays standards with the technology available.

I have some amazing firearms with reticles that let me shoot without holdover. Combined with a rangefinder,....it's much more shooting then hunting for me. I suppose if it's all you have ever done it seems like hunting but when you can see the eyelashes and smell the animal you see the difference in a 100-300-500 yard shot compared to a 10-25-35 yard shot.

My hunts with archery are my proudest hunts which required the greatest skill and the least margin of error.

Rifle in rifle. ALWAYS!
I inherited most of my guns from my uncles who passed away or who don't hunt anymore and when I use their guns, that's my link to them and their memories.

I went the opposite way of most folks, I started deer hunting in 3rd grade. Started with a 243. Worked fine, but the owner of the ranch was hunting wiht a bear recurve which got me worked up... by the time I was in 10th, I had started with a bow and hunted mostly with bow, moving up to where for about 20 years I hunted only with a bow, over 100 big game kills( stopped counting somewhere over 100) later, I flat ran out of the time required, we lost a deer lease, the next one wouldn't allow archery and so on....
With much less time than I had to, i've gone back to not even shooting a bow some years, and last 2 I've had injuries that prevent it.... I have shot a deer with crossbow the last 3 or 4 yeras running though.

But archery flat got to be just WAY too much hard work, and I had other things that were more pressing.

So while most "gun" hunters don't get turned onto the bow till late, I did it early and eventually actually got bored with it.

So bored that long range rifle shots were a much larger challenge and I kind of drifted that direction.

But I hunt with everything I own at times. And, other than where legalities get in the way, I don't pay much attention to what season it is, as long as what I want to grab is legal.

Thats been lately, 32-20 old 1892 Win, Kimber 45acp, 329 PD, civil war smoothbore musket, couple of Renegade MZ, 30-30, 30-30 pistol, 308 a lot lately, 7x300wtby, 223, 50 beowulf, and so on.... seems more fun to try things with different rounds lately to me... and have an unfired 257 Wtby and a 284 Win currently...

And I'll differ from JJ, it too MANY more years to become proficient at long range rifle( read that to be at least 500 or 600 yards and beyond) than it did with a bow. First year I had a current compound bow, 1981, I killed a deer on the first hunt, and it didnt' change after that. And my biggest archery bucks to date have been gimmes. Of course I set up to make it that way too, IE IF I got a shot, it would be a slam dunk one and thast the way its supposed to be to me. Last shot on last Sunday was 8 yards. I won't shoot archery past 20 either. At least with TX deer I wont'. Archery wise, drawing the bow was the hardest part without detection, after reaching full draw the rest was a given almost 100% of the time.

Yet it took probably close to 10 years of shooting rifle matches to were I even got to the mental confidence AND real capability to make a 600 yard shot on something like a clay target every last time, or at least know not to try.

Some argue the fact and I"m sure it works different ways for differnet folks, but because I'm from TX don't assume all my archery experience is in a stand with a feeder. Some of my closest kills with a recurve have been stalks on the ground, one a doe at under 5 yards, and one feral hog at 3 steps. I even had to stop to think to make sure the arrow would clear the string on that one for a second.... neitehr around corn or a feeder either.

BUT my proudest kill so far has come with a compound bow on an old doe that kept ruining hunts for my wifes bow stand... it took me weeks to figure out how to outsmart her, and then due to a hard lunge on her part, took me 8 hours to recover her. She hangs on our wall.

I hunt with a bow and rifle because it offers me more opportunities to hunt. I am first and foremost a hunter so the more time I get to spend in the field the better for me.

Acrhery opens up more opportunities for draw hunts close to home and up north, it allows me to hunt closer to the road instead of doing the dreaded 5 mile death march. Muzzleloading is next on my list, that's seomthing I have never done and would love to give it a try.

Theres the other debate amongst us bowhunters too... IF you are really into it heavy, don't you end up wanting to go to recurve or long bow eventually. OR are you in it for the techno race to see how far you can shoot with a bow and still kill? Something interesting to think about.

Me, I'd push distance on a bow in a heartbeat if I was not so extremely aware of how conscious animals are about movement and sound and how much they can move before an arrow arrives. Though I do think that noise wise you get to a certain distance and its not such a bother to them.
But I've had deer COMPLETELY and TOTALLY dodge an arrow at 18 yards.... hard when you aim low for the heart and get a complete miss. Not even hair..

"[ I'd push distance on a bow in a heartbeat if I was not so extremely aware of how conscious animals are about movement and sound and how much they can move before an arrow arrives]"

Yes, That's why I only shoot out to 30 yds, & If I get a deer right on top of me & It does'nt get my Blood preasure up, then I'll quit.

I hunt with any & all possible. but limit my shots so no deer are injured if I can help it ; )
BB

Rost, Shooting 600 yards is a clear skill. I however only wrote what I did regarding hunting.

Shooting 600 yards is a very "long shot" different skill set then hunting.

I lived in Ohio for years and due to no rifle hunting, I got back into bows in a big way.

I am a bow nut, a real nut. I will sling arrows at anything, any time.

The high light of my morning was hitting a sycamore leaf, with a flu flu at about 20 yds. as it fell to the ground.

I still like to rifle hunt, I LOVE to bow hunt. Slipping around with a barebow is just pain exciting, to me.

JJ I"m not and didn't intend my statements as negative to yours at all. Simply that we all get excited about different things. And that different skill sets come at different costs to us.
For me, the rifle shooting took and takes a LOT more work than bowhunting. Especially once I figured out the ins and outs of bow... I can go back to a bow at anytime and not have lost much. Even going to my custom Brack recurve it generally only takes a few weeks of shooting and I'm in the saddle. The hunting part of bowhunting never leaves since i hunt one way or another every year.

Shooting on the other hand, while the act of firing the shot I don't get too rusty on, figuring the wind is somethign you don't totally fall back in the saddle on real quick.. especially when pushing out to 1000 yards.

Hence the difficulty level for me that made long rifle shots more complicated than close bow shots. And as I noted when bowhunting I simply set up one way or another, stands, stalking and such, that my shots will be well within my comfort zone mentally, or I get none at all. Does me no good to setup and or stalk to within 50 yards, but not take the shot. If that makes sense.

And for whatever reason, the largest bucks with bow just have been basically nothing. A good setup of course to get that close, but anti climactic in the end when we are talking all have been at relaxed unaware deer at 16 yards or less, one being at 8 yards...

By the way I'll argue you all day on the meaning of hunting. To me, its any legal method that I choose to harvest game. Whether its 10 yards with a bow or 800 with a rifle or anything in between. I just can't figure where to draw a line that its not hunting, as the result is the same. But like you said, its a different skill set, but to call it not hunting, thats a stretch for me, unless I"m misunderstanding that statement.

Regards, Jeff

When I only shotgun hunted I didn't have a damn clue about deer behaviour. When I took up I archery I figured out what deer actually do (when they are not running away from you). When I took up muzzleloading after shotgun season, I learned how deer react to and avoid human pressure. I'm very thankful to have learned from each of these tools. Bowhunting is by far the most exciting. The bottom line for me though is that they are just tools. I will get the best ones I can afford and use them to the best of my ability. I have learned the hard way that truly mature bucks don't give you many opportunities so you need to learn from every encounter and ask yourself "what should I have done differently?".

I pretty much just archery hunt these days. No real reason to grab a rifle or shotgun to hunt here in CT. If I lived out west I would most likely rifle hunt a little. My main focus would always be archery.

Been bow hunting over 35 years. My first choice but also enjoy rifle muzzle loader too.

Learned something today

Interesting technique but have never bow hunted down south

Thanks.

Hunt with recurve long bow and wheel bow.

Have shot a lot of deer with recurvevand long bow. Deer has never "ducked" an arrow shot from a quiet recurve or long bow. In fact have had follow up shots because so quiet.Shoot heavy arrows.

I have had deer "duck" shots from a fast compound.

I hunt with every possible option out there. I dont prefer one over the other. Even my out of state hunts are 50/50 gun bow. Im doing 90% of my archery hunting this year with my Black Widow recurve.

Being a gunnut also has its advantages. I usually carry a different gun each time Im out. Then there are those pistol hunting opps.

I caught the archery bug in the late 80's and it consumed my hunting life. I realized that I wasn't bird hunting any longer and was really missing out on things I used to enjoy. I started hunting with every legal weapon and started having fun again.

I've heard that from more than a few folks. And I've seen their eyes wide open when hunting TX deer often. I don't know what the difference is but our deer for some reason are just tightly wound.

Even if not hunted around feeders as the majority do.

OTOH I've shot a few, not many, but a few that flinched and kept on eating acorns, oats or corn, and just wobbled and fell over or got weak right at the end and made a few feet before falling....

And I've been amazed to have the stupidity( IMHO) to have taken what I thought were long shots at deer in other states, IE 40 yard shots, and have them almost seemingly stare until the arrow hits em.

You see accuracy with a bow at longer distances is not an issue. Movement is or can be.

And FWIW a lot of my hunting these days is out of ground blinds... thats like having a suppressor on what little noise there is with a bow to start with.

Compound wise we went to great lengths to make them as quiet as they could be. And to realize that feathers make an awful racket in flight vs vanes....

I do both - Here in Idaho drawing a 'good tag' is pretty tough and only happens about every 5 or 6 years. With a bow most of those area are 'open areas' so in order to hunt every year it is necessary to change your weapon. It started out as just a way to hunt more, but now I really enjoy archery and shoot a couple times a week all year long.

Bow hunt (trad) 99.9% of the time.

In Oklahoma we can bow hunt during all gun seasons.

I will hunt with anything, if there was a knife season I would do it. I started archery in the early 80s for the expanded opportunity. I have since pigeonholed most of my hunting. Elk is archery, coues deer is rifle, mule deer has been 50/50.

Kent

Yepo

A big reason for my considering archery is that I can practice shooting in my back yard unlike a rifle, shotgun or handgun where I have to drive to a range.

To hunt with rifle, I usually have to drive an hour to two out of the city whereas with a bow, I could slip into any back wood lot.

There's also alot of local shooting events I can attend. There are indoor and outdoor ranges as well.

I'm also becoming more of shooter than a hunter due to work limitations, etc. So I'm shooting the bow for fun as much as anything else plus it's good excercise building strength and stamina.

Also where I currently live it's shotgun area for whitetail and I'd rather hunt with a bow in that case.

Just reading the initial post I would say I fall into the "hunt with anything legal" category. In Oregon you have to pick which weapon you will shoot for that given game animal.

If you get an archery tag for deer then you are a bowhunter for deer all season unless you draw a special tag in a drawing for doe's only. This is why I am a bowhunter who enjoys hunting with a rifle, muzzleloader, bow, shotgun, when the urge suits me. I do have to give up being a bowhunter to hunt with a rifle but it�s worth it to me for the hunt.


This is why I am going on a rifle elk hunt this year.

i like bowhunting much more than rifle hunting, but i still rifle hunt

I hunt with all, much like Bea. However, I enjoy bow hunting the most. I find myself grabbing my recurve more and more for hunting. I making up some carbon flu flu's as I type for squirrels. I'm mostly traditional except for the arrows. I run a custom hand built but can't deny the durability of carbon arrows. A little khaki paint with some cresting makes them look better.
The big draw is the peace and quiet of it all. My daily grind makes me enjoy the quietness of being out in the big timber and not hearing the equivelent of Coxy's Army lighting off a barrage of gunfire. I'm not giving up my rifles any time soon but archery has a certain addictiveness to it. The more simple you make it (shooting off the shelf without sights) the more fun it is for me. The season is longer in most parts as it should be due to the added difficulty but a bow kill is a well deserved trophy. I could soak up all sorts of bandwidth on this but I'll quit. I love to bow hunt everything. Bow for enjoyment, gun for filling the freezer.

Thank you all for the feedback.

Another quick question for you all. How does shoulder injuries affect your archery skills?

Reason for asking is several years ago, I suffer a partial shoulder dislocation that while healed still bothers me from time to time.

Will the constant pulling back of the compound bow aggravate this past injury or will it help strengthen my shoulder?

I really enjoy bow hunting (especially with trad gear), but when I draw a good tag - I have no issue what so ever in shooting one with a rifle. Both ways are fun and I enjoy both.

Hard to say without your doctor's input - however, starting off with a low draw weight, and regular reasonable practice sessions, you "should" be able to build up your shoulder over time. You may need to start out lower than you want, but it's better to build up, than to start heavy and wear/tear something again. Like any good conditioning program, steady progress can be made over time without further injury.

If you are limited on shooting access, space, range time, a piece of rubber tubing will help get the draw strength back, and no range time needed.

I quit rifle hunting in my primary residance area about 8 years ago. Our deer population is way down and there's way to many road/lazy hunters in the area that just drive around non-stop.

Never see a game warden and it just pisses me off to no end knowing that 8 outta 10 deer taken in this area are shot out of or very near a truck.


Still love rifle hunting, but really don't have the opportunities I did to pick up a rifle like I did 10-20 years ago.

Amen...I watched four seperate trucks of road hunters a half mile above me cruise back and forth on a ridge looking for elk for about a half day, sounded like a bleeping freeway.

I had a left over cow tag for the Northern Black Hills last year, with all the extra forestry dealing with the pine beetle there were
quite a few logging roads all over the place.

Really had a hard time getting more than a 1/2 mile away from a road and everywhere it was possible to drive, there'd be someone driving or they'd just passed.

LAZY people... I finally found a place away from traffic and found a small herd and filled my tag.


Around here on opening rifle season it's like an interstate on the gravel roads and than there's usually a truck on every hill side surround our property.

I started out shooting a bow when I was very young (3 or 4). I have always shot a recurve, never used a compound for hunting. I have shot relatives compounds at targets to try, it is much easier than using a recurve, especially if you have good shooting mechanics.
I recently picked up my father in laws Hoyt compound prior to a trukey hunt last spring. I shot 3 arrows into the center dot on his block target from 20 yards, several times. It felt like using a gun almost with the release etc. I had not shot a compound with sights before and was amazed at how relatively easy it was. Kind of made me want to buy one tell the truth.

I do love bowhunting, I also love rifle hunting again now that I have somewhere I can do it without condending with road hunters chasing deer with thier pickups. I gave it up years ago until I met my current wife, whose grandfather runs a large cattle ranch with abundant deer. I still see people out during rifle season, but not like it was before. I enjoy whatever can get me in the woods or out on the prairies more. The solitude and peace of bowhunting is what I enjoy the most, something that I can enjoy with rifle in hand also.

We are lucky here in So. Idaho. There are still places where you can walk and get away from the road hunters. There are plenty of 4-wheeler and 4x4's but if you work at it a bit you can usually get away from them and most of the hunters. The buck pictured above was shot about a mile from the nearest road and took a couple trips with the backpack to get him out, but I had the place to myself. Well worth the effort to me.

I started shooting the bow in 1974 , shot competitively for many years . I hunt with bow, shotgun, ML and rifle. The more you use , the more time in the woods you get. Yes killing something with the bow is much more of a rush because it all happens so close and you are in their zone.I got away from shooting competitively because a lot of the guys turned into friggin bow snobs. I could kill a 200 inch deer and if it wasn't taken with a bow it might as well have been a spike. Meanwhile 98 percent of them have never been more than a couple of hundred yards from the truck and they think they are the holy grail of hunters.

I used to bow hunt most all season, and would travel great distances to hunt archery only hunts on management areas in the state during rifle season. I do take the rifle more these days, but I seldom shoot anything but coyotes with it these days. It takes a nice buck for me to pull the trigger anymore.

Bow hunting's where it's at for me!! I usually will hunt the first couple hours of the opener of gun season and thats about it! Would much rather be 20ft up a tree on Halloween with a bow in my hand

I went head over heels for bow hunting from roughly 1977 tntil about 1995. I did a little bird hunting during that time and some rifle varmint hunting, but the vast majority of my hunting was with bow. Then I diversified some and do a lot of hunting, and I use all weapons these days.
I think I enjoy bow hunting more now that I don't do it constantly.

"It's not the kill, but the contest of skill and cunning." If that quote fits you more than "Fill the Freezer" then bowhunting may be something for you to look into.

Me too....

I've even done stone heads and a homemade spear. Never connected with eitehr but had fun trying so far.

Last year I was about 50 percent rifle and bow. It helped that I filled two rifle tags on the first day (in two separate states). So that really reduced the field time for rifle hunting. Usual for me is about 12 days for bow and that or more for rifle.

I hunt with a bow, rifle, and even a flintlock here in PA after Christmas. The older I get, the more I enjoy the solitude and easy pace of bowhunting. Rifle season is nothing but a pain in the ass here in PA. Eash year I hunt less with a rifle and have started going to Kansas with the bow. Spending time in Kansas during the rut changes you.

Sitting in a tree stand watching multiple big bucks chase does on a cold crisp Nov morning with a bow in your hand is heaven.

Although I rifle and ml hunt , it does not compare.

I love to bowhunt. But when rifle season is open I take the bang stick along as well. Dont like having to go home with stories about the one that got away because it wouldnt come into bow range

Archery is how far you can be from the target and hit it.
Bowhunting is how close you can be before you shoot.

I am a died in the wool traditional bowhunter, but more importantly I am a hunter. I used to be an elitist bowhunter, but realized that the hunt is the most important aspect. How you conduct yourself in the field is much more important than the weapon in your hand.

I am also a certified rifle looney along with being a traditional archery looney. I hunt with a muzzleloader when I draw the tag, but to me it is just another rifle tag.

I live in the unit that cal74 had his elk tag in. You do have to work at getting away from the roads, even more so than the rest of the Black Hills.