I completed my hunter safety course in IL last weekend (a lot of states require it now for non resident). A TON of the focus was on guns guns guns guns guns. I was like what is with all this gun stuff???? When they asked who was gun and who was bow, there were 40 gun hunters and only 3 bow hunters... I was shocked. Are there really that few bow hunters? Either way the course was great to take and have. I was in the Army and have been a Police Officer for quite some time, but being new to hunting it was great. Some of the guys in the class who have hunted longer than I have been alive said it was great and even they learned something.
I know WI also has a bow hunters safety class which is a very good class to take. Bow hunters are out numbered by gun hunters in every state. Most guys do both.
I know in alot of states if you are active Military or Reserve you don't have to complete the STC...are you still active or in the reserves?.....it's been so long since I took the course...but I plan on going with my Son and Daughter when they take it in several yrs, but I solely only Bow hunt...
This is a bowhunting site, so it's easy to forget we are usually severely outnumbered. Some places by a larger margin than others.
Bowhunting takes alot of time and effort to be succesful. Which most people do not have time for and discourages them from taking up the sport. A kid here at work only bow hunts (refuses to rifle hunt) and has been hunting for 7 years and not taken a single deer. Granted he hunts on public land and im unsure of how much time and effort he has put into it. I have offered to take him to a few of my propertys and set him up on sure thing doe kill but he refuses and wants to get himself 1 on his own.
Archery attracts fans in different ways. A lot of riflemen try archery in order to get out earlier before the rifle season. That's how it was for me. Even though I have been shooting a bow since age 10, and had taken archery in college, I still did not begin bowhunting until I learned that the archers get a 1 month head start on the rest of the crowd. That then energized my enthusiasm for archery, which previously had only been a passtime. Hopefully you got a lot out of your hunter safety class. Here are the salient things to remember, about bowhunting. The most dangerous things about bowhunting are the razor sharp broadheads, and also the general risks of hiking around the forests or mountains. Cutting or stabbing yourself with a broadhead is best avoided by treating the broadhead with great respect. Spraining an ankle is the next most likely thing to injur you on a bowhunt. Carrying a wrapping bandage in your day pack is a really good idea in case it happens to you. The other archery tips are just learned by experience usually. A deer will always look closer than it really is. So measure your distances around your stand, and bring a rangefinder with you to do so. You will then be surprised how far away some landmark actually is. Keeping your shots short, such as 30 yards or less, will save you arrows. For some reason, 30 yards is the cut-off for a successful versus an unsuccessful shot. Even so, a lot of bowhunters will try 40+ yard shots in the heat of the moment. Usually that just wastes a $30 arrow ($15 for the arrow and another $15 for the broadhead). Listen for the "splat" of an arrow when you take a shot at a game animal. That is your first clue that you hit it. No splat means a miss. Wait about 30 minutes before you move, after hearing the splat. Just listen for the sounds of the animal making its last dash. Use your compass to determine an azimuth for the direction in which you hear it travelling, and leave that compass heading set on your compass. Always bring a compass with you. Even if you use GPS. Mark your blood trail somehow. I like to use pieces of surveyors' tape and wrap it around branches with the blood. So bring a spool of surveyors' tape with you, which you can buy at any hardware store. If you lose the blood trail, go back to your previously marked spots which will be much easier to find from the bits of surveyor's tape. All archery kills result in a tracking job, there is no way around it. But you need to wait before you start, or else you will just chase the game animal further away. 30 minutes is the minimum. If darkness is falling upon you, then very carefully and quietly sneak up to the spot where you hit the animal, and mark that spot with surveyors' tape before it gets dark. You will then need a good flashlight, or else wait until morning to finish your tracking job. When you first gut a deer, just gut the lower end, not the chest area. All you need to do is carefully remove the lower gut. You can wait to gut the upper chest later. This also keeps the heart clean for you and safe inside the body cavity diaphram. Bring some plastic bags with you to recover the liver and kidneys as well from the lower body cavity. These taste really good when lightly fried in butter. I always see a lot of gutpiles with perfectly good meat wasted in them, the heart, the kidneys, and the liver. Also note that tongue tastes really good too, and is cooked just like any of the other organs, by thinly slicing it and frying it lightly in butter. To get the carcass back to your truck, the best thing is after gutting to stitch the lower body cavity back together with parachute cord. This keeps the inside cleaner, while you are dragging it. Most people don't even think about this, although a good hunter safety class with teach it, under the topic of keeping the meat clean. Having some kind of tarp back at your vehicle to wrap the carcass in is useful also, especially if you plan to skin it before you get home. It is easier to skin a freshly killed animal while it is still warm. In that case you would want to then wrap the carcass in a clean tarp, and put plastic bottles of frozen ice into the body cavity before you wrap it up. Therefore freezing some 1/2 gal or 1 gal plastic jugs with water, and bringing those in their own ice chest with crushed ice over them to keep them cool helps to keep your meat fresh while you transport it to a locker or to your own fridge. I don't know if your hunter safety course covered all that. Mine did, and that is how I have been hunting ever since. Good luck, and good hunting. Thank you for your service to the community as a LEO and to the nation and world as former Army.
The really really really good rifle-hunters are bowhunters also. So don't worry about the rest of the plebes. :D
I think what Pep was really talking about was the main focus of almost the entire class was about guns and gun safety. The archery section lasted roughly 5 minutes and was over. tree stand safety about 5 minutes. At one point they showed a picture of a muley buck faceing you and a doe just to the left of him broadside and asked is this an ethical shot? I said yes they said no its not the buck might jump behind the doe when you pull your trigger and take the bullet on its way out of the doe. I politely stopped the instructor there and said I can take that shot I hunt with my bow not the guns you keep focusing on. He laughed and said ok can you shot that buck since you dont have a doe tag I replied no and everyone laughed. The only way to really help change things like that in these classes is to take part in them. Which is what I am going to do. I have since signed up to become an instructor for Illinois.
The most dangerous thing in the woods is your treestand. The second is the numb nut who fires 10 rounds into the bushes after he hears a noise. I personally know 2 guys who have been shot while turkey hunting. When you sling an arrow chances are you are sure of your target and the arrow will not travel a great distance past that target. An -06 round is another story. I did filet my thumb on a muzzy once. It was a bad scene.
In NY the hunter safety is 99.9% gun hunting but thats because there is a bowhunters class that must be completed to bow hunt.
An interesting hypothetical. Almost always, bucks and does do not cohabitate until the rutting season. I have only once in my life seen a doe and buck together pre-rut. Most states don't allow hunting during the rut. So most of your hunting is going to be pre-rut, so you won't likely see bucks and does together. Since most of us can hit a grapefruit with our arrows, there normally would not be an issue though.
I am sorry I know you are new to the site but are you also new to hunting? The rut is our time for magic in the woods. I do not know of any states that you can not hunt during the rut. Also as I stated it was a muley and the bucks heard the does during the rut just like an elk would
I'm having to take the hunters safety course now for an up coming CO hunt. I'm taking it online with one day in the field this Saturday. Great timing on this topic
