Yeah...well all I was getting at in my first post was the "Guarantee kill" with the gun. Nothing is guaranteed. AND I thought the smiley would have cleared up any misinterpretations my post may have caused.
I spend alot of time driving deer (walking) during our gun season, so I've never put up huge kill #'s with the gun. Less ground to hunt and less time to hunt during the firearm season would greatly hurt my success year in and year out. Even during firearm season, people miss or make bad shots. Seeing a deer and being able to kill it are 2 different things IMO.
I agree with that! and it doesn't matter if you are totin a gun or a bow. A passed shot is NOT a dead deer every time even if you would have taken the shot. To think otherwise is foolish and/or inexperienced Dan
I have mixed feelings on this. My gut tells me that in PA, and in southern zone NY, it's much easier to shoot bucks during early archery than in rifle season. I've done both in these locations, and when you hunt properties with significant rifle hunting pressure on or immediately next to, the extra range and efficiency is more than cancelled out by the lack of daytime movement. When they do move during daylight in rifle season, their patterns resemble watching a pinball game, and it's luck of the draw. I prefer archery because I would rather hunt a deer acting like a deer than to get lucky and shoot it while running from point a to point b. In northern zone NY, it's a whole different game. With deer populations at or around 5dpsm, and huge woods that can't be consistently pressured, I think a rifle is a big advantage. With that said, this is still the hardest hunting I do in terms of deer encounters.
If my memory is serving me correctly, I have taken 12 deer with a bow and 17 with a shotgun. My stats stack up like this with a bow: 2 button bucks 6 does 4 bucks: 8 pt---117" 8 pt---110" (never had it scored, just an estimate) 9 pt---120" 12 pt---155" Gun: 2 button bucks 12 does 3 bucks: Spike 8 pt---123" 8 pt---115" I see more deer during gun season, mainly because of them running like crazy from other hunters pushing them walking to and from their stands. However, most of these rarely produce a shot chance as they are running full out, or are to far away. The 2 largest bucks I have seen while gun hunting, both left my sight after my slug missed them completely. All but one of the 130"+ bucks taken off our farm over the past 40 years have fallen victim to a gun hunter (mostly the results of deer drives back in the 90's). It is much easier around here to take a deer (and a big buck) with a gun. Often times, it is a result of being lucky and getting a good shot off at a quick moving animal 60-70 yards away. Hunting pressure on our farm goes from 2-3 guys bowhunting to 12 gun hunting. The same holds true for the properties around us and a lot of big bucks and other deer are killed trying to get to a new hiding place.
No one said you had to gun hunt. Didn't or don't you bow hunt during the gun season? My gun hunting lasted about 2 hours worth 24 years ago. I hated It so that was the end of It. During the gun seasons through out the years my walls could possibly be filled with some great bucks that were too far away for my bow. So to answer the question yes I'd have MUCH better luck gun hunting. Our gun hunting season here Is In the prime of the rut. What more could a gun hunter ask for?
more with rifle Yes (Y) No(N) Antelope: Y Bear: Y Elk : Y Mule deer : Y Whitetailed deer: Y Bighorn sheep: Y Mt goat: Y Mt Lion: Y Moose : Y I guess I'm pretty much in the same boat with Rob
Not to speak for Dan, but bow season is closed in IL during the first 2 weekends of shotgun season (minus a few special hunt areas)....so you either pick up the shotty or sit on the couch. We can bow hunt during the early youth shotgun season,ML season and the antlerless seasons.
Me too! I don't know if I would ever completely ditch gun hunting, but there would definantly be some days when I headed out with my bow.
Yep! It would translate into another week I could hunt. The first season is definitely Prime Time! Dan
Josh, That's a tough pill for me to swallow. It is aslo the reason why I switched to a bow 26 years ago. In Colorado, our rifle seasons (four of them) last about a week-plus or minus a few days. The archery season lasts a month. The muzzleloader season is nine days. We get to choose one and only one season to hunt-archery, Mzlldr, or rifle (one of the four). If you fill your one tag , then you're finished for the year. If you don't, then too bad. Our archery season is long over before most state even open theirs. I like to hunt. You do not get a whole lot of time to do it in Colorado.This is one of the reasons I travel like I do.
I would starve if I only hunted with a firearm. I can't hit the broadside of a barn with a gun. I'm more confident killing a deer at 60 yards with my bow (not that I'd ever take that shot) than I am 60 yards with a shotgun. But to the point of the original question (i think). I have more deer in bow range during bowseason than i do in gun range during gun season.
Considering some of the spots I have I cannot gun hunt I don't think I would have the same success. The gun spots I have definitely get even more pressure than my bow spots, and gun hunting PA is very difficult to catch deer on a pattern. I talked to a guy that gun hunts near one of my bow spots that said he and his crew covered 20 miles doing pushes one day to put out 2 deer.
Bry: Just curious.... How many deer are killed in PA, during the firearms season v. the archery seasons? For ex.....we (NC) killed over 164,000 deer in 2009, during open firearms seasons. In contrast, archers took just over 12,000.
That's an astounding number IMO. Most of that due to the number of archers vs. number of gun hunters?
