You could take that view, I suppose. But a mitigating statistic would cite that archers get 3X+ the time afield.
There are alot of bucks that walked because I hunted them with a bow. If I had a gun in my hands I would have at least a dozen more bucks on my walls. Now most were in bow season where a gun wasn't an option anyway, but the extended range would be nice sometimes
Interesting numbers Jeff. Now you made me look at our numbers. Mine are as follows for 2009- Mn Gun season deer harvested- 162,345. Success rate was 32.1%. Mn Archery season deer harvested- 20,629. Success rate was 17.5%.
Well our PA website was horrible at finding recent bow/gun breakdowns, but we kill far more deer in the gun seasons than during bow, but there are far more hunters. Unless you have a very rare set of circumstances on a great property, there is no doubt in my mind, you have a better chance at killing a nice buck in archery compared to rifle season.
I believe I have this bowhunting figured out to a much higher degree than I would be able to figure out gun season. Gun season is so random because you never know how many people will be in your area and the shortness of the season(s). If one wanted to know if they had better odds killing one big buck, I would say gun season for sure, But to consistantly kill good bucks I would have to say archery.
Ohio DNR Posting: The deer-gun season resulted in the greatest portion of the overall harvest with 114,281 deer taken. Archery hunters took a total of 91,521 deer. Deer killed during the early muzzleloader season (491), at controlled hunts (690), youth-gun season (9,270), the extra deer-gun weekend (20,054), and the statewide muzzleloader season (25,007) added to the overall total.
"We" aren't kidding around when it comes to laying some big deer numbers down in the Buckeye state :p Quick math says 261,314 deer were taken this past season.
Jeff, I'm sorry but I can't provide that information. I've spent too much work time looking for it already and as Rybo pointed out trying to find it on the PGC site is an exercise in futility. Rybo is right though, while many more deer are killed with a gun in PA you have a better chance at a mature buck with a bow. They are mostly in areas inaccessible to gun hunters in any kind of numbers. Also, I answered the question based on my circumstances. Would I be as successful hunting with a gun, no. Other hunters in PA may be more successful because they bowhunt areas accessible for gun hunting. Now if I could gun hunt some of my bow spots, it would increase my success in some cases I'm sure. Although, you've never seen me shooting a gun at deer. I might as well be thowing the gun at them.
Exactly! I know here your AVERAGE Bowhunter hunts weekends until weather turns bad, but Most of the Gun Hunters will hunt the Short seasons entirely. Even as many Bowhunters as there are in IL the Orange Army way outnumbers the BowHunters. It gets crazy out there!! I can remember helping Dad in the Mountains of PA doing some coring, and once Deer season came in, it was not a safe place to be. Dan
Last I checked, roughly 300,000 bowhunters and 700,000 gun hunters in MI. There are 76 days you can hunt with a bow and 46 you can hunt with a gun in my area. Going by the success of gun hunters vs. bow hunters in my area, I think I would have a better chance at killing a deer with a gun. Especially on private land. That's just a guess though.
I hunt on private land in Missouri and I feel safe. My ex-husband tried to get me to go rifle hunting on public land in Louisiana and I almost flipped out I could not go in the woods. It was so dangerous. Every directions that I looked I could see orange.
Bry: I understand everyone's own state regs/seasons will dictate their opinions on the question. That's why I asked about yours, specifically. And, I agree with you and Rybo on your DNR being hard to pin down. I searched and searched, looking for a number (and a back-up) when I was checking for your est. total deer herd. It's like pulling teeth, trying to get information that should be public domain.
I received some PGC info last week at work that had herd estimates for 2007 I believe. They had the herd estimated between 850,000 and 1,250,000. No doubt its lower than that now. If I make it into the office tomorrow i'll try to find that email. Heres some info I have... "Hunters harvested 335,850 deer (122,410 antlered and 213,440 antlerless) in the 2008-09 deer seasons" "52% of harvested antlered deer were 1.5yrs old, 48% were 2.5 yrs old.
