25contender
Veteran member
- Mar 20, 2013
- 1,638
- 90
I haven't shot any big game with a rifle since the early 80s. So I guess I am pretty dedicated to my bow.
How dedicated are you?
- Thread starter Aussie_hunter_jd
- Start date
- Jul 13, 2016
- 54
- 0
I know that feeling all to well. I've had it happen more than once with good red stags.
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Slugz
Veteran member
I can honestly say I don't know what I would do. I love hunting period and all that comes with it using bow, muzzleloader and rifle. I live for the different challenges each has. We come up with our yearly plan based upon staying in the woods as much as possible every year. For us that means archery, muzzleloader and rifle tags spread out in the family.
B&C Blacktails
Active Member
- Mar 1, 2015
- 237
- 0
For me it depends on the tag in hand. Bow season is my favorite season mostly because I can start hunting again and fill the freezer with a fat velvet buck. The adrenaline you get bow hunting is so much more powerful than rifle hunting. But most of my success comes with my rifle
CrimsonArrow
Very Active Member
I would rather shoot a nice buck with a bow, than a world record buck with a rifle. That's the truth.
Never in Doubt
Active Member
- Jul 9, 2012
- 304
- 0
Most OTC California tags you get an archery season for about a month, then a week off, then the rifle season follows. So with one tag I can hunt both methods.
Archery season you see a lot fewer hunters and the deer are more out in the open in the high country. I see more bucks in the archery season and it hugely beneficial to learning where the bucks are and their habits. But the success rate is much lower, and personally I have yet to shoot a buck with my bow. I've been close, so so close... I'm still learning how to bowhunt and I've been completely self-taught as no one in my friends circles hunt with a bow. It can be maddeningly frustrating. Over the past 4 archery seasons I've seen probably 35 legal bucks and not dropped the hammer. I wish I had more time to hunt, but I just don't. It's just 1-2 night trips. I've seen small groups of bucks all nice 3x3 or better on otc zones, that when rifle season rolls around they have vanished.
I love hunting with a rifle. Absolutely love it! Yes there are more hunters, but I can usually get away from them and hunt alone. Hunting in california is tough enough that even shooting a buck with a rifle feels like a great accomplishment. Maybe it would be different in areas with more bucks or if I could take more time off work. Heck, if I was half the hunter most of the guys on here are I'm sure I'd feel differently too.
I'm already planning for next year, maybe I can score my first buck with a bow. I can already tell that when I do, it will feel like a heck of an accomplishment.
Archery season you see a lot fewer hunters and the deer are more out in the open in the high country. I see more bucks in the archery season and it hugely beneficial to learning where the bucks are and their habits. But the success rate is much lower, and personally I have yet to shoot a buck with my bow. I've been close, so so close... I'm still learning how to bowhunt and I've been completely self-taught as no one in my friends circles hunt with a bow. It can be maddeningly frustrating. Over the past 4 archery seasons I've seen probably 35 legal bucks and not dropped the hammer. I wish I had more time to hunt, but I just don't. It's just 1-2 night trips. I've seen small groups of bucks all nice 3x3 or better on otc zones, that when rifle season rolls around they have vanished.
I love hunting with a rifle. Absolutely love it! Yes there are more hunters, but I can usually get away from them and hunt alone. Hunting in california is tough enough that even shooting a buck with a rifle feels like a great accomplishment. Maybe it would be different in areas with more bucks or if I could take more time off work. Heck, if I was half the hunter most of the guys on here are I'm sure I'd feel differently too.
I'm already planning for next year, maybe I can score my first buck with a bow. I can already tell that when I do, it will feel like a heck of an accomplishment.
mallardsx2
Veteran member
- Jul 8, 2015
- 3,923
- 3,243
I consider myself a dedicated bow hunter. (Not a crossbow)
However if it is rifle or muzzle loader season I will have one of those two in my hand to increase my opportunity for success.
However if it is rifle or muzzle loader season I will have one of those two in my hand to increase my opportunity for success.
missjordan
Veteran member
I love to bow hunt and also to rifle hunt, it's hard to pick one specifically but I feel the older I get the more I gravitate to hunting with archery equipment over a gun. The pressure of hunters is a lot less and the animals never seem to nervous or pressured in the areas we hunt
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gunnerengle
New Member
- Aug 13, 2016
- 1
- 0
- 48
Bow if I only had one choice. Bow hunting just feels different to me all together. It must be the primal instincts that it draws out of you. I feel like a master hunter when I score on a trophy animal. I do like my TC Prohunter but it's just not the same exhilaration as the Bow.
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Archery here, I still pick up the rifle trying to fill a freezer when I have a tag burning a hole in my pocket and room in a freezer. But I have taken a couple bucks with my bow during Idaho's any weapon season so by the above definition I guess I'm serious. It's just so much more of a rush getting game under 40 yards and having to pull off a shot. I just read this week a rifle elk story and the guy says "he bugled right in my face just 100 yards away". I chuckled to myself and thought, poor guy hasn't started to live yet! I hope everyone gets to experience once in their lifetime a bull bugling under 10 yards. Few things that I have seen, heard, and felt can compare. If you rifle hunt, that probably just doesn't happen very often. You probably take anything under 400 yards (longer for you long range guys) at the first opportunity. There's a level of intimacy that archery includes you won't reach any other way.