being here is a great,always great advice and story's. my question is...how traditional hunting effects your entire hunting season?
ie.i will start bow season with my browning nomad stalker(since my long bow want get here till christmas)then here in va. muzzleloader season is next,so i use my inline with a scope,two weeks later gun season starts so i pull the scoped rifle out.
im curious how many continue to hunt with bows when other hunters are in the woods with firearms,also if you use a firearm are you still in the traditional mindset of "hunting" the animal or being a "sniper"?
the reason i ask is i opened the gun safe and it hit me....do i need those big scopes,gizmos and gadgets when i accept the challenge of taking a animal with a stick and string only a month before? i think my hunting season just got easier and very exciting! :clapper:
if this needs to be moved,please do i just had to get it out there and see how many others feel the way i do... :cool:
I pretty much stick with my longbow. We can't deer hunt with a bow during the gun season, so I take some time off if I haven't tagged by that time. Late season can be pretty brutal here (weather and spooky deer that have been shot at an pushed around), so I try hard to tag before gun season starts.
I won't gun hunt for deer...too many crazies out there (no offense to those who do, but it's not for me).
I hunt all bow season with my Longbow. I hunt every animal possible with it as well. Since bowhunting is closed during gun season here in Wisconsin, I hunt with my shotgun during the shotgun season and with my dads old 30-30 during rifle season in Michigan, sometimes the flinter comes with instead. I enjoy it. Then its to muzzlerloader season, I take my flintlock, I really enjoy hunting with this, one of my favorite times in the deer woods, freezing cold, snow on the ground and not a lot of people in the woods. Then its back to the Longbow to close out the last 5 weeks of deer hunting segway into rabbit season! Then its predator hunting with my rifle or longbow, depending on the set up!
Man..... how far away is fall....
I just go with the seasons bow,gun,muzzleloader or bow
Delaware's archery season opens September 1 and ends January 31, Sunday's are closed. I hunt all season with a longbow, through all gun seasons-just have to wear orange. I also hunt small game with a longbow.
Bow only from start to finish, recurve or longbow!! That would be mid sept thru to mid dec.
Recurve for me, I do pull out the compound on some hunts but thats as close as I get to gun hunting.
Excellent perspectives! I hunt longbow only all year long and have for 30+ years.
There is nothing more traditional in Pennsylvania than the first day or rifle season.
Now you can put all of the "gadgets" on your gun, just like you can on a bow, but that's a personal issue. I think an iron sighted, lever, 30:30 is as traditional as it gets. At all other times I use what suits me....usually a longbow or recurve.
I still gun hunt, but am using short range weapons. I plan to do lots of hunting with my .44 revolver this year. If I really want to reach out and get them "sniper" style, I'll use my 16" .44 Marlin lever rifle. It's all longbow for hogs though. I usually don't kill enough deer without breaking out the fire sticks.
longbow straight thru!
Not traditional, just simple.
And I can't shoot a gun worth a hoot.
We have some good "archery only" areas to hunt. So even during firearm season you can stay away from the gun hunters. 2-3 days each season I'll take the rifle hunting, but it's more of a walk in the woods than a serious hunt.
I can hit a pie plate circle with ease out to 300yds with a slug in a Remington 870 shotgun and iron sites so no real challenge in gun hunting for me. So nothing but archery for me and I like both recurves and longbows. But lately I love my 40dollor primitive hickory board bow. oooga boooga!
Using my recurve here during the gun season would not be a hunt - I could not take arrows and it would not lessen my shot opportunities.
I use a scoped inline and thoroughly enjoy it.
Traditional?
I don't care - its what I enjoy.
Steve
Our gun season sees me toting an "old school" .58 cal sidelock or a reproduction .50 cal flintlock. Shoot patched round balls in both. Deer are too wired to even think of bow hunting in the "season of the orange army".....
No centerfire rifles for me. I will pull out the 22 rimfire for squirrels now and then and the 12 guage for ducks and doves but for deer and turkey it's recurve all the way.
I giggled at the title of the thread, and was about to move on, but clicked on it anyway, just to give ya one of these: :saywhat:
There is grist for the mill here, though, and so I will respond.
It was for many years a custom of mine to hunt the first three weeks of November, west of the Blue Ridge here in Virginia. The laws were set up so that I had one week of pure bow, and solitude, followed by a week of muzzleloader and bow combined, and then a week of firearms hunting.
Kills with the bow being extremely rare for me, come muzzleloader season I would bring out the Lyman Great Plains rifle and home-cast .54 round balls. My eyes have gotten so that I need glasses now to see the sights. I could still take either does or bucks with the bow during this season, and some days are better spent with a bow than a smokepole, so the bow stayed strung. The opening day of muzzleloader meant that I would now be seeing more people in the woods, and trucks would be coming into camp about a hour before first light.
When rifle season came in, so did the competitive crowds, and now I used a Remington Model Seven, in 7-08, that I had customized while working for a local gunsmith. Some days were spent in the company of a hopeful Ruger Bisley in .45 Colt.
The laws have changed, and there are once again two weeks of muzzleloader hunting in my range. This year, Lord willing and nothing drastic occurs on the home front, I will be up there for three weeks again. I wish it were for a month. I will have my week of bow, and then two weeks of bow and muzzleloader combined.
My beloved rifle "Dinner Bell" will stay home in the safe, weeping silent tears and threatening to rust from the inside out.
The Remington 522, older than I am, will go with, hoping to take some head shots on the wary squirrels. A shotgun for turkeys (maybe) or just for companionship in a lonely tent, and a couple of pistols for treerats and backup oughta do it for firearms.
The hunt will center around the bows, but when it looks like a muzzleloader will put meat in the freezer, that is what I will carry. My sidelock might misfire during a goodly rain, but if not, the deer falls within fifty paces when I do my part, and blood trailing is not a worry. Muzzleloader or rifle, I usually shoot deer at about twenty yards, as I like to sit where they will move through. My advantage is that I do not have to draw a weapon and betray my location with all that movement. And I get to sit flat on my butt on the ground.
I am up there, among other things, to kill deer. Except for one, maybe two days, my muzzleloader is limited to killing bucks. The bow is not. I feel the air and choose my strategy, and either feast or kick myself at the end of the day. It is all hunting, though, and there for whatever meat or spiritual healing I can glean from it.
Follow your bliss.
Killdeer :campfire:
I killed my first deer with a gun, didnt care for it much, never picked up a gun to deer hunt again, went strictly bow! used a compound for a few years then bought a recurve, never looked back! havent killed a deer with it yet, some close calls, maybe this year I'll get it done!! Love the stick and string!! Jason
Longbow until gun season opens then my Hawkin side lock percussion .54 for the "modern" rifle season. In late December muzzleloader season opens and I will hunt this again with my Hawkin.
I did go a bit modern last year and due to the fact that when I bought this rifle I didn't know that I needed a slow twist barrel, so I switched from patched balls to a lead conical.. DEADLY!!
I hunt archery season until early M/L season and I use flintlocks I built. Then rifle season I hunt a Winchester M70 Featherweight in .270 with Leupold scope for Sika deer. Then back to archery, then late M/L and finally archery to end the year.
There was a time when I only hunted archery and used a homemade Ithaca Hawken for the modern firearms season. Then I graduated to a Winchester 1894 in .32-40 iron sights and finally got the .270 for a modern deer rifle. I've been known to use a couple military rifles, I'm not a purist.
I shot a doe at 90yds. in January with an open sighted 870 cause there was no meat in the freezer. Gave the barrel to my cousin the next day b/c it seemed so easy. In DE you can use a m/l during gun season so thats what I do. I have a special piece of private ground that I have free reign of and don't shoot guns there just for the simple fact that I know I'm the only one around.
Hunt with my longbow and recurve till Muzzleloader.. then break out the 7mm.. mix it up after that with hand gun, shotgun, run a few traps, and as far as "Trad" towards the end of the season... hunt naked with a spear on the last day. Keeps others out of the area the next year. LOL
im a bowhunter, longbow or recurve and thats it
My response to lonewolfs post :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
I hunt in an archery only county so my recurve it its. Texas doesn't have a muzzleloader season in particular. Use a M/L or Gun or Bow for the general season if you wish. I haven't hunted with my Hawken 50 Cal yet my i've got the itch to do so.
For the last several years, I have only hunted with my recurve except for the weekends that I took my daughter who will be six in October. We tried bowhunting with my curve in the double bull when she was 4 but I was too serious and she couldn't be that quiet. I have just built some permanent box blinds with insulation and shooting ports so that I can bowhunt with her this year. If that doesn't work, my season will be split 60 % trad and 40 % 270 winchester and barby coloring books. Either way, life is good.
I am traditional all the way....in a very untraditional way. top rig is a 25 yd tack driver, AGF Safari sight and all. Bottom rig a stringwalking hunters dream come true.
http://sites.google.com/site/stringwalkerbowhunter/Home/texas-kit
rusty -non-traditional recuve shooter- Craine
We used to be able to bow hunt during gun seasons but not anymore . I like to hunt so I use whatever I can , heck I'd take a slingshot if there was a season . Our gun season is one week and our muzzleloader season overlaps bow hunting so I usually take my shotgun for a walk around the woods that week and scout , seems to be a good reason to get in the woods . Fred
I use my sticks all the way throught the special archery season, the general season (rifle season), and the late anterless and spike season. I also use them for turkey season and any other season, The only thing I use a gun for is dove hunting. The fun thing to me is trad hunting so that's what I do. I don't mind if others get enjoyment hunting with their guns.
Bisch
We are blessed in Texas to be able to bowhunt during gun season. I'm usualy the only bowhunter on my lease during gun season and hunt spots that are never hunted with a gun. Our mornings and evenings during g-season usually begin and end with a blast or two and I like to think that the deer seek out spots that have less human odor and noise. Hasn't failed me yet.
Do not gun hunt and do not own any hunting rifles. I hunt only traditional archery during the specified seasons in Oregon. I had a nice black powder rifle but, sold it not too long ago to fund another bow! :bigsmyl:
I don't hunt big game with guns anymore. And never will. But I really wish i could bowhunt during gun season in Illinois. I'd even buy a gun tag if I could hunt with my bow.
I hunt with the recurve all season. Haven't shot a deer with a rifle in 5 years. Now that my kids are old enough to hunt, I take them out with the .243 and enjoy sitting back and coaching them through it. Heres a pic of my oldest daughter and her 1st buck from last year.
(http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f217/drr324/Lyndsdeer2008003-1.jpg)
Was one of the best feelings in the world and lots of "tension"... I'd tell her to get ready and then I'd blat him to stop, she wouldn't shoot, he'd take off walking again, I asked her if she was ready, blat at him, she didn't shoot, this went on for 4-5 times. I asked her was the problem was, she said she was shaking so bad so didn't think she would hit him! Finally she got settled in and dropped him at 90 yards, looked at me with a huge smile and gave me one of the best hugs of my life, and said "thanks dad- I'm a hunter just like you".
I too recently looked at all my firearms and wondered why I don't sell them since they very rarely have seen the light of day over the past 10 years. But....NAH.
I will occasionally pull out the old Model 94 to take a walk with during gun season, usually the days of inclimate weather, but leaving my bow behind is tough. It's almost like like looking back, and there, standing in the doorway, are my bow and arrows with the biggest puppydog eyes, their little lips all aquiver, softly wimpering.
I'm such a sentimental softy.
Longbow year round. Been that way for many a year.
My guns continue to reside in their cases, and I imagine they will stay there. Bows are so much more fun to me that I have no desire to load up the smokepoles and blast away. For those that enjoy hunting with a gun, I say more power to you, but it just isn't my cup of tea anymore. If I can't get it with stick and string, I will go without.
I deer hunt mostly with a bow, occasinally with a rifle on a drawn Quota hunt, and every year our late season ML hunt is a tradition with my wife and buddies/family. We are fo the most part usually sucessful,I still use a T/C .54 Renegade Sidhammer, and have taken2 does with a Ruger Old Army .45 Percussion revolver. Now that is a challenge, both under 30 yards! I often sit in the blind with my wife of 28 years, while she ML and rifle hunts, I am usually tagged out and venision in the freezer. We sit and talk softly, sip coffee, enjoy all the wildlife and usually a gorgeous sunset here in the mountains of KY, and usually within a day or two she has her 2 deer. I have lots of guns that I have built, ML and centerfire when I was a gunsmith full time, that will never be sold. They have tooo many ghosts, have seen to many camps.
QuoteOriginally posted by Brent Hill:
Our mornings and evenings during g-season usually begin and end with a blast or two and I like to think that the deer seek out spots that have less human odor and noise. Hasn't failed me yet.
I use the same strategy during rifle season in WI's CWD Zone (where you can still bowhunt so long as you wear blaze orange). It usually works out quite well.
I tried a muzzle loader back in about 1965 or 70 for one day. Never killed anything with it and have bowhunted ever since. Traded the muzzle loader for a spotting scope that very year.
I just took up traditional archery and im going to hunt strictly with my stickbows. I can kill over 100 deer down here in Alabama so i should get lots of practice. :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
Funny, I asked a near identical question a year or two ago and had a moderator close it with: "this is not archery or bowhunting related, I hope you understand." :) (I'd asked whether anyone in their frustration was ever tempted by seeing too many deer too far away to just pick up their shotgun). I've almost always just stayed with my stickbow but a couple of times two years ago I decided to bring a shotgun "while I was scouting." I do on occasion take a day to go hunt ducks or pheasants with my shotgun but truthfully, I would rather have a small doe with a longbow than a rack buck with anything else.
I hunt with my selfbows and home made arrows. Don't hunt with centerfire guns anymore. Done got rid of most of them. I have an old 45 Lancaster that I'll pull out every now and then.
With the kids, all the guns are locked up and put away. Just so much easier to grab the bow and throw it in the car and go.
Bows...I consider a '50s-'60s style recurve, shooting cedars to be the most traditional. Not real hung up on it though.
Camo...prefer to use plaids or broken patterns but some really fine hunting clothes are made only in camo so I do use camo at times.
Guns....Iron sighted rifles. Classic guns like the '03 Springfield, M70 Winchester, in '06 or 270, Win, Marlin, or Savage levers in 30/30 or 300 Savage. Irons only on levers. If a scope is necessary on a bolt gun it must be fixed power and no more than 6x at that.
Black Powder....18th-19th century style guns only, no modern plastic stock or in-lines. The PA Lancaster rifles are nice. Plains guns like Hawkens, Lemans, etc are great too.
I shoot the bow most often...
I can pick up a gun after a year of not shooting and hit whatever I want so no need to practice.
If i'm going after coyotes or have a hog problem I grab the 308.
I am definitly not gettin rid of the guns need them for more than just hunting
I just love the idea of shooting a bow in the woods and not disturbing anything but what I'm shooting...
Started with wheels no sights in 85 killed three wth bow before a kill one with a rifle.Try sights the follwing year after the rifle kill,got bored.I watch a man kill three pheasents with a recurve"in flight".So that started me shooting traditional that year,maybe 1988.I shot instintive with Lb and recurve until mid 90's then switch back to wheels and no sights until two years ago.I tryed sights,release ,7 pins for two seasons.Now I am shooting and gamemaster(not so traditional) three under and I walk my face and a old martin ml100 LB with cedars and instintive.I have killed two elk and two deer with rifles,mainly meat hunts and still enjoy shotguns with birds but I do not think I will shoot any other than traditional from now on.Thats where my heart has been for a long time,and thats whats drive my soul.
Depends on whether there's meat in the freezer. :)
I bowhunt most of the time, but if I need meat I'll take the muzzleloader out. I have a Model 7 in 7mm08 that I take to western MO to hunt with friends, but I haven't shot anything in years with it. The hunt is for getting together with my buds more than shooting something. I always take my bow on those hunts too, and use it if I'm hunting a close-in spot.
I guess I'm pretty traditional- I remember when those "collectible" bows were new!
Recurve only for elk and Blacktail deer. I hunt wild turkeys with a shotgun, but I have taken several with my bow.
longbow during bow season, sidelock percussion .54 hawken during rifle and muzzleloader.
I haven't gun hunted in over 7 years. I use my bow all year long.
I do have a 16 gauge single shot that my father in law is re-building for me needs a new firing pin and stock. I'll give it a go this year just for a change of pace. :thumbsup: Like some have said though, I can't hit squat with a gun. Just too darn loud!
i don't rifle hunt any more [ have n't in 9 years ] but my bruno .22 and ruger no1 / 3006 open sights ain't going anywhere .....
cheers
ben
This will be my first year gun hunting deer.I will be using my 50cal. T/C Newenglander and my 12gauge for turkeys and a longbow for bow season.