I know that this has been discussed before but it's always nice to get a fresh out look.
In Quebec there are no designated bow seasons for black bear or caribou, therefore bowhunters are legally obligated to wear orange, etc. to hunt those species here.
During the designated bowhunting season for moose, I am working at caribou camp so I bowhunt during the moose gun season when I get home.
During the whitetail bow season, I am hunting moose so I miss that too and then bowhunt during the deer firearm seasons.
Essentially, what I am saying is that I don't get to hunt bow seasons very often but still manage to do o.k.
I was wondering how many of you hunt during general firearm seasons?
This is my last big game harvest of 2009 - Saskatchewan gun season (I've been hunting small game only during the winter) (http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab16/Mehikan/DSC_0592.jpg)
i hunt with my bow year round...gun season or not. That is one big deer! Thanks for sharing! :thumbsup:
Hi Ken, I use a longbow throughout all of Indiana's deer seasons. Including the firearms and muzzleloading seasons, I have no problem harvesting my share of deer. Nice Buck!
Very nice. . . "yes" I have hunted in gun season with a bow-though not often.
Where I live basically the month of November is a shared shotgun, muzzleloader, bow season. Doesn't really hinder me. You hear a shot once in a while off somewhere but I hunt places for the most part that only I have access to. Waste of time to put up with others messing around. I do OK.
Nice Buck!
Hello Ken, in France there is no difference between bow or firearm season, we hunt all together during 100 % of the opening time,
i'm living in a collective drive hunt tradition area with big dogs ... not easy for bowhunter
i'love to try to bowhunt before the general opening day, for sure the animals should be more quiet !
so you just have to be more "clever" and when time to time you succed to be close enough to release an arrow in the air you are even more happy i think ! :archer:
congrats for your wonderfull deer ! :clapper:
Very nice deer.Quit using a rifle about five years ago.Killing less deer but more bow kills than I use to b/c we have a long gun season so bow only was shorter so hunting with bow more days.Kip
don't own a firearm...but I hunt all seasons. keep smilin'. rick.
I try and only hunt wilderness areas once rifle opens out here. I have been scoped too many times to hunt within a few miles of any road or easy trail once general season opens.
Once ya get five miles or more off the roads the folks there generally know what they are doing.
No offense meant, but I am no longer drawing hazardous or combat pay...
First of all, NICE BUCK!!!!
Second, I hunt all year with the bow. Muzzle loader/flintlock over laps half my bow season in PA. I also hunt general fire arm season with the bow. I have to have orange on, but I don't think it makes any difference. The way I hunt, camo or not, if you move too much you are busted!
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a281/sf1oak/scan0002-7.jpg)
Gun hunters move the deer around more. I prefer to bowhunt CT during the NY gun season because the area I hunt is off limits to gunners but the deer find "safety" on our land...or so they think...
I bow hunt year round, just buy the appropriate tag and license(Fishing and Hunting combo).
God bless,Mudd
If you want to hunt the rut in Minnesota, you hunt with the "brown is down" crowd.
Jim
I hunt michigan through gun season and do ok, but the deer get shot up real fast and you have to know were to find them, most of the big bucks go nocturnal but the does are still shootable. Congrats on Beauty of a buIck, I love big northern deer. Heres a pic of a good day in last years gun season with my brother.
(http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww257/boonetrad/DSC00358.jpg)
Boy, I didn't think that I would get so many responses so quickly, and from three countries...wow!
Thanks for the compliments on my buck and a hearty congratulations on beautiful animals to those who posted pictures.
Boone, you guys sure ended that season with a statement!
Ken
yep i always hunt with a bow during rifle season in a archery only area, done real good , got five pope and yongs five years in a row, ..just got lucky i guess past couple years nothing but does...but this year lookout....
I do it all the time, scares the bejessus outa me sometimes, but I manage. I dont own a full orange vest, just a hat. I dont really have anything to worry about, I hunt where noone will care to venture, to high, lol. I have been really close to being successful during gun season, but no cigar yet. My first and only trad whitetail kill was actually during bow season . . .BUT it was also youth day. So technically it was during a 1 day gun season, lol
Chris, your first sentence cracked me up!
You made me come to the realization that I don't hunt populated areas. I forgot to mention that in my opening post. I guess most of you had figured that out already anyway.
I see by the responses that it really depends on where you hunt.
Nice Buck Ken. I also hunted Saskatchewan in 2009 but I got skunked. The zone that my Dad's farm is in allows out of province hunters for the bow season but the season ends right before the gun season starts on Nov 1st (or there abouts). The problem is (in 2009 anyway) that the rut hadn't really started up yet. I saw a few deer but only one mature buck and he pegged me at 50 yards. If I head back next year I think I'll wait for the November rifle season and hopefully have a chance at a rutting buck.
Thanks Earl. That was the biggest of only two "racked" deer I saw.
I think that it was a tough year for hunting whitetails right across Canada. Everyone had pretty well the same stories.
And you're right, the main advantage to bowhunting during the rifle season is you get to hunt the rut.
In NZ we have no seasons on big game animals,so your always sharing the bush with all types of other hunters.
The up side is that you don't met many other hunters anyway,because there's no sudden influx due to seasons suddenly opening and restricted hunting times.
This April I'll be spending a week chasing Red deer during the peak of their rut,,and sharing a camp with two rifle hunters.
Other than on a private "bowhunting only" property I vist once or twice a year,,this is pretty much the norm' for me.
For us we just hunt with bow all the way through all the seasons. We are still required to buy the appropriate stamps though.
(http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e270/fflynn1/100_1489.jpg)
I've had good and bad during our rifle season....
• (http://www.tradgang.com/upload/curt/P1050673.JPG)
• (http://www.tradgang.com/upload/curt/P1050676.JPG)
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=39;t=000044
That coyote was killed this past fall....only the second time I've bowhunted during rifle season since my "incident"
Here in NB we can take one deer per year. Lots of bow hunters here are done before we get to gun season.
I'd trade killing a coyote with a bow during gun season for killing a deer any day!
Both are exotic animals over here...I have wolves on my doorstep though!
Great job with that nice deer Ken! Hunter orange is mandatory on public land here. I've hunted year round with longbow only for decades. I do allow gun hunters the first few weeks to tire of public land however before I'll go into the woods during gun season.
I only hunt gun season with a bow. In Missouri we have some state land which is archery only, meaning you don't need hunter orange, usually that land is close to the bigger cities, but very huntable land. One of the areas close to me is about 2300 acres of archery only and recieves little pressure during gun season. I've seen some nice deer there. As I recall back in the seventies, one of Missouri's biggest deer was taken there.
I love the gun season here, but as Curt said wear that orange.
This past season I hunted from September 15th through the end of January with my recurve only. This included all sorts of firearms seasons during that time. Didn't pull a gun out at all and loved it! Really don't think I will again.
During any season that required bowhunters / hunters to wear blaze orange I always did. Never an issue and always the right time to follow the rules and be safe.
QuoteOriginally posted by rastaman:
i hunt with my bow year round...gun season or not. That is one big deer! Thanks for sharing! :thumbsup:
X2!
Bisch
I'm another bow hunter during "rifle" season. In '08 I shot a 8pt that was still in velvet on the last day. (Second week of December)
Nice buck, Ken
Also nice 'yote!!
Great buck Ken
I dont own any guns. I hunt the gun season each year. I dread having to wear orange , but I'm out there.
Whoa :scared: Someone put antlers on that horse!!!
Great buck Ken. Probably the only time you didn't have a :) on your face was when you had to drag him out of the bush!
(http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee178/sunstone/P1010857.jpg)
Shot this guy next to the last day of Maryland's 2 week gun season. He came by with about 2 minutes of shooting light left.
I have been afield with my bow during firearms season, and will probably do it from now on.
Wear orange, and take it for what it is.
When I look at my deer rifles, all I can think is
they would fund my new Bushbow from Great Northern.
I will be making a Colorado Elk trip this year.I will be going during the rifle season(FYI) I shoot anything and everything. I will be taking my Bow, so I called the Colo, DOW and talked to a person in the office in the area that I will be hunting and she READ me the regulations as to the requirements of archery equipment.Didn't really answer my question as to wether I can hunt with my bow during the general season, so I guess I will have to make a second or maybe a third call to the Division to get a straight answer. I've been reading the post's on this thread and haven't seen anybody from Colo. post on this one yet, does anybody know for sure if I can. (sorry didn't mean to get off topic)
Here in Nebraska, many of us are campaigning for the privilege.. Meeting is Friday, but I am not holding my breath.
So far the State's answer to our request is to make the bow a legal weapon during gun season.. aka "buy another permit" Which are normally all sold out anyway.. :knothead:
Please wish us well. :thumbsup:
On the National Wildlife Refuge where I hunt it is illegal to hunt with a bow during the gun season.
in washington state you have to choose your tag, archery, rifle, or muzzleloader and have to hunt the seasons your tag fits. you can hunt with a bow in rifle season if you buy an mod. firearms tag. you cannot hunt multiple seasons and a rifle or muzzleloader cannot use that weapon in an archery area even if they have the proper tag.
i used to hunt rifle seasons but no longer do because there are so many large archery areas and archery seasons.
Archery only for me! Congrats to you guys with kills.
Love to bowhunt during the gun season...but only on private land!
Claudia
All i hunt with is bow and i do it in the archery,black powder and gun season but i agree with Pinecone its nice to hunt private land in gun season.
Well I called the Colo. DOW for the second time and I finally got a straight answer about bow hunting during the General hunting season. It's all good I was told that I can use any legal weapon to take an animal during that season. GAME ON!!!!
I'm with Pinecone!
I've been doing it for 42 years now. I hate wearing the blaze orange though.
I belong to a team of 30 gunners and bowhunt with them.
It's quite common over here
Kentucky's gun season is right smack in the middle of our whitetail rut. So around here its get in the woods with whatever weapon you choose to tote.
We also don't have any other critters to hunt and distract us either. Man that would be a terrible problem to have. Haha.
T.J.