Do you always fill your tags? or do you have to rely on gun season to fill your freezer?
Just wanting to know if you the skill to put meat in the freezer EVERY hunting season with your recurve or longbow; let us know...... :campfire:
Yeah not a problem.
The seasons on gathering food runs all year.
We don't have the level of govt control most of the world lives under just yet.
It's a free country,,,one of the very few.
I unplugged my freezer long ago.
Don't need it. Don't use guns.
Use the catch and release method.
If it ain't fresh I don't need it.
I should add Lifelong NRA member
I do smoke a bit from time to time but prefer pink salmon.
I could no problem but I let my kid go pop some deer with a muzzeloader. Iam very happy with trad. hunting I have been doing it for 6-8years ,Iam as confedient as when I walked into the woods with my compound I shoot good enough to kill deer but I do miss from time to time witch is good it drives me season to season missing big deer will make you a better hunter through the pain & motivation method or you will just quit. It will be one or the other.
Were I live if you see 3 deer a week you a lucky so I can say I sure can not cound on taking deer with the bow or gun.
I still love the outdoor and the hunt. But also I have to say due to low number of the deer I also let doe's walk and will only draw on a bigger buck. SO in the last 5 years have had only one taken, and it was a 7 point buck.
Some years there is no room in the freezer for venison because my spouse forgets to leave me room. So sometimes I just wait for a eight pointer but no doe for meat. If I did get the eight pointer, my son would take the meat for his freezer.
Wish I could say yes.......
No problem to fill the freezer. Still eating venison from the year prior when the next season opens. I haven't failed in 25 years to put at least two deer in the freezer with traditional equipment.
No, I was lucky last year I saw two deer all season and took one of them.
Yes :archer2:
I would have starved long ago if relying on my bow for food! Now that I'm in Australia, I hope to bring a few more animals to hand. :campfire:
well i got 3 freezers so ill say yes . My freezers have plenty of deer and fish and beaver to supply my needs .
With two tags, three on a lucky year, I manage to put an animal a year in the frezer. But with 3 boys that are 14 to 11, I'd have to kill 2 moose a year to keep my freezer full!! :scared: :help:
yes :archer2:
Some years yes, some years no. I love stalking through the woods with a period correct flintlock I built from scratch so I bowhunt until the weather gets bitter cold, then out comes the flintlock.
yes, don't buy meat from the store, never have used a rifle
I trad hunt for the hunt and all though I would not call myself a trophy hunter I will let does walk in the early season and wait for a nice buck.
I usually only put one deer in the freezer every two years due to 1/2 of the household don't eat it. But I harvest a couple does during gun season to help keep the does thinned and give the meat to elderly folks who can't get out and do it anymore.
To me gun season is just a good opportunity to get my girls out because they like to deer hunt but not with a bow so I enjoy it for that no doubt. But when it's just me going it's trad all the way.
As far as do i think I could keep my freezer full, I'm pretty confident I could.
I am very happy to say "yes". Of course the moose I shot really took up a lot of freezer space.
The bow way or no way.
Yep, in the last 8 years I have taken all my deer with trad gear and I usually put 3 in the freezer per season. :thumbsup:
I hunt with my traditional bows, my compound, and my firearms. I fill a lot of other freezers as well as my own. I love to hunt and enjoy doing it with different tools.
Mr. Arkansaslongbow,
We normally use our HH longbows and/or a Hickory selfbow during the gun season, as weather permits. (If it is raining too hard, out comes a muzzleloader.) No special bow season in our area.
Do also enjoy hunting with a flintlock when temperatures drop below -20 degrees below 0 (F).
We eat a lot of Moose and Caribou every year and much prefer it to beef.
Best Wishes
That's the only game I really want in my freezer, I will add some gun kills but it's trad gear that keeps it full.
yes i have 4 teens at home who love deer and im the only one who has to put in the time to hunt its a hard thing to do but i guess ill suffer for the sake of the kids...lol
yes and i dont own any guns. Venison its whats for dinner
Yes I fill mine and several of my friends. Here in NC you can shoot all the does you want I try to kill at least 10 or 12. I have not hunted with a gun in 15 years I see no reason to.
the stats for Colo are that success rates for mule deer and elk run about 17 to 22% per year for archery (per license) and about the same for guns. So that being said with trad gear I personally am just a tad above average. Not an over achiever, just above average. We have not had to buy meat in 7 years. Joe
Since we moved to our 20 acres I've provided almost all the meat we've eaten.All with a bow. I say almost because we do buy some chicken and lamb at times but the deer and hogs are the vast majority of our meat for the year. Helps to be able to hunt hogs year round.
yes.RC
Many years yes and some years no. It a bit more complicated up here in Alaska than running low and walking out in the back 40 and knowing you can easily kill a deer or pig in a day or so.
Took a LOT of pressure off by adding 150# of muskox to the freezer a year ago Feb. We now have ox, OR blacktail, mtn lion, black bear, and HI goat in there!
Can you say "snowball's chance?"
Killdeer
last year i got 4 meals = 3 rabbits and a phesant a sore arm and a big grin i ate the meat iced the arm and still got the grin thats whats important to me
here in washington its bow season or no season, you have to pick one weapon type and that's the only season you can hunt. Also one deer/year. We don't buy any meat, but I do have to travel a bit to keep the freezer full.
Yes. I gave up hunting with guns years ago, (with the exception of a shotgun for doves every now and then). I won't say we don't buy any meat. Occasionally I'll pick up a ribeye or something. Not because I can't live on what I kill, but because I like a little variety! But all in all I buy very little meat, and we pretty much just eat venison.
Yep, its filled with small game . . . but dad beat me to the punch this year with whitetails. It is a joint effort so, we are both trying to fill up the freezer, with a buck only rifle season! The very next day after he got his deer(opening day), I could have shot a little guy but we didnt need meat so I let him pass. This was the first rifle deer that went in our freezer for a long time!!! Still tastes just as good:)
yes
Ten years ago it was no problem here in Wi.Now we hardly see any deer anymore. I use to pass up the small bucks but last year i only saw 3 bucks with no shots fired.
I can easily keep the freezer filled with bow kills each year. But these days the pressure is off since it's just my wife and I, and our 2 1/2 year old grandson in the house.
Still have plenty of opportunity for shots, but find myself letting a lot more than usual walk these days.
Plus the wife prefers seafood to red meat,(although she loves venison and bison). So the freezer holds a lot of fish, shrimp, lobster, and chicken. Plus the ever present Hot Dog for the kid.
:archer:
Haven't shot a deer in 7 years. We raise cows though...
Yes :archer2:
No I am a Terrible, Terrible hunter!
I hear ya Mark! I remember years where I saw 20 deer a day in WI. Now If I see 10 in a season it's great year It's what happens when a state figures out that tag sales generate money and not sending biologists afield to check populations.
The Adirondacks don't have a great # of deer either.
Therefore it's be a great hunter or ask your friends for Venison.
I plan on shooting a lot of vegetables this year and putting them in the freezer though. :biglaugh: I find they dont move as fast when you approach from up wind :laughing:
I am blessed to have killed 10 does and 2 bucks in the 3 years hunting with my trad bows...we eat the heck out of it, and other than yardwalkers (chickens) we eat deer, turkey, rabbit, squirrel, and fish from our pond most evening meals. My kids think beef tastes funny and other than a Happy Meal from the Evil Empire, they steer clear of other forms of meat :)
no need to buy meat in 13 yrs, moose,elk,wild boar and deer all with traditional equipment
Yes
An elk lasts my family of four for a year + Toss a turky or two and a deer in and we are good to go.
My kids think beef tastes funny! I've been fortunate to put 4-5 deer in the freezer each year for a long, long time. I'll usually put 2 in with the bow and then my boys pack in the rest with a gun. I have a son on a mission for church now so we put 4 in this year. 3 with my longbow and then my other boy put one in with a gun. I didn't get this fine full figure by being a light eater!
When the kids were little we were down at the Smithsonian Institute in DC and going through the Natural History museum. My wife got a kick out of the kids when they started looking around and saying we had that for dinner last night, that the night before, and that last week. We had moose, caribou, oryx, antelope, whitetail, and black bear in the freezer that year.
Never been a problem. I usually take 4 to 6 deer a year. Been bow only for 10 years and longbow for the last 7.
IndianaBowman, my kids do that at the zoo... :) That is GREAT. My six year old daughter saw me eyeballing a zebra at the zoo last week in St Louis and said "Dad, I bet your lookin' where your arrow would go"...I spit out my gum laughing!
Wapiti, that is too funny! When I went to Africa a zebra was the only animal my daughter wanted me to bring back for her. The rug should be delivered any day!
How old is your daughter and is she hunting with you?
So far this year I'm not doing it so well after a turkey pulled a houdini around my arrow. Most years I don't need to buy too much meat but the girls get sick of always eating game meat. With only a bear last year in the freezer I need to get a couple of deer and elk this year.
yes :archer2:
Last year I took 2 nice bucks, 2 does and a hog for the freezer. I don't have enough left to make it to October.
Where I mainly hunt we can harvest 5 does and at least one buck (sometimes draw a second) plus an elk. Haven't hunted with a rifle in almost 30 years and keep 2 freezers full most of the time.
No!!!!!!If I had to eat what I hunted I would have starved to death long ,long ago! I average seeing only 3 deer a year, so to fill the freezer with the bow or the gun is almost impossible!!!
Always save some tags for the inline - just too much fun. And a 1/4 of the neighbors beef - usually name it in the summer.
Realistically, I keep my freezer full by going to the supermarket. I don't hunt with a gun much at all any more (not at all for the last 5 years). And traditional archery is more fun anyway (The weather is better during archery season-I am not as interested in standing out in the rain as I used to be:-).
RonP
IndianaBowman, she is six and we have shared a couple great deer hunts together as well as a few days in the blind turkey hunting. Her Maddog Pup should be here any day. I hope someday she is filling her own freezer :)
We just had to buy a second stand up freezer. :)
Yes.
no, and thank god for my BP guns (old and new).
The only thing in my freezer is venison and walleye, looks like I will just have enough to make it till the opener. Looking forward to re-stocking.
I haven't shot a deer in two years but that is because I let a lot of small bucks and small does walk. This year i plan to put a stand where I should be able to get a few does no problem, then I will hunt for the big buck. But I've been lucky on my annual hog hunt each year and the freezer is full with three nice sized hogs.
Again this is...longarrow..not Shaft Slinger!! Just me and my wife at home now..but we still have to feed my 2 daughters and their family....my brothers + family and 42 friends!! I took 3 deer this year with my longbow...wife took 1 with a firearm. This is June and we just finished off last of the Venison!! Wife says if I don't get an Elk or Moose this year to go with the (MIN) 3 deer she will have shoot 2!!!!!
Wish I could say so. Right now I have a turkey, some deer and crappie in the freezer. Here in Arizona we are only allowed 1 deer per year and I had an elk tag this past year and didn't get to hunt but a few days due to some real unfortunate circumstances. You never know how long it will be before getting drawn again.
Yes, average is 4 a year since they made this zone a 5 deer limit. 2 go to daughters families each year. My wife and I usually keep 2 for ourselves. Funny thing, when the girls were growing up all we ate was venison and they were sometimes emarrassed to have friends over because we were eating venison, now they're in there 30's and can't wait for their yearly deer.