Bowhunting during rifle/shotgun season

[twitchstick]

I been hunting cow elk since the 2nd with my bow. It's been tough but I like to hunt with a bow.

[Hoyt]

Not an option in Il., wouldn't anyway I hunt with my flintlock during gun season.

[chopx2]

Bow only, but stay away from crowded or rifle areas and wear orange (required or not)

I also will only stand hunt (I prefer to still hunt when I can) and stay out dark to dark when I can. Rifle guys will push deer sometimes trudging out to the car at 10am and back in at 3pm so I want to be there when it's quiet and the deer feel like they can move around if they have a need to.

Echo the no white!

[mscampbell75]

I use my bow all season, UNLESS, it's get close to the end of season and I have not got enough for the freezer.  Then the boom stick comes out for some long range action.  If I'm haveing a good bow season, (IE: 4 or 5 deer) then the gun never sees any action.

[Bill Carlsen]

Got this guy during the first week of firearms season a number of years ago. It seems to me that the hunting starts to pick up about the time the muzzle loaders hit the woods....early Nov.

[Chris Shelton]

I am 100% trad bow only for deer!  And darn proud of it. I have been known to shoot the occasional squirrel or rabbit with my 22 when checking traps in the winter, but that is it . . . doves with my old single shot 12 gauge.

In some ways I like sharing the woods with gun hunters, but in other ways I do not. Sure it pushes the deer around, but it also pressures them and it is much harder to get closer! Not to mention that darn carrot on my head:(

I was out today trying to find some deer, it instead turned out to be a pretty eventful grouse outing, and it is muzzleloader season!

[VTer]

Rich, I've been doing it for the last 10 years or so. Never taken one during that time, but there is some self satisfaction in having bucks close by that would be chip shots with guns but still out of our trad range. Sounds strange and maybe it's not that way for everybody but it is for me. I've seen a lot of rutting activity that I would've never seen had I been gun hunting. It's been a learning experience for sure. That said, I wish they'd let us use our archery tags in Nov as well for does.

[jcar315]

Always....never take anything but the ol' recurve regardless of the season.

[vtmtnman]

Originally posted by Bill Carlsen:
Got this guy during the first week of firearms season a number of years ago. It seems to me that the hunting starts to pick up about the time the muzzle loaders hit the woods....early Nov.


 

Bill I always wondered about that deer in your avatar.That was a state record yes?Where'd you get that hog anyways and what year?

[vtmtnman]

Originally posted by VTer:
 That said, I wish they'd let us use our archery tags in Nov as well for does.

I'm with you on that one Greg.    

I think I'll def give the bow some woods time this year and leave the .308 in the house.

[vtmtnman]

Originally posted by adeeden:
We can't do it in IL, but i do in Indiana from time to time. Dad shot a god one last year with his Bob Lee over in indiana on the opening of fire arms season.

 

Please excuse the poor picture!

Awesome buck!      

[Red4arm]

I don't even own a deer gun any more. Sold it son I can't be tempted

[Kip l Hoffman]

The satisfaction of taking a bow killed deer to the locker plant in rifle season is worth about 40 points Boone and Crockett.

[njloco]

Most of the deer I have taken over the years have been with a wheeler, I am now hunting strictly Trad. while it's bow season.

I guess I have been lucky as all of the deer I have taken through the years with a shot gun or rifle, or muzzle loader, were within 35 yds. I guess as I am getting older I am getting more picky since I don't shoot little deer anymore. Even with Trad. it has to be a big doe or a big buck.

When it gets real cold, I worry that I won't be able to draw the bow. So I will probably firearm hunt again, but archery season is always the best time.

[Hookeye]

I was just thinking of going bow through gun season:)

[sstewa]

Those guys with the guns scare me around here.

[Ken Taylor]

We don't have designated bow seasons for black bears or caribou and I'm usually guiding for caribou during moose bow season, then hunting moose during deer bow season...so, I almost always hunt with my longbow during general firearm seasons.

No problem for me, except for the mandatory, artificial, unnatural, obtrusive, ugly, bureaucratic city slicker, fluorescent orange clown suit.

[damascusdave]

Originally posted by vtmtnman:
Thinking of giving it a go this year...anyone else leave the boom stick home?(If it's legal in your state)

Only legal to hunt with registered firearms here and for some strange reason I do not seem to have any registered firearms. I know I used to have some firearms, but I guess I must have got rid of them.

With any luck I will not need to bowhunt during gun season because I will have arrowed both a muley and a whitetail. Bow season here ends on October 31 and I just lined up my third and fourth places to hunt where no other bow hunters are allowed. Altogether I have pretty much private access to over 2000 acres of private land.
One of the great advantages to being back in my home town after a 40 year absence.

Heading out to one of those places in about an hour and the landowner is going to show me where the deer are!

I understand that you are probably wondering why I had not scouted these spots earlier. I was ill for a long time and did not expect to hunt at all this fall. Still even with a relatively short time available I will spend a lot more time scouting than I will hunting. The mule deer around here in particular are not very people shy and if I do not educate them they should be a lot easier to shoot when the right conditions arise.

If I happen to get a whitetail it will be icing on the cake.

I just heard from a farmer friend that there is a rumour that a number of wolves have been released in our area to help cull the deer herd.

DDave

[Jack Whitmire Jr]

Yes I do ,have done it for years . I always see some bucks but only take one about every 5 years. Last year was my biggest buck ever.

[damascusdave]

Got three more tags for does, two whitetails and a muley so I will be bow hunting during rifle season.

DDave