Has bowhunting ruined gun season for you?

[Iron Cowboy]

I hunt some small private land close to home. The public land near by is great deer area but I value my life too much to go in there this time of year, you would not believe how crazy it is, and the private land thats around is full of guys and hard to find an "in" to hunt it.

Anyhow this was my first year bowhunting and man did I learn a lot.

On the advise of other bowhunters I took all last week off work and hunted every day. All I can say is UNBELIEVABLE I lost track of my deer sightings after about 18. I had numbers of deer within 20 yards for long periods at a time. watching them close up in thier complete natural state interacting with each other was the coolest thing I've ever seen in my 20 years of deer hunting.

Then yesterday when gun season opens all the other guys come out and are up in there stand doing something similar to a mexican hat dance for a couple hours then get down and wander around the entire area a while in thier smelly work jeans and boots leaving scent and spooking ever living thing for miles... they say how they just arent out there , must be bedded down we need to go drive them out

After the week I just experienced compared to yesterday I dont even want to go out again. just feel like staying home and watching the Vikes... Anyone else have a similar situation they can share or helpfull advise?

[gorrilla]

every single year...

half the irritations are from the family members I hunt with that think the day before season they should "check" their stands...

aaahhhhgggg!!!!!

[jbtwins24]

it dosnt bother me that much i guess, its just some times the gun hunters do tick me off. i hunted this morning in a area where its packed full of gun hunters and i ended up shoot a big doe. i had some nice bucks come in also that i let go because they would be real nice next year if they make it that far. i would just stay in your stand and watch the action go. one of the best places to hunt with a bow, thats if you can is on a bottom of a hillside by a road some place. you will see deer running back and forth through the roads. also you can find some kind of a ditch that the deer are moven through because not most gun hunters will hunt them. its just you have to be smarter then those gun hunting, go places where they would never even go, maybe you'll come out with a monster too. good luck!

[Deitz Dittrich]

I havn't gun hunted in quite a few years..

[harvey lee]

Never has,never will.I love to deer hunt any chance I get.Weapon doesnt matter.A eater doe or a trophy buck is great whether I shoot it with a gun or bow.

I hunt areas wher I dont run into any problems.Everyone has thier right to hunt and everyone hunts different.

[metrojoe]

Some of the best bow hunting is still to come, over in Wisconsin anyways, the gun season doesn't open for another 2 weeks. Leaving Tuesday morning. Can't wait.

[chucker34]

What's going on with all the posts asking if the gun hunters have ruined it for the bowhunters?

I am happy for those gun hunters who only have the chance to get out one or two weekends a year and tag something special to them. I don't care if its a fawn or a 30 point buck. To each their own as long as its legal.

And let's not forget that they're HUNTERS. Sure, some of them don't - gasp - worry about scent control or - worse yet - brag about how they passed on deer after deer (I get a kick out of that term BTW) and instead shoot the first one they see. But they're HUNTERS, even if they don't do things the way you do. When you start turning on hunters who are doing nothing legally, morally, or ethically wrong but simply taking deer that makes them happy, you might as well be dumping gasoline on the anti's fire because once you help take away the gun hunters' rights, they're going to work on taking away your right to hunt with a bow.

It's like when I read an editorial in a very popular outdoor magazine knocking hunters in states that allowed baiting for bear hunting. I just about fell over. That guy should never have been allowed to edit or write for that magazine again. The anti's might as well have made photocopies of that editorial and handed them out at rallies.

And finally, I am not a gun hunter. I am a bow hunter. I have not gun hunted in 3 years but when I do, I hope no one resents me because of it. But even if they do, I will not care.

[Dahitman44]

I just posted how we did gun hunting. One reason I was afraid to bow hunt was we have some crazy people that come up and get drunk and shoot anything that moves. I would have been nice to bow hunt on Friday, but that was one reason i did not.

Crazy people + Booze + High Power Rife = Trouble.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Chucker, I should have been more clear with my post...

I haven't gun hunted for quite a few years... the reason, I dont enjoy it neerly as much as I do bow hunting. I have no animosity twards gun hunters, and I still respect people who love to gun hunt. For me, I just prefer to bow hunt.

[Scoot]

DHM,

On a related note, don't know what made the news re: this, but did you hear about the guy over your way who got shot on Fri evening while leaving the woods from bowhunting? I believe it was near Callaway. Some (Contact Us Please) shot him with a high powered rifle while he was walking to his truck. His son found him four hours later nearly out of blood-- didn't show up when he should have so the kid went looking for him and definitely saved his life. Brought him to Meritcare, pumped him full of blood, and he'll make it. Likely loose his arm though. I really hope they catch the (Contact Us Please) who did this.

One positive thing to learn from this- always tell someone important where you'll be and when you'll be back from bowhunting.

[chucker34]

Dietz you jerk. What the heck are you talking about?! Congrats on that doe btw. I'm still waiting on a good shot and will be heading into the late season I think. Anyone have an overabundance of does. I just want some venison.

And no, I wasn't directing my comments at you. Just all these posts the past few days insinuating that most gun hunters swill alcohol on stand, shoot indiscriminately at anything that moves, and essentially do anything they can to "screw it up for the bowhunters." That's not the case where I hunt and I'd bet it's not the case in a majority of the state. Like anything, it's the 10 percent that screw it up for the other 90 percent, creating unfair stereotypes.

I, like you Dietz, prefer my bow and will probably stick with it unless invited by friends to join them on a gun hunt. But then its usually more about the social aspect in that case.

Good luck everyone! And quit trying to push your beliefs on us Deitz! LOL.

[MNDeerhunter]

Quote:

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I just posted how we did gun hunting. One reason I was afraid to bow hunt was we have some crazy people that come up and get drunk and shoot anything that moves. I would have been nice to bow hunt on Friday, but that was one reason i did not.

Crazy people + Booze + High Power Rife = Trouble.

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If you think that they are intoxicated, contact the local Sheriff, the State Patrol dispatch, or local law enforcement. They are the ones that are trained to handle these situations. In most cases you can remain anonymous, and you are doing yourself, and anyone else in that area a favor.

[Deitz Dittrich]

LOL @ chucker...

I agree with you on many accounts. Expecially the one calling me a jerk..

And your totally right about the 10% who ruin it for the many.. I feel its why we still have Racism, its why gun hunters get a bad name, its why bowhunters get a bad name, anglers, Motorcycle drivers...ect...We just have to realize that we cohabitate this earth with a few jerks.

[gorrilla]

I wish everybody would quite calling the drinking, poaching, trespassers HUNTERS...

Because they're not! We're only hurting our own image by lumping those slobs in with the true sportsmen.

And Chucker, I don't want to start a continual rebuttal, but just to clarify as well, I don't care if you use scent control or hang a turd around your neck, hunt with gun, bow or spear. I wish good luck to all hunters. I just wish the gun season was two to three weeks later in MN like some other states. If we didn't have it during the rut all the bucks wouldn't get so wiped out opening weekend and our buck to doe ratios wouldn't be so screwed up like most the state. 12 to 1 isn't cool. I think most guys arguing against this thought have never hunted in an area with a well managed herd.

[chucker34]

"I wish everybody would quite calling the drinking, poaching, trespassers HUNTERS..."

Very good point.

I agree with everything you said. So maybe the posts' questions should read something like "Have the poachers, trespassers, and other law violators ruined it for hunters - bow, gun, or muzzleloader?"

And the what deer you shoot topic becomes a QDM issue instead of a bow hunter versus gun hunter issue.

[HC Eye Hunter]

I have been bowhunting for 35 years, muzzleloading for 19 years and slugging for 4 years. Without a doudt I bowhunt the most but love it all, it's deer hunting. Because of the tactics used in my years of bowhunting deer hunting is always close and personal be it with a bow or gun . So, I am not down on gun hunting and at times rather enjoy the report of a gun in an honest hunt.

Just cause you carry a gun doesn't mean you are going to go shoot up the country. In matter of fact this weekend I had the opportunity to hunt with my slug gun and pass up five little bucks. So if your a gun hunter with a bowhunters mentality I don't see a problem.

Now for the SOB's out chasing deer with pickups, circling sections and all those other unacceptable activities...Quit it! Your giving the honest gun hunter a bad name and making most of the bowhunters hate you.

[Swill]

The DNR has ruined bowhunting for all of us in MN. If they would just push out the gun season 3 weeks or so it deer hunting in MN would improve.

If anything gun hunters have ruined public bowhunting opportunities in my area. In the Sand Dunes State Forest, I found countless stands in the forest being hung by gun hunters 2 weeks ahead of the opener. And I know this because I talked to a few of them and they would say "don't tell anybody...he he...

This is public land, why should they be allowed to stake out an area ahead of time? It is not like they put up there stands a few days before the gun season opened and then left if there overnight for a few days. I ended up taking gps points at all the stands and called the local conservation officer. And get this he was on vacation that weekend; so no one could show up. Real nice MN DNR...what what a joke......

It is nice to see we are protecting our public hunting land and rights for all hunters in MN...

I started bowhunting to escape the circus of opening weekend, but when the rut falls and all of us what to be in the woods around the same time, a bullet beats an arrow anyday...

Anyways I still think the DNR should impose QDM in MN so trophy whitetail hunters would not have to drive to Iowa, IL or WI...

[Deitz Dittrich]

Quote:

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I wish everybody would quite calling the drinking, poaching, trespassers HUNTERS...

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Gorilla wins the prize for this post... This is what its all about...We as archers cant complain about gun hunters.. its not the hunters that we have a problem with. Its the people...

As sportsmen who hunt we do need to stick together and not fight each other.

as I see little good of this thread from this point on, I am locking it.