jsasker

It seems that bowhunting is going stronger than ever!GREAT!the last few years everybody and their brother is jumping into bowhunting.I' m wondering what effect is this going to have amongst fellow hunters(the ones without bows)?Are the number of bowhunters taking deer going to change the way rifle/muzzleloader hunters look at the bowhunting crowd?Will bowhunters start taking a much higher percentage of the deer harvested each year?If so,what will the other hunters think about it?

tm

With the success rate of bowhunters and the expanding deer herds in most parts of the country I doubt that bowhunting will diminish the deer herds. The only thing it might do is drive the cost of leasing up, which is already too high for most.

ijimmy

Allthough you are noticeing more bowhunters , I' m pretty sure overall hunting licences are down , they sell less each year . My take on it is hunters are hunters we need to stick together .

jsasker

I agree as hunters we DO need to stick together but,if archers start taking a much higher percentage of harvested deer are gun hunters going to get pi$$ed because we have the first chance at the big boys and start effectively harvesting them?

PABowhntr

I am not exactly sure where onamia is but here in PA I was under the impression that hunter numbers were down across the board...bowhunting included. If there was a recent influx of bowhunters then I would be willing to bet that most of them also gun hunt...in which case I do not think that gun hunters would have much of an issue with it.

Something else to consider is that more bowhunters does not necessarily mean a larger harvest. In fact, it could mean just the opposite. With more hunters in the woods the deer are more disturbed from their natural travel routes and much more difficult to pattern on any type of consistant basis. To me that would mean that harvesting them successfully would be much more difficult and that harvest numbers would actually go down.

Just a different way to look at the same situation.

longbowman

I lived in Montana back in 1977 and a young chiropractor wrote an article for the Montana Bowhunters Association stating, at that time, he didn' t believe that what bowhunting needed or wanted was more people hunting with bows but more " real" bowhunters. Of course he was talking about the onslaught of people taking up archery because of the compound bow. He felt that the compound allowed people who were either not phyiscally strong enough to hunt with traditional hunting bows or who were not dedicated enough to do the required practice necessary to humanely harvest game with traditional bows. While he told me he still feels somewhat the same I have to say that I too share " some" of his original concerns with the type of bows currently being used today. If you know how to hunt and aren' t killing deer with the hi-tech stuff today there' s a real problem On the other hand how do " new" bowhunters get good enough to hunt without being a part of hunting? Eventually we' ll pay for the hi-tech efficiencies built into todays equipment in loss of season time or be required to share our seasons with other types of hunters.

silentassassin

Gun hunters have the choice to pick up a bow also. I don' t see how any body can stand to wait the extra month to get back in the woods anyway. I can' t see why hunters would want to oppose each other for any reason whether it be traditional vs. compound, compound vs. crossbow, or bow vs. gun. Let the other guy hunt and lets support each others right to hunt and try to provide a future for our kids to do the same.

ncbowhunter

In the2001-2002 season in my county, there were 216 deer taken with a bow,
there were 1108 deer taken with gun, and 369 with muzzleloader.
Season dates;
Bow-Sept.7-Nov.15
Muzzleloading-Nov.16-Nov.22
Gun-Nov.23-Dec.16
I don' t think anyone around here has a problem with bow hunters.

davidmil

Most of us bowhunters were at one time full time gun hunters. We still have friends and relatives who are STILL gun hunters. Except for a few idiots, I don' t see it as a problem, but I also make sure I do my part to make SURE it' s not a problem. I try to find every animal. I try to take the best shots for a quick kill. I DON' T knock the gun hunters. I still belong to the NRA. I give them their space and let them do their thing. IF a hunt gets messed up by a gun hunter.... it' s part of the game. There are other days. We' re all in it together and it' s ALL our jobs to make sure we work together and build on the similarities.... not divide because of the differences. The soap box is empty.

JimPic

This past season in PA.,hunters took 517,000 + deer.Bowhunters accounted for about 68,000.This was was down from the previous year at 74,000.Rifle,shotgun and muzzleloaders accounted for the rest of the harvest.So I really think the gun hunters don' t have anything to worry about.The success rate for bowhunters in PA is about 25% and I' m betting the trend is the same in most states.