Hey Rob that is pretty good. I will honestly say that I learned a lot from this thread and I have no place to be judge mental about how others legally harvest game. For now I will still use the compound bow. But I’ll try not to be a jerk about how others choose to hunt. Cross my heart

Geeze this things still going?

Two xbow bucks for the haters

Nice!

Ty i will work hard to get another this Nov in case this subject comes back up

I myself have never liked the idea of using a crossbow. I have always used a compound, until I was in an accident. This accident has ruined my shoulder and wrist and I didn't think I would be able to shoot again. I was gifted a crossbow a couple years back, and even then I felt as if somehow I was cheating and was embarrassed. Since then I have been able to overcome the embarrassment, because the crossbow has still allowed me to do something I absolutely love. I'm out nearly every single day, morning and night whether it be target practice or during open season. I was initially absolutely devastated thinking I wouldn't be able to go out and enjoy one of my favorite things, the crossbow has changed that for me. This has changed my perspective on a lot of things, maybe it will for you too.

After reading the pages who cares how anybody kills a deer.

Clearly those that dont like competition, and have an elite view of their methods.

Or those who want to see some semblance of tradition remain and enjoy longer seasons with more deer. Everyone was welcome to pickup a bow and enjoy the longer season, instead they whined to the legislator who bypassed the dnr to make things easier. You shoot double digit amounts of deer on public.land, you don't understand competition and lack of resource.

I still don't understand why anyone cares what anyone else uses to kill a deer.

its all about bragging. childishness. the result of trophy hunting

Donnersurvivor Your right and wrong. I have not shot a deer in several years but by choice. Yes, my boys stack them up. I also drive up to 3 hours, rent cabin and take them out of state as well usually an hour or so and spend thousands doing so. Sure we have some deer, I also have a lot of other hunters on that public land so much infact we seldom if ever hunt public land during firearms season and avoid weekends during archery season.

So what I do understand is putting in the work, taking vacation and days off to take the kids, siging them up for special youth hunts ect, It's not magic. What I dont understand is most hunters especially deer hunters all seem to get jealous of others successful hunts instead of happy for them.

Im not a great hunter and if I ever shoot a large buck it will be all 100% luck on a buck looking for love. I also have let deer larger than I have ever killed walk more than once. Antlers dont mean much to me and last time I just didn't want to have 3 deer to be in a hurry to get on ice. It was getting warm that day and I had 2 hanging in the barn my boys shot with x bow the day before. So I let that buck walk knowing I wouldn't see him again. He was tracking the hot doe that came th the day before other bucks the boys shot were following.

90 % of people think killing a big deer makes them a great hunter when most are just pure luck. Some people put in the time and have the skill to put nice bucks down consistently Like swamp. But they put in the work and effort. Im not willing to put in that level of work due to limited time. I also lack the knowledge and skill.

Im happy when others are successful, will help them track and get their kills out if they can use a hand. even when they kill a nice buck I was hoping would walk in front of my boys. I would rather see it get taken byba hunter than hit by a car, ehd, or old age.

When it was younger yes I wanted to do the shooting and got jealous. Today i dont care if I ever kill another deer. I enjoy other sucess more than mine and just like going. Maybe its age maybe its just I have killed enough of them. As long as the boys fill the freezer and doing the shooting is exciting for them they can do the shooting.

They say hunters go through stages we are just at different stages.

I don't care about antlers, not about trophies and not about bragging. It does annoy me when some people don't want to put in even a modest amount of work so they whine to change laws.

Everyone had the opportunity to hunt archery season, a season that was long and generous because of a modest amount of difficulty. Removing the difficulty means less opportunities for those who are willing to put in a modest amount of work and giving them to those who wouldn't. As I've stated, we've already seen increased pressure for leasing and less permission being given on private land, maybe those are good things to you but I preffered leasing being rare and having opportunities able to hunt small game and trap mid November on alot of private land instead of in January.

We're just going in circles at this point. For the record I wish deer didn't have antlers, I've shot some very large ones and they're out hanging in an apple tree I think, mean nothing to me.

Agreed

Not true. They are many hunters that have shot huge deer and nobody knows. Many don't want the notoriety or publicity because they don't care either, or they don't want the headaches that come with shooting trophy deer.

Tradition? Unless you're going to hunt like the indians did or, at the very least, like Fred Bear did when he first stated making bow hunting in the US popular back in the 1930's and 40's then stop talking about tradition. Modern archery hasn't been around long enough to be a "tradition."

We actually have a traditional rifle season here in PA. It's our Flintlock season that happens after Christmas. No scopes, no cap and ball, flintlock ignition only, rifles that are replica's of those used in the 1600's through the 1800's.

I love that season. And guess what? Archers are allowed to hunt the same season and nobody cares! LOL

I think PF is right, you guys whining about crossbows in your season are elitist snobs and don;t like sharing the rut with any other type of hunter.

You've said several times you've come to terms with it but it's not really sounding like you have.

It seems to be a Democrat thing. "If you don't do it like I do you are wrong."

Our gun season is during the Rut, archery runs continuously during gun season but firearm season dominates the rut.

Seems like a boomer thing "if something requires effort make it easier for me"