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"

But you have half of September, all of October and at least half of November as archery only correct?

Boomers=Lazy LOL!

The "Haters" clearly know little about actually HUNTING with a crossbow. They are HEAVY, incredibly cumbersome, and without a rest, difficult to shoot accurately any further than a bow. For platform and/or stand shooting, they do allow responsibly shooting further than most should shoot with traditional bows.
However, those who are whining about crossbows being un-fair, advantageous weapons that "take opportunity from them", and kill way more successfully than they do with "traditional" equipment must not use sight-pins, releases that are mechanical, bow stabilizers, expandable broadheads, carbon arrows, retractable arrow rests, or even whisker biscuits, let alone compounds.
All those things add "advantage", as well as efficiency. Why is that a bad thing?
If the haters want to get a piece of Osage or Yew and craft a bow, spin sinew for a string, knap some flint or obsidian and chip an arrowhead and strike out for a deer, in season, of course, then have at it. Problem is, those newfangled recurve hunters will have the advantage!
I HATE RECURVE BOWS!!!!

I'll really blow some minds now, I have a crossbow now and haven't picked up my compound in a good while. I still wish they'd go back to how it was. I don't fault anyone for using them, I do think it was bs the legislator circumvented the dnr and forced them to be legal.

Now let's complain about ATVs, treestands, e-bikes etc

I'd like an answer to this question. Donner.

I must get on my soap box a bit on this point. Too many people seem to refuse to learn how to free hand shoot crossbow or rifle. This question comes up constantly in the saddlehunter community. "can you use a xbow or rifle out of a saddle?" Yes! I almost never use a rest, cant really do that with a xbow anyway, unless its sticks. I've had to contort myself several times to get shots with my xbow out of the saddle if the deer didnt come into the lane i setup for.

The xbow you gotta watch not banging the limbs when you shoot on a tree hence why you cant use a rest. If you bang a limb, you might crack the limb of the xbow.

With my compound, I can brace myself a lot easier using the tether to make those more awkward shots. Which is another plus with the saddle because I dont have to worry about falling out of the stand, worse thing that will hapen is i get swung back on to it

Now your descriptions is what I think will be my kind of hunting once the boys get to busy with life to hunt with dad all the time. I can sit in a stand all day when with the kids but 15 mins alone and im not enjoying it with to much other stuff to get done.

So I was thinking maybe get a well broke mule and head to state ground and ride. if I see and shoot a deer or two it will be easy to drag them out. If I dont see any deer I can have an enjoyable ride.

I was thinking mule becuse im no horseman and they seem sure footed and less likely to spook as fast.

Archery runs the 3rd Saturday in September- December 31st. Firearms is the first saturday in Nov then runs for 2 weeks. Muzzleloader follows and runs for 2 weeks also (top of my head dates).

I would be happy with ending bow season with the end of Muzzleloader and I personally feel that with the increased pressure from xbows we should shorten it to atleast that.