Honestly, I thought I'd miss bow hunting when my shoulder went. However, the archery guys can start in September and keep on hunting until January and take as many as they want. I normally kill 1 or 2 per year that fills my freezer. I can take up 4 deer on the regular tags and then keep going at $15 per 2 tags after that. Where I am in KY is in Zone 1, which means unlimited antlerless harvest. Overall, I'd say the archers get the worst of it. You're starting to see complaints in all 3 states that the deer populations may have been over-corrected. The main reason I see is that deer populations were exploding and there weren't enough deer being taken. Archery and crossbow account for most of the rest and are evenly split.īoth IN and OH have liberalized their modern weapons seasons to include centerfire rifles of various ilk. Indiana also had a lot more hassles for non-residents compared to the other two.Īs far as popularity, (I'm hunting in Kentucky exclusively these days) KY takes 72% of its deer harvest with a rifle. The firearms season was shotgun only in my day, but it started in mid-November, during the rut. Kentucky was and is much more oriented to rifle hunters. At the time I got started, it was still shotgun only, and the modern weapons season started after the rut. Ohio was much more of an archery-oriented state. When I got into bow hunting in the early 80's, I was the only person I knew doing it. Bow hunting is different in all 3 states. I live outside Cincinnati, and if you look on a map, we're a just a few miles from Kentucky and Indiana. I started out bow hunting and kept it up until my shoulder went bad in 2007. Having said that, what’s with all the archery hunting shows? Is bow hunting really that popular compared to rifles? The whooping, high fives, and hard rock music ruin any possible redemptive qualities. ![]() I know hunting shows are not all that popular here, and I seldom watch them. It just isn't that hard to get within bow/crossbow range of deer and it isn't that hard to shoot accurately enough with a compound or crossbow to consistently hit a deers vitals unless you're an uncoordinated, clumsy ass retard. The majority of the deer I've killed with a rifle in my life were within 50 yards and a large percentage within 30 yards or easy bow range. Last season I shot one arrow out of my crossbow from 20 yards and one from 40 yards to check zero a week before the opener and then went and filled both of my archery tags in short order. I can pick up my old compound after not shooting it for a year and be sinking arrow after arrow into the kill zone of a deer target from 30 yards in one afternoon. I do tire of bow hunters patting themselves on the back because bow hunting is so tough and takes hours of practice and dedication because unless they're hunting with a longbow and cedar arrows it's mostly bullshyt. I've never really liked bows or bow hunting because I don't like static hunting from a stand or blind and prefer to hunt afoot either tracking or still hunting and find both the compound and particularly the crossbow excessively clumsy for such use. All bow hunting is to me is an early jump on filling the freezer before rifle season starts. ![]() Killing mature, quality bucks is a whole 'nuther ball-game. Yeah, well, I could kill a "doe" eating shrubs around my pool with a rock from my back door. Bow and crossbow hunters needn't be breaking their arms patting themselves on the back for being such great and skillful hunters. Third morning killed a six point at 17 yards 5 minutes after climbing into my stand. Second day had three bucks go past my stand by 9:00 am but none came within my self imposed 40 yard limit so didn't shoot. Took a doe at 30 yards on opening morning an hour and a half after climbing into my stand. ![]() Last season I tried crossbow for the first time. Several times on the first day I hunted, including my first season when I took a doe at 10 yards from the ground on opening morning. I only did it for 4 seasons but easily killed deer every year. I never found bow hunting to be all that difficult.
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