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BOW DURING GUN SEASON

T

Tim Powell

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How many of you die hard bow hunters would like to hunt with your bow during gun season? For those of us that dont gun hunt its a real bummer! It makes it difficult to be out on your property watching for trespassers during a time when they are most likely to be there. If Im going to be out there I want to hunt. Does anyone know the function of this rule and how long its been that way? What would it take to change it? Committed
 
I haven't looked into it but can't you buy doe tags for shotgun season and use a lesser weapon, your bow, to hunt during these seasons.

I use to go cut firewood on the property I hunt to look for and keep trespassers out, but frankly I think it is too dangerous to be anywhere in the woods during slug season. Especially if the hunting party doesn't know you are there.

I just drive around it now.
 
As a life long die hard Iowa bow hunter speaking about Iowa,

I think we have a very generous bowhunting season the way it is. We have the rut all to ourselves. What more could we want?

Iowa bowhunters have fought through the years to keep guns out of this prime time and we actually were blessed to be allowed into the late muzzleloader season.

I support keeping the shotgun season for the guns only. And bowhunters keeping their bow season (the rut) for bowhunters only.

Sometimes I think we bowhunters WANT our cake and eat it too.
 
Besides being a bowhunter I do shotgun hunt also and telling you from first hand experience I would not want to be in my bowstand during shotgun season.Especially when large groups are walking through a timber and get deer going.I have heard when it sounds like world war 3 in a timber and being in a tree stand is not a good idea,especially when the gun hunters don't know you are there.I think it is all about safety.
 
BW:

I too am a "could care less about a shotgun" bowhunter. Your post is absolutely correct. By the time gun season comes around I need a break. This is a time when I try and target that damn ALPHA doe who busts me in the tree during bow season. I get more pleasure out of shooting her than anything. Payback is a _______.
 
A history question....
How long has the current season structure been in place?
Was there a time that shotgun season was held during the rut?
If so, how/why was the change made?
 
BW hit the nail home. We are very fortunate to have such a lengthy bow season. I would have to say that one of the reasons Iowa has such good deer hunting is due to the way our seasons have been set up. Short gun seasons with shotgun only are a fine tradition here and I personally hope it never changes. I will always support the I.B.A. so they don't.

As for the tresspassing, I would offer that you could possibly let in some ethical gun hunters to shoot a few Does if needed. The sight of other hunters would surely make most people think twice about moving in.
 
As my wife's grandma would say, "that's a good way to get yourself killed" Some guys tend to lose control during a couple weeks in December, I would not want to be walking in or out when they drive by and see movement.
"Committed" is the proper word for someone who wants to be out there with some of those guys running around.
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Sorry, maybe your experience is different.
 
no offense to gun hunters but as a bowhunter i would not want to be assoiciated with the slug hunters, i know many of you are fine but there are just as many bad ones. i also dont like to be outside when gunhunters are running through the woods. my 2 cents
 
Ditto to bow hunters. I know of one guy last year who put arrows into three bucks in one morning alone and didn't retrieve one deer. The argument goes both ways on that issue.
 
I would almost bet my bow that this law is written in for safty's sake.I would not want to be in my treestand anyway during gun season.All natural movement of deer stop's anyway once shotgun season open's.
 
DeerHunter, know of, or heard of? Think about it. Figure in the time spent looking for one, even two deer and a morning is gone. Three! I'd have to hear the guy tell me himself. Then I would have my own comments for him

reguardless. There is an ass for every seat. You just have to be ready to pull the chair out from under some.
 
just an approximation how many deer do u think get slugs put in them and not found. ive seen deer running through fields and across roads with legs shot off, gut shots etc. and how many times have u heard about a slug hunter braggin that he went through 4-5 boxes of shells. what does that say about safety?
 
After bowhunting hard for 16 years and killing my deer early this year, I decided to try shotgunning 1st season. My game plan was to hunt the mornings out of my stands then walk the fingers in my CRP.

Shotgunning was not nearly as enjoyable to me just because of all the shooting. The deer were spooky and the bigger bucks were hole up somewhere? In short, It sucked!

By the end of the week I was hunting like the rest of the shooters(hunters). I will be more patient next year for sure.

Maybe it was my inexperience shotgunning.
 
Scout, to answer your question: "Know of."
I have thought about it. Your time theory is off because he didn't care enough to look much, if at all. That's my point, just because someone buys a bow doesn't automatically make him ethical. Some people (even some bowhunters) just are not going to be as particular as others in anything they do. Whether it's driving, hunting, or working. I'm sure we can agree on that.
 
I think that with two months of bowhunting already over with and you dont have that buck you have been wanting, it would be pretty hard to get him with slugs flying all over the properties around the one you are hunting with your bow. At this time the deer will be running around everywhere, the chance of getting a huge one would be pretty slim. Got to let the gun hunters have some fun sometime, and the late season is always a good time to get that old buck when he is back in his feeding patterns. So i think that for the time the bowhunters have, to the time the gun hunters get, they deserve three weekends to hunt, out of our 86 days that the bowhunters get basically to theirselves.
 
The laws have been this way ever since I started hunting deer in 1970. You can hunt for almost 3 months with a bow, why would you begrudge the gun hunters their time in December. The laws were setup this way for safty because of the nature of bowhunting, just like the safty orange requirements for gun hunters. Both groups deserve their time afield. Maybe if a person wants to patrol or keep track of his land during gun season he could look at a primative type muzzle loader, which would be legal then. Don't become so locked in and closed minded that you don't explore other methods.

I don't think we need to argue about who is the best or most ethical between bowhunters or gun hunters. To me that is all elitist garbage that only tends to devide hunters and that certainly is not needed now. There are good hunters and bad hunters no matter what their weapon of choice is. We should encourage and support the good ones and crack down on the bad ones what ever they shoot.
 
Why can u not hunt with a bow anytime u want? In Kentucky this past year, the season was Sept 15th through Jan 20th. U can archery hunt during any other season including modern rifle, muzzleloader, and crossbow.
 
the more i think about this the more i realize this arguement will never be solved. i am a bowhunter and i do feel like it is more ethical than the sloughters the shotgunners have. but if u think about it. shotgun season is a required for deer management. so they do deserve credit. i also think the reason shotgunners get a bad name is that if ur out in the woods and u listen, u cant hear a bow shoot 50 time but u sure can here a shotgun.
 
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