The HuntingPA.com Outdoor Community banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

The best way to hunt deer now

5K views 42 replies 33 participants last post by  DIYASUB 
#1 · (Edited)
CROSSBOWS. Its safer. A bullet can hit you a long ways compared to a crossbow., Longer season, nicer weather, Better chance at a nicer buck in the rut, Can hunt more private land because crossbow don't make a noise when shooting. Young people can shoot a crossbow as accurate as a rifle with a scope.
 
#7 ·
Here's the deal with crossbows and this is 100% fact.

If I had been hunting with a crossbow this year rather than a compound bow I would be out of tags right now.

I would have been able to shoot and kill 5 mature bucks, and endless amount of doe's but instead I was only able to take one shot on a mature buck during archery and I missed.

With that said, I'm not just trying to fill tags (while it is nice) I love the challenge of a compound bow and when I'm finally efficient with a compound I am going to look into traditional.

Crossbows are great for children and elderly or those who have a handicap. Outside of that, they should be banned.
 
#9 ·
Don’t wait to get into traditional! You have the mindset it takes to hunt with self limiting gear. I made the switch to hunting with a recurve 16 years ago and never looked back. It takes time and ALOT of practice, but it’s FUN. Traditional archery quickly became a year round thing for, it’s a different world altogether. There will be frustrating times, but your hunting skills will vastly improve because of it. These days longbows are my go-to, but you can set yourself up with a quality recurve or longbow for a fraction of the cost of a new Xbow or compound, and you never have to worry about cams, timing, etc.
 
#12 ·
CROSSBOWS. Its safer. A bullet can hit you a long ways compared to a crossbow., Longer season, nicer weather, Better chance at a nicer buck in the rut, Can hunt more private land because crossbow don't make a noise when shooting. Young people can shoot a crossbow as accurate as a rifle with a scope.
So are you saying using a crossbow allows you to trespass on private land easier because they are silent compared to a firearm? Sure sounds like it.
 
#29 ·
While I don't know the motive of the OP, the sentiment expressed is the one problem I have with crossbows. Because it looks kinda like a gun but it is aimed and fired like a gun, it enabled a lot of gun hunters who had no experience or skills with a vertical bow to jump into archery season.


But when it first started, I literally saw guys putting on drives, like they had their trusty Remington 760 (heaven forbid it would be an AR, but I digress).


Too many people don't (or at least didn't) understand that it is still "archery" hunting. Crossbows do not kill at any greater range than a high-end compound, especially something that can be held at full draw with 80%+ letoff. I think now more people who came into archery with vertical bows have switched, so it should be moving in the right direction. But there is (or was) an element of the crossbow crowd who did not seem to fully grasp the new up-close-and-personal paradigm in which they are hunting deer.



Very, very few people have any business taking a shot longer than 30 yards at any deer, with any type of bow. Unless you regularly practice wearing you full hunting garb, from your treestand or blind, in awkward body positions that you might find yourself in, then your effective distance from the nice, flat, controlled circumstances archery range should probably be cut in half for your effective hunting distance for shots.


Before anyone gets their tail feathers all ruffled up, there are very highly skilled archery hunters that can indeed make those longer shots. They are not the Average Dude. So if you are one of those in that skilled minority, great. But alas, I think that too many people think that they are part of that skilled minority when in fact they need some more work.



This year I am trying to take a doe with an open (iron) sighted .357 Blackhawk. I approach it like an archery hunt, I need them to be 30-35 yards or I am not taking the shot. It was as hard as I thought it would be, several seen that would be very reasonable rifle shots (maybe 100 yards) but no chance for a shot that is "ethical for my abilities".


Too many people already take shots with guns and bows that are well beyond their capabilities. The similarity of a crossbow to a gun in terms of handling and shooting is a very big enabler for thinking beyond one's abilities. That's the main thing. Hey, it's got a stock, and a trigger, and a scope, but it is not a centerfire rifle.
 
#30 ·
If someone with no skills who don't understand archery hunting wants to hunt with a crossbow, I say have at it. I concider myself to understand archery hunting and i think i have some skills, but I remember when I was pretty clueless about things. Nobody told me I shouldn't try and the learning curve was a big part of the enjoyment of bowhunting. Made lots of mistakes, still do.
 
#33 ·
After hunting for over 50 years ( I will be 70 next year) i quit hunting deer. There were several reasons: I didn't have my brother to go with me, climbing the mountain to hunt was to much for me, and there didn't seem to be as many deer.

This year I got a crossbow and I am like a kid again. I can hunt close to home, and I am seeing a fair number of deer. Seeing deer at close range while waiting for a shot has renewed my love for hunting. I even managed to get a doe. That made my wife happy because she has to spray her flowers to keep the deer from eating them.

I archery hunted years ago. I know the time it takes to be proficient and I admire the hunters who use the vertical bows. But I am very glad to have the opportunity to use a crossbow.
 
#35 ·
This^^^^ I love to hunt with my compound and will til I can’t anymore. BUT a few years ago my girls started hunting. I bought a crossbow for them. Sat with them a few times had a few close encounters sitting on the ground.
I was glad at that point that crossbows are available to us. I figured that as I got older( if I’m fortunate enough)that it would keep me in the game longer. Can go sit on the ground in archery season and be affective. I wouldn’t use it now because it just takes something away from it. Jmo
 
#36 ·
I totally agree with JJ4D !!
Ever since they legalized the crossbow all the guys that bear hunt in my area bought crossbows and they have there big gangs of 20 or more in there group and they put on drives for bear and they also drive for deer. They wound many bear and deer !! The past couple years I have seen several wounded bear and deer and lord knows how many they shoot and never know or they don't go track or look for. I decided to find a different place to hunt !
Archery isn't what it use to be and I believe soon enough the crossbow will be archery season. If you don't believe me just get on any hunting website or Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and look at all the harvest pics. 9 out of 10 are with crossbows not vertical bows and there's only one reason for that and that's because its allot easier to use and shoot with no practice and that's why people use them !
Take the scopes off of them and make them use a regular archery site and you'd see things a bit differently. Most of the people on this site has been hunting for several years and knows allot about archery and all aspects of it like kinetic energy, penetration and all the rest of the factors, but there are allot of people that just shoot them and have no clue about any of it ! To me it is ruining archery as we know it and how it was meant to be.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for letting disabled people, older and injured people use them but that's it !! To me I think that taking a 6 - 9 yr old out hunting with them is just for the sake of killing and they don't get taught anything else and probably don't even practice. Last year I was walking out of the woods and I came across several guys standing with young kids (boys and girls) of ages 6 - 10 (estimating) standing in a line so I stopped and talked to the one guy (around 30 yrs old) he told me they were putting on a drive for the kids and they were all holding crossbows ! Which at that age can hardly hold them up to shoot free handed !
I got back to the truck and there was 2 guys that hunted with the guys with the young ones standing at there vehicles and I overheard them talking while I was putting my stuff away and they said that the one guys daughter had shot and wounded 7 deer and his wife had wounded 4 or 5 that they never found and that they didn't care all they were worried about was they were there to fill there freezer !! That just doesn't set well with me and then they are teaching those young kids that way of hunting ! I do realize that some kids are brought up the right way but most of them never look at the safety aspect of it or the woodsmanship and all the other things that go into hunting !

Plus I see people driving around on the mountain roads with the crossbow caulked and ready to shoot. It makes it so much easier for poachers to shoot and with no noise ! Try to shoot a vertical bow out the window once !!
JMO on this subject !!
 
#39 ·
I totally agree with JJ4D !!
Ever since they legalized the crossbow all the guys that bear hunt in my area bought crossbows and they have there big gangs of 20 or more in there group and they put on drives for bear and they also drive for deer. They wound many bear and deer !! The past couple years I have seen several wounded bear and deer and lord knows how many they shoot and never know or they don't go track or look for.



I got back to the truck and there was 2 guys that hunted with the guys with the young ones standing at there vehicles and I overheard them talking while I was putting my stuff away and they said that the one guys daughter had shot and wounded 7 deer and his wife had wounded 4 or 5 that they never found and that they didn't care all they were worried about was they were there to fill there freezer !!

Plus I see people driving around on the mountain roads with the crossbow caulked and ready to shoot. It makes it so much easier for poachers to shoot and with no noise ! Try to shoot a vertical bow out the window once !!
JMO on this subject !!

Yup. I have seen more road hunters during archery season this year than I have seen in rifle deer. I quit bowhunting twentyfive years ago and Ive never shot a crossbow but I WAS a big fan of crossbows because I thought it would result in less hit and not recovered big game. I'm starting to see that I was mistaken about that.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top