Bow Hunting vs. Gun Hunting

               

               A lot of people might think that there are not many differences between gun hunting and bow hunting deer.  There are a wide range of differences between the two.  Starting with the earlier season, bow hunting starts in Wisconsin around mid September.  Bow hunting typically last around three months where as gun hunting is only a nine day season starting on a Saturday and ending the following Sunday with thanksgiving in between.  With bow hunting you must be a different kind of hunter then when you are gun hunting.  The bow hunter needs to have a much sharper set of skills including patients, stealth, the ability to disguise oneself, the understanding of the deer’s mating seasons, being able to compose yourself at close range with these animals.  You need to remember that the woods is their home not yours.  If I was to sneak into your house and stand in the corner of your living room would you see me.  Or if I was to hide behind a curtain would you sense something out of place and grow cautious.  Better yet, if it was dark and I was a smoker and you were not, would you smell the cigarette stench in your house and realize you’re not alone.  This is what I believe happens every you are approached by a deer In the woods.  I can’t count how many times I have been picked out by a deer’s sense of smell while I was up in a tree, in full camouflage, not making a movement or a sound.

                 This doe approached me from a long distance away and when she reached the peak of the hill I was set up on she stopped at about thirty-five yards and put her tail up as a warning.  Her head was pointed ninety degrees away from me when she began to sniff.  With every sniff her nose was directed closer to me.  Finally her nose stopped her precisely on top of me when she let her eyes guide her from there to easily spot me.  A gun hunter can shoot at a deer from a great distance away.  It is much less stressful to shoot at a deer through a scope over one hundred yards away and if you don’t believe me, try it from twenty.  This is not to say that you won’t get any closer to a deer during gun hunting.  When gun hunting, the deer are being shot at non stop so they tend to be more skittish and always on the move.  Bow hunting is different.  There are no loud gun blasts echoing through the sky at first light.  You get to witness the deer in their natural habitat and you yourself need to find a way to blend in.  This usually requires more patients as well. 

               Gun hunters often form drives where you get together and drive the woods hoping to flush out a deer for a shot.  When drive aren’t happening you sit in the woods as you do during bow season but the deer tend to herd up and move a lot more due to the shooting.   The best time to witness the deer during their mating season will vary from year to year but in general, you will witness the peak of this activity in the late bow season.  For myself, what makes Bow Hunting much harder, and more rewarding then gun hunting is the level of difficulty.  It’s about trying to prove that I am the superior being.  It is not easy for a human to go back into its primal state and try to get the best of nature.  This also requires one to have the utmost respect for mother nature as well.  I feel that bow hunting is a much more respectful way to harvest  a deer.  Anyone who has played a video game can put the cross hairs on a target and squeeze a trigger.  You will feel more reward besting a deer face.  From close range a deer is able to use its weapons of sight and smell therefore the playing field is more even.  Very few people are capable of sitting out in the weather for five plus hours and remain unnoticed by the wildlife.  Even if you are not a hunter, I challenge you to sit in a secluded woods  and try to get a deer to walk past you within thirty yards.  In that thirty yards you must also find the opportunity to stand up, face that deer, raise a weapon or just your hands, and find a clear vital shot on that animal without alarming it to your presence.  The rush of adrenaline alone is paralyzing and hard to overcome.  The amount of hormones that get released makes your heart beat so hard and rapid it almost hurts.  You may even begin to shake uncontrollably which can almost make you feel moments of insecurity.  When adrenaline take over you tend to forget what has even happened because it seemed to happen so fast.  I have had a half of an hour go by and it felt like five minutes.  When you finally level off after this experience, it really makes you appreciate being able to overcome such a strong emotional and physical response.   This is a connection I feel when I bow hunt and cannot be matched by gun hunting.