Is it just me

Now let me start out by saying that I am not opposed to deer hunting with a rifle or m/l. The fact is I got my start in deer hunting with firearms and dogs many years ago. As it stands at this point in my life though I would not walk out my back door to shoot a 200 inch deer with a gun. I have no desire to hunt deer with anything but my bow. I will not even watch gun hunting on T.V. My brother volunteered to take my 11 and 12 year old grandsons and let them kill their first deer with a gun and I told him I was going to teach them how to deer hunt when they could pull the legal poundage to bow hunt. I honestly have come to the point in my hunting experience that when the time comes that I can't climb a tree with my climber or pull my bow back I'm gonna hook to my boat and go crappie fishing. P.S. I now have both grandsons pulling legal poundage and learning how to scout and about proper stand placement. The oldest one is actually already doing some hunting.

I feel the same way only I hunt with a spear and wouldn't dare pick up one of those over engineered things they call a compound bow. My brother wanted to take my 11 year old daughter hunting because she was begging to go but I said until she could carry , climb with and drop a 40lb spear on her own, I'd just as soon she waited until she could REALLY learn to hunt the right way. Good on you for doing it "the right way".

Lawnman, To answer your question; No, it's not just you who feels that way. I've run into many hunters who only desire to hunt deer in one fashion and have no interest in other ways / equipment. For example, my brother despises bolt-action rifles, thinking they are ugly. So, he hunts with single-shots and semi-autos.

Climbing a tree is not required to put an arrow into a deer. Slipping through the woods on their level is a greater challenge. Likewise, pulling a bowstring back is not necessity; you can switch to a crossbow with cocking aid.

It's all in your perspective and to each their own. My hunting is primarily on WMA's and I'm a ground pounder, preferring to slowly stalk hunt. It's the experience of being outdoors that the most important thing to me. The equipment used is secondary so I'll carry the most lethal that's allowed for that day. On center fire hunts it will be a rifle, on archery deer days it will be a crossbow or compound, and during small game I'll carry a .22 rifle.

The choice of weapon is by necessity.

Not to be a turd...but it's them hunting, not you. If'n they wanna go kill something with a rifle..let'm. My 7 year old nearly jumped outta the stand when he shot his first deer with a rifle. All he does is bow hunt now...his choice, not mine. My 2 cents...

I only bow hunt. I just don't care anything about shooting one with a gun. To each his own but I couldn't care less if someone kills a 180 with a rifle but if it fires them up, good for them.

Bill, I've read about hunting with a heavy drop spear and just don't think it's my cup of tea. You must be kidding thinking that using a drop spear is the 'right' way to hunt. It's more of an ambush.

I've killed a couple of animals with a handheld thrusting spear, on the ground, up close and personal. Never do I go around spouting that's the 'right' way to hunt and never would I ask my child to hunt that way for their first deer or pig.

Hey Guys. My intention was not to define real hunting. Anyboby that knows me knows I turkey hunt with a shotgun and would never use anything else. If its legal and you want to try it then more power to you. Mainly just wondering if there were anymore radical bowhunters who have lost all desire to kill a deer by any other method.

Now, I haven't rifle hunted in many years (minus the t'giving weekend fam gathering). I've been bow only forever! "My brother volunteered to take my 11 and 12 year old grandsons and let them kill their first deer with a gun and I told him I was going to teach them how to deer hunt when they could pull the legal poundage to bow hunt." That's what my comment was about. IMO, we should be trying to keep as much excitement as possible in all aspects of hunting for our youth.

Hopefully ya let the kids go on the gun hunts. By saying NO, you're just another piece in the puzzle that limits their experience.

If they desire to hunt and kill deer, you are putting your desire to have them hunt in a certain way before theirs.... IMHO

They have never had a desire to gunhunt. I sat up a couple of ground blinds for them and had several deer pass just out of comfortable bow range for a 12 year old. After that day I encouraged him to take his shotgun and buckshot and kill one but he declined the offer. That made me proud that the process meant more to him than killing a deer. I have smart well-rounded grandsons that I love and they love me and thats all that matters.

Cool, maybe they get one soon.

I'm calling bullish!t on this one..

To say that you wouldn't shoot a record book deer with a gun or that's you're going to quit hunting if you can't do it with a bow and that you can't even watch a gun hunt on TV is just strange to me. It makes you sound like you think people who gun hunt are less of a hunter than you are. Whether I'm bow or gun hunting, I am enjoying the woods. I love hunting and watching deer not just killing them so to me it's not about the weapon you choose to use. That is a personal choice. The idea that you can't teach your grandkids how to scout or put their treestand in the right spots if they are hunting with a gun??

It's the whole "my way is better than your way and makes me more of a macho hunter" mentality. Before long we'll have some jack leg on here lassoing them and then running them down, tying their legs up, and cutting their throat with a knife, and if everyone else doesn't do it that way then they're inferior.

Personally, I'll kill a deer any way that makes me happy to kill one and not give a damn whether anyone else likes it or not.

Yep. Theres been some clowns start these kind of threads on here before. I love bow hunting but Im just not in a club that we see enough deer to just bow hunt all the time. I need meat in the freezer so sometimes I will have to carry something that will reach out and touch one, like a .308 to be exact.