In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Options
Why I love archery . . . not rifle in PA
tclear
Member Posts: 132 ✭✭✭
I got a great reminder this morning of why I really enjoy the archery and muzzleloader seasons in PA. I was sitting in a hollow today next to some pines when a small half rack and two doe that couldn't have been over 70 pounds came through. I had fun watching them for about 5 minutes at 40 - 45 yards when from directly behind me a shot rang out in my direction. [:0]
That was followed by five others from two different hunters walking on a 135 acre piece of posted property. Could hear the darn bullets whistling and hitting limbs above me. I was behind a small blow down and hit the deck when they started shooting. It ended up being a pair of brothers, the oldest of which was 16 who were back there hunting alone. Said they couldn't see my orange and didn't know they were on posted property.
They missed all 6 times and I got the heck out of there and came home to play with my two girls.[:D]
After next week I will get the bow out again when the most of the 900,000 plus nuts who hunt a week or two a year get out of the woods!
Please be safe everyone, as most of the time it is that "other guy" in the woods that can do the most harm to you.
Good luck, and be safe!
That was followed by five others from two different hunters walking on a 135 acre piece of posted property. Could hear the darn bullets whistling and hitting limbs above me. I was behind a small blow down and hit the deck when they started shooting. It ended up being a pair of brothers, the oldest of which was 16 who were back there hunting alone. Said they couldn't see my orange and didn't know they were on posted property.
They missed all 6 times and I got the heck out of there and came home to play with my two girls.[:D]
After next week I will get the bow out again when the most of the 900,000 plus nuts who hunt a week or two a year get out of the woods!
Please be safe everyone, as most of the time it is that "other guy" in the woods that can do the most harm to you.
Good luck, and be safe!
Comments
For those of you that don't know I'm also a Mathews shooter. The above comments are why we are having problems here in PA and those of you are in other states. There are always a few who begrudge others their sport.
It's archers have the longest, best time to hunt.
The crossbow hunters aren't welcom in archery season because crossbows aren't actually bows.
The rifle hunters kill anything brown from 100's of yards away.
The traditional Flint hunters don't want inlines in their season.
The inlines were put in the last week of archery and "screwed up" the rut for the archers.
The turkey hunters are making noises about banning decoys because "it's about the calling" not luring the sexed up toms with a piece of plastic.
Hunt what and how you want but don't cut down other hunters please.
Nowhere in any of this did I, or any other post here, try to "Cut down other hunters". I am saying that what happened was ridiculous and unsafe. I have hunted archery, rifle, and muzzleloader in PA, Canada, and five other United States. Nowhere that I have been has anything like this happened to me in the 25 years that I have been hunting and it happened here on my own property.
Please, hunt with whatever weapon you choose, but do so in a responsible manner. Handing a pair of rifles to a 16 and 13 year old and setting them loose in the woods in PA, or any state, on their own is not only in my mind wreckeless, but it is also agains PA state laws to allow junior hunters on their own without a licensed adult directly by their side.
I guess I did evolve into a "rant", I just get tired of PA XXX hunters thumping their chest because XXX is the best and everyone should be XXXing.
Have you ever been on the HuntingPA site? It's divided into forums such as on here but it seams more "cliquish" than again maybe not. The big discussion now is that the head of the United Bowhunters of PA has made a statement/paper basiclly that if the Game Commission approves the use of Crossbows the "bowhunters" of PA won't stand for it and will get the legislators involved. So much for an independant Game Commission.
If you took personal offense to my post I am sorry, I felt the title seams to promote one over the other.
During archery season I was able to pass on four different 8's a seven, and saw 5-7 other younger buck on a fairly regular basis during the last 2 weeks of archery. During rifle I have not seen a single one of those deer that I worked so hard for weeks to pattern.
As for the kids, I did go talk to them, got some names, and will follow up with soem adult at home. We talked about how unsafe what they had just done was.
I have not been on the other site and I would think it ridiculous not to allow both crossbow and inlines here in PA. I love both of the modern technologies, and though I would choose to still shoot my switchback, I think getting crossbows in the woods would be a great step for PA. I have a late inline hunt coming up here the 27th in Ohio and just love shooting that gun. I like the addition of the 3 day doe season, just wish it could be a little longer season that would allow for the taking of both sexes.
I do enjoy all seasons, but it would be impossible for me to say that I do not enjoy the challenge, length, warmth, and fact that there are fewer hunters in the woods of archery here in PA. It is a favorite of mine and I can honestly say I have never had any shots whizzing by my head during archery [:)]
Good luck in all seasons and game that you all hunt. The important thing is to get out as often as possible, have fun at whatever you hunt, and be SAFE.