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do you change when going from Bow to Gun?


Robhuntandfish
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When you change from the bow to a gun do you find yourself not being so tedious with your gear?  Do you use less scent control and worry about the wind direction less?  I find myself sometimes just going deer hunting by then.  Course i am much more into bow hunting than the gun cause by then ive put a lot of hours in the stand.  I just noticed that the other day, I dont seem to take the same care when gun hunting ..... maybe its because i dont feel i have to get the deer at 30 yards but in reality usually with the gun the shots are still mostly close and you still wan the deer to be as close as possible.  Also it seems in gun season the deer are not as much in their natural state but more on the move or in complete caution and i feel like when i see deer it has less to do with me figuring out their pattern than it does with them being pushed around the area.  

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I also really start to slack on scent control. I still play the wind as much as possible. And for me the gun season is less exciting as well since the deer are acting completely different. A few seasons ago I was walking back to my house on a dirt road and saw a deer abouy 1/2 mile off in a field above me. I stopped to check it out and it bolted. 1/2 mile away!!!

They do get skiddish

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Mine is close to the same, but certainty a little less stringent on scent. Still wash all my gear and shower with scent free stuff, probably spray down less and wear less scentlok. My hunting properties tend to rely on pressure to bump them my way and no longer natural movement or the rut.

Edited by Belo
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Blaze Orange is the big difference, and sitting in spots where I can see more with shotgun. I’m on the ground either way (bow or gun), but with the shotgun I try to sit in spots where I can see a longer way


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I've been hunting a 5 acre property this year where deer come from all different directions so I constantly need to know wind direction to get in and out of my stand undetected. I find if I don't keep up with scent control, don't pay attention to the wind, or am hunting with another person or two that I know aren't careful like me, then I wont see any deer..... So basically the only thing I change up for gun season is I bring a coffee to my stand

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I do not change much except the blaze orange and the 7 MM. Buddies I hunt with bring the kitchen sink with them every time out. I have pared down to essentials....back not liking all the stuff I used to carry. 

Sometimes I feel my friends should get some sort of water/air tight container for their stuff and stick in the middle of property we hunt...if ya need something, go and get it. Outside of something to eat, water, knife, gut gloves, drag rope, compass,etc, what else do you need? ok...ok...an ATV would help, but we're too cheap to buy a used one. lol

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I do not use any deer urine scents come gun season. I play wind and go deeper into the woods come gun season. Bow season for me is more observations and locating the deer. I do not like to jump deer with bow and watch them go to land I do not have access too. By the time gun season comes I tend to have deer movement pattern down pretty good which makes gun season successful for me. If people get them moving deer still use routes they feel safe on.

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I think I might like rifle season a lot more if I had a enormous tract of land to still hunt, like the ADKs.  This time of year, it's difficult for me to get out, let alone that far away.

I'm not adept at deer movement during rifle in the areas I hunt, so sitting is usually a fat "0 seen" for me.

Rifle seems to be a time to take the hunt to the deer, with the exception of opening day, and I haven't enjoyed tight quarters with lots of other rifle-toting fellas walking around the woods. 

My preference is bow season when the deer are moving, and the hunters are calculating (at least that's how it's played out in the area that I hunt most often in 4L).

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