Hi everyone! I want to know whats the advantages and disadvantages between using Bow and Guns for hunting? Just want to hear your opinions...

Thanks in advance!

What kind of bow(s) and what kind of gun(s) for what type(s)?
It is an extremely broad subject.
Besides that, the skill and the decision making of the hunter is another aspect.
The most important in my opinion.
The weapon is simply a tool (Some are more appropriate or better for certain tasks than others).
For instance, a dull kitchen knife that is poorly made is not appreciated by those using it, but a skilled user can still do a better job than a novice.
A quality kitchen knife that is sharp in the hands of a skilled user, can do faster work than a novice. Hopefully the novice doesn't cut himself with either blade. I would hate to think one would blame the blade if that happened though. The knifes are simply tools.
Both will get the job done.
How it is used by the person handling/using it is the real key whether one is in the kitchen or in the field hunting.
FWIW-I don't hunt with a knife

What kind of hunting do you do and what weapon is your choice?

Since I hunt with revolvers, one of the advantages is multiple shot capability -- it's nice to have when you have multiple targets (think: group of hogs), and follow-up shots.

The only advantages I have found with the bow is that when you shoot it doesn't there is no report and game doesn't get spooked as much. Also, the season comes before BP and gun season here in FL. I prefer a firearm because you can take a longer shot.

The only advantages to bow hunting compared to guns are:

preference
bows are quieter to shoot
bows require very close interaction with the animal
bows can offer a sense of accomplishment (shooting an animal with a "stick and string" isn't necessarily easy)
bows offer the opportunity to hunt other seasons - for instance in PA, the whitetail rut is during archery season...therefore I hunt bow primarily
Bow hunting can offer more solitude in some states because there are fewer hunters - in PA the woods are CRAWLING with hunters during the firearms season

To be honest, it is all about what you like to do. I enjoy both...if I could have the woods to myself and hunt during the rut with any weapon, I would choose a handgun because I like to try to get close to an animal, and I like the certainty of a bullet.

Broadly speaking, I would say that a firearm is more advantageous than using a bow in terms of taking game. I am not saying that an arrow with a sharp broadhead is not lethal, it most certainly is. The hard part comes with trying to put that broadhead into the vitals of your quarry.

I think the question you need to ask is of yourself. What do I want to get out of this? If it is strictly meat, buy a rifle. If you are looking for a challenge and are disciplined enough to pursue it, then maybe choose an implement that is a bit more limited in its capabilities.

Speaking for myself, I have no use for a rifle when it comes to hunting. I don't find it that much of a challenge to take game with a rifle. The most challenging hunting I have done is with a recurve bow. A very personal endeavor. I've owned single shot pistols, but they turned out to be much like rifles to me and to use a term I've heard, "boringly accurate". Iron sighted revolvers are a ton of fun if you put the work into them. And lastly, the most fun I've ever had is hunting game with a flintlock.

All this should be predicated with the thought that I hunt for me. I don't care about antlers, or if I even complete a harvest. But if everything lines up, and I take an animal, I did it on my terms, and I'm all good with that. Its all in the pursuit.

Good luck in your endeavors.

I find shooting rifles and to a lesser extent shooting bows to be boring as well. I love shooting handguns and shoot quite a lot each week. Perhaps if I had the opportunity to shoot rifles at long range every week I would find them more appealing but when it comes to hunting I get more enjoyment out of getting close.

I bow hunted several years befor I ever gun hunted and thought I would never gun hunt. I was invited on a shotgun deer hunt and had a great time, but shotguns are not very interesting to me. Then I was introduced to handgun hunting and it changed my life in the outdoors, can't get enough of it.
I bowhunt with a recurve bow and always have, I've hunted with single shot handguns and revolvers and would have to say revolvers are the most fun for me.
It sure is nice to live in a country where we can have discussions like this and choices like these.

Joe W

As some others have said, it's all about the fun factor (at least to me). As long as you are willing to work within the limitations of the weapon you choose to harvest the animal in an "ethical' manner, use what's the most fun to shoot!
Over my 50+ yrs that's included bows (primarily long bows), traditional muzzle loaders, short range handguns (my favorites, the revolvers), long range handguns (single shots of several varieties), short range rifles (such as my 450 Guide Gun), & long range rifles (such as my 24" barrelled .358 Morma Mag).
Today it depends on whether I am feeling like the practial Alaskan trying to fill the freezer (I will take my favorite long gun the Guide Gun in 450 or the plain old no fun but it sure works .358 Norma Mag). If I feel like the hunt & not the freezer filling is the important part (that's most days) I'll be packing the Super Redhawk in 480 Ruger.
I am a hunter who generaly prefers the handgun, not a handgunner who generally enjoys hunting.
JUST HAVE FUN!!!
As for advantages, the gun has it all. Kills more efficiently at longer range. Who cares about the noise, it's the 1st shot that counts.

I used to bow hunt, but just don't have the time anymore. It takes sooo much time to scout and get set up to be successful and I just don't have that time. With the handgun I can cover much more area and therefore don't have to be so "spot on the spot" to get a clean shot. I can't hunt my favorite way with a bow either, which is still or spot/stalk. I love the archery discipline, and compete in league shooting, but no time for bow hunting.

With the gun it is usually bang flop, perhaps a little tracking.

With the bow it is stick 'em and track, sometimes for a looong ways.

Did I mention that I love shattering the silence of the early morning in the forrest with a belching, big-bore revolver? Ahhhhh -- keeps me coming back!

Use a .300 Whisper and the question is moot!!!

Haha! Not a chance, Doc, I like making noise!

on the mechanical side of things I personally can shoot a better group out to 80yds with a bow than I can offhand with a revolver. When I was still shooting my Hoyt I regularly shot to that range but it's because of the back tension used in drawing a bow that you can hold steadier than you can with an unsupported handgun.

BOOOYAH!!!

Now for my response....
1) I have taken over 100 whitetails with a bow, but there is no rhymn nor reason for some of the kills or non-kills I have made with a bow. I have made some TERRIBLE shots with a bow and find the animal 75 yards away, but have made some wheelhouse shots on does and never find them. I have taken over 30 whitetails with handguns and, because of practice a la archery, have hit most in the wheelhouse and they have dropped dead as a doorknob. ADVANTAGE--HANDGUN.
2) I have different handguns for different hunting situations, but a bow is a bow.....ADVANTAGE HANDGUN.
3) I am now 55 years old and still climb 30' up a tree on occasion to bowhunt OR handgun hunt, but is sure is nice to stay lower to the ground these days. I don't have the cornfields and setups of the Drurys or Kiskeys, so I know FOR A FACT that I have a better chance out of a ground blind at a close kill with a handgun than with a bow--IF I PRACTICE .

For me, having killed many 6X6 (and bigger) bull elk (which some regard as THE North American TROPHY) with a ML Pistol, ML Rifles, CF Rifles, Revolvers, and my old Oneida bow, I consider my bow kill on a Pope and Young Record Book Bull my best trophy of all my elk, because of the equipment familiarity, discipline, face to face to the game, HUNTING ability, time required, and Challenge that it represents to me.

So my answer is much of what Ernie asks: basically: WHAT ARE YOUR PRIORITIES?

Mine are basic and pure accomplishment; on my terms.

Gary, How do you get bored shooting bows?

OUCH! You got no sensitivity, man!

I have plenty of sensitivity -- but I still like shattering the silence. I love when the silence, the stealth, and the stillness culminates in an adrenaline-pumped, abrupt chaos. Otherwise it would remain anticlimactic to me.

Anti-climactic? What if you missed the shot, would the noise suffice?

I'm with ya Whitworth. I don't understand Gregg's reply. Whatever. I have a butthole, and an opinion, as does everyone else.

Do you prefer silencers in the field, Gregg?

I would imagine that I am no more satisfied than a bow hunter is when his arrow flies over or under the animal he's hunting.

I can imagine that we all, as hunters, get some sort of a thrill when we make a clean kill. If it didn't "do something for me," I don't think I would partake. That said, I really enjoy hunting in all the forms I have partaken in, but I enjoy handgun hunting the most and yes, I like to get close as that to me is extra special. The big bang at the end is visceral -- I like visceral stimulation.

Not at all, kingfisher; I do not own one and they are not legal to hunt with here. But I do love the quiet presence of Mother Nature and actually do not like to disturb her silence; although I have with many of my successful hunts.

I do not know about Alabama, where you are from and probably hunt, but if you could experience the absolute virgin quiet of true Mother Nature, as we can here in Colorado if you get far enough away from the normal hunters, then I really believe that you too, kingfisher, would be in total awe of it all, and maybe not want to disturb her silence.

JMHO

Don't get me wrong, Gregg, I too like mother nature and quiet time in the woods, but I also like the thrill that comes from squeezing the trigger (or releasing an arrow?), and the ensuing bang. You need to come out this way and do some hog hunting, the fun starts when you are trying to take multiple targets with them running in all directions! Complete chaos! Add thick briar and a swamp and you've got a real party!

I love hunting bear with dogs, and to me, there is little sweeter sounding than a pack of plott hounds baying up a black bear.

I like all aspects of hunting.

Whit, I would like to come and hunt hogs some day with you and your buddies. I also would like to share a mule deer hunt with you here in Colorado some time.

Also, I believe we owe each other a beer!

Yes indeed! I would love to take you up on that! The hogs will be waitin'!

So PM me the particulars, Whit. This might just happen some time.

Hey Emily, what are your thoughts now?

The things about the different disciplines that attract me to them are this, bowhunting it's the flight of the arrow regardless of tackle and with my recurves there is a beauty and grace of something so elegant yet simple launching such a devastating projectile with lethal silence. Rifles I just like things that go boom and I appreciate the beauty in all firearms but I have a major soft spot for my lever guns. I also enjoy all makes and actions of rifles and can appreciate everything from the most basic iron sighted lever to the most precise high tech stocked and scoped bolt. Handguns it's being able to pack such a potent weapon on my hip making it as easy as taking a walk to move with it on which is why I prefer single actions as well as the cowboy in me. I like my single shot T/C's because of the novelty of being able to take big game at long ranges or the most dangerous game with the largest rifle calibers in a handgun. I'm fascinated with the specialty pistols such as Ernie has and I'm in awe of his and others abilities with these guns as many could out shoot me at distance with the flattest shooting rifles I've had which were no slouches. To me all weapons have a place and I appreciate them all for what they are, even bladed weapons fascinate me. To me though the bottom line is the hunt, sometimes it's more of a novelty hunt where just being out is all the enjoyment I need but I've also always been a meat hunter. I feel the edge I and those like me have over others is that we have not limited ourselves to one weapon type. I'm proficient in the use of most weapons from flintlocks, to cap and ball revolvers in bp stuff, I'm equally at home with one of my recurves as I am with a modern compound, iron sighted big bore rifles to high velocity flat shooters, and derringers to the biggest bore revolvers in SA or DA and my T/C stuff from rimfire to elephant calibers and I enjoy each and everyone. Pros and Cons are too many to list but to me I don't look at the cons anyways I see the best in all my weapons and whatever I'm using I just adjust my expectations and situations to match that. I've killed dozens of blacktails as well as black bear and elk with modern and traditional archery equipment and to this day I've never spent a minute in a tree stand. I bought one and it's rusting away in my shed as is my pop up blind. Whatever I'm hunting with I find the most satisfaction shooting from the ground on the animals turf. I don't use food plots or bait, I would for bear but it's illegal here. I don't think one weapon is superior to the other and the more of them you are proficient with the better all around hunter and outdoorsman you are.

Well said Rod.

I really like this part:

"and to this day I've never spent a minute in a tree stand. I bought one and it's rusting away in my shed as is my pop up blind. Whatever I'm hunting with I find the most satisfaction shooting from the ground on the animals turf. I don't use food plots or bait, I would for bear but it's illegal here. I don't think one weapon is superior to the other and the more of them you are proficient with the better all around hunter and outdoorsman you are."

Your words but they speak for me also.

Except for baiting bear. Just sayin' I wouldn't.

The one "amendment" I would admit to is for coyotes; that in my 500 coyotes that I have killed; mostly called in or stalked; but some I have "baited" them in a "natural way," by hunting them off of a winter killed cow or deer. And also off of livestock that I witnessed they were attacking; including a coyote I killed after it killed 13 sheep (see my article in "The Trapper and Predator Caller Magazine December 1993)

Also refer to my recent post right here: http://www.handgunhunt.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/110121/page/3#Post110121

Then I am guilty.

I always loved bow hunting and am somewhere around 300 bow kills on deer.
I have had bows where you could never hit a deer or squirrel because of the high frequency noise you cant hear. Others do not bother them.
Gun fire does not bother deer, only a bullet hitting close to them or the sonic boom as it misses. Revolvers have been great and I have shot many deer in a group where the deer not shot stayed there. I shot one from a herd once and it fell. The rest of the herd bedded close. I have had to climb from a stand and shoo deer away.
The wrong bow will scare a deer faster then any gun.
To hunt from 30' or even 20' is too high. 12' to 15' is best and from the ground is even better. Your chances of a good hit decrease with the height.
I limit shots with the bow to 20-25 yards but can extend the revolver to 100. I still like 25 yards though. Make the revolver like a bow with extended range. Both kill the same.

I like both,and each offer their own rewards. What some consider a con with a bow,range,I consider a pro. Getting him so close and at times to close to even draw.
Just as everyone one of us are different our methods and wants of experiences are also. I enjoy the quiet sunrises and sunsets watching and enjoying the views with out ever disturbing it. I also enjoy a cold frosty quiet morning of silence shattered by the bawl of a hound telling it's owner it's found it's quarry. Whatever I need I can find through hunting,shooting(bow or firearm)and the outdoors.
So I guess for the OP I see no cons just pros if someone is proficient with the weapon or weapons of their choosing.

I think something else that comes into play to is you boys in the south and east are used to being able to shoot alot of deer with high success rates. Here in the west most mule deer hunts are on a draw so you may only be able to hunt with a firearm every 2 to 5 years but bow seasons are normally general tags. Where I'm at you can hunt blacktails on a general tag but statewide the success rate is around 10%. The point being when you can only take one deer a year if your lucky you put more thought into how you want to try and take it.

Yes, move east!

I shoot 5 to 7 deer a season but only until I can not give meat away. My yard is full of deer every day. I put two in my freezer and give neighbors deer.
Down south I guess they are like rats!
In your situation, you need a rifle or you will not have any venison.
Deer in the woods are still deer in the woods and very hard to get a shot at no matter how many are here. But chances are much better.
I remember the days if you seen a deer in Ohio, you called the paper. I still managed a bow kill every season, then PA, Mich and WV. Even then I would get 4 deer.
As more deer are allowed I have to quit because I just get tired of cutting meat.
I wish you could hunt with me.

How many deer have you killed with a handgun?

My address is Alabama, but the majority of my hunting is done in Illinois and Kentucky. I agree with your statement--it is a "whore's market" here in 'Bama with (non)hunting regs of 2 deer per day with a joke of a harvest report system.

I like to hunt with both a bow and a handgun. I once went 11 years in a row taking deer with a bow only.
That being said, I find greater satisfaction with taking a game animal with a handgun using ammo I constructed myself.
I find my time constricted more as I get older and I have less time to dedicate to the sport of archery.

How many Deer have you taken with a handgun?