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Semi Autos legal to hunt big game in PA.
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<blockquote data-quote="CMP70306" data-source="post: 2211489" data-attributes="member: 36999"><p>Rifle hunters dropped for many reasons and the main ones I can think of are increased archery opportunities, increased emphasis on trophy bucks, population age, and the decline in drives/hunters walking around. The big thing these days is to shoot big bucks and the best time to do that is the beginning of November during the rut. In PA this opportunity is only offered to archery gear so if you are a big buck hunter you have to be a bow hunter. Additionally most newer hunters are more likely to start in archery, I know few older hunters that use archery equipment but almost every young hunter I know has a compound/crossbow or both.</p><p></p><p>The final thing is just the number of people in the woods and the style of hunting that is very different from the 17 years ago when I started. Since many people are hunting the early seasons by the time rifle rolls around the deer know they are being hunted and are primarily moving at night. Back in the day you had guys out driving which got the deer on their feet and moving leading to a bunch of shooting as the deer moved past the different groups of hunters. These days there isn't much of that going on so the deer get holed up in the thick stuff and don't come out until dark leaving many old stump hunters to either give up or switch to archery and hunt the early season when deer are more predictable.</p><p></p><p>The crossbow has helped introduce and retain hunters that can't draw a bow but it surely isn't a gun like most purist act like it is. I've hunted with both a compound and a crossbow for several years, never managed to kill a deer with either as almost every one I shot at ducked the string and two that didn't I missed with the compound due to inexperience in my teens. All of those deer that ducked were between 25 and 50 yards, a range that I have missed exactly once with a rifle in 17 years and that was due to hitting a limb 5 yards from the muzzle.</p><p></p><p>So the short version is if crossbows were as effective as rifles I'd have 4 more nice bucks to my name and several more does in my freezer.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CMP70306, post: 2211489, member: 36999"] Rifle hunters dropped for many reasons and the main ones I can think of are increased archery opportunities, increased emphasis on trophy bucks, population age, and the decline in drives/hunters walking around. The big thing these days is to shoot big bucks and the best time to do that is the beginning of November during the rut. In PA this opportunity is only offered to archery gear so if you are a big buck hunter you have to be a bow hunter. Additionally most newer hunters are more likely to start in archery, I know few older hunters that use archery equipment but almost every young hunter I know has a compound/crossbow or both. The final thing is just the number of people in the woods and the style of hunting that is very different from the 17 years ago when I started. Since many people are hunting the early seasons by the time rifle rolls around the deer know they are being hunted and are primarily moving at night. Back in the day you had guys out driving which got the deer on their feet and moving leading to a bunch of shooting as the deer moved past the different groups of hunters. These days there isn’t much of that going on so the deer get holed up in the thick stuff and don’t come out until dark leaving many old stump hunters to either give up or switch to archery and hunt the early season when deer are more predictable. The crossbow has helped introduce and retain hunters that can’t draw a bow but it surely isn’t a gun like most purist act like it is. I’ve hunted with both a compound and a crossbow for several years, never managed to kill a deer with either as almost every one I shot at ducked the string and two that didn’t I missed with the compound due to inexperience in my teens. All of those deer that ducked were between 25 and 50 yards, a range that I have missed exactly once with a rifle in 17 years and that was due to hitting a limb 5 yards from the muzzle. So the short version is if crossbows were as effective as rifles I’d have 4 more nice bucks to my name and several more does in my freezer. [/QUOTE]
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