whats wrong with crossbows?!

[spotteddeerrun13]

what do people always dis on crossbows i dont get it???help me out!!!

[awshucks]

Here's one opinion. Just an opinion, mind you. Back when the first archery seasons were started, of the available equipment, the worst xbow made was better than the best stick bow or recurve [trad]. They provided an advantage then and still do today. Around 1968-70 along came the compounds. I never shot the early compounds so I'm not qualified to compare them. As the compounds technology advanced, some where along the line they exceed the performance envelope of xbows, proven by competiton scores where they are both shot. At the same time, xbow use became much more popular and accepted by many. This has proven that there is virtually no difference today between compounds and xbows by harvest stats in the states that have both and keep track. The resistance to xbows today is due partially to misinformed people, groups w/ agendas, and some selfish desires to keep the deer, hunting land, ect to a select group of people. That is all changing virtually as we speak.

Around the 1200's some Pope outlawed them for warfare against Christians, heathens were fair game, lol. Today we have P&Y [7700 members worldwide] putting out "position statements" that xbows are the greatest threat to archery, Christian or heathen, lol. They are joined by PBS, which "hired" a member named Marlow to do a study on the two. It was biased and proved erroneous by the harvest stats and has fallen fom use as debate matl. Much like the "test" performed by a former officer of WBH, which basically proved he could hit a bale of hay at a 100 yds w/ field tips, lol. As most of the xbowers on here know, screwing a bhead onto an arrow, shooting it out of a crossbow often is like taking a road trip w/ your mother in law in the back seat reading the map. They both would like to steer.

There are several signs out there on xbow acceptance. Go to any xbow forum, go back 6 months or a year, look at the posters. There are new people every day on every one. Go to the Bowsite state forums and read. Xbow threads there don't last any longer than a Twinkie in Rosie O'Donnells purse, they are jerked real quick as their own members question the reasons for opposition.

[Wyvern Crossbow]

People fear what they dont understand or feel is "diferant" than what they are used to. The human animal tends to either run from what it fears or try to destroy it. Pretty much says it all...
Wyvern

[Mike Van Veghten]

If you read some of the history of crossbows...the distain of crossbows was around back when the crossbowwas first developed, in the early Chinese and later in the Medieval times.

It still rages ontoday!
Back then, it was mostly because of the bolt that was shot from them and the damage it did. The church goers (heavilly religous) thought it was terrible what a crossbow could do.

Nowdays...it's a combination of things...see Wyverns and awshucks posts...plus some people just have to whine about something!

Mike

[Horizontal Hunter]

What I have found in my area is that most (not all) bow hunters do not want to share the bow season and they think that if xbows are allowed everyone that hunts with a gun is going to run out and get one and go into "their season" and shoot "their deer." IMHO itboils down to a lack of knowledge about the xbow and selfishness for a lot of the bow hunters.

That's what I have predominately seen.

Bob

[Lanse couche couche]

Selfishness on the part of some. For others, its the attitude that if you dont hunt the exact way that they do, then you don't belong out in the woods. And that's just the compound folks. It gets worse with some so-called traditionalists. I find gun and crossbow hunters to usually be more rational and easier to get along with.

[Arthur P]

Back then, it was mostly because of the bolt that was shot from them and the damage it did. The church goers (heavilly religous) thought it was terrible what a crossbow could do.

I've done a lot of reading into the history of crossbows. From what I've learned... First part of your comment is true. Second part, about the church goers... not entirely.

It was because the crossbow putin the hands of the common peasant soldier a weapon that could penetrate the armor worn by the nobles. Peasants couldn't contribute much gold to the Catholic Church's coffers because they didn't have much gold, if any. The noble class was where the money came from. It was fine and dandy for the nobility to slaughter unarmored, practically defenseless - and penniless -peasants in battle, but we couldn't have peasants armed with weapons capable ofkilling off the Church's most important contributors and cutting it's income, now could we?

That's why Pope Innocent II and the2nd Lateran Council banned the use of the crossbow by Christians against Christians in 1139, though disguised as being on Holy grounds.

Another bit of the puzzle is due in part to public sentiment overthe death of King RichardI (Richard the Lionheart) who was killed by a crossbow bolt, to be replaced by his hated brother, Prince John.

Further, the English Longbow became the country's national weapon after the overwhelming victories over the French at Crecy and Agincourt. A long line of England's kings, in order to maintain England's proficiency with the longbow,banned the use of crossbows among the common folk and mandated compulsory practice with the longbow to the exclusion of all other ranged weapons and all other sports. Anyone caught with a crossbow was automatically acriminal and probably a poacher of deer in the King's forest.Although... Those same kings that forbade the use of crossbows by their own people had absolutely no qualms about hiring crossbow mercenaries from the mainland to fight for them.

That is the condensed story abouthow the crossbow got theblack reputationof being 'the weapon of criminals, poachers,mercenaries and assassins.'

The crossbowbans came to us in the U.S. because many of our laws and much of our legal system is based on English Common Law. And here we are, hundreds of years after the true facts have faded into obscurehistory, dealing with midieval rules and mindsets.

[ranger56528]

THEY JUST DONT GET IT........................

[Cossack]

I've found that MOST people who dis crossbows have not shot one or even handled one. Someone I know, who hunts turkey with a shotgun, told me it was "unfair" for me to use a crossbow for turkey because "it shoots like a rifle." And, he had never shot one. IMO, it's largely a case of looks ( crossbows LOOK intimidating) and ignorance.