Big Country, I believe you missed my point concerning Ohio.

This last year, Ohio "archers" killed 22% more deer than the year before, gun hunters decreased 13%. Crossbows are replacing the deer kill numbers from guns. It's really very simple, and I am not saying it is wrong or that crossbows are bad. They are not the end of civilization, just a major change in the logistics of hunting seasons as we have known them. I believe, based on Ohio and other states with legal crossbow use that they are replacing the gun not the bow. Is that a bad thing? No, I don't think so. We can't pretend that it is not happening though, as it clearly is.

What I wonder about is if people who advocate so strongly for crossbow use during the longer archery seasons realize what they are giving up by transitioning firearm hunters to crossbow hunters. You are not recruiting "new" hunters, the numbers in the states that allow them bear that out. You are recruiting gun hunters to use crossbows as the gun seasons are becoming shorter and the crossbow seasons allow more time in the woods. Still not a bad thing... but couple that with a crossbow season that is very long, with the much larger traditional gun season hunting group and the ony thing that suffers is gun season. I don't mind sharing the woods 1 bit, I love to see other hunters out there. What I see here in the North East is more and more towns and areas not allowing gun hunting any longer, and restricting hunters to archery only. I do not think that is right or a good thing. What the crossbow represents is viable alternative to the gun .. as clearly evidenced by the harvest in Ohio. I don't know about you, but I know what happens when gun rights loses the backing of the "hunter". You may not care about this, but please do not be blind to it or dismiss it.