I have read this topic front to back. My eyes are sore, and I wish I had spent a couple of hours doing something else. I pretty much knew where this thread was going before I even opened it when I saw the topic and saw the author. In retrospect I wish I would have never opened it. Before I respond to the meat and potatoes of this thread, I will respond to the supposed topic at hand.
IF crossbows were to be made legal in general archery season to any hunter and an ethical hunter decided to make this his weapon of choice and practiced with it and worked hard to hunt with it I would embrace him as a fellow hunter. I would rather see a guy like this who cares about hunting and the game he hunts than some guy that buys a bow 2 days before the season and heads out to the woods, or a guy who takes 12 shots at game and only has one animal to show for it but thinks it's OK because he shoots traditional gear. If someone were to get a crossbow simply to try to whack some deer and put no effort into learning his gear, but simply wanted to take advantage of what he views as an "easy" opportunity, I would not want to share the woods with him either. That being said, I disagree with crossbows being entered into an archery season because in my opinion it does not take archery skills. The form used in shooting a bow (compound, recurve, or longbow) is essentially the same. Upright posture, bow arm extended,
DRAW the string, anchor, aim, and shoot. That is archery and that is why I shoot a bow more than I shoot a gun. A crossbow has all of the same mechanics as shooting a gun. Load the weapon, bring the stock to your shoulder, brace your cheek on the stock, aim, and shoot. There is your difference. One does not have to learn and apply the mechanics and skills of shooting a bow to shoot a crossbow and that is why I feel it does not belong in archery season.
Now to the real point of this thread.
Stealthycat, I have read your drivel on this board since you have taken up your new love of traditional archery. Since then you have time and again posted things to boost your opinion of yourself for making such a switch.
C903 had asked what the point of this thread is. That is all that it is about. It's just you using another vehicle (crossbows vs. compounds vs. traditional) to sing your own praises about how you have switched to a longbow and now you are a "true" hunter.
As this thread drags on you continue to backpeddle and go back to "traditional gear is harder than a compound." You say how hard it is and how you and your friends keep missing and wounding game, but when someone says you need more practice you rebut with, "oh, but there were twigs in the way." If you hit a twig then you screwed up and it has nothing to do with your gear. You say if you had a compound the trajectory would have been different and you would have missed the twig. Number one, how do you know if you didn't know it was there? Number two, the trajectory difference of any arrow inside of 20 yards (which you must have been shooting since trad is more difficult) is not that great. Number three, it is your job as an archer to know your trajectory and be able to judge the shot prior to dropping the string. Yes, things happen while hunting. However, it seems that the identical thing happened twice to you (get me once shame on you, get me twice shame on me) and these things seem to happen a lot to your band of merry men.
You also continue to make comparisons between traditional gear and fully equipped compounds despite the fact that it has been brought to your attention many times that many people shoot compounds bare bow.
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>Lets see, a crossbow has a release, a compound has a release, a crossbow has sights, a compound has sights, a crossbow is geld full draw, a compound can be held for several minutes, a crossbows gets 250-300 fps, a compound gets 250-300+ fps .... what were we comparing again ?? <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>
Last time I bought a compound (and I buy them more often than my better half would like) all I got was a bow, two cams, string, cables and a cable guard. I had to buy a release, sights, etc. separately. Not to mention (even though it has been several times already) those items you bring up can be put on your beloved traditional gear. In fact, the guys that put that stuff on their carbon limbed, machined riser recurves can shoot the pants off of most compound shooters a lot of times.
You keep bringing up let-off and while it is an advantage the average amount of time I spend at full draw before shooting at an animal is about 6 seconds with the longest being 20 seconds. I don't know about you, but I cannot hold my bow back for several minutes and expect to accurately shoot my bow. If you are holding for several minutes and shooting at game, you need to rethink your ethics IMO. Then again you pal around with people that feel it's normal to have a combined 1-17 kill to shoot ratio so I'm not surprised.
I don't understand why feel this is OK. There are many traditional shooters that have had great success year in and year out and don't say, "look at my success and I did it with traditional gear." On the flip side there are many compound hunters that are not having the same success. Yet you still continue with your posts that have no other purpose that boasting your new found love.
With all this being put on the table I will say this, I am very happy for you that you have found something that you are passionate about and wish you all the best with it. Just do the rest of us a favor and quit trying to prove (whether it be to us or yourself) how great you are for it.
For those of you that feel this post is a little personal it is. This guy has been doing this for over a year now and apparently on several boards. Those of you that know where I am coming from...well, enough said.