Ranger what you have said is EXACTLY what I was saying. It is not the weapon of choice that a hunter chooses to use, but the hunter themself. It does not matter what these hunters use, they will be in the woods without being able to handle their choice effectivly, and that is sad. We need to hold these hunters responsible, not the tool of choice.

The crossbow can be a great biginner's or senior's bow. That is a bow to introduce new hunters into archery, or one that allows seniors to continue to hunt when they are not capable of drawing and holding a bow at draw effectivly any longer. I personally know youths that started out with the crosbow, but then switched to compounds then recurves as they progressed. A great thing about crosbows is that you can master them quicker (become compitant) then their vertical cousins. But, if you take an expert with the crossbow & compound, you wil find that the compound will shoot higher scores in compitation. It just takes an extreem amount more dedication and practice to become that efficent. In todays world, with work commitments, family, most hunters are not able to find the time to become that efficent. Actually I would prefur that they spend more time with their children and then choose a crossbow if they have to (for a tool which they are compitant with).

Ranger, about our comment of waiting a year to hunt with the crossbow after you buy it, it is a good practice but is not really needed to wait that long. You sound like you already know how to archerry hunt and the ranges of the equipment. What you would need to learn is the saftey aspect of the crossbow (precidures mostly) and the arrow tradjectory for the different distances (for the shooting window). Once you become acustomed to these, then you will be safe in my opinion to hunt with the bow. Practice with aquire this for you.

Good luck.