Thank you everyone for your input. I am very grateful we have used this subject for level headed debate and kept the political mudslinging out of it. Chad makes a very good description when he stated "You don't see folks playing soccer and football on the same field at the same time either". When archery season was first allowed in Michigan it was the stick bows with wooden arrows that won the right for their own season. From what I have read in the past it was lobbied that a bow did not produce enough killing power to bring game down in a humane manner. Archers of the time demonstrated the penetrating power of a bow using armor piercing arrows to punch through a sheet of boiler plate! The point is bowhunters had to go to great extremes in my state to be accepted and were rewarded with an archery only season. Now I feel that our human nature of finding the easiest method of getting the prize has begun to dilute the definitions of what is what; an example other than the traditional bow and crossbow is the muzzleloader. Todays modern muzzleloader is as far from the traditional concussion and flint lock as anything can be. In Michigan muzzleloader hunters were granted a season just for their weapon after the modern firearm season, but some hunters realized there was a loop hole in the state's game laws that allowed for muzzleloaders to be used in the shotgun only zones during the modern firearm season. This loop hole has contributed to the developement of muzzleloaders capable of firing smokeless ammunition and reaching ranges beyond what a shotgun normally achieved. Of course shotguns have extended their capabilities to the point some hunters are shouldering a small howitzer. It is not the weapon I do not agree with, it is the point that there are hunters who want to use crossbows during the bow season just to take the easier road. I am all for allowing hunters with permanent physical restrictions to use a crossbow or simular device if said physical restriction does not allow those individuals to safely and correctly use archery equipment. How or who can determine the physical conditions is not something I can answer and I will not speculate on that subject. My son is fast approaching the age when he can legally hunt game in Michigan and I like many other fathers look forward to the day my children fill their first hunting tag, I just want them to have a choice of what to enjoy to take that game. Lets keep the archery season for bow hunting and create a crossbow season outside of the archery time frame; that is what I propose.
SSgt Vern Pratt
shoot straight, aim well,
and tell tall tales to
good friends