Crossbow: A Medieval weapon popularized the French so they could get their middle finger-less archers back in the war.

I have a copy of Fred Bear's "Archers Bible" laying around here somewhere. In it, there is a chapter dedicated to crossbows. So if Fred Bear recognized them to be archery equipment, so do I.

The thing I hate about this whole thing, is that with a compound bow, all you read in the ad's is "speed, speed, speed" and in the crossbow ads, you read "power, power, power"

And if you ask your average Joe Average why he's buying a crossbow, he's going to tell you he doesn't have all year to put into a craft to miss a deer on opening day.

Traditional archery is more about the art of archery, than the science of fiber and pulley.

Traditional archery is about woodcraft and lore, the "how to" of the more difficult aspects of the hunt.

If you ask me for a solution, here's what I'm going to tell you,
"In Michigan, the archery season is split into two parts. Oct 1thru Nov 15.
Nov 15 thru Nov 30 is firearm season.
Archery resumes Dec1 and runs thru Jan 1st
Muzzleloader (also allowed in firearm is Dec 10 thru Dec 20)
Well, here's what I think.
After firearm season, give the deer a week to settle back down
then, on Dec 7, open a 21 day "primitive arms season"
Bows, crossbows (notice I separate the two), sidelock-only charcoal burners,
heck, shoot a goddamm cannon if you want to.
but no metallic cartridges, smokeless powder,
or in-line ignition, OR OPTICAL SIGHTS "