It baffles me how funny we hunters act. Who cares if a guy hunts with a crossbow during bow season? When should he hunt? It is obviously not a firearm and it is not a muzzleloader. Now it might not fit some peoples definition of a bow but the season it most fits in is archery it is a primitive weapon with a limited range, no gun powder, limbs/strings. In VA they recently changed the law from only handicapped hunters being allowed to use crossbows toeveryone being able to(2005-2006).
There was a big stink about it that first season, now you hear nothing because it does not matter.


Here are the primitive weapons numbers from last season.

Archers, not including crossbow hunters, killed 17,335 deer. The bow kill was up 1% from the 17,160 deer taken by archers last year. The bow kill comprised 7% of the total deer kill.

Crossbows, which were legal for all deer hunters for the first time in fall 2005, resulted in a deer kill of 8,549 deer or <4% of the total deer kill. The crossbow kill was up 21% from the 7,069 reported last year.

Muzzleloader hunters killed 55,434 deer. The muzzleloader kill was up 6% from the 52,386 deer taken by muzzleloader hunters last year. Muzzleloading comprised 23% of the total deer kill.

Out of 200,000+ deer killed inVA,Bows & Crossbow counted for like 24,000 or11-12%. I guess why I don't care is there are obviously plenty of deer to go around.Why do we have such a sense of entitlement/ownership of our seasons/deer and what's worse is the attitude thatif you don't do it like me then you shouldn't get to hunt the early season. Why? Crossbow hunters killed 8,000 deer. Did that prevent some "true" bow hunter from getting his deer? Let's do the math (VA) 1,000,000+ deer population minus 8,000 deer(killed by crossbows) that leaves about 992,000+ deer for the rest of us "true" bow hunters to hunt before anyone else. I like my odds and I am grateful for the early season and furthermore I don't mind sharing it withcompound, longbow,recurve, or crossbow hunters.I think that what I see more than elitist attitudes in hunting is simple greed. The concept that we as hunters choose to divide ourselves based on the weapons/tactics/regional differences rather thanshow a little more acceptance and solidaritywill always baffle me.

Shotgun, rifle, pistol, crossbow, recurve, longbow, self-bow, compound(with or without the Whisker Biscuit), muzzleloader.....I don't care...good look and sincere congratulations on anyand all successes.

Wow, what would that worldbe like? Never happen.