Big Duane.... We don't fear increased numbers with xbows or xbows taking "our" season... We fear it sets a precedent for OTHER weapons.. Primarily muzzleloaders or maybe even a doe only gun season, both of which have been tossed around by the law makers.. They tell us we can't kill enough deer. Our arguement is, if MS hunters cant kill enough deer with 2.5 months of gun season, extra time isnt the issue. They need to look to other avenues to increase the doe harvest...

I've attached a good recap of the xbow situation that our association's legislative watch dog posted on our dept. of wildlife website. This summarizes our battle and beliefs pretty good I think.

Emotions can sometimes run high on this subject and I can understand to a degree both sides. I see crossbows as a valid sporting weapon; but not in the archery season other than the handicapped or disabled. Those who favor the crossbow in archery season often point out the crossbows similarities to a vertical bow, but always leave out the dissimilarities...and you can't have one without the other.

Lets look at facts..

1) Compounds were legalized in 1974 to allow more participation by hunters..especially women and children. I don't think anything has changed as that is still true. Why the crossbow argument? My son was 10 on his first bowkill and I have friends whose children were as young as 8. I refuse to accept that abled body adults can't use archery gear. Maybe you can pull only 35 pounds...that's more than enough for whitetails. My son killed many deer with recurves of the same approx weight.

2) The last time I looked, the state allowed free will participation in the archery season by any hunter for the mere cost of a license. The opportunity to hunt doesn't neccesarily extend to an individuals choice of weapon. Choice is wonderful, but it has it's limits. To argue anything less and you have to support an open, pick any weapon format.

3) Does anyone really want to take the disabled and elderly special privileges away? The use of the crossbow allows them to participate equally with other hunters...despite their special challenges. Opening it up to anyone is like a perfectly healthy driver taking the handicapped parking spot at Walmart and saying...they can still park anywhere they want!"

4) Georgia is down almost 25% in archery participation since the crossbows legalization in 2002. Forgiveness of the states actions by bowhunters is hard to get there.

5) Alabama participation in the archery season has also dropped double digits since the crossbow was legalized. See item number 4.

6) Kentucky rolled back it's crossbow legalization to only part of the archery season...due to extreme opposition by the states bowhunters.

7) Mississippi's archery participation has held steady over the last few years and actually has shown a small growth as opposed to our crossbow neighboring states whose participation is plummenting.

8) The politics of the situation is similar to that of the 'primitive weapon' changes. To usher in one small change doesn't stop at that...it goes on and on and on and on etc.

9) Only 12 states out of 50 allow ANY crossbow usage in the archery season by anyone other than the disabled. The first state was Arkansas and Ohio in the early and mid 70's. After 30+ years only 12 states?..hardly sounds like a ground swell of support. By comparison the compound was legalized in all 50 states in 7 years.

10) In Ohio bowhunters are the minority users in the archery season. crossbow users make up 55% of the total participates. In Arkansas, around 45% are crossbow users.

11) A new age of crossbow technology is being developed. One crossbow maker advertises 400 FPS speeds. Since the hunter doesn't have to pull the bowstring..there is no end to the innovation of the product.

12) Every national and state bowhunter organization opposes the crossbows legalization in the archery season. A strong coalition of state and national bowhunter organizations has been formed to unify bowhunters across the nation and to pool collective efforts to defeat it's further emproachment upon the archery seasons of America.

12) Most importantly, no poll ever shows that hunters want the crossbow legalized. Partly due to the fact, that the crossbow has no American heritage and history as a sporting component. Bowhunters are overwhelmingly against it (90% plus by some surveys) and polls that include all hunters typically show a 50/50 split in support. Why upset the apple cart when the season works fine? It "ain't" broke..don't fix it. The people that actually use the archery seasons, buys equipment, learns skills, and supports special archery seasons by license sales....they don't want it. Exceptions do exist.


My concern is that if you ever break the status qou of legally prescribed weaponry...no one (including myself) knows where the yellow brick road leads. I'll be the first to admit, that I have many doubts on the subject, yet careful consideration leads me to think that it's not in the best interest of bowhunting to legalize the crossbow in archery only season formats.

Here are those archery numbers from other states that I have talked about. The why's of the recent drops are hard to answer, but the trends are alarming. Through the same time period (up to 2005 when the latest figures were released....Mississippi archery numbers have held steady)

Alabama:
2001-2002 55,400
2002-2003 67,200 (crossbows legalized)
2003-2004 74,500
2004-2005 70,300
2005-2006 62,700

Georgia
Archery Hunters
2001 109008
2002 96721
2003 97392 (crossbows legalized)
2004 111682
2005 88667
2006 81050

And here is MS numbers with an explanation from our head biologist :

We get our hunter estimate numbers from mail survey data. One thing to note is that in 2003 the survey methodology changed and this could be the reason for the drastic decline between 2002 and 2003.