I live in VA and it wasn't too long ago when they changed the season to allow crossbow hunters. They had only let disabled people use them prior to that. At first there was a bit of "ruckus" about it but that slowly went away and turned out to be much ado about nothing. I see some guys crossbow hunting (rarely) and the occasional people shooting them at the range but it's not like there was some massive takeover of archery season.
I initially was worried about the weekend warrior gun hunters buying crossbows just to hunt during archery season and while I did see a couple of guys like that it wasn'tas bad as Ithought it would be.Crossbows still require time, effort, and money to up keep and stay proficient with. Most of the guys that fit the description above never even thought about it again after they lost their initial batch of bolts and end up selling their equipment cheap to get back a few dollars.

Having had some time to get used to them I couldn't care less if someone want to hunt with them. They are fun to shoot and not a bad way to introduce newer people to a form of archery and shooting.They are consideredarchery equipment (whether you like the label or not) and despite not having to draw them(like a vertical bow anyway)they are limited in their capabilities and range justlike other archery equipment. While they share some characteristics of a firearm most of those characteristics do nothing to enhance the actual technology of the weapon they simply make it possible to shoot a bow horizontally and release the draw with a trigger. As far as effective range, ke,one shot hunting, shot placement importance, method of killing(bleeding out/cutting off oxygen), and just about everyting else they are likeother bows (IMO).

I find it kind of comical to hear guys say they are so much easier to hunt with because you don't have to draw and hold back and you shoot it with a trigger like a gun while at the same time they are shooting their 85% letoff compounds with all of the bells and whistles holding back a whopping 10-15 lbs of draw weight with their $100 release aids(many of which have a........you guessed it........a trigger). Yeah, that is so much harder.

There are plenty of deer for all of us and while different from traditional bows and compounds, crossbows are archery weapons that have been around for centuries, I welcome them in the woods and hope they draw some more hunters to the field, which is a good thing for hunting. I certainly won't turn them away or tell them to get their own season.