RE: CrossBows are comming to town.

A very similiar thread that went 20 pages or so, maybe read this that way we can skip doing it all over again.

If you don't feel like reading it allthis is one of my initial quotes in that thread and another quote below that from another thread that shows some infromation on the number of crossbow harvests in VA.(sorry for the print size/bold)

"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 buyingcrossbows 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 wants 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."

2nd quote

"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 crossbowtoeveryone 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.