ORIGINAL: Buck Hunter 1
You want education, get it on the books. It is like the 3 day waiting period for a gun. I shoot multiple types of stringed weapons, I still have to practice, I still have to use woodsmanship and courtesy in the woods. When you start out a story in a discussion about 2 guys w/Xbows you have demonized the weapon not the people pulling the trigger or trigger release. You are demonizing the person behind the sights, whatever. It's the people not the weapon. Greg I assume does not have a clue if these guys practiced or what, he laid smack on the fact that they had Xbows! They were slob hunters, no matter what they carried and that detail did not come out until he restated the incident in his second capped email. No no aplogy because it was not a Xbow faulted incident it was slob hunters and his trying to tie that in w/ the hated Xbows and how they make people crazy in the woods. Please...... So what I can see is Hunters Ed for newcomers and were good to go, no restrictions of hunting dates and bow is a bow is a bow. Good luck w/those new fangled hunting bows, w/all the let off, scopes, sights, whiskers, pulleys titanium and whatever else makes it quicker, quieter and faster than my old Xbow. Before you start berating a hunting type, come w/ the facts not tales of "2 hunters and ?? bow", it affects us all!
I have known Greg long enough here to say that I he is a fair and open minded guy. His story wasnt meant to attack the crossbow but to point out the worry that many of us share. That wholesale legalization of the crossbow could attract a substantial number of one day wonders or weekend warriors and damage a season that many of us worked very hard to get. I'm not convinced that the crossbow will cause a massive deer kill but I'm also not convinced that it will have no effect ina state where any additional hunting pressure from any o*****up will necessarily cause decreased opportunities for someone somewhere.
I'm leaning toward continuing toresist the crossbow until sufficient studies regarding their effect are done on the areas where they ae now legal and until we have mandatory, meaningful bowhunter education requirements in place.