ORIGINAL: Screamin Steel

I know exactly the limits of my skillset...both with my recurve and my compound. Both were aquired through countless hours spent on the range in preparation for that perfect opportunity. Archery is an aquired skill, and the right to hunt with a bow is EARNED through your profficiency,not given by the law. I'll take your endowment of the title of sore loser and wear it with pride. Because I won't be taking the easy way out of bow practice this year, just because the idiots in Harrisburg want to increase the deer harvest and supplement their lean pocketbooks. My problemlies not with the weapon itself, but in it's inclusion in the archery season. It has been said already many times that anyone should be able to develop profficiency with a compound given today's technology....aside from elderly and cripples. The ones seeking to benefit from this the most are the lazy hunters who lack the discipline to adhere to the degree of pratice required of vertical bows. By their own character, those kind were greatly limited up until this point to rifle season and possibly ML seasons. Not that there are not some bowhunters out there that lack profficiency, but in my experience, their ultimate lack of success -relevant to their lack of practice and discipline, dissuades them after a few years and they go back to slinging lead after Thanksgiving. The other group that concerns me is the moderately successful bowhunter whose lust for antlers leads him to buy the Xbow hoping it somehow compensates for his weaknesses and past failures. This group gets no respect from me...or any other bowhunter worth his salt. Rest assured that I am a man who speaks his mind...especially on the topic of ethics. I have no fear speaking my mind face to face and I willgive any otherwise capable hunter I see carrying a crossbow the same lecture. If they react in manner described by Bowtruck and others....they just confirmed their own guilty conscience. But hey, if the shoe fits....And I wouldn't fear any physical confrontation with such a fella. Like I said before, if he isn't elderly or crippled, he is obviously to much of a wimp for archery anyway. Not too worried about what a guy could do to me that lacks the simple discipline to shoot his bow on a regular basis and become profficient with it! If any of you are still on the fence with the xbows, don't do it. If you are enamored with the weapon, use one in ML or gun season. Don't be a weasel and take the easy way in archery season.