Frankly, while I agree the philosophy of wasting time shooting small game while scaring away your own deer is foolish, I really don't see the safety issue of carrying two guns at once?

Now, maybe your friend is not handling EITHER gun safely, but personally, I don't think that simply carrying two guns at once is inherently dangerous.

I carry a shotgun and a rifle all the time together while coyote hunting (typically with a sidearm on my hip as well). While firearms hunting of any kind, I almost ALWAYS (can't think of a time in the last 20yrs that I have not) have a sidearm loaded with my rifle or shotgun.

Ultimately, I don't see the issue (other than stupidity for ruining his own deer hunts) unless he's actually being negligent and unsafe with the weapons.

But again, for the 3rd time I reiterate, it's stupid to blow your own deer hunt to shoot small game, whether you're using two weapons or not. One of my sister's old boyfriends in college used to do that, he'd get bored in the deer stand so he'd shoot squirrels and rabbits with his deer rifle... Yeah, he didn't get many deer either... But again, that's dumb whether you have one, two, or twenty weapons in your possession.

Certain states DO consider crossbows to be firearms, in which case you could legally carry a firearm and a crossbow together. Other states don't allow crossbows and rifles/shotguns to be hunted at the same time, in which case it wouldn't be legal.