soarkrebel...Seems to me we've got a gun hunter here who only dabbles in bow and crossbow hunting, but feels fully qualified to bash bowhunters (who have a bit more than a casual interest in the endeavor) for wanting to maintain the integrity of their season.

You want a crossbow forum? There's one over on the Excalibur crossbow site. The guys I quoted above? They hang out there. One of their favorite hobbies is going to bowhunting sites to kick up a crossbow stink and then report back to the assemblage on their adventures. You'd probably enjoy the place.

Z - The fact is that the greater majority of those tens of thousands of dollars will be spent by slobs, and that the greater majority of those who 'get to enjoy hunting' and will give us 'strength in numbers' will be slobs and will cause us more problems with the public than we've already got.

IT'S THE FREAKIN' PEOPLE THEY BRING IN THAT ARE THE NEGATIVE! Like I said above, there are some people that choose to hunt with crossbows that are ethical and responsible. The vast majority will simply see the crossbow as something that they can go 'bowhunting' with, at minimal effort on their part.

Haven't you noticed that every time a tame park duck is found impaled by an 'arrow', it always hits the 6:00 news? About half those kinds of incidents they've put on the tube around Dallas, the duck has been wearing a crossbow bolt and, whether arrow or bolt, the arrow ALWAYS has a field point. Haven't you noticed that it's always a 'bowhunter' that's blamed for the cruel deed?

Interestingly, these ducks are NEVER impaled with a cedar arrow or a feather fletched arrow.

Fortunately the local Fox channel as a viewers' voice segment and my rebuttal to such things has been aired several times - That such people that do those things are NOT bowhunters, but are instead slobs and criminals.

I have to admit that I went through a couple years of living with the defeatist attitude you are afflicted with. I was even on friendly terms with a couple of crossbow guys. But when I read those comments I quoted above, from the very guys I'd been friends with, then I found how quickly they would betray someone to further their own ends. Their comments showed me that they would just as soon kick my traditional shooting arse out just to make room for themselves.

If that's the kind of people you want to promote to 'strenthen our numbers' then you need to closely re-examine your premise.