However, the past is exactly that and things change and evolve. In those days hunters as a group were not a dying breed as they are now. Therefore, we have to take a different approach or this past time that we love so much is going to fall by the way side. I honestly see your point.
Things evolve and times change, certainly, and not always for the better. The very fact that crossbows can be compared so favorably with compounds today is less of a reason to accept crossbows than it is a condemnation on the amount of technology that's been allowed to take over the bowhunting woods. As Kevin pointed out, I do remember Hollis Allen's arrow launching dee-vice and, fresh out of high school, I was very involved in the effort to keep those bastardized hunks of machinery out of the woods. Each and every argument made on behalf of the crossbow is exactly the same as those pro-compound arguments 35 years ago. It didn't take a crystal ball to see where that contraption would take bowhunting, and that place is exactly where we are, right now. With crossbow advocates at the gates with a battering ram.
I just have a hard time supporting a law that would keep other hunters from pursuing this passion that I care so much about.
Again, this is not about keeping other hunters from persuing this passion WE BOTH care so much about, it's about insisting they use conventional archery equipment and not crossbows. It's not that hard! Heck, I had my first bow kill when I was 3 years old! It was a sparrow. I spent the rest of that summer shooting sparrows and rats around gramps's chicken coop. If a 3 year old can pick off sparrows and rats with an elm selfbow and willow switch arrows... Kinda blows that BS about kids and women being excluded from bowhunting right out the window, don't it. You don't have to hunt deer to be a bowhunter.
I live in Arkansas and honestly don't see 5 guys a year in the woods with crossbows. It just isn't going to happen like that.
Ohio proves you wrong. Nobody saw many guys with crossbows in Ohio in the first 10-15 years they allowed them either. Now look at where they are. Over 50% of all archery season harvest is made with crossbows. The crossbow crowd swears their kill rate is no greater than that of the compound so, statistically that would mean more than 50% of the total number of people participating in archery season are using crossbows. Bowhunters are a minority in their own season, and I find that appalling.
Yes , people like you worked very hard to get archery only seasons , and those folks deserved what they fought for , you're doing little more than ride their coattails while expounding about "tradition" and "values" . Arthur , since you're well under 80 years old that statement applies to you too , others fought for it , not you .
And, Kevin, I am very thankful for what others worked so hard to provide for me. Luckily, I was brought up in a time when many of those old timers were still with us and many of them were my heros. What I am doing is trying to prevent people like you and silentassassin from taking what they worked so hard for and giving away. Who's next on your list of deserving recipients? Handgun hunters with iron sighted revolvers? Their effective range isn't any greater than that of a skilled compound shooter. They wouldn't have any direct effect on MY hunting. Why not allow them as well? Who's next in line after them?
Research project: Why were crossbows expressly banned from archery seasons in the first place?