Bowfanatic: From Ohio DNR's March, 2001 press release on the 2000 deer season
Crossbow hunters took 19,945 deer (up from 16,940) and longbow hunters harvested 14,395 (up from 12,364). The total archery take was 34,340, overtaking the record 1994 season when archers took 29,490 deer. The statewide archery season ran from October 7, 2000 through January 31, 2001.
That makes the crossbow harvest 58% of the total in 2000.
For 2002-2003 (
www.dnr.ohio.gov/wildlife/PDF/pub304.pdf ) total archery season harvest was 48,904, of which 28,352 were taken with crossbow and 20,552 were taken with conventional bow. Again, crossbows accounted for 58% of the total archery season harvest.
I'll let you argue with Ohio over their official numbers.
Why don't we want crossbow hunters, 1865? Plain and simple. Because we want BOWHUNTERS in our bow seasons, not crossbow hunters. If they want to hunt with crossbows, then they can hunt in the seasons where they are legal. If they want to hunt in bow season, then they do like the gun hunters do. They can go get themselves a bow and come on along with the rest of us. It's not about keeping anybody out, it's about using bows to hunt.
It's too late to do anything about Ohio, Arkansas and Georgia, but there's no reason the rest of us have to allow our states to succumb to the crossbow disease without putting up a fight.