SilentAssasin- I will not debate that a compound, recurve or long bow "could" be used to kill deer outside legal shooting times, but it is not something the average bow owner can do while hunting legally. It would require pre-planning on the bow users part, such as the described incident where you know people who ride in the back of trucks with spot lights and shoot from the back, or bringing lights that attach to their archery equipment, which as I said is illegal in many states. If you have hunters using lights, such as on hog hunts, then CO and other hunters are aware of these activities and can factor them into their strategy to stop poachers. Such as knowing a guy going out for an evening archery pig hunt comes back with a deer was poaching and should be reported. Or if you see a guy in the woods with a flashlight screwed into the end of his stabilizer walking in as you are walking out of the woods, that should be reported.

Now my point and experience has shown me that ANY crossbow hunter sitting in a treestand, with a simple flashlight as almost every hunter carry’s can shoot and shoot accurately holding that flashlight on an animal within the kill radius of his crossbow. So unlike a normal, average bow hunter with the equipment 95% of archers use, when the light fades his hunt is done. That is NOT the case with a crossbow hunter, his equipment can easily be used to kill and take deer after it gets dark with the gear all hunters carry. It is providing temptation and ability to the average hunter, who if they were using archery equipment would be forced to leave their stand at the end of legal shooting hours. Now I would bet ALL bow hunters have been in a stand when that deer came in just 10 minutes to late to take an ethical and clean killing shot with their bows .... now any crossbow hunter, using a red dot scope, a crosshaired rifle type scope, open sites or using fiber optic rifle like sites can rest that crossbow on a knee, or on the shooting rail of their stand .. click on that flashlight they have in their pocket to help them out of the woods and make a clean kill. It is a fact guys... at my archery club, we all tried it on the range with one of the guy’s crossbows .. it's as easy as using a rifle for a 20 yard shot. Now all of us trying to make the same shot from the elevated stand, using our flashlights in our mouths, trying to grip them in our hands ... taping them to our stabilizers .. were unable to make a clean killing shot. It is just a fact guys.....

Now this of course doesn't mean ALL crossbow guys are poachers .. it just means that ANY crossbow hunter has the ability to be a poacher, or kill deer outside of legal shooting time with absolutely no preplanning. In my opinion it makes the weapon to great a risk and temptation to be used illegally to the average guy. The reason more deer aren't killed this way with rifles, slug guns and ML's is the tell tale BANG of the gun .. it gives them away, and is enough of a deterrence for the average guy to not "risk" it. A crossbow hunter has no such deterrence ...

SilentAssasin .. I hope for all our sakes you reported those poachers you were aware of.