LIfe is so unfair! EVERYONE should all be able to carry a machine onto the field to throw balls and make a few million dollars a year as an NFL quarterback. Those elitist football players with natural abilities, who work their tails off to improve those abilities, need to be chopped down to size.
You know, when I started shooting a bow I was a whopping 3 years old. I was hunting rabbits and squirrels with my bow when I was 6. It doesn't take a buttload of draw weight to kill small game. Practically any kid can handle a small game bow. Besides, small game gives a lot of action and the likelihood of making many shots in a day's time. That's the kind of thing kids love. Sitting on a treestand for hours at a time without so much as a glimpse of a deer when they're cold, tired, bored and hungry is a sure way to send the vast majority of kids right back to the Nintendo. The memory of that experience will keep many of them from ever trying it again.
A parent that is truly interested in getting his child into bowhunting should take the kiddo rabbit hunting instead of putting him/her up in a treestand. Peak his interest there and let the child grow into big game hunting as he or she matures - physically to the point where the child can handle a big game bow and mentally to the point where he/she is learning patience and concentration.
As a club officer over the past 20 years, spending many hours at the range, I've seen a great many kids turned off archery by overzealous parents. They set them up with the 'best' equipment they can buy, compound, sights, release, tricked out rest, carbon arrows... and then harp on them because their form isn't exactly 'right' or their concentration wanders and they shoot one of those expensive arrows off into the bushes. On the other hand, I've started a lot of kids out by handing them a bow I whittled out of a tree limb, a few wooden arrows, taught them the safety rules and basics of shooting, and then pretty much stand back and watch them shoot. I'm there to help them if they need it and to make sure they stay safe. Kids absolutely LOVE shooting at balloons. The look on their faces and the laughing leave no doubt they are enjoying themselves immensely.
When kids enjoy doing something, they will keep doing it. If they get bored or discouraged, then you can't force them to pick up a bow, ever again.
As far as the stuff about women not being able to draw a hunting bow and 'needing' a crossbow to hunt with, well... Say that to my wife and she'll slap the snot outta your sexist self.
datamax and I see the high tech compound exactly same way. I don't like the direction modern tackle has taken any more than he does. As far as I'm concerned, the technology could have - and probably should have - stopped dead in it's tracks in 1988. His defeatist point of view is, if we don't ban the compound, we might as well allow crossbows. While I might sympathize with the mindset, I realize that quite a few bowhunters are turning away from the compound because it has gotten too easy, even boring. As a result, we have a rapidly growing number of traditional and primitive bowhunters. So, I still have some level of optimism left. There is a growing backlash against all this technology that dm refuses to acknowledge.