Why haven't they been allowed as legal hunting weapons until just recently in most states? Guys have been hunting with bows, even compunds, legally during archery season for over 60+ years. Why not crossbows? If they are same or equal, why the exclusion if even today you and I can't use a crossbow legally in 47 states during archery season??
Awefully good questions. Shall we explore them and try to find the answers ? Or are we going to say "well, thats the way it has been, so we'll just continue it" ?
The answers lie mostly in the progressions of the compound bow. Even the bows made 10 years ago don't compare ANYHING to like we see on the markets today. Do the limbs even more on the new Outbacks and Bowtechs ? Look at all the gadgets as well. Compounds have eclipsed what anyone could have imagined, haven't they ? And they're also responsible for archery season being as popular as it is. The ease in which compounds can be shot is not fiction - its fact, and its provable simply by looking at the stats.
So I suppose up until 10 years ago, maybe 15 years, the old P&Y hand held, hand drawn, in the presence of game blah blah blah might have been true to a point. But now ? With 85% letoffs, blazing speeds, ultra light, ultra quiet, triggered releases, and all the other gizmos and gadgets ? The bucket has been poked full of holes and the argument that compounds are harder don't hold water anymore.
If crossbow hunters want access to archery season though I know one thing ... they'll have to become much better at convincing people than you, or the license lines in AR, OH and Ill will be filled with crossbow guys looking for tags .. while the woods in the early season in all the other 47 states will have treestands filled with bow hunters.
Is that so ? Look at the responses on this thread alone. Severl guys stepping up saying hey, you know what ? Let those guys choose crossbows, won't effect me. 2 years ago even on this site you'd have not seen a single person saying that. would you have ?
G&F groups are realizing that AR, OH and the other states are seeing more involvement in archery season with legalization of crossbows - and they're legalizing them in their states much to the distress of compounders, which oddly enough required the same kind of forethought 40 years ago when they were legalized much to the distress of trad shooters.
Mississippi WILL legalize crossbows. So will LA, MO, IL, and all the other states in time. IF there is ever a negative impact, I am betting technology will be finally, at last, reigned in and there will be a seperationg of archery season (trad shooters) and high tech archers (compounds/crossbows) or they will make gadgets like triggered releases, sights, scopes etc etc illegal to try and take archery back a step. Just my ideas on what might come.