Silent wrote-
Excellent question you just posed there, "What would the sport have benefitted?" by allowing your wife to not have to practice with a bow and become profecient with it. Instead of the sport requiring your wife to work at developing the strength, accuracy and profeciency with a bow, let's allow her to use a different and easier weapon. Silent, I'm not sure how you were introduced to hunting, but for me it was a series of steps and milestones that did not allow for my instant gratification. My father did not allow me to carry a shotgun bird hunting, until I could consistently hit clay birds at the range, I couldn't hunt deer with my own rifle until I passed my hunter safety test and spent time learning the sport at his side. If you were serious about introducing your wife to the "sport" of archery, you would have taught it to her and made it fun and embraced it's challenges. If she was not physically up to the task, she could hunt in 1 of the gun seasons, or just accompanied you afield enjoying the woods in the fall. What you are saying is that if the "sport" is to hard, make it easier.... so if your son or daughter can't hit a home run in baseball or softball, do you make the teams bring the outfield fences in? Give them a "special" bat or "special" ball? If your child wants to play on the varsity football team in front of the town each weekend but does not possess the skill to make the starting team do you "make" the coach play them? Do you create an "extra" position that is unique for them? If you wanted to bowl with the best bowling teams in your area, but could hardly keep the balls in the lane .. do they allow you to put bumpers in the gutters? You know the answer is an ABSOLUTE no .... to all of them. If you want to introduce your wife to hunting, why not choose a firearm season where her learning curve would allow for her instant gratification?
Right now .. in 47 states if your wife wants to "archery" hunt, she would need a bow. Lucky for you, you live in 1 of the 3 states she doesn't .. or she may have walked away from the sport because it asked to much.

My opinion is that you didn't give yourself near enough credit there Data ... you claim the compound is so easy to shoot .. and even that with 30 shots you can become profecient with one. What about this-
There is why you could pick up your Dad's bow, you practice. From your own words, you practice a lot. People who don't practice as much as you do shooting bows could not pick up a bow for the first time and do what you do, because you have spent time learning and developing the skills to become an archer. There may be 1 out of every 100 guys who can pick up a bow for the 1st time and shoot well .. but the other 99 guys will have to do exactly what you do .. and that is PRACTICE and LEARN.

It is not a bad thing to have a sport that expects effort on the part of it's participants. No one here can pick up a golf club and hit a hole in one every time or even par a hole, that takes effort and practice. Want to finish a marathon .. go practice and train. Want to make the company softball team ... practice hitting and fielding, don't expect them to just let you play because you "want to".

Guys.... we're ARCHERS!!! We accept that our passion requires more effort and dedication than firearms hunting .. hell , we revel in it. It makes it more challenging and more rewarding because of it! WHY WHY WHY would we want to add an even easier and different weapon into that fold??? To make more archers? NO, because we don't think of crossbow hunters as archers. To allow more people to hunt?? We have told you a hundred times we think crossbow hunters should be able to hunt with them during their own or a firearm season.. so tell them to please come and hunt!

LOOK WHERE YOU ARE POSTING... the BOWHUNTING section of this site!!! For 47 states .. that means guys like me who only use bows. What were you expecting? You could have recieved a lot of support in a crossbow section .. oh, they don't have one of those....