While I can agree with you and Datamax on many points, this is why I fight xbows in archery:
A. An increase in man days during bow season will 1) increase the harvest and 2) put more pressure on the herd.
True HOWEVER its not enough to effect archery season in any way, shape or form (see AR, OH and GA stats). The archery harvest BTW is made up in your state almost entirely of compound kills, isn't it ? Imagine if they banned compounds ......... you'd get longer seasons and more liberal bag limits, wouldn't you ? (just reversing your logic)
That will in turn piss off the gun hunters(THE MAJORITY OF HUNTERS) and they will lobby to shorten or do away with bow season.
Again, thats an old wives tale that has NEVER happened in states with crossbows legal in archery season.
While many gunners may elect to hunt with a xbow, it will never replace their love and choice of the gun, thereby, IMO, cancelling out any support gained for archery. The bottom line is this, if it hurts the gun season, it will not be supported by the main stream.
Bottom line it never HAS hurt gun season - do you even CARE about knowing the facts on how crossbows hasn't made these impacts in AR,GA,OH ??
B. Opens the door to other weapons and a future of multi weapon seasons across the board.
Gee, and the compound never opened those, did they ?