You almost had me, but your persistance, and lack of tact in trying to "sway" our opinions leads me further and further away.

Perhaps if you had approached this with a totally different attitude I would have changed my mind and welcomed crossbows into the season.

But this constant comparison to the compound bow, and the way in which you have repeatedly slandered compound users, simply discourages me from listening to any of what you have to say. As if Im to feel guilty for using an "easy" weapon.

I use the most challenging weapon that I can. One that I know I can still competently harvest game with, with little or no fear of wounding an animal. Infact, perhaps its time to introduce crossbows, and rid the world of traditional equipment. Im willing to bet the wounding rate with a recurve or longbow is higher than that of a compound, if the number of users was equal. So lets get rid of these simplistic sticks and strings. Thank them for paving the way for ARCHERY, and then shoo them on their way to the archery grave. After all, by continuing to use them, we increase the opportunity to wound animals. You said it yourself, they are the most challenging weapon to hunt with. We did away with spears, perhaps its time to step away from the stick and string. I mean, there is nothing stopping a hunter who passes the test with a compound to go out and buy a longbow afterwards. Only he himself has to deem himself fit to loose arrows at game. Infact, how do we know you are proficient enough with your weapon of choice to loose arrows at deer, elk, and pronghorn? You say it takes tremendous amounts of practice to be proficient, yet you spend more time on the computer typing about it, than you could possibly spend honing your shooting skills with it.

See its not so nice when someone picks on your weapon of choice! Is it?

If you really wanted to change our minds you would have went about all of this in a different manner.

This post was started with two things in mind, instigating an argument, and to show how high and mighty traditional hunters are. You may have wanted to push for crossbows as well, but that was really just the opportune topic for your belittling of the compound and its users.

Please dont explain to me as if Im a child either, or by ripping my post down to sentences, trying to convince me that isnt true.

If it were not true, you would have started out this thread with something more along these lines.

"Guys and gals, they have allowed crossbows into my states archery season for X amount of years. We havent had any negative effects since the introduction, and I just thought that I would share that with you in hopes that you can give them a fair chance. Perhaps its time all states give crossbow users a chance to hunt in the archery season. If its anything like here, it wont effect you at all.

Have a good one---DataMax"


Have a good one---Matt