The states that allow handicapped hunters access to the ENTIRE archery season are on the right track. But some of you don't even want that, you would rather see them hunt in the gun season because of some selfish twisted logic that makes you think they are not BOW HUNTING! Do me a favor and the next time you see an old timer or a handicapped person with a crossbow walk up to them and tell them they to their face they aren't bowhunters.
BigJ ... a moving post. The reason they are allowed to use a crossbow is because they can't use legal archery gear any longer. We could debate the point that years of archery hunting mean they are a bowhunter still, just not able to use a bow. Or they are now a crossbow hunter doing the best they can with what they have .. and we should admire their effort. But I'll be the first and step up, they are not "Bow Hunting" any more.... I don't think less of them, or that they are inferior .. in fact I admire the zeal with which a challenged person attacks the woods when they no longer have the strength to archery hunt. I hunt each fall with 3 such guys. 2 still carry their bows .. and sit on a log and watch nature. Knowing they can't draw their bow any longer, but don't care about the harvest any longer. 1 guy uses a crossbow, my fathers uncle .. and yes, we all give him grief about it. As he says .. he may not be able to shoot a bow any more, but he stills loves venison. Of course he has not shot anything with it .. but he still goes. I don't think he is bowhunting ... but he is no less a hunter.
Why do you think the handicapped choose the crossbow over a gun? Because the HUNT is different! They want to be able to BOW HUNT.
That isn't exactly true. They grab a crossbow because it allows them to hunt a season they always have hunted. They would grab a gun if it was legal. They don't grab a crossbow because they think it "is" bowhunting, they grab a crossbow because it is the only weapon they can shoot that allows them in the woods ... as most true hunters would.