[quote]ORIGINAL: muzzyman88

I'm seriously against anyone who is healthy and can pull a normal bow from using them. I have no issues with disabled persons or even older people who can't physically pull a normal bow anymore.

I agree....I wish NY would at least change their laws to allow crossbow. I hunt with a 72 y/o and a 77 y/o hunter their whole lives and they can no longer pull a bow back. Why should they give up bow hunting????

Davidmil...I hear NY Bowhunters is the main reason no legislation will be passed in this state! That is a real shame that they blockedthebill to introduce disabled and elder hunters bow hunters.

Things may be great in AR. I know it works in OH. Here in PA most of the guys toting crossbows are perfectly capable of shooting a compound, but too lazy to practice. Solution, buy a crosssbow. If they are too lazy to practice with a bow do you think they will take the time to learn the capabilities of a crossbow, what shot angles to take, how to estimate range, proper tracking techniques? Nope, they hunt just like they gun hunt and they don't do that effectively either. SLOBS

I read a couple years ago 55% of Ohio's archers hunt with crossbows. 45% a vertical bow. Something like 15% hunt with both however.

C'mon man, listen to yourself. Here in the USA most of the guys toting compounds are perfectly capable of shooting a longbow, but too lazy to practice. Solution, buy a compound... You're making some pretty bold and unfounded accusations against a lot of your fellow sportsman. Given that PA doesn't even allow xbow hunting, what are you basing these wild accusations on? Hearsay. No better than PETA. IMHO.

I usually have enough sense to not let anything said on these forums get to me anymore, but comparing me to PETA straight up pisses me off. You need to do your homework son before you start spouting off. I live in the SE zone where crossbows have been legal to anyone willing to buy one for the last several years. When it happened I kept an open mind and welcomed my new archery brothers to the sport. Since then I have been sickened by what I have seen. Shots taken at horrible angles, deer left dead because "it's just a doe", wounded deer lost due to a lack of tracking knowledge, ridiculously long shots being taken, and I could go on. These are things I have been around first hand. The stories I have heard that would be hearsay are worse. One of the guys that I share a property with is disabled and uses a cart and a crossbow and he is constantly justifying his use of a crossbow to me because he knows what slobs the other crossbow users are. I tell him not to worry about it because I know he is a hunter and not what those guys are.

Perfect example, we are hunting a property with a couple of guys a friend of mine knowsand one guy with a crossbowis in a woodlot along the field. He has us push out a patch and a great looking 9 point bucks runs out to him.My buddysees the buck from 100 yards away as he enters the field and runs past the crossbow toter. He thinks to himself, "man that deer is far from the woods." Just as he thinks that TWANG! My buddy goes right to where the deer was standing and the crossbow guy says "I just missed him. He must have been at 40 yards." My buddy pulls out his range finder and ranges the guy, 72 yards.[:@]

You want to hear some more wild accusations??? I'm not going to tell you how things are in Alaska, so don't try to be so presumptuous as to tell me how things are in PA. Again, not everyone that hunts with a crossbow is like this, but the vast majority in this state are. SLOBS Do not call them fellow sportsmen. It is an insult to the rest of us.

Don't speak of what you don't know of.

Here are a couple of FACTS about crossbows. I own a CB, and a compound. I've killed plenty of deer with both. Once you have a scope mounted CB "sighted in"you really don't have to practice with it. It will remain deadly accurate (I shoot half dollar size groups constantly)much like a gun. That's an advantage.This isn't the case with a compound bow that you need to practice with to keep your muscles toned, and your eye on.
A crossbow is NOISY, and you will almost never get a second shot at a deer with it, like you sometimes can with a compound. That's a disadvantage.A bolt from a CBwill not keep on a flat plane for the distance that an arrow will from a compound bow.That's a disadvantage. You can shoot later in the evening with a CB because of the light gathering properties of the scope. Advantage. You don't have to draw a CB and possibly spook deer. Advantage. You can hold a CB until the cows come home, and still shoot it accurately unlike the compound. Advantage. I could go on further, but I think you get the idea.There is an overall advantage to usinga CB, it's that simple. I personally don't care that they will probably become legal to use during regular archery season here in Pa because there's nothing I can do about it. So we will have to co-exist with them, like it or not. Sorry to be the barer(sp) of bad news.
I am not saying I will never hunt with my CB again, but for now I'm shooting only my compound because I killed too many deer with my CB in a short span of time, and found it a little too easy. These are all things I learned from shooting BOTH weapons.

Serious question.....how is this the weapon's fault?

People link weapon's to slob hunters I don't get it....instead of fighting against weapons to be used....why don't people fight for competence tests or something? Crossbows don't hunt on their own. These same guys could just as easily be out there with a compound...and if they are too lazy to practice with any weapon, I for one would WANT them to be using the most efficient and "easy" weapon...less chance of wounding animals (although Im not even sure crossbows are that much easier and more accurate.

I'm with David on this one...I feel like crossbows almost may be a hinderance. Sure you don't have to draw on the shot, but then....when hunting woods, who CAN'T get to full draw? Just pull back when it is behind a tree from you. I see each weapon having its positives and negatives. Crossbows being more efficient is BS though.



For all Crossbow haters...If used by responsible hunters, are you still against their use? (or is it just the slob hunting skills used by the stereotyped "crossbow hunter"?)

Seriously.......Speak of what you know.

I'm trying to not allow my head to explode believe me.......my Dad is heading in for surgery Mondayand I don't want to be on a table next to him.

Heavyloud-ass bolt lobbers of 10-12yrs agoand even 5-6yr old crossbows do not compare to the weapons available today.
To say today's offerings are not easier, more efficient or accurate for deer is not only wrong it'soff the chartssilly.
As you all know I handle some of the most powerful of them on a regular basis, if you haven't shot one of the 2008 or 009 models.........yeah brother it's an eye opener [:-]. Groups I could only dream of at 75 yards with enough KE at that range for the biggest mechanical heads.
Some of them carry more energy at 100yds than my 70# 30" draw length will give me at point blank with my compound. THAT IS A FACT.
This notion of "They are less efficient" or "Carry less" is flat out nonsense when you speak of the top end stuff.

Its no secret I'm against them in PA, we've beat that horse to a pulp so I won't be baited into anotehr long drawn out argument.
If it works for your little Podunk state somewhere great, you guys enjoy em. PA is a MONSTER and by the sounds of it the monster is about to rear it's ugly head.[&o]

I hope I'm wrong but my gut, experience hunting inTHIS state for 24yrs, extreme first hand knowledge of the products and the attitudes of the hunters here tell me otherwise.

I know of 3 rifle hunters who have never bowhunted a day in their lives (one is my 1st cousin) who actually told me they will buy a crossbow the second it passes because as they admit "It's just like my rifle, I don't have time for all that archery crap but I understand rifle scopes".

You guys who want to rationalize why we should all be banding together and singing campfire songs have no idea.
I have to listen to an almost daily basis of horror stories of shots taken and deer wounded and/or lost by "Regular Bowhunters" who supposedly know what they are doing even from my ARCHERY club.
I would certainly hope any change in the regulations would be followed by mandatory bowhunter education to show the rifle only guys that a shoulder blade isn't a trarget, and combine it with sound blood trailing instruction but I can guarantee that will never happen.
They'll simply pass it, applaud the $$$ gains, drop the flag on the butchering and shorten the archery season for all of us.
But as it will be pointed out in the personal attacks on my view.......what do I know that some guy from Arkansas or Ohio can't already tell me about hunting here.

I am not kidding, if it passes the year prior might bethe last PA archery license I ever buy.

So if crossbows are the rifles of archery, why not allow these slob archers to use the fae superior killing weapon?

Just to make sure I read this right, you will no longer hunt your home state if crossbows are allowed?

You have the ability to read, so read it correctly and answer your own question.