There's plenty of verbal disgruntlement with the length of the archery season amongst gun-only hunters I know. "We," the archers, have too much time and access at the deer before they get their shot in December. I don't want to create a division amongst us hunter's, but let me tell you, it's there.

Ben, although they've been allowed through special regulations, I think you're going to see a greater number of those taking them up simply because of the duration of the season. You have to remember, many hunters in PA are weekend only, and often, only Saturday morning hunters. There's not near the motivation to take your crossbow out for a one or two day stint (assuming a one or two week allowance) as there is with a 6 week continuous season. Plus that 6 weeks hits key times to hunt the previous seasons didn't.

Wait.... Somebody said life WILL go on? How?
[&:]

If theydid that evenwith regular archery, we would probably havea lot less hunters afield.

the only problem with the bow hunter education course is i have heard it is VERY easy to shoot...i think like a pie plate at 20yds. just what i have heard. dont know how true it is...i havent made it yet...i was away working for the summer last time there was one near....hope to take it sometime though just to have it if nothing else

I wonder if NY will be next.....if it comes down to the $, I'm sure it won't be long. We are one of the last states holding out on crossbow. IMO, it should be up to the hunter. I personally won't use one yet because I am strong enough to pulled a bow back. We have 2 70 y/o guys at our camp thatwould be hunting if crossbows were allowed.They should be allowed for life long hunters like that.

Save your tears guys. A good hunter will remain a good hunter regardless of the weapon he carries.

I really hope that in a couple of years there will be empirical evidence that it made no difference in the quality of the more traditional bowhunters game.I'm betting the impact will be less tangible than a non-primitive arms ML season.

BOY!! What a surprise!!!!and I thought it was going to be shot down!!!!LOL!!!

Hatchet Jack

The archers afield would be a better representation of who we are as a group.

Good point!We would also have a lot less "can't find my deer" threads.

I saw this in the initial post as well and wanted to clear this up. 1X just refers to the "magnification" of regular view for the human eye.
So think of it as --- 1 times the power of human eyesight.. which is just human eyesight..
then ----- 2X is just really 2 times the power of human eyesight.. and so on..
Their is no such thing as 0X scopes or whatever. So 1X is human eye power most likely with a reticle (like for shotguns, etc) , then you can get 2X scopes which would just be twice the magnification of the human eyesight, and so on.. So in the end, crossbow users can use a scope, but it will be a 1X scope which does not magnify the view.. it merely gives them a reticle of some sort to shoot with..