if it came down to it I would rather split the difference with the gun season and loose some bowseason - and give the x-bow their own season. Much rather that than have them running around all bow season.

And heck, if they do get their own season, take a guess on who will go out and buy one to hunt in that season yup you guessed it.

Bowfanatic, you call it selfishness. When you' ve only got one month of bow season and have been fighting off incursions by gun hunters into that one month for years, I call it survival. Even now, we have to share the last weekend of our season with a youth gun season. We managed to mobilize enough public support to get it limited to that. They wanted EACH weekend of bow season.

Sure, you can hunt with a bow in any general season here, but only if you have the stones to go and try to hunt with guns popping all over the place and bullets whizzing past your ears. I' ve had to belly crawl to the nearest ditch or tree way too many times over my lifetime.

And your memory of where all those bowhunters came from back in the 70' s is a bit different than mine. Before, you could go all season and not see another hunter. As soon as compounds were legalized, you' d run into 5 or 6 hunters every time you went out. Now it' s gotten to the point there' s a yayhoo in every tree and behind every bush in my old stomping grounds.

The sad thing is that we' ve got more bowhunters than ever, but the local archery clubs are all going downhill as far as membership and participation. Nope. These guys are NOT archers.

I can pretty easily imagine what it would be like when they finally legalize crossbows here.

this ole horse has been dead for a long time. LOL

Nub, if you' re still eating popcorn, you be " regular" for the rest of your life!

Arthur, thanks for clarifying where you stand. I don' t agree with your stance on compounds, but at least I can respect where you are coming from.

Hunting faces several challenges. Two of the biggest, in my opinion, are fewer place to hunt due to urban sprawal, and declining number of younger hunters. Compounds are not perfect, and are certainly easier to handle for a newbie than a stick bow. But the one thing that they do allow for is enabling newer hunters to be successful at a higher rate than they would be if using a traditional bow. Is that less " sporting" ? I don' t think so. What it does do is help to draw more hunters into the sport. We can argue about constitutes a bow until we are blue in the face; the fact is P&Y already did that. And according to them, xbows don' t qualify. What I don' t like about the let-off rule is that by P&Y' s own definition, a compound is a compound. But, now they decide that 65% is the high water mark. Why 65%? Why not 50%? Or 70%? Why make an arbitrary...and it is purely arbitrary...distinction like that? A hunter still has to draw the bow, turn while holding his sight on the target, and make a good shot. The fact that additional let-off might give a hunter an extra 8 or 10 pounds of relief while holding at full draw is not of great consequence, given everything else the hunter must do to harvest the animal.

I' ll give ya that one Arthur! A one month season does seem short. I assumed most archery only seasons were similar to ours (three months +). In a state like yours I would rally for a xbow season after gun season or combined with muzzleloader season. But , you have to admit selfishness plays a huge role in the majority of the anti xbow folks.


Btw , Rack Atack

I' d be running out and buying a xbow too if that happened! I' d love to add another weapon to my arsenal.

Rack' s doing a pretty good job of covering one of my main reasons for NOT wanting crossguns in the archery season. But beginning this year, MD' s going to let them in with NO restrictions--don' t have to be handicapped or nothin' ! [:@] In one of my areas, I' ve run into a couple of crossgun carrying yahoo' s who weren' t at all handicapped and occassionally slipped in to " try and shoot something." I didn' t see them much becuase they knew they were taking a chance and knew I had game wardens looking to catch them. NOW, they can go in without any worries--them and all the other lazy ones who won' t go through all the effort required to become accurate with a bow--and stay that way.

I have a friend who hunts with a crossgun. He pulls it out a couple days before the season, shoots a couple bolts and then claims he' s good out to 60 yards for the season!

bogobble ain' t it great to live in arkansas!
[:-]

I think after reading this thread i am implementing a new rule in my hunting club.
No only bowhunters! as a matter of fact i think i will ban bows from my leases!
crossbows only![]

It must be rough living in some states to have such a turnout on opening day of bow season that you can' t get a place to park! geez if them arrows made booms it would sound like shock and awe!

But i will have to say my man bogobble said it!


kevin1 if your ever in arkansas i' ll have a crossbow hunting club soon!

Well I use a CROSSBOW & i' m damn proud of it and not afraid to admit it!!!!!!!!! Furthermore, i' m sure glad that I live in a country where I can use my CROSSBOW in the Archery season as it is a BOW & ARROW and is classed as such!!!! [:-] Also....I do not have to nor will I waste my time justifying to the closed minded neanderthals on this board & else where that believe CROSSBOWS are not in the ARCHERY family!!!!!!!! [] Have a good one all.........Brampton Mike [8D]

Good going Brampton Mike. I am all for it. Until these crossBOW haters stop using their compound bows and go to stick and string only then they have no business condeming them. I really don' t think that compounds belong in archery season because you don' t have to hold the FULL draw weight. So until they have a special compound archery season crossbows should be and are allowed I am happy for it. I don' t use a crossbow but use my Darton Maverick and love it. But keep getting $%#$^$% off about this topic.



Nub I am out of pop corn, you have any left

Brian