BOWFANATIC

I' ll have to agree with you there! It' s not P&Y' s fault. I guess you could say that my problem lies with all of the bowhunters who have made Pope & Young the overall authority on record book animals , so to speak! It saddens me that someone like Zaft could make more money off his buck during the short time he was even associated with Pope & Young (during the ruling) than Beatty has made off of the biggest whitetail deer ever harvested by man![:' (]

VAhuntr

Arthur P,
Good point about the length, I had forgotten about that! I guess all we can do is live with whatever happens!

Arthur P

Bowfanatic, it saddens me that people start seeing dollar signs and start thinking about all the money they could make when they look at a big rack. What if the next guy to shoot a potential world record buck is a hardcore primitive hunter and does it with all homemade stuff. How much money you figure he' d make? We' ve spiralled all the way down from honoring the animal to money... and that' s what I said this discussion was all about a long time back.

No Name

To me Bowhunting is not about let-off,P&Y,or even Buckmasters record book. It' s about enjoyment and enjoying the Great Outdoors. I don' t care what type of bow a person uses, as long as it' s legal where they hunt. Just hunt hard and ethical. And above hunt safe and have fun. If you want to have a buck in P&Y Record Book, then shoot a P&Y legal bow. If you don' t care about record books, shoot what you want.

Cougar Mag

What saddens me is that the animal is no longer honored so much as is the guy who took him!

Seeing big bucks taken these days does not seem as impressive as it once was. Once upon a time this was spoken by almost every bowhunter................." any deer taken with a bow is a trophy" .

It still takes good hunting skills along with some luck to take a nice buck but........its much easier to " kill" that buck these days.

121553

Intresting topic. I am strictly a trophy white-tail hunter. I am in trophy country as I had the state record whitetail within bow range two years ago, but thats another story, but in persueing my goal, its my responsibility to make sure that my equiptment is legal, within the state regs and that it meets P/Y regs and I did this prior to purchaseing my bow. As stated earlier all organizations have rules and guidelines, but at least you know the rules ahead of time if you want to play and if you can' t, then go else where, maybe B/C, BUT THESE ARE THE RULES IF YOU WANT TO PLAY BY P/Y. Buckmasters entry would be kinda like kissin your sester, Yucck, !!![&o] Bobby

Belle Island

Arthur, as always, a lot of truth and wisdom can be found in your posts. However, comparing my 75% let off to a crossbow is too much. I really can' t follow the comparison. Yes, I understand the 50#' s @ 80%, argument, I could hold that back for awhile, but that is still not comparable to xbow. You must remember not every hunter is accustomed to pulling a 60lbs+ stick with 0% letoff like you. The 80% would be cake for you at first, but eventually you would become soft and weak like the rest of us.

I bought my bow b/c it fit well. I was fully aware of the P&Y issues. I' m not advocating they change it, just don' t make me feel like a wuss for choosing over 65%. There is no unfair advantage in my eyes, and I' ve killed deer using both.

Arthur P

Belle Island, my friend, it ain' t me comparing your compound to a crossbow that you' ve got to worry about. It might be my personal opinion, but I' m also telling you the crossbow lobby is going to do exactly that when they stand before your legislators and game commissioners while lobbying their way into your bow season. That is exactly how they are going to get their foot in the door. If you can' t come up with a better freakin' argument than ' it' s no less challenging than 65%" , (which isn' t true at all or there wouldn' t be a market for the things) then prepare to scoot over and make room for a whole bunch of brand new friends because they will show that their crossbows are no less challenging than your 75% letoff bow.

Ask the fellas in Georgia if I' m not being square about it. They just got some new buddies last year.

That ain' t my fault. You' re making these guys sound like they wear white shirts with slide rules stuck in the pocket protector in their shirt pocket and have their glasses patched together with white tape over their nose. Pencil neck geeks! [&:]

Mahly13

Hopefully my last post on this thread.
an 80% let off is MUCH more removed from a cross bow than it is from a long bow.
You must be able to draw the weight.
you must hold the weight until the shot.
you must (99.9999% of the time) hold the bow up with your arms (vs.say sandbags)
80% let off bows can' t be accidentally fired while you fall asleep on the stand
it' s awfully tough to shoot yourself with an 80% let off bow (OK...maybe the foot...or draw with your feet or something idiotic like that).
simply put, any 1/2 way or better thinking person can see the differance between an 80% let off BOW, and a CROSSBOW! of course this DOES leave out politicians

Arthur P

Mahly, it' s the politicians you have to worry about. That' s why P&Y wanted to maintain that ' clear and demonstrable difference' between bows and crossbows. High letoff bows with mechanical releases really do blur the lines plenty enough to sway the uneducated. Good luck.

I' ve fought crossbows in my state for 30 years, going to public input meetings of the Parks and Wildlife Department, mailing letters and sending e-mails, but now I' m out of the battle until you guys come to your senses.

It' s odd that everybody hollers WE have to stick together on issues like crossbows, but over something like P&Y restrictions it' s ' old men wanting the old times to come back' or ' you belong on the trad forum' and such nonsense as that. As a group, you want support from the traditional community when it suits your purpose but you' re not willing to even listen in good faith to what they have to say on issues that affect us all. That is, when what they have to say isn' t what you want to hear.

It' s supposed to be give and take. Most of you guys are takers only. You take what you want FROM bowhunting but very, very few give anything back.

And that' s a plain fact.