MA Jay so dogs are allowed in restraunts and crossbows are allowed in archery season then ? May take a piece of paper (or dark sunglasses) but fact remains crossbows are legal archery equipment in NH.

Now Cougar - you might have noticed before me pointing at myself saying I wasn't as trad as I could be, and that the only REAL archers are self bowyers. Or did you ?

If I took the stand ya'll are taking (that my personal choices are as far as technology needs to be taken and everyone else be damned you better use what I use) then it would be SOOOOOOOOOOOO easy to hate compounds and all that they stand for, wouldn't it ? Its be SOOOOOOOOOOOO easy to take an elite attitude that because I shoot trad I'm better than you.

Hey, wait, thats what YOU GUYS are doing ! I'm a compound shooter, I'm better than crossbows. Don't let THEM into MY season. Put a little effort and work into your archery, shoot a compound, not the lazy man's way out and shoot crossbows.

Do you honestly not see that huge contradictions ? Do you not also see the parallel in views on who's better depending on what YOUR choices are ? Don't you see that it really doesn't frickin MATTER if crossbows are legal, that states such as AR,OH and GA have proven in the past 3 decades of honest to goodness 100% REAL stats that crossbows are not bad ?

And yeah, I shoot the recurve I currently shoot because it shoots best for me. I'm not to the level of self bowyers, but I am far removed from the days when I shot crossbows and far from the days when I shot compounds. I'm making it MORE difficult by the choice I make. If I wanted to kill deer I'd shoot a compound in archery season - they afford me the best chance at doing that and in fact, thats exactly what i did when I was in Kansas, but I chose that more for fear of wounding/missing.

I know why I choose my equipment - why don't ya'll belly up here and admit you choose compounds because they're easy ?

It's what youv'e done since I've been around this forum!! As datamax , as Stealthycat , or whatever different name you use , the message has always been the same!

Still waiting for your answer on this...

Again , what is the negatives of allowing crossbows in a seperate season?

i am not going to read through 26 pages of this argument however i think that cross bows should only be allowed after the bow season during muzzeloader. that is the way it is here in PA and i couldn't agree more.

where cross bows are far from being anything like hunting with a gun they are also nothing like a bow in my mind. traditional or compounds are what BOW season should be for. just like guns have their own seasons Xbows should to and it shouldn't be during the bow season. hell they have scopes on them and are more like a rifle then a bow in my mind

i know disabled (sp) people use them and that is great however like i said before it shouldn't be during bow season.

WHAT if you were 12 and where to weak to draw a bow back and couldn't pull the xbow sting back dose that mean it is okay to use a rifle during the bow season? i think not

Hunting seasons are by design used to (A) manage herds while at the same time (B) maximize the enjyment of the hunters. Longbows/recurves have minimal impacts - archery as a totoal combined have minimal impacts but much more so that before the compounds. Compounds have flooded archery season with undedicated hunters who do not want to spend the time to learn to shoot a real bow (thats what your argument is, isn't it ? I'm simply taking its application to compounds)

But regardless, your crazy suggestion would also result in the ban of hunting with handguns (few use them) and singel shot rifles (few people use them). In fact, unless you shot the most common weapon used to kill animals with, under your ridiculous reasoning you could wave them away - right ?

Of course not - thats not logical though. I don't think you even put much effort into dreaming that flimsy thing up


I've posted them already. First you're asking to create a new season, say 4-6 weeks when the weeks just are not there in most states. And crossbows are already legal for handicap hunters, and we know that they have no negative effects in AR, OH and GA and others. You're also sayin gin essence that bowhunting doesn't need new bowhunters, that theres not strength in numbers and that the addition of crossbow hunters wouldn't be a good thing. A seperate season is unneccessary - are you wanting a seperate compound season too ? A seperate handgun season ? Take ti down to the manufacturer ..... we could have a Mathews season, a Bowtech season (not many deer would be killed in this one ), a martin season .............

Theres a few points to ponder anyway.

I choose compounds b/c it is what I know. I'm 28. When I started bowhunting at 13, compounds were already the rage and you couldn't find a recurve within 100 miles of here.

I enjoy shooting my compound. I have no desire to change. Sure, it would be "cool" to shoot a deer with recurve. But beyond that I have no boyhood fantasies of running through the woods with stick and string playing cowboys and indians.

BWWWWWAAHHHHAAHAHAHHHAAAAAAAAAAA !!!

Compound had no place in archery seasons. The forefathers of archery fought for archery season and compounds invaded them and took over like no one ever thought possible.

And look how many people neglected to state why they use compounds ?

Because the answer is - its EASIER. Compounders want easier - they don't give a rats behind about them being vastly easier than traditional bows - but they don't want anyone else to have easier than they deem easy enough. Aint that amazing ?

Now we have anti-handicap sentiments ? Those are the ones I really like, statements that bash handicap hunters for doing whatever they need to to enjoy october archery hunting. Wow ......... that quote says a lot, doesn't it ?

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I'm 35 and I started to change at 32. Why ? I picked up my bow, went to the back yard after 9 months of not shooting it, and drilled arrow after arrow into the kill zone. What the #%@$#%# ? That was suppose to be tough - it wasn't. It was suppose to be fun - it wasn't really. I drew, placed the pins, held as long as I wanted to, released and the arrows stacked right in there.

Any one of you compounders could put your bows down for months and pick them up cold and shoot killing shots no problem. You know it, I know it.

And all the bells and whistles and new mathews and hoyts and all the radical horizontal limb technology (where BTW the limbs don't even function to ammount to anything anymore) etc etc - they're designed to make shooting EASIER with less practice. FASTER, QUIETER - more accurate .......... its what people want. Its what compounder demand.


Its what compounders don't want others doing unless its their way. Their way or the highway huh guys ? Forgetting all along that recurve/trad shooters allowed YOUR bows in at one time huh ?

I put about as much effort in it as you did in this attempt to again slam compounds every chance you get! It got the result I figured it would too! You get a little testy and insulting when it's your chosen weapon mentioned in the "ban" sentence , dontcha?

Why wouldn't a seperate season for x-bow add more hunters??? If your going to debate logically , dont assume to just your benefit!! Who says a new seperate season for x-bows wouldn't draw more hunters?

Thats your best arguement for a seperate season? "It's unneccessary"

You can whine and bellow until your blue in the face. Anyone with a lick of common sense knows that a crossbow and compound aren't even close in classification.

Can anyone here shoot their compound lying on their belly like a snyper and hit what their aiming at? Didn't think so!
How many people here bowhunt out of their gun box blinds? How many could with a crossbow?
How many here can draw on a deer with their compound and have the deer stop before the opening , let down , and draw again without being detected? Not a problem with a crossbow is it?

Now since your so gung ho on pointing out that a compound isn't archery gear either maybe you'd like to throw some scenarios my way that totally seperates the compound from traditional gear? You want to debate the two (compound vs traditional) so lets avoid all the other crap and get right down to it. Dont use the "EASIER" crap either because you choose to use some of the same "bells & whistles" on your recurve and each choice has EASIER aspects to it.
What makes a compound bow "non archery" equipment?

Because I just happen to find compound shooting just as FUN and ENJOYABLE as I do trad gear!! Is that so hard to understand?

HUH? Rifle hunters count as bowhunters? Not sure where you're going here, guy.

Why would you consider it a good thing for rifle hunters to also bowhunt? Are you (again) trying to make the argument that it is because hunting is on the decline that we should allow more liberal seasons and a wider variety of weapons?

Bowfanatic, this is an excellent example of how the two are different, however please let me explain now how they also are different and similar ok.

First, it is pretty well known that a crossbow has an effective range out to 40yd tops! probably in the real world of hunting 30yds is more like it. So given that information, I think it would be pretty hard to crawl your way up to within shooting range on a deer to make a kill shot don't you? Can be done but you must be a pretty skilled hunter if you ask me.

Next, with a crossbow you have only one shot. I know I have missed a deer before and killed it with a second shot. Dosen't happen often but it does happen. With a crossbow you get one chance and only one so you must be very sure of your shot and confident in your ability. Again a pretty skilled hunter no?

If you ask me I think that makes the two different as well but with the easy edge going to the compound bow shooter. you still have to track stalk and read sign the SAME way as you would a compound bow. If fact I think the hunting approach would be EXACTLY the same as a compound bow hunter. So you must be just as skilled to hunt with and be succsessful with a crossbow as with a compound maybe even better because your range is not as far and you only have one shot (huh? a skilled hunter with a crossbow...some of you would rather die than admit that.)

Now as far as similarities go it is obvious and irrefutable. They both have limbs that store energy, they both use a type of arrow and both use a string to propel it.

Then you can also say that both use some type of trigger mechanism. both use the same type of sight (and I have seen red dots on compounds too)

Now I know they are not the same but they are closer to a compound bow than a firearm. I don't care if there is a sepatate season but I do know that the firearm and or compound bow people who's season is shortened to make a separate one for crossbows will not be happy at all. So if you have to pick one, the logical season would be the archery season. And I can see no reason why the different types of bows can't all be used in the same season...none.

BOWFANATIC - Lets make a handgun season, seperate fromrifle hunters. Yeah, yeah, thats it, and we'll also make an inline muzzleloader season seperate from caplocks, and shotguns seperate from everything else ....... we'll have like 15 different weapons season. Aint that a grand idea ? Its what ya'll are suggesting - create another archery season for bows - right ?

How about we lop off 2/3's of the archery season and give to crossbows - good idea ?


I can shoot my recurve lying down, out of a box blind and don't even start on drawing before the deer gets inposition to shoot compared to a recurve !

So because I can do those things, and your bow doesn't, we should create a compound only season ? Or a recurve season ? What was your point ?

Uh........... have you LOOKED at your compound lately ? They don't even function like a recurve does anymore in the way they produce energy, they way they're drawn or their performance. But techically, they're still bows. Compounds most certainly ARE archery gear - just vastly different than recurves and crossbows ? Just another different bow.

You might ........... but your compound also allows you to shoot farther, faster, more accurately and with less practice. You can draw and hold, you got the trigger, the sights, the gizmo's and gadgets .......... I've been there, I might be there again, I KNOW how easy compounds are. You forgot to mention all those qualities.

My new gif image is what I did to you on the coffee thread vc

But absolutely, if you're a rifle hunter, go out in September and buy a bow, and kill a deer the first day of archery season you've just been tagged a bowhunter and have entered the statistics as a bowhunter. Itd be nice if, since you're bowhunting, you'd join a bowhunting club. You'll likely love it, and shoot 3D maybe, and certainly you'll be sucked into buying a bunch of bowhunting stuff. Come rifle season, you'll likely try and fill another tag or two with your trusty .270 but still, you've added to the ranks of bowhunting by participating in archery season.

Fred Bear coined the two season hunter idea 4 decades ago VC - and he was right in doing so. Until you can show me where increase in bowhunting numbers has a negative effect, than yes, I think increasing bowhunter numbers is a good thing. The anti-hunting forces of this world increase their numbers and someone has already mentioned that hunting participation is on the decline.

And I don't think I ever made the argument that " because hunting is on the decline that we should allow more liberal seasons and a wider variety of weapons? ". I may have referenced that but thats not my argument. Its an added bonus sure but not my core argument.

My core argument is that crossbows are seen to be bad because they are easy to shoot, they don't require a lot of effort to master, they have a different design but are still bows shooting arrows. Yet that is EXACTLY what compound are and in fact, the accuracy, mass weight, maneuverability etc etc of the compound makes them arguably a BETTER hunting weapon. Tack on that in AR, OH etc etc theres never been a single negative come from them being legal and you just gotta ask yourself ........... why NOT allow crossbows ?