RE: please tell me just one negative to crossbows
 

I see what you're saying, data.

I have to agree that it is interesting to make distinctions about how a given device is held or operated.

I live and hunt in Ohio. Although crossbows get no negative press, an awful lot of people consider a compound bow kill a bigger challenge than a crossbow kill.

With that in mind, in Ohio the crossbow has had no detrimental effect on the herd or whitetail hunting in general that I know of.

RE: please tell me just one negative to crossbows
 

I would say it is a bigger challenge ........ but not by much. Want a challenge ? Shoot a recurve/longbow. But most guys don't want THAT great a challenge, so they shoot compounds. They're comfortable with that decision, to shoot short range bows, all tricked out, and shoot them accurately without a lot of time devoted. Oh, some guys devote a lot of time, but most guys shoot a few shots in the weeks prior to archery season and thats that.

Hey, WAIT A SECOND ! Crossbow bowhunters do the SAME THING !

:D

RE: please tell me just one negative to crossbows
 

Datamax- as near as I can tell, there are 3 to 5 states that allow crossbow use legally for non-handicapped people during the archery season. So instead of your thinking that we, that being the archers who consider archery to only consist of conventional and compound bows, need to show you the "one negative to crossbows", it's you that needs to win over guys like me. Because the HUGE difference between your stance and mine is that I can hunt during archery season with my compound or recurve in ALL 50 states, but you can only hunt with a crossbow in 3 states legally during archery. Yes, many states make exclusion for handicapped, but guys like you and I who aren't handicapped, we need to use bows amd bows only in 47 states to hunt during archery season.

Think about it .. crossbows have been around for far longer than guns. Why haven't they been allowed as legal hunting weapons until just recently in most states? Guys have been hunting with bows, even compunds, legally during archery season for over 60+ years. Why not crossbows? If they are same or equal, why the exclusion if even today you and I can't use a crossbow legally in 47 states during archery season??

I don't know why crossbows were and are left off the list of acceptable "archery equipment" in almost every state .. and to be honest I don't care much. If crossbow hunters want access to archery season though I know one thing ... they'll have to become much better at convincing people than you, or the license lines in AR, OH and Ill will be filled with crossbow guys looking for tags .. while the woods in the early season in all the other 47 states will have treestands filled with bow hunters.

RE: please tell me just one negative to crossbows
 

Awefully good questions. Shall we explore them and try to find the answers ? Or are we going to say "well, thats the way it has been, so we'll just continue it" ?

The answers lie mostly in the progressions of the compound bow. Even the bows made 10 years ago don't compare ANYHING to like we see on the markets today. Do the limbs even more on the new Outbacks and Bowtechs ? Look at all the gadgets as well. Compounds have eclipsed what anyone could have imagined, haven't they ? And they're also responsible for archery season being as popular as it is. The ease in which compounds can be shot is not fiction - its fact, and its provable simply by looking at the stats.

So I suppose up until 10 years ago, maybe 15 years, the old P&Y hand held, hand drawn, in the presence of game blah blah blah might have been true to a point. But now ? With 85% letoffs, blazing speeds, ultra light, ultra quiet, triggered releases, and all the other gizmos and gadgets ? The bucket has been poked full of holes and the argument that compounds are harder don't hold water anymore.


Is that so ? Look at the responses on this thread alone. Severl guys stepping up saying hey, you know what ? Let those guys choose crossbows, won't effect me. 2 years ago even on this site you'd have not seen a single person saying that. would you have ?

G&F groups are realizing that AR, OH and the other states are seeing more involvement in archery season with legalization of crossbows - and they're legalizing them in their states much to the distress of compounders, which oddly enough required the same kind of forethought 40 years ago when they were legalized much to the distress of trad shooters.

Mississippi WILL legalize crossbows. So will LA, MO, IL, and all the other states in time. IF there is ever a negative impact, I am betting technology will be finally, at last, reigned in and there will be a seperationg of archery season (trad shooters) and high tech archers (compounds/crossbows) or they will make gadgets like triggered releases, sights, scopes etc etc illegal to try and take archery back a step. Just my ideas on what might come.

RE: please tell me just one negative to crossbows
 

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RE: please tell me just one negative to crossbows
 

Datamax - I agree that things are going to change in the near future, and do think crossbow hunters will get more and more opportunities available to them. I think that states like Maryland have the right answer in place already, a seperate Crossbow season that overlaps a portion of archery season. I don't think adding crossbows during a portion of archery season is going to affect harvest totals much, and if you can make up the difference in lost hunters with some new ones it may help some states meet management goals.

As I said before, they are viable hunting weapon that has a history for taking game ethically that goes back hundreds of years. I also don't dispute that a crossbow is not as effective as a compound, or even a long bow in the hands of a skilled archer. Hell, the English proved that almost a thousand years ago when the long bow smoked all the crossbow guys and armored knights back in medieval times.

Your point about "splitting" all the season up is a bit off though. Every other viable hunting weapon has already been accounted for. ML's, pistols, rifles, shotguns and bows all have their appropriate season. It's the crossbow guys that are left on the outside looking in.

RE: please tell me just one negative to crossbows
 

moose1915 - Gawd, tell me about it. They just don't know what reasoning is do they ? :D

RE: please tell me just one negative to crossbows
 

I'm not picking sides, i think youre ALL nuts!

;):D:):eek:

RE: please tell me just one negative to crossbows
 

Not in AR, OH, GA and a couple of others and handicap people can use them.

RE: please tell me just one negative to crossbows
 

I'm not going to say make the x-bow legal or not but I I think in Illinois it would have a limted effect of bringing more people into huntin. The main reason I say this is because Illinois has a growing number of people shooting in the archery season and a growing deer harvest every year via the bows that are currently legal. Now, I think if you were to legalize it you would see many of the two season hunters sell their bows and switch to crossbows because a lot of them do just own that bow for longer season. Perhaps a happy medium is what the bill is in the house right now in Illinois to allow hunters under the age of 18 to use an x-bow since some can't pull 40 pounds. That being said I think most 18 year olds could pull 40 pounds, I could as a 13 year old that weighed maybe 85-90 pounds and that was a old 50% let of Browning nomad that had to long of a draw for me (It was my brothers bow). Yes, I was a very skinny kid.
The only other thing that might make some continue to shoot longer is perhaps making them legal for folks over 70 or some other age. I don't know what would be approbriate on that side because there is such a variety of issues. THis would get rid of the doctors note, which in Illinois is about as easy to get as going to the doctor and asking for one.


Illinois used to have a seperate handgun Doe season in January but this year they allowed all firearms into the late 3 days season. Don't think it really mattered much but that is a lottery draw so it is possible not to get a permit which could force the handgunners out. That is not a nice thing either. Who knows what the future holds with that. With the new muzzleoaders around these days shooting out at 200 yards you will start wondering when the rifle hunters will start pushing for legalizing .444's rifles for hunting. Effective Range is probably less than the new inlines.