Yes. They are also different than rocks, sticks, clubs, crude traps, cliffs, and other primitive weapons. I'm sure Cro Magnam could throw a mean stone and fell many a creature with his club. I bow to him. Obviously this means he was a much better hunter and much more in tune with the world than us inferiors who don't ever practice and only use compounds because we aren't as cool and adept. Anybody, even us lowly compounders, can 1) rest it on something 2) sight something in and keep it in the sight as long as we wish with almost no physical effort 3) use and move only a finger to release a projectile......Could we be talking about a gun? How about a crossbow? Think you could with a compound?

How about this revelation ........

A crossbow shooter likely can shoot a compound quite well after 30 minutes of shooting but not a recurve.
A compound shooter likely can shoot a crossbow quite well after 30 minutes of shooting but not a recurve.

A recurve shooter ? They can likely shoot a crossbow AND a compound with 30 minutes practice each.



Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm???????? huh ?

Unlike bows, crossbows have a disadvantage since they're not six shooters.

This whole thread is making me mental!

[:-]
I think shooting trad would be fun and challenging and I'm sure I, like most others on here, could get quite good at it. No big deal. Anybody putting the time in can get good at throwing rocks. I just wouldn't ever kid myself into thinking I was some archery god and superior to anybody who didn't do just as I did. I also know a crossbow is more like a gun. Apparently, alot of other people think so, also, since the LAW allows them during gun season. Oh, wait, their idiots too. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Wanna bet? I'd bet a week's check I can hit the 10 ring from 20 yards with a crossbow within 5 minutes.

Wanna bet again? Perhaps he might put a few shots into the target, but unless he is the Michael Jordan of archery, its going to take much longer than that to get him ready for deer season.

I have not shot a recurve bow since 1978, but I bet I can hit the kill zone of a deer size target with a recurve more times than the guy who shot the crossbow, who is now trying the compound bow, within that 30 minute time frame.

Bowfanatic,

I believe I answered your question. If you are asking about what the hunter is doing at the moment of the shot then be more specific. I will try to answer what you are getting at and that is (I think) that only one of the three have to be drawn at the moment or slightly before the moment of the shot.

I agree that the compound is the only one that needs to be drawn at the moment of the shot but that in it's self does not mean a crossbow is MORE like a firearm and less like a bow...do you understand what I'm trying to say? I think this is where we differ in our thoughts. My feeling is just because a crossbow doesn't have to be drawn at the moment of the shot dosen't mean it's still not a bow.

Below is the Webster's New World Dictionary Modern Desk Edition's exact definition of a bow as it pertains to the shooting kind.

Bow: a flexible curved strip of wood with a cord connecting the ends for shooting arrows.

Nowhere does it say that it must be drawn at the time of the shot. In fact if you notice it says WOOD and not fiberglass or carbon or any other type of material other than wood. So according to the dictonary unless your compound bow is made of wood it's not a bow at all.

My point is you can add all you want to the definition to make it fit your criteria of what you think a bow should be, but the bottom line is, the fact that you have to draw a compound back at the time of the shot and you don't with a crossbow does not make the crossbow any less a bow.

As I see it, it's as much a bow as the compound is and that's NOT AT ALL according to the dictionary.

Feel free to make up what you want, I will stick with the facts.

You better re-think your facts, here in Illinois it's during BOW season and the kills count as ARCHERY kills.

Please tell me how a crossbow is more like a gun than a bow.