It is the BUCK KILL numbers we are concerned with here. If the kill climbs too high, the gun hunters will complain, and a shorter season will result.
The irony is that the influx of x-gun hunters will be from thepresent gun hunters.

from what i saw at dicks/gander mtn,many bought crossbows already and also in-lines.

here locally, the meat doe hunters wait for early in-line season.
i was shocked at how many old farts bought a in-line even tho they can hunt with gun for 3 days in oct.

why, because you can hunt for a week with in-line,just that little difference sold all those in-lines.

if it was easy to get deer ALL year, i think a lot of these different weapons would not be used.

but its not easy now and i know hunters that spent over 2000 dollars just on weapons, in-lines/crossbows/flintlocks.

they are same hunters i sdat with and said.

HEY SPROUL,I SHOT 32 GROUSE LAST YEAR ROAD HUNTING,BOY DID I GET MEAT LAST YEAR.

well my answer was, HEY ROAD HUNTER BOY,HOW MUCH GAS DID YOU USE TO GET THOSE 32 GROUSE,TURKEYS ARE 99 CENTS A PD AT BI-LOS AND I ESTMATE YOU COULD HAVE BOUGHT 69 TURKEYS FOR WHAT YOU SPENT ON GAS

you should have seen face, thinking in his mind,thinking, thinking, thinking,


well, they dont think at all,he thought he was paying for his license and getting free meat.

real KNOTHEADS

I forget the exact amount,but I think muzzleloader stamps doubled when inlines were legalized.It still didn't matter though because the allocations will determine the harvest.Crossbows are a different story because bucks will be legal.Without regulating the number of tags or hunters,that could potentially increase the pre-rut harvest,thus shortening the season.However,It won't impact the overall buck kill much because we're still killing the same percentage of bucks each year.Chances are,that buck that would be killed with acrossbow,would have been killed by someone with a rifle if it lived another month.It's all about preserving the intergrity of bow season and not jeopardizing it's length.

I had some perosnal issues this year with crossbows so I know where you're coming from on that front.I also share your disdain for roadhunters.

i sight in crossbows here in my area for friends and their friends,something i enjoy.

i have horton for longtime,i love to shoot it in yard..

i do it in my basement for hunters, so i get to talk to a lot about how they are hunting or going to hunt.

a lot think they are heavy, they are too.
a lot think because scope says 60 yds,it will shoot 60yds.
a lot get hurt using them, i had 3 senior hunters that hit themselves in mouth right in front of me in yard.their foot slipped out of the stirrup in front while pulling stringand butt him them in mouth.everyone had bloody tongue from biting.

1 young guy shot his unloaded right in front of me, i looked at limbs and there was split,unreal.that cost him 125 dollars.

2 others came in with tips of their finger missing, yes, they put their fingers on top of rail when they got excited in woods,shot, took tip of finger off.


cheap crossbows are junk.

barnetts are one that are at bottom but if not shot too much, they are fine.horton/excaliber/10 point are good.


btb said a correct thing, CLASSES SHOULD BE HELD BEFORE ANYONE USES A CROSSBOW.

trust me, there is and are a lot of injurys to us and too the deer by people that dont practice and learn with crossbow.

that has been my biggest complaint, wounding deer with long shots thinking bow is a gun.

According to others with more hunters in the woods the buck will
go nocturnal and then noone would get them so the buck kill wouldnt
be too high i think the bigger problem is somebodys worried others can get their trophy

I found this on another MB and I don't know if it is true since I no longer get the PGN. can anyone verify this?

Yes that is close, but some of the dates goes as far back as 1983 so it's not just 2002-2008, there were 206 with a bow and 91 with a gun.

An assinine comment as x-guns are already allowed in the sra where I bowhunt. I'm truly concerned with season length.

The devil is always in the details. Thanks for posting that clarification.

I to am worried about the season length bein shorten but IMO that
alone shouldnt be the question on crossbows it should be are they enough
like a bow to be a bow they do have a string and bolts/arrows i do wonder
how much of an advantage they have. if pgc doesnt allow them i wont cry
if they do allow i wont cry.
to me if a crossbow is considered a bow it should be legal if it does end
up makein the archery season shorter yes that will stink but if they are bows so be it