bronko22000, your wasting your breath w/ this thread! The law is passed live w/ it, same as I've lived w/ no hunting w/ a Xbow on my ground for years!That is why it passed because the group of people were whining like a pack of old women at a tea party about all the criminals the PAGC was loosing into the woods w/ passage. The commisionershad the guts to vote their own minds and obviously researched enough to feel confident in that vote. Because they didn't vote your way the fix is in and they are kicking you in the balls and all sorts of things............now please guys, if you see a Xbow hunter in the woods, please turn and go the other way as it might be me. I do not want to hear you crying, blubbering and stinking up my now shared woods and ruining my now legal cross bow hunt. LCC, please pick me up in the El Camino on your way east on 70, we can stop at the Walmart and p/u our Xguns cheap and get to thepoachinin PA!!!!

On another note, I seesome of the ubp guys over on the bowsite and on hpa aresome diehard pgc butt-kissers. I see people blaming legislators even though THEY didnt vote in the crossgun. A couple were for inclusion and PLENTY were against it as well, so there was no unbearable pressure applied. SOme of the guys over there even blamed themselves for not beingquite polite and niceenough to Pallone for pete sake! (LOL)

Quit shmoozing fellas. Youve been had.UBP supported the deer plan even thoughthey probably knew it was a joke, just sothey might benefit in other areas. Now they've been thouroughly screwed and stabbed in the back for their efforts, just as the rest of us bowhunters have. With the deer issue and now this. Place the blame where its due on the exact same idiot commissioners and move on. You have nothing further to gain by arsekissing. Our fight with pgc over crossguns is disgustingly over, attention should now be directed on the rediculous treehugger movement dictating our game management.

Sorry buckhunter1. Respect is earned. Not given to those who beg for it.

As for pgc voting, the pgc had no business voting "their minds". They arent biologists, which they didnt need to be, this was supposedly a social issue not a biological one. Social issues have public input in many forms and should be 100% majority rule. Not 4 antideer money grubbing commissioners rule.

I do believe the majority of hunters in PA. wanted Xbows. There are way more gun hunters than bow hunters. I know before I used a bow that I always wanted to hunt with a Xbow. I know there are waymore gun hunters who also agree with me on that. So I do believe this is what the majority of hunters wanted in your state.

Really?

(actual minutes from the meeting, from commisioner Boop)

Commissioner Boop:

I intend to vote no.

Stated that for two years he was the President of the BOC. In that position he controlled the dissemination of information to the BOC. In that time he never saw crossbows on the radar.

In June of last year one commissioner suggested we look at it. Seven months later here we are on a final vote to approve it.

The BOC has always moved slow. Slow and methodical on bear archery, deer management, and other seasons and initiatives (he had a long list).

Why the rush on this??

He stated, every commissioner got 500 to a 1000 emails and letters on this issue. The urban areas more on the high side.
In his emails, it went 90/10. 90% opposed inclusion. He was hearing the same from other commissioners.

He agreed with Commissioner Weaner, that the BOC was going to annoy hunters and harm the six week archery season.

He suggested that it was legislative interference and threats driving this vote. Mentioned that regardless of the vote by the BOC, members of the legislature have indicated they would introduce bills to stop inclusion, or mandate inclusion. Legislative interference is the last thing we (hunters) need.

Suggested options for, and types of info needed to be studied. Stated that if this is such a good proposal now, it will still be a good proposal in 2010. Lets do due diligence on this and not rush.

He noted that the BOC is changing. There will be three new commissioners on board by next year. They will need to deal with the fallout of this decision. Doesn't seem fair.

Vote this down, or table it and do the due diligence.


Commissioner Boop then made a formal amendment proposal to table the agenda item.

They also had public input meetingfor 2 days prior to voting. The meeting was announced and open to anyone. Those against crossbows were 4 to 1 against.

If pgc was going to ignore that, why have it?

Rifle hunters far outnumber bowhunters, even though many rifle hunters will pick up crossbows,the majority by farwill still not bowhunt orcrossbow hunt. And most rifle hunters are against crossbows at least from all indicators Ive seen.

Plenty enough will though. It wont take a large percentage of 900,000 hunter picking up crossguns to make our archery season a joke like a circus and to lower our deer herd yet further along with even more pathetic buck quality.

...But hey...all some care about is having a shortcut and the possibility of gut shooting a 10" wide six point with their new crossrifle this year if their lucky, their first buckin 15 years.

I still disagree with you both and stand my ground that the majority of hunters wanted Xbows to be legal. I say that 1% or less of all the hunters even visit a PA hunting forum.

You can disagrree all you like . I dont see you basing your opinion on ANYTHING! And you arent even from pa so dont even have word of mouth to go by! (LOL)

Pgchas email mailboxes and phones and also held open house meetingsfor a reason.To gather input when necessary. They did. It didnt support their decision.

Until you present facts others of us might not be aware of.[8D]... Your opinion is yours and yours alone. You might think your opinion is more important than the majority, and thats fine too I guess.

Same as with your statement. If there is no data to back up what either of us are saying,Then what we both say is nothing but BS of opinions. When only the bow hunters speak their opinions at these hearings and so on,It is because you got more bow hunters who care about their season than gun hunters do. I bet if every store that sold tags had a mandatory check list of what should be legal and what not before a license could be purchased,Xbows would be a huge yea. But like I said,Our opinions are just BS without data. I am surprised your PGC didn't have it set up that way to check your previous deer harvest with a questionaire like that. You had to fill out the report card before you got your new license of your harvest the year before. You know like a electronic ballot box they could have to count the numbers as they do with vote machines when they recieve these from the place of purchase of license.
But I don't think that would be accurate to your PGC.

explorer_Jack.The data was there. Of all the e-mails the commissioners received, 90% opposed 10% for.