I commend you on your honesty!! I've been in these debates so many times it's not funny and in my opinion it all boils down to what you said above. I'm just as scared as what legalized x-bows might bring as the next bowhunter but it has nothing to do with "archery heritage" or any of that "my way is better than yours" crap. It's all about the fear of over crowded woods or shortened seasons , i.e. selfishness.

i commend you bothe for your honesty.one is not superior than the other.i do not see that it will be more people in the woods or surely a shortened season.it should be included in archery as they both shoot arrows and use the same broadheads.i used a recurve for years.a crossbow will allow younger people to hunt due to not being able to pull back a compound. that is what we need to keep our hunting heritage going.the more we limit those who can hunt it will hurt us.it is extremely hard to get young people involved in anything.lets pull together and keep the next generations involved.

If people want to use a crossbows than why can't they use them during the general gun season when rifle, shotgun, pistol, bow, ML, crossbow and archery is legal to use. (Exceptions to this would be those with disabilities.) I don't understand how a person can put a cross bow in the same class just because they launch an arrow.
Part of my hunt is getting an arrow knocked at full draw without getting busted. When I am finally at full draw sometimes the animal may freeze behind a tree, therefore after holding for too long I have to let up and now I hope I'm' not busted again. There is a whole lot of difference in pulling a bow back and holding it than to casually pulling a trigger when EVER the shot may develope.
I just hope that this state doesn't want to include crossbow during bow season and I will let my bowhunters assiociation know how I feel about that. Thanks for the reminder, Bobby

which has been around the longest,the crossbow or compound?it clearly sounds as if you have never shot a crossbow,there is nomlet off on the crossbow.both are fired by a trigger release.at full draw?i would like to see you hold a crossbow up for that long.you will not be able to,if you are a purest about archery then you would have to do away with the compound and go to a recurve with wooden arrows and hoemeade broadheads,do you do this?

Trap, I'm in full support for disabled folks to use a crossbow in archery season.....no beef with me on that! Kudos to you for pursuing your passion by whatever means you can and helping to keep this sport alive and well.

I'm with you Bow, But selfish is such a derogotory word....how about excessively concerned?

I like it!

i am not understanding how this will shorten the season.sure there are crossbow hunters and there will always be crossbow hunters. there are just not that many.please answer how this will shorten a season

The fear is that too many hunters who dont have the confidence with a compound or traditional bow will head to the woods with a x-bow because of it's similarities to a gun and ease of use. If you took half of our current archers who rarely fill their tags and put x-bows in their hands and they start filling their tags on a regular basis. Then took maybe 1/4 of our gun hunters who decide to take up archery season because they can use a x-bow and they start filling tags regularly. Now your looking at a archery harvest of over 1/4 million deer to go along with nearly 1/2 million deer for gun season.[&:] Somethings gotta give! Either shorter seasons or fewer tags.

I just don't think there is going to be an appreciable number of "new hunters" that are going to go to the woods just because it is legal to hunt with a crossbow. The majority of the crossbow hunters are going to be crossover bow hunters that would probably be in the woods anyway. The posters that have hunted with both bow and crossbow say that the range is shorter and accuracy is relatively equal. I see the crossbow as a great alternative for people with disabilities as well as the person that has a hard time pulling back a compound. There are times in our club that it would suit me to prohibit the use of any kind of bow. One guy in the club "stuck" four deer last year and did not get any of them. I have heard the phrase "stuck a deer" a lot over the years by a lot of different hunters. Can't say it is poor marksmanship or buck fever, but it amounted to the same result.

If i had a guy that "stuck" four deer and didnt get any of them he would still be running!![:@]