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Crossbows during Archery season

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dhunt1

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
How many of you have a Crossbow season in your state and would you feel opposed to having one......I recently received a newsletter from Missouri Bowhunters Release of which i belong, stating that certain groups in our conservation department are pushing to have a Crossbow season along side Archery season....
They are meeting with some opposition. At present your only allowed to use one if you have a physical imperiment that keeps you from using a compound and or stick bow.
Our state also changed our antlerless limit to a limitless one in certain urban areas where we have an over population problems.
They call them Urban tags and you can purchase them over the counter for $5 bucks"no pun intended".
Im worried that this could eventually set the trend for a side by side Archery and Crossbow season. I myself am opposed to this idea. Crossbows are to much like a gun with arrow instead of a bullet. Ive known a few that also use them illegally because they are much like a gun and you can mount scopes on them you might as well use a rifle ..........I know this could start heavy debate but i personally hope they never let the two meet in the same season! :mad:
 
#2 ·
x-bows

crossbows have been legal in Ohio for many years, they are considered primative weapons and can be used during the archery season, statewide primative weapon season, and firearms season. right beside longbows, recurves and compounds.
I am not a crossbow hunter (although I tried it one year when I had a broken arm). It just isn't my thing.

i worked in a deer check station for years and I can tell you that crossbow effective range may be equal to compounds but, it will not exceed it
crossbow harvest has exceeded the harvest for other archery geer for many years
despite this fact our deer herd continues to grow


Ohio also has URBAN AREAS (antlerless deer only). urban tags are $10 each and you can purchase up to four
Urban Tags are very much needed, some of our urban areas are very overpopulated with deer. The only problem we usually encounter is access to private land in order to hunt

If a person wants to hunt with a crossbow I have no choice but to ask them if they have been succesful.
 
#3 ·
We don't have a season in Alberta per se. Crossbows are allowed during the general season along with rifles or during bow season if you're disabled.
 
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Discussion starter · #4 ·
dougk

Yes Dougk i have shot a Cross bow but no ive never hunted with one and i wont unless i cant pull my bow back! I dont believe a cross bow is the same as a bow only in that it shoots arrows..... if you look real close its attached to a gun stock with a trigger and a scope more than likely!real close........I dont consider them primitive weapons when they shoot like a gun but are missing the bullets!
 
#7 ·
I have no problem with X-bows hunting during the rifle or muzzle loading seasons, but they do not belong in the arrchery season. I'm older than 65 and will not use one (did drop from 75 lbs to 60 lbs this year).

When MI DNR was asking input for a new law letting handicapped shooters using X-bows I saw a truely handicapped shooter (no use or very limmitted use of his left hand) shoot a compound bow using a leather trong attached to the string and held in his teeth, he was against them even for the handicapped. He also could shoot bettr than myself.

The law went into effect in MI and is widely abused, however, I'm still in favor of them for the truely handicapped.
 
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#9 ·
Re: Xbows shoot like guns?

DougK said:
DHunt1,

Xbows don't shoot like guns...any gun..

They shoot around 300fps compared to 1500-3000+fps of a firearm...

They are nowhere near as easily loaded...

They have nowhere near the accuracy..

They compare to a bow...

:)
Click to expand...
EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!

In no way, other then how you hold it, is a X-bow the "same " as a gun. That is prolly one of the most misinformed things I've heard.
 
#10 ·
DougK, xbows do not compare to compounds or recurves. xbows are not as accurate as compounds. xbows should NEVER allowed in archery only season. If you can't draw and shoot a compound or stick bow they have a season for you. It's called gun or muzzle loader season. In Tennessee you can use a xbow in archery season if you have a handicap permit. And it is abused greatly. :mad:
 
#11 ·
In Québec we have some areas where crossbow and bow can be used at the same time. the first year, people with gun found the crossbow a great idea for pre-season but they soon realize that it wasn't so easy. A big crossbow do not shoot farther than a 65# compound bow. You have to know the distances like a bow.

http://www.fapaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/publications/chasse/html_2003/calendrier/reg_calendrier_cerf.htm

2 of my friends, 60 years old man and an injured canadian soldier with handicap permit, will hunt with crossbow this year. I think they are good weapons for them and we will see this year if they are able to do the job on a moose. They have 200# Excalibur crossbow.

Every weapons have pros and cons. A crossbow have some downside that bow don't and vice versa.

I think this debate is the same one has the one with compound and recurve bows in the past when compound bows started to be popular.

Should we calm down and see how we can handle this new weapon in our archery club and hunting areas or we should be rejecting it like compound bow in the past?
 
#12 ·
n2bows said:
DougK, xbows do not compare to compounds or recurves. xbows are not as accurate as compounds. xbows should NEVER allowed in archery only season. If you can't draw and shoot a compound or stick bow they have a season for you. It's called gun or muzzle loader season. In Tennessee you can use a xbow in archery season if you have a handicap permit. And it is abused greatly. :mad:
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xbows are not as accurate as compounds Are you for real? I'll put an "average" compound bow hunter, up against an "avereage" x-bow hunter any day. I guarantee he will beat the compound shooter. I'm talking about the "Joe Bowhunters" of the world. The guyz who hunt, and put their gear away till next year (like so many of them do). I seriously doubt anyone on these forums does this, because most of these types aren't really "into" archery.
 
#13 ·
There is a big difference between a bowhunter and a hunter.

A bowhunter like archery as a sport and bowhunting as an extension of his sport.

An hunter is using a bow only like a tool so he can be in the wood earlier. He take his bow few week before hunting and put it away until next yeat. This type of hunter will probably poach more deers that a bowhunter.

I think this hunter should be with a crossbow. May be he will have more success and less poach deers.

Just an idea!
 
#14 ·
n2bows said:
DougK, xbows do not compare to compounds or recurves. xbows are not as accurate as compounds.

I will take that bet and you can use the very best archers avaliable and say $100 a point.

After haveing crossbows in the srchery season for over 30 years now all the gloom and doom that was suppose to happen never did. It only allowed more hunters to venture into the woods.

All the 3-D shoots in Ontario have a crossbow division to shoot in ,this allows the sceptics to see them in action and most come away with a more realistic view of them not the Hollywood veiw.

Crossbows should be in the archery season simply because they have the same effective shooting range and hitting power simple math proves that.

I find it amusing when someone says they shoot like guns when infact crossbows preceded guns by over 3000 years. Guns are just small canons mounted on crossbow stocks.

Some use the arguement that they are a pochers weapon, this doesn't wash either becuase the poacher wants the animal dead quickly with no tracking involved, this why you will see that most poachers use a 22 short up close.
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#15 ·
The problem with xbows is that they are NOT as accurate as compounds. And most of your average hunters out their think that they are. That's where your problems come from.

Another thing, If xbows are so accurate. Why didn't anybody shoot a 300 with one at Vegas this past year?
 
#16 ·
I don't use a crossbow but I know many people that do.They are very good "hunters",and that's what they like doing.They don't like to shoot bows all year round like I do.

In my opinion,we are all hunters, so obey the laws,shoot what you like, and quit worrying about what everybody else is doing.
 
#17 ·
crossbow

to dougk well doug that sounds like a challange to me if you were to take your 22 cal. or ill say up to 30 cal and shoot off handed up to 20 yards you shoot 60 bullets at a bullseye and have terry ragsdaleor his wife or jeff buttons or joe cox, or a lot of the pro shooters and ill put my money up and match yours 5 to one
 
#18 ·
n2bows said:
The problem with xbows is that they are NOT as accurate as compounds. And most of your average hunters out their think that they are. That's where your problems come from.

Another thing, If xbows are so accurate. Why didn't anybody shoot a 300 with one at Vegas this past year?
Click to expand...

Are you for real, hows this- Carol Pelosi on the sat of vegas 300-25X on sun she shot a 299 and yes with a crossbow.

I tell you what you get your new archer on the line and I will get any joe off the street and I guarrentee that my guy will be crunching arrows faster and more consistant than your guy will. Having worked in an archery shop I have have done this many times to prove a point. I will gladly sell a new bowhunter a crossbow before opening day before I sell him a compound simply because he can and is more accurate than someone buying a compound, this by its very nature will decrease the wounding rate as we have seen in the past 30 years.
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
crossbows

I knew this would spark controversy thats why I asked the questions that I did. I truly am just getting feedback because whether you agree or not i like to hear all sides of the issue rather than being closed minded. It does make me a little uncomfortable having crossbows invade archery season. I do agree that they are a primitive weapon with open sights but the moment you put a scope on it it resembles a rifle more than a compound.....change is difficult and sometimes unwelcome!
We have a large population of deer in the burbs and the conservation department is looking for alternative methods to so safely. My personally experiences with them have been bad ones but that is just one mans opinion! I do appreciate everyones input positive or negative!
 
#20 ·
x-bows

There is one down side that I can think of and it is sad indeed. With a crossbow you can walk around with the bow cocked and ready to shoot and it is legal. It has a safety which in most cases works like a gun. This is where the problem lies. A person who is all anxious to kill something and is physched up cam without thinking flip the switch an fire a shot with very little thought process. You may think that this is a far fetched scenerio but it happen last year in Ohio when a father shot his son while hunting. At least with a compound it is necessary to draw, hold and aim, judge the distance and release the arrow.
Never say never. You can not recall an arrow or change the path when a mistake is made. Arrows and bolts and bullets are never at fault, it is always the person behind the launch.
 
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