daniel craig
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- Joined
- Dec 23, 2009
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Why are so many people against the use of crossbows during the regular archery season? What’s the big deal?
In my area a 20-50 yard shot with a crossbow or traditional bow is about all you can expect. Personally I think bow season should be open for anyone using any kind of non bullet projectile. Spear, bow, crossbow whatever. There’s enough tags and enough deer that even if a few more people used crossbows and tagged out there’s still plenty left for the regular bow hunters.Two issues, I figure. The first is kind of petty: folks going trad always have a little devil on their shoulder telling them that anyone less trad than they are is kind of a cheat. Think of longbow guys vs. recurve guys, or even selfbow guys looking at laminated longbow guys.
The other reason can be more significant. If the point of an archery season (or a muzzleloader season, for that matter) is to allow early/easier access for those with a much lower chance at tagging out, then any weapon which significantly increases those chances really is a bit of a cheat. It's my impression that both bow and muzzleloader seasons were developed at a time when a 20 yard shot and a 100 yard shot, respectively, were considered about the max for reasonable men. Applying modern technology to those endeavors has resulted in 100 and 200 yard shots, again respectively, which in turn leads some folks to question why special seasons need to exist at all.
In my area a 20-50 yard shot with a crossbow or traditional bow is about all you can expect. Personally I think bow season should be open for anyone using any kind of non bullet projectile. Spear, bow, crossbow whatever. There’s enough tags and enough deer that even if a few more people used crossbows and tagged out there’s still plenty left for the regular bow hunters.
Crossbow would increase availability for handicapped/mobility impaired persons to have just as long of a season as everyone else.
Was a competitive archer for many years. Have shot crossbow for most of my hunting for about ten years as my elbows simply will not take it anymore shooting a compound.
When in my prime 50 yards , under decent conditions , was an ethical shot on deer. Depending on conditions , wind mostly, maybe only 20 to 30 yards. Drilled a couple of hogs at around 60 yards, but, they don't jump the string. It takes a premium setup and tons of practice to reach that level. People that say it is easy and they can do it naturally are full of it.
Switching to crossbows does have some advantages. However they are not always as huge as everyone thinks. Wind drift still is a huge issue. My crossbow hits around 320 fps and it is not hugely better in the wind than my 275 fps compound. The crossbows that hit 400 fps are better ,but, no matter what you do the wind still beats up arrows. No matter what you are shooting if you are going to be shooting past 50 yards preparation is key. You better shoot your crossbow , bolt, broahead combination at every range you p,an to shoot at a lot. Small variations make huge differences. Changing a string and you start over. Better shoot in cold weather if you did your research in warm weather. Your point of impact will change. It may be huge maybe not.
The two big advantages to the crossbow are the scope and that it takes less practice.. The better you can see the better you can aim. It really foes take much less practice to develop skills with a crossbow. However it does take some. Out to 30 or 40 yards it is easy for a average rifle shooter to use a crossbow. After that it gets harder. For every ten yards you increase it takes twice as much practice to get there.
I have never seen any definitive proof that crossbows are 100 yard hunting tools except under near lab conditions. What I found, after shooting a lot of them, is that 60 yards is good upper limit for for a decent set up under average conditions.
These are just my ramblings. Feel free to disagree.
I have next to no crossbow experience and am only repeating advertising copy. I compete with a recurve and hunt with a longbow, so I look down on compound users, let alone crossbow men!
<edit> Thank you for the real-world experience, though. I suspected that the 100 yard claims for crossbows might be optimistic, but really had no way to know.
Exactly. We need to increase access to hunting not decrease.I’ve never shot a compound for any real length of time. Just traditional style recurves. (I have thought about the Fred Eichler Hoyt though). When crossbows were allowed in MI my dad sold a gun to get one. I had to roll my eyes at him (at the time). However, he had retired and wanted to hunt more. He had shot compounds in the past but he was 62 and said he wasn’t up to staying in practice.
I had to agree with him. It made plenty of sense. Now I use one too.
Crossbows had been legal in MI during archery season for folks who unfortunately had certain physical disabilities.
Not a guess. I’m an anthropologist. Early hominids (the earliest) were scavengers, they didn’t have the time, resources or tools to hunt, that came later.No matter what, SOMEONE is going to have an issue with anyone hunting anything in a more modern manner than whoever is having the issue. That goes for hunting implements, style of hunting, etc. IMO, any mechanical or technical advantage beyond whatever early humans did with their new opposable thumbs makes any quarry grossly undermatched. I imagine the first deer humans ate were found dead from some other cause, making the "original deer hunters" opportunistic scavengers, but that is just a guess. No thanks. As for me, I'm sticking with Xbow (with red dot sight) for all archery hunting, with 2020-2021 being my 4th season. Its the only way I know how to launch an arrow, I taught myself how to do it (with some help from youtube), and I can't pull a bowstring anyway because someone who didn't like me very much shot me in the right forearm in afg. a few years back. Based on this, the state of Fl is OK with me hunting with Xbow during any archery season, state-wide.
Lots of different reasons, but I think the big one is envy.
When a Prius driver gets his doors blown off by a muscle car.....secretly he'd like to own one too, but since he can't afford it the next best thing is to denigrate it.