Tradtional bow only season.

[mgf]

It seems to me that much of the management discussion here almost assumes that all hunters have access to the same game/land.

I don't believe that you can meaningfully measure the success rate of a weapon or method without first taking into account where that hunting takes place.

Let me explain. I'm in Indiana. We have a lot of deer. However, only a very few of us have access to the land where most of those deer will be found during hunting season.

Regardless of weapon restrictions, it's going to be the same guys killing the deer. It's the guys who have a stand in the little patch of woods where the deer live.

I have to dodge around deer driving too and from work (I saw more than 30 deer on my drive home from work yesterday) but I rarely see deer at all from my stand.

It doesn't matter what weapon I have in my hand. Likewise, there are properties I know very well because I have permission to squirrel hunt BEFORE deer season opens. I promise you, I could regularly kill deer there with any weapon.

The bottom line is that, in my state, I don't think the weapon of choice is a very significant variable.

[mgf]

I have to add to that. Talking my state of Indiana...When they included the x-bow in regular archery season they cited the "need" to get more hunters out during archery season.

It may be that some game rich (probably private) land is "under hunted" during archery season but that's not what you will see if you visit our local WMA on the weekend. What you're going to see is lots of tree stands and hunters. The addition of x-bows only put more hunter traffic on land that's already over hunted...or at least over pressured.

I've spent a lot of time on that property at all times of the year. I used to hunt it a little when I was self employed and could hunt during the week.

I don't even bother with it now that I punch a clock again and have to work Monday through Friday.

I haven't kept up on the numbers (I'm not even sure where to find them) but I don't think the inclusion of x-bows had any significant effect on success rates on those types of properties...the kind I have access to.

During the season they post harvest numbers on the office wall and the success rate has to come to just about nothing. You could let folks use grenades and it isn't going to make much difference.

[Tedd]

Someone probably mentioned it already.  State agencies could have a lot more over the counter tags if  bow technology was restricted.
Tedd

[Babbling Bob]

I would think support is needed from all types of bow shooters for the existing bow seasons.

Some remember when there were almost silly hunting laws (early sixties and before) like two week only deer seasons and even when hunters had to wear red outer wear in Oklahoma where I learned to shoot, until there was enough pressure from bow hunters to educate the law makers.  We need everybody shooting something. However, I would sure like to see more trad shooters since that's my interest.  I think that's happening too.

[mgf]

I guess a concern I have is that the state is just in the business of selling licenses. Here anyway, it just seems like they want to sell all they can.

Maybe things are different in other parts of the country but where I am you're usually hunting ghosts or dreams unless you have a decent piece of private land to hunt.

I work with a bunch of "hunters". We even have an annual "big buck" pool. I am the only one of the bunch who legally killed and checked in a buck this year.

Oh, other guys killed bucks but they do it whenever they want using whatever they want. One kid I worked with shot at least 4 deer this year...all with a .22 rifle which isn't legal anytime. A couple were never recovered and at least one was just left to rot. He wasn't sure he hit the first one and shot another.

He didn't want to clean and drag two deer so one was just left. They only took the hind quarters off the other.

The state isn't measuring anything that's relevant to most of us.

The bottom line is that they aren't enforcing the laws and they're making the laws based on garbage information and invalid assumptions. Is anything about that new?

The state wants to make money. Politicians want to get re-elected. Bureaucrats want to build little empires.

Many farmers don't want any deer. Car insurance companies don't want any deer. Equipment manufacturers want more sales to more hunters and the state gets away with selling licenses to people who aren't going to see any game.

That's the racket we're dealing with. Game management barely enters into it.

[TSP]

Mgf is basically correct.  At least in areas where quality habitat exists, the level of hunter access (or lack of access) will largely steer the harvest rate whether the hunters carry sniper rifles, compounds or self bows.  Discounting illegal or unethical harvests for the moment (a separate discussion), shot opportunities and thus general potential for harvest success increases with the number of hunter/prey interactions and decreases with the lack of such interaction.  Again, successful game management and 'success rate' is much more about the quality of local politics in achieving sound across-the-board planning objectives than it is about weapons used by the littany of competing constituencies.  

If politicians would resist making decisions based on personal bias and let their hired professionals (those who actually know what they are doing...biologists, technical staff, wardens, and their administrative support teams) do their job I think you'd be surprised how many perceived harvest problems/conflicts would disappear... regardless of the special weapon/special season arrangement.  

In a nutshell, game populations and hunter constituencies would both be better served if politicians were made to provide better financial resources to their management professionals and more authority to let them do their job.  I'm sure the white collars would be more than happy to take credit for the eventual improvements.  

Wise political leadership that has has faith in it's management staff, or passive acceptance of carpetbaggers selfishly running a viable/valuable public resource into the ground in the name of 'representing their constituency'.  Gee, a tough choice.

Use your voting power and your phone. Tell your legislators to listen to their knowledgable professionals.  Time spent working towards that end would be time much better spent than chasing special trad (or other) season advantages with little to no chance of success and minimal cohesion within the constituency base itself.

[BradLantz]

with compounds the way they are now, and crossbows .... I think G&F should look closely at splitting compounds and crossbows into a separate, shorter season than recurve / longbows

I shoot a compound now - I can rarely practice and yet have great accuracy, my bow is 86% letoff and a 402 gr arrow with a 62.5 # draw is going 294 fps

crazy these new bows