new arrow shooter threat

[Eric Krewson]

I was anti compound when they first came out then gravitated to one for 18 years before I went back to trad in 89. I never felt like I was shooting a bow when I shot wheels and actually hated them but was very good with one.

I finally came to realize I am the only one I can dictate what kind of equipment I use. I don't care about other folk, their choice won't affect me one way or another.

I shoot an osage selfbow I made, wood arrows and have killed a lot more deer with my selfbow than I ever did with wheels.

No one has ever tried to dictate what kind of equipment I should use and I extend the same courtesy to the other side as well, to each his own.

Now if they would just get rid of those inlines and make everyone hunt with a flintlock; same type of argument. I bet a lot of the guys here complaining about cross guns and air guns have a scoped inline in the gun case.

When I use a rifle it is a flinter I made, I don't care what you shoot.

[Sam McMichael]

I think changes such as this will continue in the "archery" world. The reason is money, pure and simple. Like Eric Krewson, I will continue to shoot my traditional gear, and I don't really care what anybody else shoots.

I often wonder if the same people, whom I generally call the "compound shooters", just rotate form wheel bows to x-bows and will go to the air guns as the latest fashion progresses and are all essentially the same group. Will these items actually increase the number of new shooters afield?

[ChuckC]

Eric, Sam, I also don't care what you use... right up to the point where it causes MY historically long bow season to be shorter because they make it that much easier to kill game.

You are both old enough to remember seasons with only one deer tag.  Game numbers fluctuate, for a lot of reasons.  Mother nature has a way of directly doing that once there are too many around, and indirectly as the cover changes, matures, falls and starts over.  It has been this way since the beginning of time.

Wisconsin did it the way I am ok with ( not because of anything I told them) and that is track the kills separately, so that IF what I am saying takes place ( it is in WI), and IF they need to modify seasons, bag limits etc., they can do it to each weapon based upon its own merits.  Then, use what ever you want.

[Bowwild]

Bowhunters HAVE  fought to keep their preferences the law. Frankly, they lost and in the process split their own ranks dramatically. My small organization here in KY lost at least half its memberships over that losing fight.

Some in the archery world predicted lower sales if crossbows proliferated.  With many archery companies experiencing double digit, two year declines, those predictions seem right on.  

I shoot PCP air rifles (squirrels). They are quite involved and require special equipment or services to fill tanks. I would not expect them to draw many except folks who already have the know how and equipment.

Any state wildlife agency can determine harvest (kill) by equipment type no matter how they sell the licenses and tags.  Surveys and modern check-in requirements are routine and designed to achieve high accuracy of 2 or 3 percentage points or better.

Finally, and unfortunately,  "merit" sometimes doesn't figure into regulatory decisions, especially if well-placed politicians, with no business in such things, get their way.

[Al Dente]

Virginia is pushing hard to legalize it into theie archery season.  The Bill has already passed their Senate.

[elmbow]

Want an honest opinion? I hate compounds. I'm 68 and have been shooting trad since the 60's. I well remember when compounds came on the scene and I'll tell you straight up, the minimum of effort required  to get hunting proficient with a sighted wheel bow brought droves of second season guys out of the woodwork. By the early 90's I saw a change in the ethics of the typical bow hunter. In 1995 I had placed my Screaming Eagle tree stand on an elk wallow in N. Utah. Opening a.m. with first light just cracking I stood at the base of my tree and much to my surprise some MoFo had stolen my tree stand. That was the day I quit bowhunting, disgusted with the mentality and lack of ethics I was seeing among the ranks of the new "bowhunters". This year I drew a LE turkey tag and for the first time in 22 years, am going to take a bow in the hunting field. So I think Karma is a bitch and I get a chuckle   out of all these compound shooters getting all butt hurt over crossbows.