Action Required-Florida survey on proposal to include crossbows in archery season

[gregg dudley]

FWC’s Deer Management Program website has been updated to include information and a survey on possibly allowing crossbows during archery season.  Please help us get the word out about this proposal.

 

 http://myfwc.com/recreation/Deer_crossbow.htm

[Brian Krebs]

I know a lot of people don't want to rock the boat; as if that is in the bible or something.

 Well the boat does not have to rock to sink; it just takes leaks - and nobody to willing to fix them.

[Flying Dogg]

We are facing the same problem in NY. The non-bowhunting gun hunters are the only ones that will benefit from this proposal. It makes me wonder who the real threat to bowhunting is.

[Steve in Canton]

Crossbows being added to your season is not the end of the world.  I hear alot of people crying about crossbow's in archery season and how it will diminish the hunting opportunities in your state.  i have lived in Ohio for 10 years, we have the highest % of crossbow hunters in the nation here.  Over the course of these 10 years the hunting has got better and better every year with more deer taken.  I personally would never hunt with a crossbow because they do not interest me but I do have alot of friends that do use them, these people are very ethical hunters and choose to use a crossbow for various reasons.  Ohio has added an extra 3 weeks to the season since I moved here so the idea that your season will be shortened does not add up.  I know that I will catch flack for this post but please look at the facts from the state of Ohio and then decide why you think that crossbows are so wrong for archery and bowhunting.

[Buckeye Trad Hunter]

Originally posted by Flying Dogg:
The non-bowhunting gun hunters are the only ones that will benefit from this proposal. It makes me wonder who the real threat to bowhunting is.

So my father who is not physically able to hunt with a stick bow or compound bow because of degenerative arthritis in his neck and shoulders didn't benefit from allowing cross bows in Ohio?  Crossbows have been around longer than compounds so should we allow only stick bows during bow season?

I'm not trying to ruffle feathers or anything but wait for the knee jerk reactions to pass and think it through.  I can understand not considering crossbows to be part of archery, but what about those that aren't able to shoot stickbows or compounds?  Should we disclude them from archery season because of their imparements?

[Tyler2045]

In Missouri if you are disabled or can not draw a bow you may get a permit to hunt with a crossbow and i for one think it is great. If not for the law my grandpa could not bow hunt with me, I would be in the woods by my self.

[Flying Dogg]

My prior statement on crossbows **The non-bowhunting gun hunters are the only ones that will benefit from this proposal. It makes me wonder who the real threat to bowhunting is**  has nothing to do with regulations for the disabled but to gun hunters hunting without archery equipment in the archery season. I was referencing to NY state and what Florida is fighting, not what Ohio regulates.
Ohio has a very short gun season and a very long archery season. Allowing gun hunters with crossbows in this very long archery season and short gun season may be fair. The gun season in NY is as long as the archery season is and the archery season is being shortened. The gun hunting organizations are after the remaining bow season for crossbows and muzzleloaders. They want it all.

[gregg dudley]

Florida already has a provision allowing disabled hunters (permanent or temporary) to secure a permit to crossbow hunt during archery season.

There is not a lobby of hunters pushing this agenda.  It is being sponsored by one commissioner under the umbrella of inclusion.  Fact is nobody seems able to point out the folks who are wanting to be included and could not reasonably use a bow.

[Ironman43]

Gregg,got any Ideas on how to stop this.

[Algonquin]

The FL FWC claims that they want to increase participation in the bow season, and increase the harvest, with this proposal. I responded to their survey by asking "then why don't you simply increase the season from 4 weeks to something more reasonable?" I've been a FL resident for just under four years, and I'm accustomed to seasons in the northeast that lean to long bow seasons (low impact) and short gun seasons (high impact). For some reason, it's the reverse here, with the gun season being 2-3 months long and a daily bag limit of 2 deer, with crossbows permitted. It seems to me that the FWC is bound and determined to eradicate the remaining deer in this state. The website leads me to believe that the FWC is going to approve crossbows in the archery season when they meet later this month, based on the stated agenda for the meeting. I don't even know why they bothered to do a survey.

[Ragnarok Forge]

Washington State allows disabled hunters to shoot with a crossbow in archery season and that is appropriate.  It is completely ridiculous to allow people who are not disabled to hunt with them in an archery season.  Crossbows have as much to do with archery as a flintlock rifle has to do with modern firearms.  Nothing at all wrong with hunting with them mind, just not in archery season.  WDFW went thru this process and recieved a resounding "NO" from the hunting public.  They changed the regs and now allow crossbows in the modern firearm season.  If you want to shoot a stocked, scoped, precision weapon I will support your desires in full.  Just not to allow you to do it during an archery season.  Crossbowmen are not archers by any stretch of the imagination.

It sounds like Ohio found a nice compromise by extending the overall season which rewarded the archers and allowed the crossbows.  That would not happen out west.  Our regs border on the stupid.  Out west as soon as you get a new user group they immediately try and grab some of everyone elses seasons and the existing seasons get cut short to accomodate.  That and you can't hunt except with one type of firearm out here.

In my view out west they should not be allowed at all or else allowed in an existing modern firearm season which is what happened this year.

[Ragnarok Forge]

Gregg,

What is comes down to is the crossbow manufacturers trying to push their products in a new area and someone in power being firmly entrenched in their pockets.  At least that is what is going on here in Washington State.  None of the hunters wanted it.  The agenda was being pushed by two people on the board who's interest was fueled by money from the crossbow industry.

[Stringwacker]

You should keep in mind and be armed with the knowledge that when Ga, Tn and Alabama legalized the crossbows use under the promise of more archery 'participation'...their archery particpation actually went down. None of those states have more archers than the year before the crossbow was legalized...most are down 10% to 20%. In th case of Alabama and Tennesee, archery particpation dropped the VERY FIRST YEAR of crossbow legalization and never recovered.

By contrast, Mississippi (at no crossbow state) has an uptrend in archery particpation over the same period of time.

These are many falsehoods being sold to wildlife agencies to acheive new crossbow markets for the manufacturers to sell their goods.

[gregg dudley]

Thanks guys!  THe current proposal calls for opening archery for crossbows on private land only.  Most feel strongly that this is just the first step into the cracked door.  The commission meeting to consider the staff proposal is next week.

[Algonquin]

As expected, today the commission approved the draft rules to permit crossbows in the archery season on private lands beginning in 2011-12, with final approval set for the September meeting. They claim that the hunter survey was overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal. Yeah, right, and Florida black bears no longer **** in the woods, either.

[Al Dente]

You need to address the Commission and present the facts to them.  They are only hearing one side of a dog and pony show.  Crossbows are not the salvation the proponents claim them to be.  There have studies conducted by Ohio and Arkansas specifically regarding the crossbow.  There is ZERO new hunter participation, but there is an average crossover ratio of 37% of firearms hunters purchasing a crossbow and hunting during the archery season.  There are options available for the disabled bowhunter such as the steady freddy which helps to stabilize the arm, the draw-loc which keeps the bow at full draw prior to releasing the arrow, and you do not need an 80# bow to kill a deer, most folks are "overbowed".  By dropping the poundage, you'd be amazed what a difference there is.  Good Luck in September.

[Bob Miller]

we Lost!

[Mark N]

Adding "steady freddy", etc to a bow sounds like a set of shooting sticks for a rifle. The "draw lock" sounds like a trigger mechanism on a crossbow.    What's the difference? Crossover participation? How much increase in hunter success does that equate to? Does it matter? I've seen crossbows advertised at 300-360fps or so. About the same as a compound. I don't think that the tackle technology is the question, or that there are rifle hunters now using crossbows. I'm reminded of an acquaintance that wants all handguns banned because they are only made to kill.  Liberty is a balance between what is allowed, and what should not be.

[arrowlauncherdj]

be honest, I am kind of glad the law passed allowing crossbows in bow season.  My father in law who has been an avid bowhunter and bowyer for decades is now in his 70's and cant pull his bow back anymore. Why is it fair to limit his hunting to rifle season when the deer are nocturnal and he has to be unsafe hunting with the orange army?  I think folks like him have paid their dues.  Also I have a 4 yr old daughter and son on the way, I want them to be interested in bowhunting from as early an age as possible, and if that means I buy a crossbow to get them in the woods during bow season, when the woods are much safer, then I want that option.

The more you restrict the more you alienate.  The purists cant have it both ways... fewer hunters in the woods = less power at the voting booth when it comes to keeping the right to hunt period.

[Cold Weather]

good to hear.  xbows just offer another opportunity.