Opinions On Crossbows

[love the woods]

Thanks For The Feedback.my Buddies Seem To Give Me More Of A Hard Time About It.they All Shoot Compounds.they Say The Scope On A Bow Of Any Kind Is Cheating.think I Know Wich Feedback To Go With.merry Christmas Guys.

[leftcoast]

Hey L.T.W, we hunters are a funny bunch. We are all subjective in our thinking and believe our weapon choice gives us an ethical boost or a truer title of "hunter". We make statements to others that are arrogant and condescending. As long as it is good natured it is all good but in many cases it is not good natured and it divides us.

And the anti,s have a field day.

We are all different and we are all at a different place. Here I am hanging around a hunting forum and I don't like killing. Had my fill of it years ago. But I love the woods and I am a meat eater so I still kill the odd critter.

Anyway, enjoy your crossbow and ignore the rest of us.

=keith=

[Fred]

Thanks For The Feedback.my Buddies Seem To Give Me More Of A Hard Time About It.they All Shoot Compounds.they Say The Scope On A Bow Of Any Kind Is Cheating.think I Know Wich Feedback To Go With.merry Christmas Guys.

It is interesting that most of the "Nay-sayers" that I read about are other bowhunters. IMO,if it has a string,it is a bow and we are all bretheren! Fred

[love the woods]

Hey Leftcoast,well Said!

[Clint_S]

Hey Keith

That's why I hunt with a recurve. I get all that nice time in the woods and since I can never kill anything I never have to deal with all the messy stuff that starts after you make a kill

[leftcoast]

Clint i hear ya! I sure love not having a job!

You still got that Fuji digital camera? You have awesome pics of cats in trees and bears.


=keith=

[Nails]

Well it seems to me it is a personal choice. One of my hunting buddies uses a crossbow. I take my bow. We have good time hunting plain and simple.

[Blacktail]

yup

to each his own

[J_T]

I'm a traditional shooter who considers his effective range to be somewhere between point blank and 25 yards, depending on a number of variables, size of target, angle of target, confidence etc. I continue to enjoy hunting with rifle hunters whose effective range far exceeds my own. It's about attitude, not equipment.

For me, if the projectile isn't hitting the target right, then I assume the equipment is faulty, scope, or tuning etc. With my recurve, if the arrow isn't hitting the target it's one of two reasons. I haven't practised, or my heads not in the game..... it isn't an equipment issue.

In my complex world, I love simplicity.

Having said that I have encountered rifle hunters with the ability to shoot at extreme yardage, and I have encountered crossbow users that have taken game at over 100 yards. WOW! Now, if the crossbow user is hunting in an archery only season, the only concern I might have, is if....... over time, more crossbow users equates into more taking, the impact it might have on a number of things, wildlife numbers, the continuation of the archery season.

JT

[Walksalot]

In my opinion one should hunt with which ever bow one can use proficiently. In all fairness to the animals I could not condem a person for using a crossbow if he or she doesn't have the time to practice to become proficient with any other kind of bow, it is in my opinion a common sense move.

I have seen some incredible traditional shooters on the 3D course but they have taken the time to practice religiously to maintain competency in skill of instinctive shooting. I have seen people using traditional equipent on the 3D course who like the traditonal tackle for it's simplicity but in actuality their proficiency with the traditional equipment leaves something to be desired. The old argument that they shoot better when bearing down on an animal doesn't wash and these people are hunting with this equipment when if they had any respect for the animals they would be using a crossbow. All one has to do is look at the scores at the 3D shoots and the writing is on the wall. I practiced with a recurve for one year and at the end of that year I set a McMenzie deer at 20 yds and flung 30 arrows at it. Ten % were good kill shots and I deemen this totally unacceptable and sold the bow and went back to a compound. The bottom line was I wasn't prepard to make the commitmet to the practice time needed to become proficient with traditional equipment.

Don't think I am just picking on traditional bowhunters as there are compound shooter who have no business carrying a compound bow into the field. They too should be carrying a crossbow. I hope I don't come across like a know-it-all but I am a compound shooter who has and does do the practice to remain proficient with my weapon. If the animal comes within my 30 yd effective range it is probably on the meat pole. I say probably because in any given situation , no matter how proficient a person is with a weapon, things can go south.
If proficiency testing ever become manditory there would be alot of compound and traditional shooters going to a crossbow.