Hi everyone. Would appreciate your opinions on this matter:

i am am a new hunter in Vancouver island area. Problem is my PAL is taking forever and I’m afraid of missing out on the season or most of it. It was received in May and still waiting. I’ve been told it could be another few months.

I thought about starting with archery but with a young family at home, full time job, other commitments etc., I am afraid I don’t have the time to master archery. For fun maybe I would pick it up but for hunting... maybe in the future. So I thought maybe crossbow? Better than nothing I suppose and at least it would get me out there. Or, I could just look forward to the next season. What would you do/ recommend? From what I hear, lots of close range hunting can be done for deer in these parts and I have heard of many that hunt deer in this area with buckshot which is a bit closer to the max effective range of a cross bow, correct? Of course it would be a big stretch being new, I would have a lot of work to do on stalking, scouting, etc. Thoughts ?