New to bow hunting and need some advice..

[brotherjack]

Greybark, I have never even held a crossbow but if the traditional shooter is not prepaed to do the practice required to obtain proficient accuracy then I say use the crossbow.
If the shooter is not prepared to do the practice required to establish good shooting form with a compound then I say use a crossbow because it is the animals in the end which suffer.

Just for the record, as a crossbow shooter/hunter myself - I don't care who you are, you can NOT just pickup a crossbow and hit anything with it any better than any other kind of bow. All the same issues u-pull-it bows have, crossbows have: trajectory arc, yardage judgements, draw (in)consistency, sight adjustments, wind and angles, etc. Putting a bow on the end of a stick with a trigger on it, does not change the fact that it's a bow, nor remove any of the normal limitations of a bow.

All that said - I would say that the stick with a trigger makes it is possible to get handy with a crossbow with significantly less practice than it takes a traditional or compound bow shooter. But if the crossbow shooter doesn't spend at least a week or two shooting a couple dozen arrows per night at varying yardages, and take the time to get good at estimating yardage in the field, the critters are pretty safe.

[greybark]

Hey Brotherjack , We agree on everything except the "Mastering of Judging Distances in Two Weeks Concept" Heck 99.9% of compound and Traditional Archers take years to be proficient in judging distance .In Compound 3-D archery 90% is judging distance and 10% making the shot.
Use of a rangefinder would certainly help in this case but i have seen them being used.

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[brotherjack]

Hey Brotherjack , We agree on everything except the "Mastering of Judging Distances in Two Weeks Concept"

I don't know if one can "master judging distances" in two weeks, but you can learn to tell the difference between 10, 20, and 30 yards in two weeks if you give it some effort. For me, 0-10 yards is "wow, that deer is close!", 20 is "hey, I can make that shot easy", and 30 is "that's getting a little far for my taste, but I still think I can do it". Personally, 30 yards is my limit for shooting at a critter with an arrow, so that all works out for me. Anything over 30 yards gets into territory that yeah, I think you'd need a lot of practice to judge effectively.

[Walksalot]

Hey Walksalot , I agree with a slight diference . Not willing to practise with Traditional or Compound does not give you a license to buy a crossbow a week before the season and proceed to hunt with it.

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Greybark, it in fact does, the rules state they can.
I would far sooner see crossbows in the archery season than animals cut up and suffering.
To many times I hear the same hunter talk about the animal which was wounded and got away. I often wonder if they even give even a little thought to what the animal is going through. I don't know about the rest of the hunters but I have wounded a couple of animals in my thirty some years of hunting and let me tell you I have forgotten many of the animals I have harvested but there are a couple which haunt me to this day.
I realize that everytime a hunter goes on a hunt there is a risk of wounding an animal as there are so many things which can go wrong. Lack of proficiency with ones chosen weapon is one which should not have to be factored into the equation.
I appologize for the semi hijack of this thread but as you can tell I feel for the animals we hunt and it seems to get worse as I get older.
I know I have said this before but I too was caught up in the "keep it simple" line of thinking. I purchased a recurve and shot it for a year which included the 3D shoots. At the end of that year I set up a McKenzie deer at twenty yards and took thirty shots at it. Ten were good kill shots. I deemed this totally unacceptable, sold the bow and went back to my compound.

[greybark]

Hey Walksalot , I too am getting along with age and know exactly how you feel. However nobody regardless of what weapon they use and have not become proficient with it has the right (no matter if legal) to hunt with it for the very reasons you point out in your post . I too apologize for semi-highjacking this thread.


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