Ethical bowhunting

[oldtimer]

Merritt 3D shoot last year---------- 3 crossbow shooters good guys but got beat by the compound boys in scoring. he he he Mike

[willyqbc]

Just out a matter of interest how many of us have ever seen a crossbow shooter practising his or her skills at a 3D shoot?

Aside from the merritt shoot oldtimer mentioned there are precious few shoots that will even ALLOW a crossbow shooter on the the course. I took names and numbers from the X-bow shooter's in Merritt thinking that I would be able to invite them up to some of our shoots up here.... no go....both local clubs would not allow them on course. After checking several other shoots to see if they allowed them or not I found the same result....and nobody could give me a solid reason why being a compound shooter myself I still don't see what the problem is

Chris

[Onesock]

Good point you fellas raised here. Why would Xbows not be welcomed at a 3D shoot? Maybe the vast majority of bowhunters feel Xbows are not legit archery tackle or maybe the top ranking compound shooters feel challenged by Xbow shooters.
Oldtimer- you say Xbow shooters were beat by compound shooters. This could open the door to many things. 1) Xbow shooters don't practise enough to hit what they are aiming at. 2) Xbow shooters don't feel welcome at 3D shoots as BJ has said. Who knows what other questions could be asked.
Brotherjack- just curious to know why you choose a Xbow to hunt with over a compound or traditional bow. I am not trying to raise hackles here only trying to understand the situation a little better.
Just curious to kn

[sealevel]

crossbows where welcome in summerland the same 3 showwed up that were at merrit they were welcome at enderbys shoot the same 3 welcome in salmon arm not one.Crossbows are welcome most places now.We give in salmon arm 6 bows as draws . If crossbow shooters would come we would in all likely hood would give away a crossbow but we need the numbers to go up. So to say crossbows are not welcome is crap.

[Onesock]

Willyqbc said very few shoots welcome Xbow shooters. I have found the same, never ever saw one at a shoot.

[sealevel]

Oldtimer if you remember a crossbow shooter kicked our but in the extreme shoot in merit only cause there was some shots like undera bush that was a lot easyer for a crossbow than a compound .

[Nails]

Bowhunting ethics and fair chase both fit together for an exceptional hunt. Bowhunting is a sport of inches (feet) not yards. The closer we are in harvesting our game is what bowhunting is in its purest form apart from choice of bow. Bowhunting is not how far we shoot but how close you were. Our freezers my not get as full but we are hunting for more than just the kill.

Personally I took the IBEP in 97 and believe it should be a requirement to hunt with archery equipment. For those who have not taken it, this is a one day course. You recieve very informative sessions eg. on how a broadhead works, shot placement (different from gun), ethical shots and how a bow works, just to name a few of the sessions covered. Worth every penny and a great place to meet other like minded hunters.

Ethical Bowhunting is many things to the masses but for me, walking out of the woods at the end of the day with my head held high, thats Ethical Bowhunting.

[brotherjack]

Brotherjack- just curious to know why you choose a Xbow to hunt with over a compound or traditional bow. I am not trying to raise hackles here only trying to understand the situation a little better.
Just curious to kn

As for me; I suppose there was a variety of reasons I could point to, but two were top of the list:

Price: I am officially poor (thus sayeth my tax return), and $129.99 on eBay for a decent (Horton) crossbow beat the heck out of $400+ for a barely mediocore compound bow setup. Pretty much any crossbow is significantly cheaper than any vaguely comparable traditional or compound bow.

My wife: she wanted to bowhunt with me, and after letting her try a 50lb bow I borrowed from a friend, it was real obvious that she doesn't have the upper body strength to pull one.

[brotherjack]

Crossbows are welcome most places now.... So to say crossbows are not welcome is crap.

Ummm... you can say that, but until bowhunters quit ranting about how crossbows are really rifles, and how they should be kept out of the bush during bow season, and how lazy all us crossbow shooters are, etc, etc, etc, there is no PERCEPTION on the part of us x-bow shooters that we are welcome. I don't even bother to mention that I'm a crossbow hunter on any new forums I join, because no sooner do I mention that, and somebody has a problem with it they feel the need to vent, and then we get these ugly 'crossbow wars' threads. So no, it's not crap, it's just what the world looks like from my side of the fence.

[Awishanew]

The next few TBBC magazines will have articles on arrow lethality by Dr. Ed Ashby. It has a tremendous amount of information. Unfortunatly they are not for distrubation but are a quarterly magazine for TBBC members. But it only takes $25.00 per year to join. Not realy a plug but seriously there is alot of info.