Wisconsin Creates New Crossbow Season | Hunting News | Bowhunting.Com Starting in 2014 crossbows will be legal for all Wisconsin hunters regardless of age or physical disabilities. A 3 year trial season that runs concurrently with the regular bow season will allow hunters to use crossbows to hunt deer, rabbits, coyotes and more. I say good for Wisconsin! I wish Illinois would do the same.
Not my style but I'm fine with it here in IN as well. Guys learn rather quickly they are not simply guns with strings...wait you mean the arrow won't cut through small twigs and keep flying straight?
First, it won't change a thing in terms of the harvest. Second, I might actually be able to get my wife in the stand to hunt during bow season now and extend her season. She has no interest in a compound but would consider a X bow. I'm happy for it. I am much more worried about bonus buck tags with E-registration.
Well, here is the first Cheesehead complaint. It is cheating. I remember when you were looked down upon for having an 80% let off bow. Now they are going to allow crossbows? I am all for people that are handicaped or over 65 being able to use a crossbow, but not for people that are able-bodied. Now when someone says that they got a deer bowhunting you will be thinking in the back of your mind.....did they really get one with a bow or did they use a crossbow? Maybe I am overreacting here, but I am not a fan of it.
Just wait for them to start driving deer during bow season with a gang of guys all using crossguns! We are all doomed, there won't be any more deer left!
So what? Is that your only reason to oppose it? Because people don't know if you shot a deer with a Xbow or Compound? Cheating? Really?
Virginia has allowed it for years and it has not changed a darn thing in terms of my ability to successfully hunt deer.
Last year here in NY, u could use a crossbow during rifle season. This year back to no crossbows. I could care less if people can legally use them during bow season. I wouldn't use one, I feel more comfortable with my compound. The chances of getting a 2nd shot out of a treestand with a crossbow are way less than popping another arrow on the string, drawing and shooting. The amount of deer harvested wont change due to allowing crossbows. I know a handful of people who have tried them, but didn't have much success because those bolts are heavy, and knowing the yardage can be a bit more crucial than it is with shooting todays faster compounds.
Can crossbows shoot farther? Yes. Can crossbows be more deadly in the hands of a competent hunter than a compound? Yes. However I've come to realize most of the lazy one and doner type gun hunters which drive us all crazy won't even consider crossbows....yeah some of the your real tried and true gun hunters will convert to them but I would bank on it not being every lead slinging hillbilly as some of you envision. I say this because I was in staunch opposition to them in IN when they let them be used by anyone all year.....funny thing is all the idiot gun hunters I know, only one actually got a crossbow; the rest stayed in their ways of slinging lead like idiots. (clarification, I'm discussing only the idiot gun hunters I know personally, hunting with a gun in no way makes you any less of a hunter or more of an idiot.)
The thing is - YOU think it's cheating. But nobody is forcing YOU to use a crossbow. You can go on chasing deer with your compound until your heart is content and nobody is going to care. However there are other people may not think it's cheating at all. In fact, they may enjoy hunting more with a crossbow than a compound (gasp!). So why should we deprive them of the ability to do that just because you don't like it? If you're really concerned about judging other people's kills based on their weapon of choice then I'd say your perspective on what hunting is all about is a bit off center.
Yeah Md passed this several yrs ago. Not my cup of tea but it does allow others the chance to hunt that wouldn't normally be able too..... To be honest I do think that only older, women, kids, and handicapped should be able to use them though!!!! <+>< Ps 46: 1 ><+>
I'll expand. My wife doesn't have much upper body strength. She can't even pull back my 60 lb bow. She hunts with the gun but Wisconsin's gun deer season is only 9 days and that is during Thanksgiving and the deer lock down pretty well after those first few days. That really gives her two good hunting days per year. That is it. And it is cold. The X bow law will enable her to get out in the woods in fall when the weather is great, during the rut, and enjoy the woods during that time with a long season. Rather than hunting only being two days a year of freezing her tush off. She probably won’t do it till the boys are older. But how is this a bad thing for the hunting community giving people more options? The tags are still going to be the same thing.
Yeah cheating. To get the full effect, we will dump a pile of corn down and she can hunt with the X bow over that.
I'm starting to see why some of my friends don't care for the company of Bowhunters. Hell compounds are considered cheating by some traditionalist , Inline muzzle loaders that can out shoot some centerfires. Alot of the so called one and done's go for the camp and comradely and just get away. My thought is as long as your legal, ethical and have respect for the wild life, is that there room in the woods for you whatever your equipment.
