I'm long over their inclusion personally, and for the record fellow hoosier here. Yup there are idiots with crossbows... Idiots with compounds.... Idiots with HPRs.... Idiots with shotguns.... Idiots with muzzleloaders.... Now do I think the inclusion of crossbows more and more has increased the number of unprepared and misinformed hunters to hit the woods in archery season with one? Sure, 100% yes, and I believe everyone would agree. It also however has brought many back into archery season that no longer were comfortable or able with a vertical, and it also has introduced many to it. What I'm curious of is to see the evolution of it over time and the impact it has truly on vertical bows. How many of these kids taught on the ease to accuracy crossbows are then buying vertical bows? Are compounds, if we could fast forward, someday going to be the next recurves? Traditionals? Who knows. All I know is stay legal and stay safe....I don't care what you got in your hands so long as you do that, as it impacts me none if this occurs.
This right here! You either ethical or you're not. If you are ethical it will apply to all areas of your life. If not.........well Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Quite frankly, this debate will go on and on and personal opinions are just that. Everyone has them. 9 times out of 10 the guys I hunt around with xbows are not disabled, they are taking advantage of technology and the convenience of the xbow.. and usually they don't venture far from the truck and love to hunt the edge of fields/powerlines so they don't impede my hunting one bit.. I just tell em to go enjoy their time and I lay the boots to the ground and scout/hunt hard the way I always have.. In life, there will always be the easier road, many will take it. Think of Robert Frost..."Two roads diverge in a yellow wood, one was well worn the other was faint and not traveled often, and I, I chose the road not taken and for that, it has made all the difference..."
Doesn’t matter to me what someone else chooses to hunt with I have better things to worry about Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
I like to aggravate and stir the pot now and then, but this is kind of a loaded statement. I don’t hunt with crossbows but I know several people, good people mind you, that do. They put as much preparation into their task as anyone and that’s a fact. Assumptions should not be made based on hunting method, their are always exceptions. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I can only speak of the people that hunt with and around me. I know them personally and I know their work ethic when it comes to hunting. This is not a blanket statement...this a fact of the hunters I am in contact with.. Why is this such an issue? Face the facts.. like I originally said, the hardest weapon to kill with is a traditional bow, period. Then the scale of easy goes up from there. I choose a compound. Trad guys say the same thing about me that others say about xbows. I am not butt hurt a bit by it because it is true. Trad hunting is just too hard for me, I tried and failed.. So I go with a lesser challenge.. That's it. nothing more nothing less. the xbow guy has a bit more challenge than the gun hunter.. FACT. Are there some very hard working xbow hunters? I am sure there are. They scout, they hang stands, they sweat, bleed etc.. but the weapon choose is certainly an easier route than others.. I am not saying anything other than a fact. I don't discriminate against, but be honest, when you see a massive buck killed with a gun 200 yds are you as impressed as you would be if it were killed with a bow at 12? Im not. Because I know first hand the level of skill it takes to get that close to a buck like that and to kill it by drawing a weapon back and not alerting him...it's not easy. Its harder than a 200 yd shot with a 270. a 12 yard shot on a mature buck with a xbow is easier than a compound, a 12 yard shot with a longbow is tougher than both...again, I have first hand knowledge this..
100% on the rate of ease, which is honestly the only time I'll have an issue with folks. It just is what it is. I see a guy behind a mature buck with a traditional bow there isn't much more "hunting respect" I can have for it (all things legal and such). For me it is just clear Traditional Bow > Vertical Non-Tradition Bows > Crossbows > Traditional Muzzleloaders (flint/cap) > then an array of guns depending on open sight, caliber or gauge and such and so on and so forth....all will get my kudos but trust me the more you move to the front of that scale the more I want to pick your brain or listen to your stories.
Bingo!!! no hate, just a fact. I do not care what someone hunts with, just understand that are levels of respect that come with different weapons.. Gun kills are fine, I have close to 200 of them, and some big bucks, but none of them measure the respect that the deer in my avatar has because that was a bow kill. Compound that is... the level would rise even higher if it were a trad kill... all I am saying..
Kinda funny if I bought a recurve and had a WB on it and a d loop and used a release the trad guys would look down on me.
Theres a difference between guys that have been bow hunting for a long time that switched to crossbow for whatever reason and some guy who just started "bow hunting" with a crossbow now that it's legal because they were too lazy to practice with a bow in the past. Now they can sight their "bow" in once ever and not shoot it again until they go hunting because realistically why would they have to? Nobody is coming back to hunting because now they can use a crossbow because if something like age or an injury kept them from bow hunting in the past they already would have qualified to use a crossbow is almost all states, so its not like a large population of old injured people are all of a sudden hunting again. Chances are they've been using a crossbow all along. I honestly don't care what people use and realistically using a crossbow is probably more ethical as long as you aren't taking 100 yard shots like the crossbow companies tell you can take on every one of their commercials.
I don't think it takes all that much practice to shoot a compound bow. I bet I shot a total of 25 arrows in prepping to hunt this fall.
Elitist exist in their own mind. I am better hunter than so and so because I choose to hunt with a weapon that is harder. I call BS on that! My respect has nothing to do with the difficulty of the weapon you choose to use to harvest an animal. At the end of the day dead is dead My respect and appreciation comes from the (skill/integrity/ethical methods) I see the person is as a hunter. I guess I better pick up a good atal atal If I ever want to get any elitist respect.... Why the heck does it matter? You are either a good hunter, lucky hunter or an unethical hunter... That my respect meter!
I agree I don't think it does either, but for whatever reason it's a big reason that people choose not to bow hunt, but at the same time will use a crossbow. Ask any hunter who has gun hunted his whole life and has never bow hunted why they all of a sudden started hunting with a crossbow.
There are so many variables that make a hunt harder than others. I could list probably 200 different variables right now that would make 1 hunt harder than the other, regardless of weapon used. Crossbow hunters factor in 0% for what I do and it makes no difference if they are in the woods all around me. On an average hunt for me I never see another hunter. A guy can fish with a bobber and a worm from the bank, from a charter boat and have someone else bait and cast their set up for them, or paddle out 3 miles on a lake and catch a lunker on a plastic worm in a driving rain storm....just have fun with it. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Xbow hunting has zero affect on me..I have stated this before.. The only thing I say is that there are degrees of difficulty in the choice of the weapon..xbow hunters can be good and even great hunters.. so can rifle or ML..I am not talking about the skill set of the hunter as much as I am the difficulty of the weapon used.. why is this so hard to understand? Are you telling me that a xbow is equal to a compound in it's difficulty? Is a compound equal to a longbow? Modern compounds are very easy to sight in and kill with... much easier than trad bows.. not as easy as a xbow.. why do you think they were originally added to the archery season? BECAUSE THEY ARE EASIER TO USE FOR THE ELDERLY AND DISABLED!!! and that's fine...even for the non disabled it's fine.. My thoughts and expressions had nothing to do with whether or not you were a good hunter, but the weapon used can either add to the difficulty or lessen it... simple as that
I don't agree with your respect statement. I do agree there is a level of ease associated with each weapon you have outline. The weapon doesn't make the hunter. Done with this now...
My last statement on the matter.. Respect levels vary for people. Based on the difficulty of accomplishment. You could respect Michael Jordan because of the difficulty of being the greatest ever among the greatest of athletes.. Jimmy Johnson gets respect for his ability to drive a car better than most among professional drivers.. if either of them were dominating their respective sports on the level of AAA then the respect for the difficulty would be less.. I didn't say I don't respect people that xbow hunt. I don't respect the level of difficulty of kill compared to that of a more difficult weapon..A guy like chuck adams who completed the super slam has my respect because he did it with a bow, however, Fred Eichler has more respect because he did it with a recurve...a greater degree of difficulty...both have my respect on different levels... there is no point in debating this with each other.. we don't even know each and will never know each other.. I don't mean any disrespect and if you are offended that was not my intentions. Good luck the rest of the season.
