XBOWS

They have taken the money from the manufactures who wanted them legalized and will continue to receive it each year in the form of full page ads at 10 grand each in the digest so I see no change for 2010. It also makes it easier for them than fighting over who is handicapped or not which was one of the original considerations.

You could be right on that one Free Spirit---They are a lot more quite than a rifle. I'am sure the percentage of getting caught is much lower.

CROSSBOWS arent the problem, PEOPLE are the problem .  Their is nothing wrong with crossbows.

Crossbows will remain in our archery seasons through the 2011 seasons.  The PGC will vote before the 2012 seasons begin to finalize the issue.  It looks like a slight bump in archery license sales thus far but the harvest data that be revealed in March will set the tone. 

i have no problem with the xbows. putting on drives?? orange goofballs?? its not a rifle. you cant do much more with a xbow than you can do with a compound the only diff. is a scope. i some how dont see anyone putten on drives while they are all using xbow. archery you need not wear orange. not even with a xbow as far as i know. there are a few poachers around here that use them, but they used them long before they made them legal.

ORIGINAL: DarDys

I really don't have a dog in this fight -- I don't archery hunt or own a crossbow -- and have no plans for either.  But I do have a question.  During the run up to the approval of crossbow inclusion there were a lot of discussion how the crossbow hunters were going to ruin the woods for archery hunting because of being orange clad goofballs, putting on drives, moving into areas that were scouted by archers, overpopulating the woods with their sheer numbrs, etc.  Did anyone run into those situations and if so, to what degree?

I had a few run ins.  One in an area I don't hunt often.  The guy was about 50 yards off the road.   In that particular area, I can see as a decent spot during rifle season, but during during bow season not so much.   I suspected him to be a previous rifle-only hunter looking for a crack at a rutting buck.  Not a negative experience, just a run-in.

The other, ****ed me off with his "I got bought one of these to shoot past 40 yards."    Part of the problem I originally had with crossbows and those misconceptions.   Proven to be true, unfortunately.
 
 
There was one group of "driver-only" hunters I see every rifle season, that I thought would maybe buy crossbows and do some drives/shoot at running deer.   There are 10-15 in that group.   That thankfully never seemed to have transpired... yet.   

ORIGINAL: DarDys

  During the run up to the approval of crossbow inclusion there were a lot of discussion how the crossbow hunters were going to ruin the woods for archery hunting because of being orange clad goofballs, putting on drives, moving into areas that were scouted by archers, overpopulating the woods with their sheer numbrs, etc.  Did anyone run into those situations and if so, to what degree?

 
As of 11/30/09, resident archery license sales were up about 8,000.  That will probably go up a bit next year as well.  That increase is still much below historical sales numbers from years previous.  Plenty of room for everybody.   

ORIGINAL: bingsbaits

Just as our gloom and doom numbers never transpired in the woods, I remember the Xbow fellas mentioning a 30,000 bump in archery tags sales..Guess it wasn't the big financial bail out it was touted to be...
Thank God the amish can't afford them right now or Archery season here would be screwed...

 
 
Forgot about that group.    We got lots of amish too.   I don't see alot of them picking up a crossbow here.

ORIGINAL: akitadog

i have no problem with the xbows. putting on drives?? orange goofballs?? its not a rifle. you cant do much more with a xbow than you can do with a compound the only diff. is a scope. i some how dont see anyone putten on drives while they are all using xbow. archery you need not wear orange. not even with a xbow as far as i know. there are a few poachers around here that use them, but they used them long before they made them legal.

 
Those things were what was predicted during the inclusion discussion.  I was just curious to see if they happened and if, so to what degree.
 
Again, it doesn't matter to me personally.  I just have an interest when something new is proposed and there is good debate on all sides, if the predictions come true one way or another.  Substiute health care reform or gun control or drunk driving or catch and release or fly fishing only or anything else for crossbows.  I am just looking at how the points and counterpoints played out.

ORIGINAL: bingsbaits

Just as our gloom and doom numbers never transpired in the woods, I remember the Xbow fellas mentioning a 30,000 bump in archery tags sales..

 
May still happen in a year or two before it levels off.  I was one that hoped for about 30,000.  With all of the uncertainty of the regulations this fall, I believe some held their purchase.  I look for a increase the next two years with an eventual plateau then a decrease again as was happening before.

I've been shooting at one of my local bow shops a couple days a week to get ready for a techno hunt tournament. I had the chance to talk with some of the employees of the shop the past couple times I shot. One of the owners told me their sales were 30% crossbows and 70% bows in 2009. I asked how many of the crossbow buyers were already bowhunters. She didnt know.
 
I played dumb and asked some crossbow questions to one of the people working there. This person asked me if I ever shot a crossbow. After I said "no", he told me "They're just like a rifle. If you have a good rest, they're dead-on out to 60 yds"... I had to bite my tongue. I overheard another employee there tell someone crossbows have no more range than a bow. I guess it just depends on who you ask .
 
At the other bow shop I go to (and prefer to go to over the first one I mentioned) the owner told me he will never sell crossbows. He also tells me the average guy who comes in hoping to buy one has an illusion that they shoot like a rifle.
 
My thoughts on the subject of crossbow hunter numbers are that the overall number will start going down after another year of increase. Think about it this way... a lot of the people who picked up crossbows after hunting with a rifle for most of their life, will be in for a big surprise when they find out it's not easy to kill a deer on it's natural patterns, as opposed to hunting them in rifle season when the deer are being pushed back and forth by other hunters all day. The crossbowers who arent having any luck will give it up, and the numbers will go down.
 
I saw only one guy carrying a crossbow this season.  He was walking way off in the distance wearing a full blaze orange outfit. figured he was a small game hunter until I looked at him with my binos and saw the crossbow. I could tell he was walking around hoping to get a shot. Something tells me he didn't. The guy was tresspassing and I should have kicked him out, but I gave him a free pass since I was getting ready to climb down and put a tag on my buck, and was in a pretty good mood. So, I have to say crossbow inclusion didn't ruin my hunting, and I doubt it will where I hunt.
 
I have a few friends who's spots were overrun by crossbowers. The crossbow hunters did a drive near one of them, and he yelled at them to stop f-ing up his hunting...and they'd never kill a deer that way. When he went back to move that treestand a few days later he found it laying on the ground, seat was slashed with a knife, and all of the pins and straps were missing. I wonder who did it?