Contributors to this thread:
I was wondering. Can a hunter use his crossbow to hunt other game with besides deer?
are you really a dentist?
Any die hard Bowhunter is goina stick with their bows, be it recurve longbow or compound.
No but I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night. LOL. I only use a recurve to bowhunt with. I don't need a crossbow. I am just trying to understand the laws. I really don't care what people hunt with as long as they don't use em on my land. LOL. I guess you answered my question Shaky. Thanks. I guess it is considered a bow. One of my buddies was wanting to hunt some ground hogs where he lives in the bowhunting only counties. Since it is considered a bow he will be fine as long as he doesn't use it for hunting deer. Thanks for the into.
I also was wondering why you can use it to hunt other game but now deer in the bowhunting counties since it will not have an impact on the number of deer killed. A bow is a bow. Nuff said.
the crossbow is illegal to hunt deer with in the southern counties. if you are caught hunting squirrels with a crossbow during archery season you will be fined. the way the law reads according to the publication in the charleston gazette, one could use a cross bow to hunt squirrels or groundhogs or whatever in their prosepective season so long as their was no achery season for deer concurrrent.
the crossbow in the southern counties would have no greater impact in the southern counties than what is being done illegally currently with poaching with rifles and crossbows and god knows what else. the only reason it is illegal in the southern counties is because some threw such a fit and had to have a small victory within the defeat. if i was a handicapped hunter who posessed a class y crossbow stamp and couldnt use it in the southern counties because of this new law, i would consider filing a discrimination lawsuit. the current hunting regulations say nowhere that a holder of a class y cannot hunt in the southern counties with the crossbow
As I understand it you can hunt in the southern counties if you have a Y license. So a hunter can not hunt squirrels with a rifle or shotgun in the southern counties during bow season? I didn't know that. I don't hunt down there so am not familiar with the regs. I would say that adding another weapon down there would have more deer killed which is why they won't allow them down there. After all they said it would have no affect on the deer statewide.
so you cant hunt the southern counties with a crossbow, but you can hunt the southern counties with a crossbow with a class y. thats real intelligent. like i said, they made the rule for one reason. you can spin it anyway you want, no one will know for sure until the regs come out. i am merely paraphrasing the article.
Same as before . You couldn't hunt without a class y license in any county
from the regs:Use of a crossbow to hunt.
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, any person lawfully entitled to hunt may hunt with a crossbow during big game firearm season. A person who possesses a valid Class Y permit may also hunt with a crossbow in accordance with section forty-two of this article. Further, the director shall designate a separate season for crossbow hunting and identify which species of wildlife may be hunted with a crossbow
(B) Only crossbows meeting all of the following specifications may be used for hunting in WV
(1)The crossbow has a minimum draw weight of 125 pounds
(2) The crossbow has a working safety.
what regs? they dont come out till july. i think those are proposals. from all the chatter crossbow use will be concurrent with general archery season
Your right its not the regs but it is still the law. The reason the 4 counties has no crossbows during archery season is because they have no gun season for deer. That's how it was written. I guess the separate season including archery season are for counties that also allow gun seasons
so, according to what you posted above, section A means that for the 2015-2016 season, crossbows will only be allowed during a special crossbow season and also be allowed concurrent with gun season.
that goes agaisnt everything that has been put out regarding this matter. i dont understand why the dnr would allow media to print the fact that crossbows will be allowed concurrent with the archery season for the 2015-16 season.
No, they can be used in bow seasons (designated season) in counties that have deer gun seasons. The 4 counties do not have deer gun seasons. I know it is a strange law .
From what I was told if I understand it correctly the crossbow season is a separate season from the bow season. It just runs concurrent. This would mean that a hunter can kill his limit with a crossbow and then get his regular bow and kill his limit with that. If this is not the case then there is no use in calling it a separate season. Just semantics
crossbows will be allowed concurrent with the bow season but it is considered a separate season as I understand it. If that is the case then I don't see how they can keep a hunter from killing his limit of deer with both.
This is the law now. Article 20-2-5g is the crossbow code
i was just told by a game warden that, like i stated before, the crossbow season will run concurent with archery season and basically be a "bow" season, meaning you will have up to three tags for archery and can use either a cross bow or vertical bow to fill them. there will be no special tag or crossbow license to purchase.
Well then that is not a separate season. It is using the crossboe in place of the bow. During the early rifle season (which is in the now season) I think u can kill a doe and not have it be used against ur Bir total.
right. either the law is written wrong or the wardens and media got bad information. who knows
Well me thinks they are calling it a separate season just to keep the bowhunters happy.( running it concurrent with the bow season). LOL. But this old guy is smarter than that. LIke I said. I can kill a doe in the early rifle season and still kill my allowed number of deer with my bow after that and it is concurrent with the bow season.
