Conspiracy????
Whitetail Deer
Is it a conspiracy? If so, how long has it been going on? Is there a plot to overthrow bowhunting? Can the AMA be behind it? Did it start with compounds or was it conceived before that? Have all the advances in technology been carefully programmed to be implemented at staged times to slowly creep into archery and bowhunting and destroy it, a segment at a time? Is the airbow just the latest step in a well manicured plot? If so, by whom? Who is that nefarious? Can it be gun hunters? Is it wives who feel deserted during bow season? Maybe it is a coalition of anti-hunters and Democrats and some folks from Chicago or Nashville. Or are we just all bored spitless? I know I am. I gave up when I found out all your arrows had to match.
Definitely a conspiracy! The sky is falling!
Just a shift in culture and decline of true bowhunting, nothing more.
It must be ! LOL at the inept attempt to portray selfishness as concern. You go John, sometimes you have to just laugh it off.
No conspiracy, just technology. In a couple of years, this site will be including airbows and many here will be using them and posting pictures. Easy sells and money rules. Just the way it is.
lawdy,
I wonder if Pat would agree with that suggestion. If I had to guess, I'd say nope.
It's the wives for sure, and the government.
JTV that would be about 95% of them. You simply cannot imagine how glad I am in the minority.
Yep, the sky is falling lol we are gearing up for one of two things.depending on America’s vastly diverse cultures and ecosystems
1: More all inclusive seasons and the death of the “bowseason”
2: A severing of camps and splitting of modern and traditional technology
This along with a reduction in overall firearm hunting interest.
I’m in favor of the latter
Break out the tinfoil hats.
Bowhunting is a "victim" of its own success.
Bullhound, you don't think you would see a separate forum? There is leatherwall for trad bows, bowsite for compounds, why not a separate forum eventually for the xbows and airbows. All internet sites rely on advertising and that means money. High tech is big business and as more bowhunters gravitate to high tech, that is where the advertising dollars will go. It would not surprise me if the compound bow forum pulls in more ad dollars than the leatherwall. Most of us strictly traditional guys aren't huge consumers. I could be wrong in my assessment, but after seeing many give up their string bows for compounds and then go to xbows, along with guys ditching their Hawkens and Kentuckys for inlines, I don't think so. I talked to two former compounders two days ago who shot deer with their xbows this past fall, one at 72 yards, the other at 65. That's no fad, they are hooked.
Funny this is bow-site but more and more threads being allowed about crossbows and airbows and and and!! I am guilty of posting on those threads and I am dead set against crossguns and airbows. My point is, all this talk of them is actually helping their cause nt hurting it!! Kind of shooting ourselves in the foot!! Shawn
All species gravitate towards the path of least resistance.
Airbows will never have a forum on bowsite. I can't speak for Pat directly but, I will say that.
The problem with most of you guys is that by Pat allowing kid pics with crossbows and guns, you can't distinguish that from what you describe as the average hunter. Here's a news flash, when people go hunting they want to kill something. If they didn't, they'd go picture taking, nature hiking, etc.....
Yes, we will see more people in the future choose to pick the crossbow up. We'll continue to see older hunters transition to them. It's easier, faster to master, etc... But, it ain't going to hurt you or cause what you predict. And, by these hunters doing this, it doesn't make them inferior, lazy, or mean archery will die. It ust means that someone decided to try a crossbow.
And, airguns shouldn't be allowed in bow season. However, there is no need to predict the end of the world and demoralize fellow hunters so you can talk gloom and doom about bowhunting's future. We all agree with you. However, if you feel so strongly about it, why not put the same effort into recruiting kids to vertical bows as you do brow beating bowhunter's who agree with you, with the same old stuff. If you don;t like that, go to your bow rack and, look at the weapon you are choosing. It it ain't a flippin' rock then you are as guilty as the crossbow guys by your own admissions and theories.
Yep, bowhunting is dead. I'm going fishing...
I think part of the problem is people in the public eye that for "some reason" can not discern between archery/bowhunting and other forms of equipment.
There is no bowhunting season for me. I coach from August until the second week of November. By then we have had youth weekend, muzzleloading season, and we are one week into rifle season. We lost the final week of bow season in Zone A where I live. This year they plan to extend rifle season right to the end of Zone A's bow season. I hunt deer or bear only with a longbow, never even shot a compound. My hare and partridge hunting is flinter or handgun. Late season partridge up here bud in birch trees. I use my 22 trapping pistol then. In the boonies. Bow season is a wash for me as I only get to deer hunt with the bang bang boys. I see more deer than most gun hunters because I scout a lot and creep through the woods. When your weapon has limitations, you learn to slow down and hunt deep. Technology personally does not affect me because I don't get to hunt during bow season. WV Mountaineer mentioned rocks. There are a few of us out here that would probably adapt if needed. I used to hunt feral cats with a sling as a kid and a rock coming out of a 3 foot sling is deadly. I am not a fan of technology in hunting but human nature is what it is, easy sells. We will survive in spite of it, we just have to hunt harder I guess, or go home empty handed.
By the way, I attended hearings, wrote letters, and testified trying to keep our muzzleloading and bow seasons primitive, along with getting rid of deer baiting years ago. Big money and easy won.
I still hunt the way I always did, with a recurve and wood arrows (mostly). No conspiracy will ever change it for me. I never see anyone hunting where I go. I kill stuff, and no other methods interfere with my trad bow hunting. Lucky I guess. You can let it get to you, or you can persevere, overcome, adapt...
Personally, I feel like a mountain man living in a modern world. A mountain man that was probably born 100 years too late.
I feel that hunting shouldn't be easy. I've always felt that the proficiency and practice required to hunt with archery equipment was a necessary, and important, part of the process. Archery proficiency requires mental and physical training. Often, the struggle for proficiency is a test. Especially if you've had target panic. Those setbacks and hardships have shaped us into who we are now.
Sadly, it seems that more people don't want to test themselves. They will overcome any hardship with their credit card.
The airbow, very soon, will allow a person to purchase proficiency. There will be no more need for a proper release, consistent form, or developing physical strength. The biggest challenge for an airbow hunter will be making sure that he/she has a fully charged air cylinder and maybe a spare.
Does my opinion matter? Probably not. Especially in the Western states where the "easy" weapons will face a lot more adversity.
I don't see bow hunting as dead or dieing. I didn't start bow hunting until about 10 years ago (although I did have a bow as a kid). I've hunted with a rifle though since I was 12. Most of my friends now bow hunt and some of us hunt a couple of different states.
Just last night my best friend bought his first real bow. He went along with me to pick up my son's new bow. He's 6 and got a bear cruzer lite. He's over the moon excited. I'm having him shoot fingers to start and I figured it was time for me to learn as well so I picked up my first stick bow.
My friends and I have mostly put down the rifles and we are now teaching the next generation. Maybe across the country it is slowing but in our little town with my friends archery is alive and well.
The WI statistics are pretty sobering, crossbows outkilled vertical bows for the first time this year. The growth rate of crossbow hunters is 30%. How soon before all new hunters learn to hunt using a crossbow and the ease of use makes compounds look like stickbows? Yes, the damn sky is falling!!!
For those of you that think this is a laughing matter I don't. As Xman stated, last year was the first year that croosbow kills outnumbered vertical bow kills in Wisconsin. How long can that trend continue before there is a detrimental effect on the population?
You can not continue to allow for all of these new weapons such as crossbows, airbows, straight walled cartridges, and muzzeleloaders that are no different than a single shot rifle into the season dates that have been on the books for years and for there to not be a detrimental effect on the population.
Buckhammer-Have they reduced the bag limit? Have they cut any days from bow season? If not, then what difference does it make if 95% of the deer are killed with crossbows? if you continue to shoot whatever you shoot, what do you care if 99% of the bow hunters shoot something else? How does that impact you?
Currently, I am driving a Dodge. I have no idea what you drive. It does not impact me at all. I have been married for 43-years. Maybe you just got divorced for the fourth time. What does that have to do with me? They aren't outlawing marriages or divorces.
That said, when there is solid proof that a piece of equipment has negative impact on the number of animals killed, then...then, you have cause. But to use a courtroom term, you cannot assume facts not in evidence.
Nancy Pelosi pointed out this conspiracy in her last speech, "Its Trumps fault"
As I mentioned before Bowriter, please let loose of your whitetail only mentality. Point creep is a real thing and those of us who hunt animals other than whitetail deer understand that.
Conspiracy? No... I dont think anyone is wearing tinfoil hats...
My "gut" says it's capitalism pure and simple. People are not buying bow's as fast, so what can we sell which may get them to buy something else?
Bowriter look west my friend. It’s becoming very hard to draw and that is only because of the compound/in-line muzzie really...think about the difference this technology would make
