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Interesting crossbow article out of West Virginia…

Found more info….

I read the article as well. The numbers are there for all to see. And with more and more gunners wanting a piece of the venison the numbers will continue to climb until there is a problem. That is true with proof and inarguably inevitable. And what some of us have said from the get go.

Hold on guys don't get ready to rumble until I can get my popcorn going.

Ready for blast off. I read the articles and they state what some on the forum have previously said and/or inferred. Though I am forced to shoot a crossbow there is a distinction I would like to make. I want to emphasize my deer were killed largely due to preseason , in season and post season scouting, proper stand placement, working hours to create access to stands and shooting lanes with pole saws ,large hand saws and hand pruners, a life long study of Whitetail behavior and foods and finally understanding how Ma. whitetails react to various calling and rattling and customizing techniques that actually work and knowing the exact time of the season to use them.Not to mention year long weight training that allows a guy my age to drag out a good deer alone. There 's a lot more that went into my successful season than"Oh, he uses a crossbow".These deer were taken less by a cross bow and more by a person dedicated to the hunt.The difficulty in arrowing a buck is what makes it matter so much so please don't dilute my little achievements with"Oh ,he uses a cross bow". Submitted with all due cordiality.

A few years ago in one of these discussions, id looked at, I think Wisconsin and Ohio and found they had an increase in bow/Xbow season hunter numbers and total kill, but it slid back to near original values after several years. Looking like a lot of gun guys tried the xbow and bailed after a few years.

It looked like the xbow impact was pretty small in those states.

This is weird if I'm reading correctly... a huge jump in deer killed during the first inclusion year, and then a big drop, then a gradual increase to the past season.

I've not looked at other states for recent data to see if the started to trend up again.

So, while I'm not a fan of general inclusion, im not seeing data that match this in other places.

It may, and I'd not be surprised... but this is definitely different than some other states, at least as of a couple years ago.

Its interesting, but I'd need more data to ponder what if the numbers here mean...

Big D. U keep sticking up for yourself. You don't have to. You do all the right things. The only difference is the weapon. I would imagine you are the poster boy every hunter wants to b like. Notice I didn't say cross bow hunter. Just hunter

I'm pressed for time but will b back for rebuttal

I think it's much to do about nothing. 2 week shotgun season is what gets people to take up Crossbows. Let's outlaw Crossbows and extend shotgun season to 6 weeks, back to beginning of November.

Pi with all due respect I think you dropped the proverbial common sense ball big time on this one. It's funny who is " delusional " I would say the other guy that doesn't agree with me. The numbers are there and getting worse. I'm not gonna screen shot it and post up cause I don't have that kind of time. And I don't know how but there are some people that would according to you be delusional along side me including and not limited to the president of the National bowhunter Association. We all can't b " delusional " do you think a chicken only lays one egg ?

Rooster don't lay eggs. You can have 25,000 rooster in 2001 and 22,000 in2004 you won't have any more roosters than 47,000. It's an equation that can't b beat. Sup now

Check mate

I read the article. 2015 a big jump in archery harvest and 37% of all archery deer taken with crossbow in 2015 only. After that, no distinction between bow and crossbow. Numbers have been declining but you can’t tell if a bunch of crossbow hunters quit or if vertical bow hunters are becoming less effective. A few of my takeaways are that there seems like a lot of deer there and the reporter doesn’t have spellcheck or a good editor. To add my opinion: crossbows offer a lower barrier-to-entry than vertical bows. Even the price point is lower. Simplicity of use and longer effective range can get a new hunter ready to shoot in 1-2 hours. Some people who use crossbows are excellent hunters, but a person with no knowledge of hunting can be hunting in a day. As bow hunters who have 6 Weeks to ourselves and need to practice archery all year round the prospects of letting hordes of new hunters into archery season are frightening. Vertical bow hunters have enjoyed a somewhat elite status here. I understand the feeling that in exchange for learning a difficult method, archery, we get our own season. Also, to allow the easier method of crossbow in that season would somehow be “cheating” because it’s less difficult to learn.

I think the idea of what's cheating or not is an entirely different topic.

Noob, agreed.

I was done here, but had to look at google scholar and pubmed. Not much solid research has been done comparing hunter habit change, deer kill change etc as a result of crossbow inclusion during vertical bow seasons. There is a little, and a lot of it was 12-15 yrs ago, so before the larger surge in states adding xbows, and well before xbow's went from a regular compound on it's side performance wise to 6-8" wide and 4-500fps.

Soooo... If you are reading this, and you have a turd ton of time on your hands... OR you are an undergrad college student looking to do an interesting masters thesis or PhD, go and gather state data for the past 20 yrs to look at how xbow's have impacted both deer numbers, kill rates per season, and maybe even things like hunter satisfaction or hunter or gen pop perception of hunting. Dig in, control for what can be controlled for to have a really clean data set and minimal confounders and you probably have a really great thesis.

The article says 2014: 21k archery deer. 2015: 32k archery deer, 37% of which is crossbow (11,840 for crossbow, 20k-21k for vertical bow.) Your opinion is that the increase is due mainly to opening up 70k acres and insignificant when you look at the total harvest. I get that. It’s a big state and a lot of rural land. I disagree that it’s insignificant but will acknowledge there seems to have been a fervor in the first few years that wanes with time. Once the novelty wears off it seems things settle in to a pattern which doesn’t disrupt the harvest or population. That being said, I enjoy having the woods to myself and would lobby to ban them just for my selfish gain. Let’s be honest.

To assign the word "cheaters" to Xbow members of the bow hunting community is a bridge too far and divisive at a point in time when unity is important.

Maybe trad hunters feel the compound to be a bit of a cheat. IMHO trad is the purest form of bow hunting but I don't use that opinion to down grade compound bow hunters. So it follows ,why would someone shoot a compound with, modern speed cams,anti vibration inserts, fiber optic sights with built in battery powered light , phallic like stabilizer,flip up rest, modern riser,graphite arrows tipped with other worldly flapper designs, implausible let off percentages,etc, etc....why would they have the audacity to bad mouth Xbows? True that shooting vertical requires more practice but I've seen new shooters at Reedy's after 15min. of instruction and a little practice shoot verticals pretty darn well. Both Xbows and verticals require practice if you're to kill cleanly. It always boils down to the shooter's ability no matter the weapon.

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