Saturday, September 19, 2009

Cross bow

Not exactly fresh news but we now are allowed to hunt with cross bows. I'm not sure I understand the need for them.
Years ago and on the board of directors for Outdoors Forever, a group dedicated to making the outdoors accessible to disabled people, cross bow hunting was a hot topic.
Good friend and physical therapist Dan Selahowski was instrumental along with the late Roger McCarville and others in getting legislation passed to allow hunting with a cross bow for individuals that demonstrated medically they had disabilities preventing them from hunting with other types of bows.
For awhile this legislation was strictly adhered to. Doctors didn't sign off for any reason. It was a well thought out approach.
Now comes additional legislation that opens the use of cross bows to the population. Going back to when I first began bow hunting there were only recurves and long bows. Then came compounds which seemed to be a huge change.
But whitetail hunting with these bows has always been a challenge. The wind, a leave, twig or small branch, the release, and other things, all go to influence arrow flight. It was a challenge.
Now with the advent of cross bows, where is the challenge? It's almost like hunting with a silenced gun in bow season.
You don't shoot arrows, they're called bolts. Shorter than an arrow, they travel at 400 feet per second.
I'm all for new technology. But cross bow hunting should have been left alone and used by those it was intended.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with Roger's thoughts on Crossbow hunting. Now everyone and their brother can use a method to take deer silently. Where is the challenge in hunting for Meat this way as the "sport" seems to have gone by the wayside.

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