How many would use crossbows?

[ATbuckhunter]

How many of you would have started with crossbows instead of compounds if it was fully legal back when you started bowhunting? Id like to say i would have started with a compound but i probably would have started with a crossbow. With that said i would never switch to one because I love hunting with a compound too much. I know this will ruffle a few feathers but try to be adult about it.

Edited September 6, 2014 by ATbuckhunter

[First-light]

I really don't have enough time in the woods with a xbow to compare. I probably would of tried both and made a decision after seeing which was more comfortable and precise in hitting the target.

[Lawdwaz]

I started with a recurve almost 40 year ago, then moved back and for between a compound and recurve a couple times.  I was just a mere baby when I started shooting a bow, probably 6 or 7 years old.  If you put a xbow in a 6 or 7 year olds hands today I bet he'd stick with that also, maybe..........

[burmjohn]

I started with a recurve almost 40 year ago, then moved back and for between a compound and recurve a couple times.  I was just a mere baby when I started shooting a bow, probably 6 or 7 years old.  If you put a xbow in a 6 or 7 year olds hands today I bet he'd stick with that also, maybe..........

 

True, but thats like giving them a 30-06 as the first gun to shoot.

[Jeremy K]

I always thought xbows were stupid and i still do , it holds draw for you as long as you want and then you look through a scope to aim . Not for me .

[HOUNDS77]

I always thought the concept of traditional hunting season should be for recurves/long bows and traditional black powder. With todays advances it is not too traditional any more. So if we use compounds with fiber optic sights and muzzleloaders with scopes and easily shooting 150 yards why not use a crossbow? Just my opinion.

[Doc]

My first bow that accounted for my first kill (pigeons in the hay mow) was a hickory longbow that I built at age 11 with a draw-shave and hours of work. Crossbows (legal or otherwise) weren't even in the picture, and certainly not something that I could come up with by myself. So the legality of crossbow hunting wasn't even an issue back then.

 

Another influence was the advent of archery competition in my 20's and 30's. We owned a commercial archery range when I was 21. I think by that time, I was totally committed to bows, and all the intricacies and challenges of archery skills. By that point, the crossbow (legal or not) wouldn't have had a chance to sneak into my life.

 

But who knows. If I had found an old crossbow up in the attic at age 11, maybe it all would have taken a different turn. No real way of knowing.

[Mr VJP]

I probably would have started with a crossbow, being young and impressionable when I started bow hunting.

 

I started with a recurve (and wanted a powerful one) then went to the compound, but have since reverted back to a recurve.  I've had about 12 different recurves and compounds in my life and I could have started with the one I've ended up with.

 

I'm sure if I started with a crossbow, I'd still be using the recurve I use now.

 

[pointman]

I have been using a compound bow for deer hunting 10 plus years now. Have read a lot of pro and con articles in allowing crossbow usage in the hunting seasons. This am, I am going to see for myself first hand all about crossbows at the Rip Van Winkle Gun Club. I am

going with an open mind and decide for myself.

[BKhunter]

Only time I would use a crossbow is if I became physically unable to draw back in my compound. It just does not interest me but I love my time in the woods and if old age limits my abilities I would go that route in order to get my time in the stand

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[wooly]

I'm pretty sure if they were legal back then, I would have had at least one of each.

I have no clue which one I would have got started with, and I'm not sure it would not have made much of a difference in how I hunt now.

No doubt in my mind that both methods would have stuck with me, I'm just not sure what my preference would have been.

If there's a season for ANY weapon, I wanna be part of it today, the same way I was back then.

 

 

[Merlot]

Probably would have checked out each device to get a feel and made a choice between the x-bow and compound. Would have been nice to have the option to choose over 40 years ago. Too late now...

As it stands now, I will keep on truckin' with my compound and maybe switch over to x-bow when the technology of the x-bow allows the weight of the x-bow to come down a little...the very few I have picked up seem too heavy to carry around right now. Just my opinion.

[bowslinger]

not in my budget too get a x bow even if i could i would not use one shot them and they are ok but not my cup of tea

[sits in trees]

I would have hunted xbow from the get go. I'm hangin my vert bow up and using my Excalibur as soon as the season lets me.

[bubba]

I would have used a crossbow for sure.  I used and still use a recurve.  I agree that the days of a traditional weapon season are long gone.  i still use a sidelock and a flint lock during the special seasons.  I think that since a crossbow is old school, I would have used one. 

[Fanaddict]

I'll stick with what is really old school a vertical bow. I shot my first deer 46 years ago with a recuve and have switch back and fourth with a compound!!

[Trial153]

Negative

[hunter49]

I just ordered a x- bow yesterday. I started with a recurve, then went to compound, now I will try a x- bow. Also started with a shotgun, then a scoped shotgun, then a ML, rifle, & now use a single shot scoped 20 ga. To me its a new game in town & maybe more interesting. I say to each his own! Enjoy & have fun, be safe! I have been doing it for 50 yrs.

[WYnott]

when I began bowhunting there were no seasons for archery.

 

we had to fight to get what was then called "primitive season"

 

then in the 1970s these guys started showing up with mechanical bows, they had sights on them, the bows had pulleys on them that at full draw would allow the guy to hold back only a fraction of the weight of the limbs, they had rests, special arrows, these things were fast, had unfair mechanical advantages and had SIGHTS.

 

they allowed a guy to pick a compound up and go hunt with very little practice, their arrows were all the same spine and weight, were not even wood!

 

I and the rest of us True Archers fought to make sure these mechanical bows with their unfair advantages were NOT LEGAL but in the end we lost and compounds were allowed in the woods,

 

the advantages of pulleys then cams made it possible for weaker people to hold back a 50 or 60 pound draw weight and the sights let them be accurate without the need to practice as much as we did with our longbows,

 

they didn't need to invest tons of money and hundreds of hours making arrows, matching spine and POC, they just bought the package and screwed on a broadhead and done.

 

they argued that it would increase the ranks...and it did...they argued it would mean cleaner kills and less deer lost to bad shots, and it did, but it was NOT the reason we fought to get primitive seasons to begin with, it was not in the SPIRIT of the thing, it was to them just another season and another tag they could go fill.

 

then we had the same fight when these damn inlines showed up in the muzzleloader woods.....everyone trying to make it easier, instead of using iron sights and flintlocks or even better match or wheel locks. scopes, shotgun primers, pellets , sabots....its the same thing with X bows, this it the same exact unfair advantage as compounds , because Xbows shoot farther and more accurately than compounds the compound guys are now pissed just like us longbow hunters were 40 years ago! 

 

Now you know how we felt!!

 

whats next?? special seasons for kids where they don't have to follow the adult rules?  trophies for everyone even if you don't win?

 

I lost my dominant eye and part of my dominant hand while in uniform, and now I cant' bow hunt can't even hold a bow lefty to try to witch from right to left,  but I'm not whining about it.

 

I'd go on but I want to go sight my new pse TAC Elite in, this thing is awesome.

[hunter49]

WYnott, Thank you for your service & good luck & good hunting with your new bow!