Swapped it out completely

[Doc]

How many of you have permanently hung up your vertical bows in favor of a crossbow?

[First-light]

Might happen this year if they do full inclusion 60 and older. 

[wolc123]

I hung mine up in 2014, when the crossbow was first legalized, for the peak two weeks of the rut in the southern zone.  I still have my last (2) compounds, but haven’t touched them since.  Way more efficient for me for sure.  I’ve killed more deer, hunting just those (2) weeks of the season, the first (5) of those last (10), than I did the previous 30 years with my vertical compounds, hunting the whole seasons.  
 

It’s almost all about the meat for me though, and I haven’t killed any with my crossbow, since they opened and early antlerless gun season in my home zone, (5) years ago.  I stopped fighting so hard for “full inclusion” when they gave us that early gun season.
 

 Im actually thankful now that we didn’t get full inclusion, because that might have prevented that early gun season.  I haven’t had any significant struggle to get enough venison since then.  Antlers mean very little to me.  
 

The peak two weaks of the rut is still one of my favorite times to deer hunt though, so I’m very thankful that I can use my crossbows then.  
 

it provided some excitement last year, when I missed this stout 3.5 yr old 8-pointer on the last Sunday of that 2week crossbow season.  

(26)

 

I could not locate my bolt after the errant shot (probably deflected due to predeployment of mechanical broadhead against popup blind window mesh), and I prayed to Jesus, that “His will be done” regarding carcass recovery.  
 

Not only did He answer my prayer, just like He always has, He did better than allowing an immediate recovery.  It would have been tough dealing with that carcass on that 70 some degree Sunday morning, and still make it to church.  
 

He guided my bolt safety away from the buck, not even nicking a hair.  I didn’t see that buck again until the last minute of daylight on the last day of ML season, when he offered me a broadside shot.  The temperature was just right in late December, for hide-on carcass aging, in our insulated garage.  
 

By that time, there was a lot less fat on the carcass, so processing went significantly faster than it would have, had my bolt struck where I intended, over a month before.