Crossbows & Archery Seasons · The Ethical Predator

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Crossbows & Archery Seasons

This is always the elephant in the room when it comes to archery seasons, and I’m gonna say right away that a lot of you followed me know that I’m not against crossbows per se, but I do not believe they belong in conventional archery seasons for the reasons I’ve listed below.

I was asked to write a short treatise for a large organization on my opinion of crossbows why simply because I saw the creation of the laws in Ontario in the 70s for archery only seasons, and I saw those seasons created and allowed in the very beginning simply because of the constraints and the difficulty required, whether with a compound recurve or longbow to hunt effectively for any game you had to get close it wasn’t the weapons inefficiency.

It was its range and its distance and the competency required to be effective with them!

Read below and fill your comments in.

Cheers! Grant

In the mid 70s here in Ontario- my father and his associates of the then Ontario Bowhunters association finally convinced the province and the wildlife Enforcement Branch/management branch to look at archery only seasons, and there were some fairly strict parameters apart from the obvious poundage/ equip limitations.

The argument that won the day was simply that archery seasons were longer because it was more difficult to hunt with the weapon (and be successful) what they called at the time primitive weapon seasons.

This was entirely based on a very specific skill set in having to get close because of the weapons range and effectiveness, it was just more difficult. It was never meant to be the easy way or the sure way.

The BowHunter needed to get close - much closer than other weapon systems to be effective.

Of course the compound is started surfacing around that time, but of course the compound was a much more basic compound than the compounds-the wheel bows produced today let off speed - sights etc. etc. crossbows were somewhat prevalent but nowhere near as much as they are today..

the problem across the board we have in the hunting community now is that technology rules the day essentially based all around success, and of course, the profit margin of those companies pushing success..

the original primitive weapon seasons that they drew from for those permissions to have archery only seasons were based around law already established in the United States by people they had met other bow hunters that had seasons established in the 40s and 50s those original seasons were based again around the premise that it was far more difficult.

It was not based around success, but difficulty again. You can see the common threat here.

The seasons needed to be longer and exclusive to a certain type of bow that is a bow that was held vertically, hand drawn, held at anchor and released with fingers or some other type of device, of course i.e. release aid.

Of course now we’ve eclipse a lot of what those original seasons were based on and then people complain that they need to be inclusive as well, crossbows, etc., air bows, etc.. as a traditional bow Hunter I am not one of the elite that is you’ve got to shoot a long bow Cedar arrows and knapped points.

But I do firmly believe that we’ve let technology run rampant in the name of product over process and their lies the rub.

Modern crossbows have almost rifle, like accuracy and shooting systems. Well out past 50 yards again, moving the goal post of ethics farther and farther away.

When do we set the limitations on what that process becomes in my opinion hunting is now become more shooting than it has actually hunting.

I saw this as a guide in Ontario here quite some time ago in my youth for blackbear and moose even back then it was slowly winning over that is product over process.

People wanted to buy themselves their way to the tag being filled. To success.

One can literally walk into a store and buy a crossbow package and the very next day be practically shooting very tight angles and groups with very little practice well out past the conventional range of even compound bows.

Profit and product has now overcome process.

We have to make it easier and faster and failure is no longer OK.

People argue that more youth can get involved because they don’t have the requirement of having to practice or draw heavier weight.

Quite frankly people will become -youth included much more rooted in the process if they exactly d9 what I espouse , which is jumping in with both feet and being diligent and getting effective with a vertical bow if you can’t hunt with a weapon of appropriate weight and dynamics for a hunting season, then don’t hunt with a bow..

The problem is no one wants to seem to be able to draw a line. Everyone somewhere gets offended that they’re railing against the weapon that they use. It’s very simple archery seasons were based around something that is no longer valid for the most part.

That is the fact is that it is a heck of a lot easier to hold shoulder site through a scope and pull the trigger on a weapon, such as a crossbow than it is to hold up draw hold -anchor with a vertical bow.

It’s just the process of the weapon -but at what point do we start drawing the line between technology?

My 2 cents…on the crossbow debate.

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