Hope I don’t come across as an elitist too…
I have a trad bow (can’t seem to find the time to master it), I have a compound bow (love it), and I have owned (no longer) an xbow as I wanted to personally test the situation about two and a and a half years ago – is the xbow easier?
My conclusions – Xbow is hands down easier:
- To learn
- To use (minus draw back into the lock – but withany draw tool back to being on par)
- And to hunt with
I spot and stalk for muleys. The year I was skunked during bow season (Sask draw as I live in SK now, used to be in Medicine hat then Sylvan Lake) I had the choice – keep hunting with bow, start carrying a xbow, or start carrying a muzzleloader. I chose to keep going with the compound but got burnt in several situations where I could have easily been successful with the xbow (based on my experience with my xbow). No draw movement combined with the ability to go prone and shoot off the world’s first shooter’s bench (the ground) would have cinched to deal. I know people will always try and say that I cannot be sure but sorry - F that, I was there already having crouched, crawled and crept to great spots but where raising to knees and drawing was the final step. In two cases the animals were within sight but I either had to draw or come to my knees and draw… both situations ended the stalk. With an xbow in the range I had reached – game over.
So here is my take on the debate…
I love the argument that a crossbow is no different than a compound bow is now different than a traditional bow by way of saying …
A bow is a bow is a bow.
It shows how well the person mastered the English language… they can find ‘bow’ in there everywhere!
(see the seahorse vs horse comment for corrective measure)
Also, pages of this debate can be deleted by getting rid of xbows or compounds being compared to rifles. While the numbers can be made to look compelling, it’s not just apples to oranges, it’s apples to Walmart.
In the end I even discount the immediately compelling/humorous argument of:
“If a rifle = a woman
A bow = a man
What would you call something with parts and mannerisms of both?”
While it is funny and does demonstrate differences, it too should not be used to disqualify the xgun (oops
) - xbow from archery season. Instead as stated by both sides of the argument, it needs to be judged as a hunting tool…
So of all of these are hunting tools/weapons which rely on arm power for their ability to be thrown and/or drawn and/or released…… knife, spear, trad bows, compounds, xbows. However, what you will find is a defining line that the majority of the archery community has used for the greater part of a hundred years (if not longer) to classify their tools… the knife and spear are obviously out (unless someone cares to argue this as well), but not the traditional bows or the compound. The difference has always been, that the crossbow is not considered a bow as it has 100% let-off. This is to say that a bow is bent AND HELD by muscle power alone. Crossbows cannot be classified similarly because despite all of the similarities they have that one, inescapable, inherent mechanical advantage.
Interesting that a spear-gun which bears many similarities with the xbow (drawn by arm, locked in place, fired by trigger) has ‘gun’ in its name…
Now someone, will of course, be clever enough to develop or find things like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kXhkD-JK-8
Google: Compound bow Draw loc
But these devices also move compounds out of their spot amongst archery equipment and move it to a ‘cross over’ equipment status… As in it now crosses over the aforementioned defining line. And due to that it is already outlawed nearly everywhere that classifies crossbows separately.
In the end the xbow IS a hunting tool. It is not grouped with ‘archery equipment’ by most – and rightfully so. Notice I said ‘archery equipment’ not archery season; just because a lot of jurisdictions have allowed it in that season does not necessarily mean it becomes archery tackle, despite wording.
And furthermore while some here want to believe that this will change “sooner than later”, this is actually doubtful. The higher percentage of people have always maintained that the xbow is not to be included in the definition of archery equipment and the increase in people who want it to be included has nothing to do with a change in facts but does have everything to do with 1) an increase in marketing and 2) better marketing along with 3) the continually stable human greed – not greed by the archery community but by those wanting the perceived benefits of the archery season.
As far as those in the archery season with archery tackle trying to horde animals to bowhunters – nope. My concern is herd management. And more often than not you will always find the squeaky wheel that wants to use their xbow in archery season has no real answers to increased activity in the early season. They will throw up all kinds of numbers and reassurances that all will be well, but when you peel it back more and more you will find the result to be decreased season length and/or increased draws which either limit the success rate by limiting time or by limiting the hunter inclusion rate respectively.
But they will be happy because even though this PO’s 10,000 other hunters they had made 2,000 crossbow hunters happy…?