As mentioned previously I will be sitting out this years bow season in NYS. This is due to recent quadruple heart bypass surgery and the surgeon's advice. I love to bow hunt however I do not want to damage the sternum while it is healing and do not want to snap one of those titanium wires and have to return to the OR.
I was IN HOPES that common sense would prevail in NY and we would at least open crossbow hunting to disabled folks during the regular bow season. I know there is a league of traditional archers and folks who feel that allowing crossbows during regular archery season will give an unfair advantage to crossbow users and also fears of decimating the deer herd etc. I disagree.
I am old enough to have lived through the phases of muzzle loading seasons when we went from flintlocks to cap locks, to in lines and from patched round ball ONLY to conicals, saboted bullets and new propellants etc. NONE of that made the deer population disappear or dramatically decrease. I also hunted deer in NYS for most of my life with a 12 gauge shotgun bored improved cylinder and foster slugs. We survived the change to rifled scoped slug guns and eventually to rifles. The deer herd is still doing well and the number of hunting and shooting accidents has not increased.
I think the restrictions on cross bows is a lot of hoopla over nothing and we eventually will survive that change too - I HOPE. We have to remember that you are seeing a lot more guys with grey and white hair in the woods and even those with a lot less hair or no hair. We NEED to introduce more of our youth to hunting and foster programs to introduce more young people to the sport. I believe that we should be able to hunt with the weapon of our choice in the appropriate season and let it be a personal thing.
During archery season, it should be an individual choice to hunt with a long bow, recurve, compound, or a crossbow. I know guys who can hit a playing card out past 50 yards with a compound and folks who would be lucky to hit a basket ball at 50 yards with a crossbow. We need to bring more people into the sport and not drive them to neighboring states if they want to hunt with a crossbow or are forced to because they can no longer draw back a compound. Perhaps they have a dislocated shoulder, or arthritis or a disc problem in their back or they are disabled as a result of an auto accident or farm or industrial accident. Whey should these folks be left out of the archery season when perhaps during their earlier days they were avid archery hunters.
For this year ONLY, I find myself in that disabled category as I need to avoid stress on my sternum while it heals. Drawing my 60 pound compound could put undue stress or even disrupt the healing and in in rare circumstances send me back to the OR. WHY should I be barred from using a crossbow during regular archery season? Makes no sense to me.
In any event, IF I WERE TO purchase a crossbow for future hunting seasons, right now I would take a hard look at the Excalibur Matrix 380 XTRA RECURVE crossbow.
It is narrower by 6 inches, shorter by 4 inches, faster at up to 380 fps, offers longer limb life, it is a full POUND lighter, scary accurate, easier to cock and CAN BE DE-COCKED without firing a shot.
Even if I were not temporarily disabled, I would personally enjoy the option to hunt with the compound if the mood strikes me or switch to the recurve crossbow at will. I think there are a lot of folks using crossbows right now that are going to neighboring states to hunt simply because NYS put the kabosh on crossbows this year.
Dan
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