Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Crossbows in archery season.

Connecticut its legal for archery season, which runs from the third week in Sept to the last day of January on private land. Use to have a medical issue for use prior to 2013. On my property well you still not get a shot over 30 yards, 15 to 20 is more like it, just like my long bow. And we even get to hunt on Sundays too. I should have and Excalibur by the end of August. Since I refuse to get a permit to buy ammo, I will husband the ammo I have and shoot bolts- I have already shot one some and well I can shoot the thing very well. Between that and rifle I should be able to put up enough venison this year to not have to worry about going to the food store.

UP until last year WI only allowed crossbows for the elderly and handicapped. Now we structured it in WI the way I think was best. WI created a separate crossbow license and season and tagging info on the registration stub so the seasons and usage and harvest data can all be tallied separate of bowhunting. Its begins this fall.

For the first two seasons the crossbow season will run concurrent with the bowhunting season. After two years, the start date and duration of (what I will assume will be called crossbowing) will be subject to review based on harvest (thanks to keeping crossbowing separate from bowhunting) and the opinions of WI sportsmen as to whether or not the season needs to be started later or shortened. Right now WI will have an archery deer season and a crossbow season and a firearms season and a ML season so game managers can get the best possible handle on effects to the herd and hunters based on weapons used.

Certain WI groups/orgs fought the NRA to get this outstanding setup. The NRA just wanted crossbowing lumped into bowhunting but enough groups and people objected to that sort of a mistake. I wont use one. I am a bowhunter but my 79 year old father who cant be a bowhunter is happy to be a crossbower. I support their use for the elderly and disabled.

Corn helps

Maybe their eyes went bad along with the rest of the body. I know mine went all to hell at around age 60 and I could not see iron sights or bow pins. Cataract surgery with lens implants fixed that. Funny that most that want crossbows out of archery season are fine with all the pulleys and let offs, but the crossbow which predates that stuff is too newfangled for them. miles

Not the case re eyes or body.

Again I could care less if someone wants to fling arrows. However here in pa with over 800,000 hunters I would like their Deer season to be either rifles or arrows. They choose which.

Battue,

Not trying to stir you up. Could you please explain how Pa's licencing / tag cost & # available to each licenced hunter / seasons work, so that I can better understand your last statements ?

Here in NW Ontario you can purchase only 1 buck tag, per licensed hunter, for the pricey sum of $47. If purchased online, this buck tag can be converted to an antlerless tag. With this 1 tag, you can harvest a buck in any WMU in Ontario, or an antlerless deer in the specific Wildlife Management Unit. If available, 2 additional antlerless tags can be purchased $47 each, for only the specified WMU.

Bow season starts September 1st & runs till December 15th in my WMU.

Rifle season starts November 1st & runs till December 15th.

Our WT rut is typically mid to late November, o this falls within general rifle season.

We can archery hunt in camo, only until any rifle season is open.

Moose usually opens in early October. Once any rifle season is open, all hunters, rifle, primitive, or archery are required to wear 400 square inches of blaze orange, visible from all sides/angles & a blaze orange hat of any description.

My wife, Son & I, typically buy 2 tags each. Our initial buck tag, which we always convert to the buck/antlerless tag for our WMU + an additional antlerless tag.

So, 6 WT tags for my family of meat hunters/eaters. Typically, 4 to 6 deer harvested, which are a combination of does & young 1.5 year old "eater" bucks.

Yes, our tag system allows us to hunt any of the seasons, archery (including crossbows) or rifle, with your tags, to the limit of the tags purchased.

Party hunting is not allowed for WT Deer. That is, I can not shoot additional animals & use my wife's, son's or buddies unfilled tags.

Bearing in mind the number of deer available in our WMU, I'm totally OK with this system.

Hoping to continue this in a civilized manor !

99,

No argument meant on my part even in the first post and I can see how you may have taken it that way. Just stating my thought on game management. It's all good at this end and enjoy your posts.

So my thoughts are only related to Pa. The GC has knocked down the Does big time on almost all of our public lands. Over 1 million acres of license purchased game lands, plus that and more on NF and State Parks. Private land has become posted up solid for the most part and leasing is becoming ever more popular. Forcing more and more hunters onto public land.

However we did it to ourselves. They gave us the Doe tags, we did the shooting and they got their wish and they still keep pumping out the Doe tags. The habitat can support many more Deer and hunting opportunities.

Does are the key and with 800,000 hunters they still are taking a hit. However they are slowly coming back because most now only hunt the first day and perhaps a Saturday. For a couple of reasons I think the GC prefers it that way. Our Deer camps essentially go empty after the first day of rifle, but since most feel a Doe may be their only chance they shoot the first one that may come buy. This is on public land. Some management units you can shoot a Doe during the entire rifle season and others you have to wait until the second week. Most make it for at least a day when Does come in the second week.


Our Deer habitat in many areas will support more Deer, but they are being held down with Doe tags. Some areas that isn't the case, but the GC uses a one size fits all management plan. I could be wrong, but if one had to choose archery-don't care what form-then it would eliminate a hunter who didn't get a Deer with a bow from taking one with a rifle. They want a challenge then there it is. Get it done with a stick or don't get it done at all and leave some extra out there for the rifle only rifle people until the herd numbers come back. Our rut for most years is shut down considerably when rifle comes in. Some Does that didn't take are running around but it is pretty much over.

Pa just has too many hunters and it is the reason for my feeling this way. Your situation is probably different. Here the people who really work at it will still probably get a Buck. Many younger hunters-not only kids-can't take the time off that is required, nor do they feel it is worth it. I feel much of our Pa hunting tradition is being lost due to this management plan. It could be loosened up considerably. Not completely changed, just tweaked more than they seem willing to allow.

Will not happen, so I'm only wishful thinking.

By the way I purchase an archery license, but haven't hunted with a bow in years.

Again congrats to the Wife.

I have a crossbow with a scope on it and I have killed deer with it, with and without a scope. I like the scope but it makes little difference in my ability to kill a deer as the range is limited by the bow itself. In my experience you need the deer a little closer with the crossbow than with a regular bow because they seem to jump the string worse with the crossbow. I know that the prevalent idea is that your range increases with the crossbow but I think that is wrong. With all of the increased let off of a compound, I see very little advantage to a crossbow except for those with bad shoulders of which I am one. I can hold a compound OK, but the initial pull back hurts like hell. I seldom hunt with the crossbow anymore since going through the woods with one is akin to dragging a set of jumper cables, holding it in the center and letting both ends drag. miles

Recently received a Cabela's archery catalog. Most of the compounds don't even resemble a bow. With all the gadgets for them, releases, sights, dampeners, I'm surprised someone hasn't mounted a scope. Can't see how this classifies as a 'primitive' weapon anymore than a scoped inline muzzleloader.

I hunt exclusively with crossbows during archery season in the states I hunt. I have zero disabity's (Thank God) so thats not My excuse at all, crossbow hunting is such great fun. Maybe it's where I hunted with vertical compound bows for 25 years and the crossbow is just something new, I don't know, but I do think they give Me a slight advantage over hunting with a vertical bow and as I only hunt for trophy Whitetail bucks I need every slight advantage I can get.....Grin...............Good hunting............Hb

Cheers & thank you Battue,

What is the cost of your tags or licences.

Can you purchase multiple buck tags, or are you guys, shoot a buck & earn a doe tag, kinda stuff.

Buck: Each hunter is allowed to take one Buck per year. Doesn't matter which weapon you use.

Does: In most WMU's you can apply for one Doe tag and a second at a later date if all tags are not sold. In some of the heavy populated WMU's (suburban locations) where there are limited areas one can hunt you can purchase as many as you want.
Usually limited to shotgun and bows.

General hunting license: Allows small game, Turkey-both Spring and Fall-and the one Buck: $20.70

Resident Furtaker license: $20.70

Resident archery: Additional $16.70

Resident ML: Additonal $11.70 (If you take a Buck with any other weapon and don't have an Anterless tag you can't use it.)

Resident Migratory Game Bird: Additional $3.70

Resident Bear: Additional $16.70

Resident second spring Turkey: Additonal $21.70

Resident Antlerless Deer: Additional $6.70 Each additional tag is also $6.70

There are reduced prices for Juniors, Seniors: Both a yearly senior and lifetime senior, Active Military.


There hasn't been an increase in license fees for many years. Reason being the legislature has to ok any fee increase and the hunters have complained to the legislature about the Deer situation. Legislature doesn't want to lose the votes so they vote down any request for license increases.

Another reason is that some of the legislature would like to get more control over the GC-especially the 1 million acres owned by the GC and Pa Hunters-and by not allowing increases it would be a back door entry to having the GC going broke. However with Marcellus gas royalties coming in on GC gamelands that were bought with hunter license fees over the years, the GC will be rolling in cash. But don't count on it as the politicians will find someway to put it in the general fund thru eminent domain shenanigans. There is just too much money for it to turn out any other way. Hunters paid for every single square foot of over 1 million acres. Not one penny came from general tax funds.

This has been something of a hot button topic here in Alberta for the last couple years. Currently crossbows are allowed during the general season but not during the archery season. So far we have managed to keep it that way and personally I hope it stays that way.
I've hunted with bow vertical and crossbow and I enjoy both, but I'll stick with the compound and recurve I think. The great thing about archery season here is that its very quiet, with limited numbers of hunters. Its also earlier in the year, so you get some better hunting weather.

Lots of guys are saying they want to hunt the archery season too but don't have the time or desire to learn to shoot a vertical bow well enough to be proficient. I figure if they want to hunt the archery season, they should put in the effort to do it according to the current regs instead of trying to change things to make it easier for them.

A compound takes some time to become proficient with, a recurve even more. A crossbow can be scoped and sighted in an afternoon, and if you have a rangefinder your pretty well ready to hunt. I know that opening the archery season to crossbows here would add a whole bunch of guys to the field who just weren't ambitious enough to learn archery, so for that reason I'm glad we've kept it out.

is that a fact, or speculation?

I used to think the same way. now that several states have legalized them without much restriction, we can see what happens. might be some who try it the first year just because they can, but I doubt you would see droves of crossbow hunters. I also doubt that they would have overwhelming success. After all, if they don't have the patience to learn archery to begin with, what makes you think they would be good enough with a crossbow? what it boils down to is what people think and what the evidence is. One need look at the empirical evidence objectively to see that many of the fears among archers are nothing more than unfounded fears. let them be legal, most people on here talk about fewer laws most of the time, well this is a perfect example.

I think that you have it right, but it is very hard to tell since there has been a big increase in all hunters in Arkansas. There are a lot more Lady hunters and a big increase in lower age hunters. I see lots of pictures in the local paper of kids 5-6 year old with deer that they are supposed to have killed with a rifle. I don't know just how that works. I also see a lot of pictures of Ladies and young Ladies with their deer. Lots of them with bows. I have a niece that probably has more bow kills than most here. In fact She and her husband went to Kansas, bow hunting on their honeymoon. Both killed a deer with a bow. Back on subject, most here will either go back to a regular bow or hunt very little with a crossbow. I seldom hunt with mine and I have been successful with it. We get a certain number of deer, 4 total last year, with no more than two bucks. We have a long rifle season, so I kill what I want then. I hunt my own property and the number of hunters would not change, regardless of the law. miles

So what crossbow would you recommend for a beginner?
AMRA

PA crossbow legalization saved my archery hunting. I was faced with giving up the bow due to arthritis and shoulder problems, ironically caused by decades of shooting 60-75 lb compounds! My crossbow allows me the opportunity to continue to archery hunt. It's heavy, cumbersome and noisy. I miss the soft, almost silent sound the arrow makes as it slides over the rest when drawing a compound, the look of the sight pin through the peep as it drops into the crease behind the shoulder and the flash of the arrow as it flies to impact. My compound was light, graceful, quiet and almost an extension of my body. My crossbow is none of these things, but it is my only option to continue that which I love so much. I thank God that I can still do so.

Technically, crossbows do not shoot as flat as compounds due to the light weight of the bolt. They also need heavy broadheads for stabilization of the bolt. They lose speed quickly for the same reason. I will not shoot past 30 yards with my crossbow for these reasons. I was good to 40yds with my compound. I do not practice as much with the crossbow because form is not as much of an issue as with a compound bow and because the strain of cocking a 175lb crossbow soon causes me shoulder pain. 3-4 bolts at a session is max.

I miss my compound and would go back in a minute if I could but a crossbow is better than no archery hunting at all.

End of sermon.

Amen.

Ron

Good question, it depends on your budget, you lookin to buy a $500 bow or a top of the line flagship bow that will set you back a grand or more?...............Hb

For me at my age now , a $500 bow that will last for a while.
Not a piece of junk that won`t last.
I did like the Horton reverse draw xbow that I have seen on
the Outdoor Channel AMRA

I use one in PA. I do miss my compound bow, and I do plan to go back to it. Right now though, I truly don't have the time to practice as often as I would like to...to be completely fair to the animal.