All good Trophy, just joshing U some...

I've hunted archery only for the last ten years. I have no problem with crossbows. Unless it's a competition I don't care how others hunt legally. And good for them if the crossbow can be shot more accurately with it's scope. That means less wounded deer.

Well, it is called archery season. I'm ok with the use of crossbows.
Yes they are cumbersome.
Do hunters using a long bow, recurve or compound shoot enough practice arrows prior to the season to be good enough to take a critter. The stock and scope MAY increase success and reduce lost animals.

As said above, they are troublesome to carry and manipulate in an enclosed blind.

I don't give a rats behind what anyone thinks. drawing a bow back and holding it is significantly more difficult than a bow that locks backs from the moment one plops their butt down in a stand. That said. Shotguns are harder than rifles. Optics matter......I support any hunter hunting any a legal manner

Why anyone wants to hunt during bow season in the Texas heat is a mystery to me. I would bet it’s so they can drink cold beer and do some coyote hunting at night. Or at least get away from their wives. Maybe toget an advantage over their leasemates to kill that hard to find buck that’s coming in to a feeder every day of summer. What difference does it make if you’re shooting a crossbow or a compound anymore. Both crossbow and compound have sights. What really makes that much difference?I I like to shoot a bow at a target once a week, but don’t care about hunting with one. Shooting targets and betting on it is fun. Sitting in the heat is not.

There may be an age factor to that. I bowhunted for years before I owned a deer rifle. In the 1980s I used to go standby on the Gus Engeling WMA deer hunt in September. It was before regular bow season opened so was the earliest possible date I could hunt and kill a deer. It was called bow season back then too btw. I had a Bear Magnum Hunter that was so hard to tune, only 35% let off and it was heavy. I am certain the recurve guys had an advantage over it. So being the middle of September it was often crazy hot on those hunts, but no one complained and almost all would be young serious hunters like I was. Now that I am older, I too am not as keen on those all day public land bow hunts when it is ninety something degrees outside. But back then I lived for those days no matter how hot it was. Still do I guess, but I hunt smarter now and know when to come into the cold AC.

Only advantage we have here in Texas is you are able to hunt extremely patternable deer….basically they are in a set routine and you can pretty much set your watch to their movement. I normally hunt opening day just out of principle but it’s not an enjoyable time to set in a pop up.

Other states, archery season is usually set during the rut. Several states run an early archery, then a muzzle loader season, then a rifle, then another archery. Wisconsin for instance has something like a 9 day rifle season but a two month long archery season.

My local Arkansas deer season:

2023-24 Deer Season Dates
Archery: Sept. 23, 2023- Feb. 29, 2024
Muzzleloader: Oct. 21-29 and Dec. 9-11, 2023
Private Land Antlerless-only Modern Gun Hunt: Dec. 29-31, 2023
Special Youth Modern Gun Hunt: Nov. 4-5, 2023 and Jan. 6-7, 2024
Modern Gun: Nov. 11-Dec. 3 and Dec. 26-28, 2023

Been saying that for years.
Had ta quit archery in the 90's cause of shoulders.
My Kentucky, the got were couldn't find Goex powder,(True black powder).
Am of age for cross bow. So can archery hunt.
Have 3 in-line, 2 50's prefure .45 & have one in-line.
Have yet ta take in-line deer hunting. My .45 Kentucky's are in .
That's weapon of choice.
Here is getting more like .. less old school hunting. & seeing more hunting stands going up.

Legal tis legal. Old age, my eyes not same as younger age.
getting a bead tis blurry. Scope helps. Yet prefure my Kentucky just cut down distance for a crazy.

Like with HF, rack,(trophy) legal tis legal.
It's just each person tis individual.

Just my
low-income worker.

Is a crossbow legal in Arkansas?

Arkansas might have been the first state to allow crossbows, not sure about that but I had classes in 1983 with a guy that hunted crossbow season in Arkansas. Do not remember details of the season there then though.

Yes, crossbow is legal for archery season.

So this is the flip side to the crossbow topic. When you have an archery season that is 5x as long or greater than general rifle it’s hard to argue that crossbows shouldn’t be allowed. If I lived and hunted there my wife and kids would certainly be using crossbows to take advantage of the season as only one of the four of them bowhunt.

This has been an interesting discussion and after some thought it’s really hard to argue hard against them even though I don’t use them. I will state that they have advantages especially in the form of optics, but we all are allowed X amount of deer a year and it makes no difference if they are shot with a crossbow or a few weeks later with a rifle.

Exceptions to every rule and scenario of course but for deer hunting in Texas and states like Texas I will be supportive of their use, especially given the data available.

Always hunted archery season whin lived in until shoulder went out.
Tis not just the heat, but the knats/mosketoes ya have ta put up with.
Teaches ya patients.

If ya wanna learn behavior & become a better hunter.
But dowmn the gun & put bow in hand.
pappy

Look @ all the advantages the hunter has these days.
Compared ta a caveman.
& what advantages have a deer or pray gained threw the years ?

i've used rifle/scope same as majority on here.

Use trail camps & put out mineral blocks & stuff ta help out quality of deer.
& Enjoy the pics of wildlife. But don't hunt areas baited.
In have whin legal.
Public land it wasn't & prefured the archery only hunts.



Just curious :
If it was rifle only during what is now archery & archery during the rifle seasons. Rolls reversed.
Would you take up archery ?

Couldn’t the same argument be made by recurve hunters vs compound bow users?

I have no bow of any kind so no skin in the game. Just curious.

Funny post, here you are giving your opinion on who should be able to use a crossbow, which are definitely virtue signalling that anyone who uses one is somehow less in your opinion than anyone else to include yourself. Then you display your ignorance on optical sights on crossbows which normally are just another way to represent sight pins since magnification is not needed at the ranges archery equipment is used even if it is built into the sight. In the vast majority of cases deer with archery equipment including crossbows are killed within 40 yards, a distance not too far for my compounds and an even greater percentage are killed inside of 30 yards. You seem to also be saying that since crossbows are easier to learn than a compound bow that the compound bow user is to be preferred in your (virtue signalling) opinion? You mention a guy that chose a crossbow had a definite advantage over those choosing a vertical bow and both were legal? Seems to me that if conditions were open enough to need 60 yards of range then the guys that chose equipment that was not suitable put themselves at the disadvantage. What I have found is that the noise of a crossbow tends to negate any advantage of longer range because time of flight is still plenty long enough for the animal to react and move before the arrow/bolt gets there at ranges of more than 40 yards especially. Archery equipment is more effective at ranges of 30 yards or less because of this. Even at that distance it is wise to hold low to anticipate the deer crouching down before it jumps out of the way. And by the way I still see far more vertical bows in the field than crossbows.

TxHogSlayer,

Yes, the argument is made quite often. Crossbows have a rifle stock, the vast majority of them wear a scope and can be rested on sticks, rails or bogpod. The learning curve is much, much less than a vertical bow. I bought my uncle one a few years back and we had him shooting bulls at 20 yards within a handful of shots.

A compound bow typically uses a mechanical release aid which takes away bad form and offers a consistent release. Peep sight and sight pins offer another level of consistency. Once your form is down, you don’t need a lot of maintenance to stay consistent. I have been shooting a compound as a hunting weapon consistently since around 2010 or so. The other day I picked it up and shot it for the first time since the second week of March, put the first two arrows in the 10 ring at 30 yards. Once you have the mechanics figured out it’s a pretty easy glide from there on.

A recurve/longbow is the hardest to master. I’ve been shooting a traditional bow since 2020 and shoot 2-7x’s a week and still have not found consistency. No sights, no pins, finger release… It’s a hard discipline to be proficient in.

I agree the range of a crossbow is similar to a compound for the average shooter. Due to the optics and the ability to have a steady rest I would say the average crossbow shooter would be more accurate at 60 yards than the avg. compound shooter at that distance, which is about double the range most of us should be shooting at deer sized game. A traditional bow is mostly a 20 yard and under affair, most of the time much closer.

Strictly talking accuracy, I’m good to 80 yards with my compound. Only 20 with my recurve bows and on a lot of days that’s a stretch. I prefer a 12-15 yard shot with my trad equipment. 17-22 is my preferred with my compound.

In most trad hunting circles, they look down hard on compound shooters. They call them “using training wheels “.

In this day and age I’m of the mindset of who gives a damn what anyone uses and long as their having fun. High fence, low fence, compound, recurve, cross bow, black powder cannon or a freaking sling shot for all I care and I can’t see much of an argument to the contrary. I say have fun and the hell with everybody else’s opinions,

Best post in this thread

Training wheels.. Thank you for the explanation sir. Makes sense.

Actually be more correct to say rifles have a crossbow stock as crossbows were invented long before firearms. Regardless though your point is valid.

Damm straight, get er done!
It's like what is a trophy deer? The trophy is in the eye of the one pulling the trigger or hitting the release. If you want a doe shoot it, if you want a forked horn shoot that too. If you want Bambi's dad wait for it.