Indiana CROSSBOW proposals

Al Dente · January 30, 2011, 03:00:00 PM

It is the "big tent" theory descibed above that upsets me most. Regardless of the state of choice for crossbow inclusion, it is always pushed towards the archery season, never the firearms season and never for their own season. By not wanting crossbows in archery season, I am not an anti-hunter, an elitist, selfish, or against new hunters being introduced into the woods. What I am totally against is the inclusion of a superior implement that has a close to zero learning/mastering curve, that is more likened to a firearm than to a bow, and one that has no history in establishing a season of their own, rather ride the coattails of hard fought archery seasons. If you want new or more hunters in the woods, take them hunting with you, take them to the range, take them to a hunters ed. safety class, let them shoot the deer and not you, expose them to the early small game seasons, where game is usually more plentiful so as not to discouarge them, and give back by teaching or mentoring.

Weedhopper · January 30, 2011, 03:44:00 PM

Kinda like we did when compounds were first introduced?? Kinda like that?? :confused:

Good post, Al....and not picking on ya...nor would I ever. Just sayin.... :cool:

They sky ain't fallin'......except for "special interest" groups. :cool:

Ryan Rothhaar · January 31, 2011, 07:09:00 PM

Yep, Jack - I remember some of the fight in WVa in the good old days - they always had the "crossbow throw" at the WVa Bowhunter's Rendezvous - maybe early/mid 1980's? Give them a buck and see how far you could throw the crossbow. They'd duct tape the piece of junk together and throw it all weekend. The guy that could toss it the farthest got some of the cash from the pot and the rest went to the crossbow fight. Good times watching some of the big ol' boys out of the hills chuck the crossbow!

I remember well what happened to the quality of the bowhunting season in Ohio when the manufacturers bought and paid for full inclusion in the early '80's. The cooked-book numbers the ODNR puts out notwithstanding that ruined the bow season in Ohio.

Would it destroy Indiana's bow season in the same way, now, 25-30 years later? I don't want to experiment and find out.

As far as out of staters voicing opinions against the proposed rule change...the crossbow manufacturers are sending out blanket emails across the country to elicit support.....soooo, when in Rome.... :rolleyes:

Thanks for the support, guys.

Ryan

jbwhttail · January 31, 2011, 09:07:00 PM

Weed:

I post on as many forums as possible, to get public comment. And if they are going to allow non residents to influence then I'll work with those rules also.

I learned a valuable lesson with round one....

As said abvove..... "When in Rome........"

njloco · February 01, 2011, 10:31:00 AM

This message previously only contained one or more inline attachment references all of which are now invalid.

jbwhttail · February 01, 2011, 02:09:00 PM

I just re read my original post in his thread....... for the life of me I can't find where I encouraged non residents to comment. Trapperdave and Weed, read the last sentence.

"Let me make a comment as to just how serious this is. Less than 4 hours after the anouncment the crossbow industry had a mass email to ALL owners of their crossbow asking them to send comment to the above address. Yea I get the emails but how else do you keep up with what they are doing.

This is the final stand for Indiana, the last deer propsals ahd over 3500 comments 8 to 1 against, we were told if we didn't like th crossbow we had better match those results.

Indiana archers had better get involved."

Weedhopper · February 01, 2011, 05:31:00 PM

Never specifically accused you of that, Joe.

I'm so sick of this inhouse fighting that I really no longer care.

Thanks.....

And who is Trapperdave?? Just another assumption??

meathead · February 01, 2011, 06:08:00 PM

Ryan has it right. Don't need to experiment with this in Indiana. Catering to this laziness is not good for bowhunting.

Mike Bolin · February 01, 2011, 06:40:00 PM

Took me several tries to log in, but I did finally get to submit my comments.

twigflicker · February 02, 2011, 09:12:00 PM

I put in my .02 worth...

I too experienced the influx of crossbows in Ohio when I lived there in the late 80's early 90's... wasn't pretty...

Jonathan

jbwhttail · February 03, 2011, 10:05:00 PM

TrapperDave did it again Weed, had to copy and paste edit and make up what he needed. He lurks here so just commenting to him also......

JD 9116 · February 26, 2011, 07:08:00 PM

Said my piece and then some....................

JJB2 · February 27, 2011, 12:42:00 PM

Am I also reading the proposed changes to mean that we can no longer use archery tackle during firearm and muzzleloader seasons?

meathead · February 27, 2011, 03:17:00 PM

The new proposal has the archery season starting Oct. 1 and running until the first Sunday in Jan. with no 5 day break after the firearms season.

JJB2 · February 27, 2011, 06:27:00 PM

Gotcha. If our state was truly interested in managing the antlerless population "problem" as they define it (with no statistical evidence to support their assertion), they could do the following:

- lengthen the early archery season statewide by starting it Sept 15th
- institute a doe before buck harvest rule and promote donation of the wild game meat to an org like Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry
- if establishing more use for capable hunters to use the crossbow is a priority they could lengthen the late season to extend through the end of February

Putting crossbows in archery season isn't going to bring more total hunters into the Indiana woods, it'll just bring more gun only hunters into early archery season.

In my opinion it's a slippery slope. If harvest numbers exceed expectations we could quickly see our archery season shortened.

Just out of curiosity, and I'm not pointing fingers, what are organizations like the PBS and Comptons doing at the state level to help lobby in opposition of these proposals. They're being increasingly adopted at the state level and I've yet to read a success story from any of our bowhunting organizations.

glass76 · March 01, 2011, 08:12:00 PM

They know my opinion now.

tecum-tha · March 02, 2011, 04:19:00 PM

Got mine a while ago....

jbwhttail · March 07, 2011, 02:52:00 PM

Thanks guys, we need all archers help on this. when you go to an archery shoot this spring take along some information so folks who don't read these sites can comment.

Indiana needs all the help we caqn get!

Blackstick · March 17, 2011, 10:19:00 AM

Anyone who thinks a crossbow is not a long-range weapon needs to see this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gly3bafUhcU

Comments submitted.

Bonebuster · March 19, 2011, 09:31:00 AM

From what I have seen in Michigan, there is no worry of shortening hunting seasons because of over harvest of deer. The DNR does not care about overharvest.

The more dead deer the better, as far as they are concerned. The LOWER our deer population gets, the more tags they allocate for individual deer management units.