Virginia's New Archery Season Law.

[Douglas Blair]

As the old saying goes nothing stays the same forever. I guess that also goes for hunting laws.

Virginia has always looked at crossbows as taboo, that is up until now. The only way you could use one had been with a doctor's note saying for some reason you couldn't use a regular bow. BUT guess what, if you now buy a "special" crossbow license you can now use a crossbow in ANY deer season. Sounds like a money racket to me. Oh the Doctor's note won't help you anymore, you have to buy the special license.

[RAF]

For years we've been able to use cross bows here in
Saskatchewan, but only in the regular rifle season. No crossbows here under any circumstances for the archery season.

[Douglas Blair]

Here is the link. You can get the whole story here.
www.dgif.state.va.us/hunting/crossbow.asp

[ABinMD]

Doug,

Same thing here in MD. And yes money definately plays a big role. Money talks and Bullnuts walks!....

[DaveK]

We have had it Ohio for quite awhile now. Buy a crossbow on Fri. night, hit a pie plate in the backyard before going to bed and be on stand Sat. morn. It isn't archery, but who cares, if it sells more tags. Years ago, when Ohio had a Primitive Hunting season (this was for sidelocks, inlines were not called primitive, besides this was before the Knights), you could use a crossbow during that 3 day season. Now it is the length of the archery season.

[dougedwards]

admin said:

As the old saying goes nothing stays the same forever. I guess that also goes for hunting laws.

Virginia has always looked at crossbows as taboo, that is up until now. The only way you could use one had been with a doctor's note saying for some reason you couldn't use a regular bow. BUT guess what, if you now buy a "special" crossbow license you can now use a crossbow in ANY deer season. Sounds like a money racket to me. Oh the Doctor's note won't help you anymore, you have to buy the special license.

I hunt with a group of guys and they all use crossbows. I don't critisize them but joke on them a little bit. They tell me that the joke will be on me when they take a deer at 60 yards. I can't control anyone's mentality but the insurance companies have influenced the Va legislature (with money) to become extremely liberal. They are now lobbying to strike a very old law forbidding hunting on Sundays in the Commonwealth.

One of the things that I have loved about bow hunting is that I get to see things that I wouldn't see if I had a gun or a crossbow in my hand. I have seen bucks trying to mount does and making scrapes and and fighting each other. All the while being an innocent bystander from 40+ yards away and my heart pounding. Seems that for some hunting gets to more about killing than sport. That attitude only feeds the sentiments of the anti-hunting establishment in this country......Doug

[DW]

A crossbow is no more deadly than a compound, stick, or recurve IMO. The only advantage a crossbow gives a hunter is that it takes much less practice to be accurate with it. I shot 3-D for a number of years and took the local crossbow shooters to task weekly at the local 3-D shoots, I rarely had an xbow shooter post a higher score than me or for that matter the group of guys I shot most weekends with, one of them won the IBO Triple Crown, in the hunter class, I also shot hunter class with release and pin sights and the bow I hunted with, not a fancy target bow. It all comes down to practice, being able to execute a shot, and accurately judging distance, the latter being the main reason I believe I regurlarly posted high scores. The crossbows I've shot and watched other people shoot are much louder than conventional bows, and IMO are more susceptible to string jump. Con. bows also shoot flatter at long distances, especially the newer bows that make 300 fps easily attainable even with a hunting setup. I now hunt with an xbow only because I don't have the confidence in my abilities, I don't have time to go out in the yard and pound the paper for a couple hours a night, due to overtime and kids sporting events, and I don't relish the thought of wounding an animal. I've never belittled anyone because of their equipment, regardless of what they used. When I used to do the archery portion of the local NWTF Jakes Day I always told the kids hunt with what you like not what everyone else likes, but what ever you use become accurate with it, practice, practice, practice, and know your limitations, because there is nothing worse than disrespecting the animal and taking a bad shot. I would rather see people using a crossbow and making an effort than sitting on the couch watching the TV.

[tar12]

We can use them here in Indiana at no additional costs,butonly in late archery season.