Hunting Archery Duck Deer

Could hunters who use crossbows to take deer in places like Allegheny County get the opportunity to lug them off to deer camp someday soon?
Maybe so. The Pennsylvania Game Commission will look into the possibility of allowing hunters to use crossbows for big game in all seasons.

Hunters can already use crossbows in Pennsylvania in certain situations. Anyone who can get a doctor to say they’re physically incapable of drawing a conventional bow can get a permit to use them in any big game season. More able-bodied hunters can also use them to hunt elk, bears, and even deer in special regulations areas.

They’ve been off limits in other situations, though — most noticeably the statewide archery deer season.

At last week’s Game Commission meeting in Harrisburg, however, commissioner Russ Schleiden of Centre County asked agency staff to investigate the pros and cons of introducing crossbows to all seasons in time for the 2009-2010 hunting seasons.
He asked for a report to be presented at the agency’s October meeting, which will be held in Washington County.

“The crossbow has been approved for just about every season but one,” said Schleiden, of Centre County. “I feel it’s been long overdue.”

The idea is sure to generate lots of debate.

The United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania — the group representing the state’s organized archers — has long opposed the legalization of crossbows for the archery season.

In a report on the organization’s web site, UBP president Wes Waldron said the group opposes “the use of crossbows in the general archery season by those fully capable of drawing and holding a conventional bow.”

The previous three attempts at legalizing crossbows for Pennsylvnaia’s archery deer seasons were all sparked by requests from crossbow manufacturers, dealers, and state lawmakers, Waldron added.

Commissioner Tom Boop of Northumberland County believes that is the case again this time.

Typically, he said, commissioners make changes to game laws based on “a perceived need, or a perceived desire,” expressed by the agency’s constituents. But he said he’s heard from no hunters asking for crossbows.

“I think it’s fair to say that this is being driven by manufacturers and lobbyists and not from our stakeholder groups,” Boop said.

Indeed, the only person to testify in support of crossbows at the agency’s June meeting was a representative of a crossbow manufacturer.

Schleiden — who said he does not own a crossbow and has no plans to get one — hinted that there is broader support for the tool, though he did not specify who that might be.

“I think you’ll find out once we introduce it,” he said.

Schleiden did admit that introducing crossbows to archery season could have ramifications. If too many hunters take up crossbows and shoot too many deer, the commission might have to consider shortening archery season or bag limits, he said.

But that’s what the study is designed to determine, he said.
Rifle hunters everywhere will have two weeks to shoot does this hunting season after all — at least in one manner of speaking.

Game Commissioners agreed to allow hunters with deer management assistance program (DMAP) tags to take antlerless deer this fall in all deer seasons, including the five-day buck-only firearms deer season to be in place in wildlife management units 2G, 2D, 3C and 4A.

Unit 2D takes in all of Armstrong County and parts of Westmoreland, Butler, Venango, Clarion, Jefferson, and Indiana.

Commissioner Tom Boop of Northumberland County — who has been trying for the last several years to reduce the doe harvest statewide — was the lone commissioner to oppose the idea. He said he’s worried the practice will skew the multi-year study of the impact of a buck-only season on deer harvest rates that’s set to begin in those four units this fall.

“I think this just introduces another variable into or study. I just think it’s unwise to extend this into these four units while we’re doing our study,” Boop said.

Cal DuBrock, director of the commission’s bureau of wildlife management, said that isn’t a concern, however. Properties enrolled in the DMAP program typically represent thousands of acres in units that comprise millions of acres overall.

The number of DMAP tags allocated is correspondingly small, too, he said. In 2007-08, for example, landowners handed out 202 DMAP coupons in unit 2D. By comparison, the commission allocated 56,000 doe licenses.

“So they make up a really small fraction of what’s going on,” he said.

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