Hunting Archery Duck Deer

Taking aim at a crossbow season Sherry Crumley tells about the time she went to Florida for a spring gobbler hunt. During a lull, someone asked her if she would like to try shooting a crossbow at a target. “Why not,” she thought.

She admitted that she’d never been skillful at shooting a compound bow — not enough upper body strength or desire. Never mind that her husband, Jim, of Trebark Camouflage fame, is an avid and successful bowhunter.

Crumley was surprised at how quickly she could master a crossbow, and how much fun it was. Two days later, she was standing over a wild hog she had killed with one.

Back in Virginia Crumley, who is the current board chairman of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, began advancing the idea of broadening crossbow hunting in her home state.

Last summer, she invited representatives of Parker Compound Bows to a DGIF board meeting. Afterwards, board members, staff and guests went out back to shoot targets with crossbows. Parker, a Shenandoah Valley company, is best known for its fine compound bows, but it also manufactures crossbows and is looking for more market in that arena.

In January, Del. Watkins Abbitt, I-Appomattox, one of the participants in the shooting demonstration, introduced legislation that would give DGIF authority to establish a crossbow-hunting license. The idea received easy approval in the General Assembly; in fact, it was put on fast track giving game officials the option of establishing the license by fall.

In March, the DGIF board proposed a $12.50 crossbow license, which would allow use of crossbows during the special bowhunting seasons. The license holder also would be required to have a state hunting license and a big game license. Under current regulation, only certain handicapped hunters can use a crossbow.

That’s where things stand now. A series of public hearing were held across the state in April in an effort to gather information on how people feel about the license and hunting with crossbows. The board is scheduled to take a final vote on the issue June 23 during a meeting in Richmond.

While the proposal is of keen interest to some sportsmen, only a modest number of people showed up at the hearings, said Bob Ellis, assistant director of the DGIF wildlife division. There still is time for public comment. The department remains open to email statements. They should go to Phil Smith, DGIF policy analyst at phil.smith@dgif.virginia.gov.

Those who favor the season have some strong arguments. There is no scarcity of deer or places to hunt them. A crossbow could become an effective tool in the department’s efforts to thin the deer herd by killing more antlerless deer. It also could be an addition instrument in the urban archery movement.

A crossbow license could attract new people to hunting, especially youngsters and women, thus helping to stall the declining number of hunting license buyers. That would mean more revenue for wildlife programs.

“We need more people. This is a tremendous recruitment tool,” said Johnny Grace of Parker Compound Bows. He said crossbow hunting in Georgia increased the number of people participating in an archery season “by 25 or 30 percent.”

Rather than recruit new hunters, the license would be more apt to re-arrange established hunters. People attracted to the crossbow likely would be modern-gun hunters taking advantage of an opportunity to embrace the lucrative bow season without the discipline of having to learn to shoot a compound bow.

Much of the opposition has come from tradition bowhunters who see the proposed crossbow regulation as a shortcut to their season and an intrusion on it. “We are not oppose to the crossbow itself, just its used in the bow season,” said Dave Proctor, executive vice president of the Virginia Bowhunters Association.

Neither the General Assembly nor the DGIF “did a good job of involving bowhunters” in the decision-making process, Proctor said. “The real push is coming from some of the crossbow manufactures and some of the people who sell crossbows, not so much by sportsmen themselves. We doubt very much the crossbows will bring new hunters into the sport.”

Also being questioned is the reason why the crossbow issue was given emergency status, meaning it can be enacted much quicker than a normal regulation. That largely has been unanswered.

It is difficult to say if recent major problems at DGIF, including the resignation of its executive director, will impact the crossbow proposal. A backlash could occur, but that seems unlikely since the proposal is a major project of board chairman Crumley.

“I’ve had a friend who has advised me to put the crossbow issue on the back burner because it might be another controversy,” said Crumley. “But jut about everything we do has someone opposed to it.”
By Bill Cochran
ROANOKE.COM COLUMNIST