Virginia Crossbows Legal For Hunting
October 18th, 2005 by Administrator
Crossbows Legal For Hunting In Virginia
New Rule Concerns Some Hunters
Sales of crossbows are outpacing traditional bows, even as some hunters express concern about a recent state ruling that made the crossbow a legal hunting weapon.
Travis Showalter has sold 50 crossbows in the past three months.
“That’s about double the sales of compound bows,” Showalter said. “The crossbow has been a big hit this year.”
Five years ago, Showalter, 24, began selling archery equipment out of his house in Montezuma. In July, he formed a partnership with his cousin, Jeremy Showalter, and opened Heartland Outfitters in Dayton.
In past seasons, only the disabled could hunt with crossbows in Virginia. But in June, the Department of Game & Inland Fisheries approved the use of crossbows for all hunters.
“Now it’s legal for anyone who buys the license,” Showalter said.
Bow season began at the beginning of the month and runs through the middle of November.
Bowhunters A Small Group
The game commission’s ruling on crossbows was intended to give hunting in Virginia broader appeal, said Karin Eppard, the Virginia representative for the International Bowhunting Organization.
“Right now, it has a novelty factor,” Eppard said. “But it opens it up for more people to get into the woods.”
Young hunters who don’t have the upper body strength to pull a traditional bow might be able to use a crossbow, some of which have mechanical cocking devices, she added.
But bowhunters are a small group. Of the 220,538 deer killed during the 2004-05 season, archers took 16,628, or 7.5 percent, of the total, according to the commission’s deer kill summary.
Not all archers favor the crossbow ruling, though.
Dave Proctor, executive vice president of the Virginia Bowhunters Association, is concerned about how the ruling came about.
“The people behind it were manufacturers and retail stores,” Proctor said. “The commission never asked for a crossbow season on its own. This was done kind of under the table.”
The crossbow rule may bring more people into the hunting fraternity, but it also may result in more wounded deer, he explained. People with no bowhunting experience will be hitting deer and not killing them. Proctor said the state should have established some hunter education requirements to accompany the crossbow license.
“We’re not opposed to the crossbow,” Proctor said. “Our concern is the manner in which it was brought into the state.”
A Short-Range Weapon
The crossbow is a short-range weapon, about 30 to 40 yards maximum, just like a traditional bow.
“Some people might think you can kill from a greater distance with the crossbow, but you can’t,” Showalter said. “Its force drops off at about the same distance as the compound bow.”
He finds the traditional bow easier to shoot.
“If it’s on a rest, the crossbow is more accurate at a longer distance,” Showalter said.
Eppard, who also is a bowhunting instructor for the game commission, said the degree of difficulty is about even.
“Both have to be set up properly. They have to be maintained,” she said. “And with both you still have to be able to estimate the distance and place the shot.”
Estimating the distance and placing the shot is the difference between a deer killed and a deer wounded, Proctor explained.
“A good hit, and within a matter of seconds, the animal is dead,” Proctor said. “That’s what every ethical hunter is looking for — a clean, quick kill.”
By Dan Wright