MN bills introduced to allow crossbows during archery season.

[bwoods11]

I get the thought but I personally just can’t risk it. Just too hard to trust people, especially as an absentee landowner. Different times we live in these days.

Good friends and family only ! I had a guy shoot a 165 inch beautiful 10 point on my farm in Iowa many years ago. This buck was clearly off limits !!

Didn’t even personally know the guy , it was friend of friend . Ugly situation. You live and learn that some people take advantage of the situation.

I won’t show the guy …I’m over it !

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I won’t show the guy …I’m over it !

Clearly :)

 

[ruskbucks]

The figures I've seen for hunter recruitment show the country moving towards a cliff. Once the baby boomers stop hunting numbers are going to start falling drastically. There are a number of NDA and Meateater articles about it. If this is the case, I think it would support implementing easier hunting methods like crossbows. I feel like this is where conservation departments are coming from.

Do you remember where you saw those numbers?

I actually see it the other way. I think all this catering to making hunting" easier " is ruining the sport. I'm all for teaching kids to hunt ( and actually mentor a kid every year for a learn to hunt) but I feel it is made so easy for them it takes their drive away. Same with adults. Shooting a deer with a bow used to be kinda a big deal. Now 6 year Olds are shooting bucks nice bucks with crossbows early season. Some of them are super excited with their first deer. What happens after that? They expect it every year. If it happens again the year after" no big deal" it is easy" I look at it a little like musky fishing( the fish of 10,000 cast). It's the challenge of catching one that keeps me fishing for them. If it was made easier and I could catch them every time it would not be that big of a deal. I would loose my drive. I bow hunt cause when I do harvest one it wasn't easy and it makes it more rewarding. If I switch to a crossbow it will be way easier and not as rewarding.

 

[SwampCat]

Most folks used to shoot their first deer with a rifle. I would say killing a deer with a crossbow is much more difficult than a rifle - at least the fact that probably 75% of the deer killed in the US would say so.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I actually see it the other way. I think all this catering to making hunting" easier " is ruining the sport. I'm all for teaching kids to hunt ( and actually mentor a kid every year for a learn to hunt) but I feel it is made so easy for them it takes their drive away. Same with adults. Shooting a deer with a bow used to be kinda a big deal. Now 6 year Olds are shooting bucks nice bucks with crossbows early season. Some of them are super excited with their first deer. What happens after that? They expect it every year. If it happens again the year after" no big deal" it is easy" I look at it a little like musky fishing( the fish of 10,000 cast). It's the challenge of catching one that keeps me fishing for them. If it was made easier and I could catch them every time it would not be that big of a deal. I would loose my drive. I bow hunt cause when I do harvest one it wasn't easy and it makes it more rewarding. If I switch to a crossbow it will be way easier and not as rewarding.

Amen. The idea of a challenge is lost on the weak

 

[chucker66]

Amen. The idea of a challenge is lost on the weak

Agree, kinda like the challenge of butchering your own deer. That skill is lost on the weak. LOL

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Agree, kinda like the challenge of butchering your own deer. That skill is lost on the weak. LOL

I butcher mine fyi. I donate what I lack room for. I’m one guy managing a decent bit of land. I can’t eat that much!

 

[bwoods11]

Crossbows … there are a lot of guys that bought a crossbow this year in Minnesota. I know several, none of these guys were archery hunters before. More hunters, more deer shot.. it’s no surprise.

They are who we thought they were !

 

[SwampCat]

Same goes with all the folks keep passing young bucks and growing old bucks. I killed my first 2.5 yr old deer when I was thirty. Back when I was really getting into hunting in my teen years early 70’s in Georgia - we might hunt a dozen times and see one or two deer. If we killed one, it was a spike or a forkhorn.

We need to stop growing these bigger deer and go back to shooting all the bucks when they are 1.5 yrs old. It is making it way too easy for the younger generation. Used to be hard to kill a branch antlered buck. Us habitat managers need to quit. It is making it too easy to kill a 100” deer. The idea of the challenge is lost. I have an 11 and 13 yr old grand daughter who have both killed bucks of nearly 140”. I didnt do that until I was 60 years old. These kids really are ruined. I kind of say this tongue in cheek but there is a lot of truth to it.


A compound is as bad. I started with a recurve when deer were scarce. I hunted a long time before I even got a shot. Ten years ago I bought my wife a Mathews Jewel for Christmas. She had never pulled back a real bow in her life. Christmas afternoon, she shot it the first time and we sighted it in. The next day, she killed her first deer with it. A compound is much closer to a crossbow than it is a recurve. I would bet most bow hunters now use a ranger finder. Didnt know what that was back when we started. Release - what is that. What are sights? I dont think compound bow users have much room to talk. When I was a teen, compound bows were not legal in Georgia because they were considered unsporting. Even my dad called them “cheaters”

We have made everything easier. Have you guys hunted out of a Baker Treestand. Safety vests are for pussies - they were unheard of when I started. Crawl out of the woods with a broken leg after a fall from a stand like I did - get your leg put in a cast - and go back to hunting.

Everything about hunting is easier from compound bows and muzzleloaders to stands, range finders, 4 wheelers, warm clothes, mapping, deer numbers, deer age - everything.

Deer hunting now is a breeze compared to what it was when I started. Teens starting today have it easier than those who started 25 years ago, just as they had it easier than those who started 25 years before them.

I dont know how it is going to get much easier - it is hard to imagine much technology that can do that. But, we are already talking about drones. Mapping is becoming easier and easier. Ten years from now, maybe compounds shoot 450 fps. Maybe thermal scopes become legal.

The hunting industry is never static - always searching for the next new thing - and usually that is to make things easier - not harder.

 

[SwampCat]

I butcher mine fyi. I donate what I lack room for. I’m one guy managing a decent bit of land. I can’t eat that much!

If your neighbors arent keeping your herd in check for you - you need to get more challenging neighbors

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

If your neighbors arent keeping your herd in check for you - you need to get more challenging neighbors

Honestly I’ve shot one doe on 700 acres this season! One neighbor came in rifle, dumped out corn and shot 5. Another neighbor supposedly shot 7 in the summer with a bs permit. So my job hasn’t been that bad
But…most of them like to shoot a basket rack over a doe cause they only have 80 of those in the corner of the garage already

 

[SwampCat]

Honestly I’ve shot one doe on 700 acres this season! One neighbor came in rifle, dumped out corn and shot 5. Another neighbor supposedly shot 7 in the summer with a bs permit. So my job hasn’t been that bad
But…most of them like to shoot a basket rack over a doe cause they only have 80 of those in the corner of the garage already

Your neighbors sound like my neighbors

 

[chucker66]

I butcher mine fyi. I donate what I lack room for. I’m one guy managing a decent bit of land. I can’t eat that much!

I need to take a few does each year and between processing cost, storage room, and simply ability to consume, I end up donating a few each year.

I guess I misunderstood this comment then.

 

[Mortenson]

Processing still costs money when you do it yourself?

 

[SwampCat]

Processing still costs money when you do it yourself?

Costs me vacuum seal bags, sausage casings, spices, maybe some pork to mix with the sausage, a grinder, meat mixer, slicer, sausage stuffer, pressure canner, etc. some of my stuff has processed dozens and dozens of deer, though - and all of it still going strong.

 

[Mortenson]

Costs me vacuum seal bags, sausage casings, spices, maybe some pork to mix with the sausage, a grinder, meat mixer, slicer, sausage stuffer, pressure canner, etc. some of my stuff has processed dozens and dozens of deer, though - and all of it still going strong.

Yes quite a few costs. I should've included my sarc *. Just thought it was obvious there was a processing cost regardless who does it.

 

[sandbur]

Our costs are vacuum bags, time, and the fee to grind and wrap the burger at a local market which is usually done after season closes.

 

[Skeeter]

Hot take incoming...

Crossbows for all, IMO, being included in archery season to me is a very similar to boys/men getting their junk cut off and then playing women's sports.

I don't have a problem with crossbows one bit, but they are not archery and belong with their own season.

My crossbow was born that way! It wasn't a vertical bow that had its stock removed nor a long gun that had its barrel and chamber removed and a vertical bow added. Don't hate it for how it was created. It had no choice.

 

[Skeeter]

Crossbows … there are a lot of guys that bought a crossbow this year in Minnesota. I know several, none of these guys were archery hunters before. More hunters, more deer shot.. it’s no surprise.

They are who we thought they were !View attachment 60839

I'm one of the Minnesotans who bought a crossbow this year. However, unlike the people you know, I've hunted with a vertical bow of some sort for over twenty five years. Was happy to have an excuse to add another tool to my kit.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I think people just want someone or something to blame for poor hunting seasons. For the last several years I have hunted public land in MN. It's where I do most of my hunting and I have yet to seal the deal on even a 3.5 year old buck. I then go down to MO where my family owns some farms and I see 3.5 year olds every other hunt. Until about last year I had a pretty bad attitude about MN hunting opportunities. I felt like things were over-pressured. The firearm season was too early. There were two many squirrel hunters. Not being able to use trail cameras on most public is a pain in the ass for even finding bucks worth pursuing.

It wasn't until I saw Zach Farenbaugh from the Hunting Public come in with just a few days during the late season and had two different mature brutes within bow range (from the ground on camera too!), eventually harvesting one. I realized I need to stop complaining and get better.