I just went to Bears website to drool on the SK and takedown and what did I see!!!! My eyes are still burning!!

CROSSBOWS!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought they've had crossbows for awhile?? Besides you'll get a bunch of "that's OK we need the crossbow users in the "BIG TENT" to help us fight the antis! BS!

There's money to be made selling them, and therefore a lot of archery related companies will go to them. If they weren't legal during bow season things would be different. MP

Welp we will know when the devil landed when Big Jim sells x- bows.LOL

Maybe I shouldn't have said that don't want to give any ideers.LOL

Never knew they had them.

It is a sign of the times......Circus clown hunters want it easier & easier & easier. They don't get that it is not WHAT you get but HOW you get it !!!!!

Really, and draw locks aren't legal on compounds. Boy how things can change with the right money put in the correct pockets. M, loud they are. Good luck to the wannabe modern 'archers'?? JF

pretty soon theyll have an online roll play game where you can become the cyber hunter and if you get a certain score you receive a package of soy based artificial flavored "wild game meat product". imho. nybubba

I am a life time member for my state archery org. and they send me a compound bow mag. in the mail of free every so many months.

Sometimes they have some stick bow story's but for the past 6-8 months I would say about half of the mag. is crossbows. It's all about money.

Whew doggies - here's a book for ya.

Crossbows are super duper fine for some folks. No problems here. Those that shoot them can shoot and hunt along side me everyday and twice on Sunday after church of course. Have a close friend who has a very large collection of recurves (really fine target bows and a lot of hunting bows) and a few long bows too. He hurt himself recently and said in an email this week he is strength training but will use a cross bow he bought this fall. Think that is just really great.

Two years before I bought a new Kodiak Magnum in 1962, I bought a piece of walnut to make a cross bow from a cabinet shop. They said they would help me as I was just 13. The "how to" was written in an archery book about recurves. The book also had a "how to" for a drake type short flight bow with a spider too. Never built the cross bow even though I had the rough out shape marked on the piece of walnut, as the gluing (with Urac-85) and constructing a form for the laminated limbs scared me.

Crossbows ain't guns, they are just ordinary everyday bows with a stock and release and many folks that shoot them also have recurves and longbows hanging on a rack like many of us. Folks that shoot them seem to be are more up to date on the world around them than I am for sure. Still, I just like my old Bears.

Well, Bear did go from recurves and longbows to compounds. Not surprised at all they're selling x-bows.......$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Look on the bright side, it will benefit the handicapped by allowing them to get out and hunt. Here in Hawaii anyway.

They are legal during bow season here in Michigan and I have nothing against someone who Needs one. But there are NO archery skills involved in shooting them and when using one you are not BOWHUNTING. And contrary to what is said in too many magazines, when game is shot with one nothing has been arrowed! MP

Bear is not just a traditional company. They have employees to pay, and that takes sales of all archery. The traditional business won't keep them alive in this day and age. The way I look at it is creates a future recurve or longbow shooter, and it adds to our clout as a sport to reckon with. One of my hunting buddies uses a crossbow. After 15 back and neck operations, I don't have one problem with that.

I noticed this a couple weeks ago. It seems that either the Bear logo on the cbow is well hidden or non existant. I didnt see one on any of them. Maybe I Just missed it.... Anyone else see this?

George, you are so correct. The main thing is to protect our hunting priviledge. Lets not criticize the way one hunts. Some want to put down someone who uses a compound or cross bow and then that same person who complained totes a 30-06 in December.

George, you are so correct. The main thing is to protect our hunting priviledge. Lets not criticize the way one hunts. Some want to put down someone who uses a compound or cross bow and then that same person who complained totes a 30-06 in December.

in 2012 I hunted antelope with a good friend. I used a recurve, he used a crossbow. we both killed antelope with legal weapons and had a great time.

the most ignorant and rude person camping nearby that week was using a stickbow.

saying the crossbow is the end of the world is like saying a gun will kill you. it's the person.

I want Bear to stay in business so the traditional line can live on. People are going to buy them, they may as well get them from Bear.

https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/hunting-crossbows

I have no qualms about someone who is disabled using a crossbow. That's been legal in Illinois for as long as I remember.

wvtomv, "then that same person who complained totes a 30-06 in December." I've heard that lame analogy before. A rifle is a firearm used in FIREARM season. The discussion about crossbows is about ARCHERY season. A crossbow is not a bow.

I'll shoot or hunt alongside someone shooting a crossbow everyday and twice on Sunday after church of course. A friend emailed me this week who has a very large collection of recuves and longbows and he bought a crossbow for this fall. Hurt himself and is strength training now so its great he had some options.

Bought a nice thick piece of walnut (1.75 to 2 inches thick) to make a crossbow from a cabinet shop and they said they would help me as I was only 13 (about 1959 or 1960). An archery book on recurves had a "how to" for one and the book also had a "how to" for a Drake type flight bow with a spider. Never made it as the form for the laminated limbs and using the Urac-85 glue scared me.

Many folks who shoot crossbows are just like us and have racks of recurves and longbows too. Even if they don't, they are just as good as me.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bear-Archery-Bruzer-FFL-Crossbow- Package-Black/49924541

Have a few questions: 1. If they are in a tree stand ,how do they cock it? 2. If they are in a tree stand ,how to they un-cock it? 3. How many that work for game dept. received a free x-gun?

There there it will be allright

Those things are dangerous! Was in Cabela's last year around the holidays doing a return and they had a paper posted there about a recall on one of the crossbows they sell. The recall notice said that the firing mechanism could fire off without warning. I thought "Holy Cow!" I want no part of that!

Let em be. When or if I can no longer shoot a recurve or long bow or compound ...then I will give it whirl.....we will wear out eventually, or be sidelined with an injury.

Crossbows have been legal in Ohio for 40 years.

Hmm, I didn't think Xbow threads were still allowed here. Oh well. I ain't gonna knock someone who chooses a Xbow when I occasionally use gunpowder and even a scope. To each their own. It's not a contest folks.

X-gun users are here to stay. Whatever.

I just HATE when they say they are bowhunters.

Uh, just don't look at that page. It's like when I get a Cabela's catalog. I just skip all the pages that have compounds because I have no interest in them.

See? Now that wasn't all that hard now was it?

In fact, I wish the world was so right that crossbows would be the only thing I'd have to worry about.

We are only part way there. As with compounds before, X-bows will BE archery hunting soon. They will dwarf everything else for the same reason we are traditional bowhunters while compound guys are bowhunters. Soon that will be x-bows because they are the largest market segment potential, and the most expensive product. Follow the money.

I think x-bows are great, but I would not have chosen them in the archery hunting season, but without that the money doesn't flow.

By the way, didn't the real Bear company have X-bows in the end?

Xbow wise, I would love to try the euro target shooting, one part of it is a lot like indoor air rifle, and the outdoor bit is pretty interesting, but I don't think anyone does it around here.

Speaking of "B", Border also makes Xbow limbs, presumably for the 30m stuff.

I've got a beautiful rosewood medieval crossbow-never shot it.I do not like compound crossbows ....or compound bows..But it is a sign of the times..It's a nice mechanical device,but for me it is not archery.

I saw a thread on here years ago that had a couple of "traditional crossbows" that a guy made. They had recurve limbs and hardwood stocks and we're BEAUTIFUL. Well the thread got cut and a kick myself for saving the pic.

I've always thought crossbows were kinda neat. A guy used to come to the club that shot one. Real nice guy, real bad shoulders. He let anyone shoot it who wanted to try. I tried it and it was "ok". Not really what I was expecting. Much louder and harsher than what I thought it would be.

I guess I'm just a recurve guy and always will be. Kinda fun to try something new though.

I dont know. I look at the bottom line of hunting as a management tool which allows continue management. IMO, what does it matter what the game is taken with, as long as the management is the main goal. What I would be more focused on is the separation of tools for the job. That is always the sticking point as one group gets the first chance and the rest are served the leftovers.

The good 'ol days are behind us. Make the best of what you have.

Have no problem with anyone using a crossbow, just as long as it's in primitive weapons season where it used to be, with muzzle loaders.

I would never argue that a legal and ethical hunter is not to be respected and welcomed into the world of hunting. What I do not agree with is that crossbows are a legitimate weapon for archery season AS I UNDERSTAND IT. A separate season was set up to allow for a simple and "primitive" weapon that gave both the hunter and the quarry a different challenge. With the exception of the legitimately disabled, I absolutely do not support the crossbow in archery season. It is not the same weapon with the same limitations. But then again neither is the compound bow. That discussion is just not worth having

If we think we can survive in this politically correct culture with just the traditional archery crowd, we are sadly mistaken.

I've never shot any kind of bow except a recurve or longbow, but I dont have a problem with what weapon one chooses to hunt with. Crossbows have been around a lot longer than compounds as far as tradition goes.

So Bear builds x-bows, don't think I'll ever buy one, but if they ever come out with the Super Kodiak Phenolic in a take down model.......Well, that may spark my interest!

You need a special license to hunt with one in Hawai'i (due to a physical need) but I think it is excellent that those who would need one can use one to hunt with.

I count myself lucky to be able to have a choice, even though to me a crossbow feels like a gun that happens to discharge stubby arrows instead of lead.

And as far as who makes what? Porsche started making trucks in 2002 but that didn't make me think less of them as a manufacturer or want to throw away my favorite 25 yr old sportscar.

The more the merrier and I imagine there will be no shortage of converts from crossbow users to more familiar archery tackle when they get bored!

My grandson who I taught recurves from little on shot a deer this past weekend. When I saw the post on Facebook with a crossbow laying across it it broke my and my wife's heart but I won't tell him that.

Following the money isn't a free enterprise issue KPC, it is a mater of following the trend. If a person wants to know where we are headed, no politics, no economics, sports move along till they reach saturation, then maybe they plateau. But if something comes along that is new and can be sold like heck, that is where the mo is. Good or bad or whatever is not the issue, just momentum. Windsurfers were big, then kites took over. Kayaks were big, then stand up paddle boards were big. Road bikes were big, then mountain bikes were big. Ultralight aircraft were interesting, then they created the sport aviation class. Handguns were jolted ahead by the CCW thing. Obvious growth in BH is to make every hunter out there into a bow hunter, and compounds only get you so far. In my province crossbows have been legal for a long time and they keep on growing, and they cost about 2xs what compounds of equal quality do, and you don't have to stock sizes (or from the shooter perspective worry about what size they are). It's a growth segment, that is all.

Legal tools to hunters. Maybe some day the x-bow guys will be shaking their head over the popularity of the air bows. It's arrow hunting from now on, and anything that can shoot an arrow will be in the same season.

Air bows are on the scene now. Cabela's had one in their hard cover catalog. Never saw those before.

I don't worry about it.

I've kinda noticed over the years that it's a small percentage of hunters that are actually routinely successful regardless of weapon.

The guys that are routinely successful it don't seem to matter what weapon they use.

I was worried when they allowed crossbows in PA, it was unfounded.

I think it added more guys hunting archery that would not have otherwise, and our archery kill did increase but those same hunters were not firearm hunting then.

I'd say when the smoke clears at the end of the late season, they are not killing anymore deer, just more in archery season.

Frankly even with more archery hunters and crossbows, I rarely ever encounter other bowhunter's in the woods. Could be just the areas I hunt.

I like leatherwall, it's my favorite forum, but we sure do worry about what other people are doing a lot.

My advice?.....go hunt with your longbow, or recurve nobody is stopping us, and let the other guy hunt with what makes him happy.

Funny how we get personal enjoyment from the choice we make. But we are not willing to allow others the same.

"Sacrilege".

There's a simple solution---- You don't like the cross bow or the compound bow DON'T use one. My son has a cross bow, a compound bow,& a recurve bow along with the "fixins" for each alas and alack he rarely shoots any of them. Me? I have one "1970's Ben Pearson compound that I use for strength training& a PSI one that I bought off a nephew that needed the money @ the time. However I do not use it, in fact I cannot remember the last time I opened the case it's in. What I DO have and use on a regular basis are a few long bows & a couple of recurves that get regular "workouts."

On a cool Nov. morn. in 2013 I missed a nice buck with my compound 2 days later in the same swamp I carried my wife's xbow and shot a small 8. When my friends ask how I felt about getting one with the x I told them it was just like shooting one with an inline muzzleloader. That was the last time I took any compound or xbow into the woods.

I will say to each is their own. I'm just trying to make myself happy when I go hunting.

Mike

It's there business, besides it gives you a reason to beat your chest and claim to be traditional.

Totally agree SHADE MT!!!!!!

In Ohio xbows take way more than half of the total archery harvests.

Hey 3ditional

Here, you can make your own. Or find ads from the 1940's and 50's and on for crossbows. They make up a small percentage of archers in general, and now after many years here in Pa., they certainly aren't decimating the deer herd. After losing over ten percent of our total hunters in the past fifteen to twenty years her in Pa., we need some stabilization. It it takes crossbows, then so be it. In my area you just don't see many of them. Most hunters here still have to work five days a week so their time afield is relatively short.

I use a single string bow just because that's what I like to shoot and carry.

However, I haven't killed a deer in a REALLY long time. I never even went into the weeds last year just because I don't have a place to hunt that I can get excited about.

Local public land is crowded and the deer act "strange" once season opens. I'm sure it's possible to kill one but that kind of hunting just isn't any fun for me.

I'll tell you this though. I sure do miss having venison once in a while.

The point is that, for many of us, hunting opportunities are very limited and chances at a shot are even more limited. I don't blame somebody for wanting to improve their odds.

For the past decade, my most effective venison gathering tool has been my truck. The next truck is going to have a heavy duty "brush" guard. Then I can get some meat without smashing in the front bumper.

My one and only beef with x-bows isn't really with the x-bows or those who want to use them.

My beef is with the state's cited reason for including them in the archery season. They claim the "need" to get more hunters out during the archery season.

Maybe there's a shortage of hunters...someplace...but not in the places that I have to hunt.

All they did (or tried to do) was cram more hunters onto already over hunted, game poor lands.

The powers that be sell hunting licenses for a living. They have their own little empires to build.

To paraphrase a famous former First Lady, just say 'no' to crossbows!

I don't know. The "modern bow hunter" is packing thousands of dollars worth of of bow that pushes and arrow near 300 fps?...with nearly zero holding weight and sighting with some pretty fancy equipment...

trail cams that text to their phone

Cent lock clothes that keep you warm through anything (if you can afford them)...

And the list goes on.

What does a crossbow really change?

I know guys that kill big dear every year sitting in the same stand on the same tree in Granddad's woods. No "hunting" necessary.

It's all relative. A x-bow may be easier to shoot but it's irrelevant if there isn't anything to shoot at. I wouldn't have a very good chance of getting a deer at my local WMA even if they let me use grenades. LOL

The vintage Bear Devastator crossbows are in demand by crossbow guys now they shoot a full length arrow-they are learning about mass and momentum vs speed.

I don't mind the crossbows but they should be used in the gun season.

This is a sport not a religion yall. What's sad to me is prominent members of my states bow hunting council have fellow hunters whom legally hunt with crossbows. These prominent fellows will shake hands with the crossbow hunter for the support of hunting while the other hand is stabbing a knife in their back. Bull excrement are those prominent fellows. Crossbows have not destroyed game numbers like these upity prominents predicted. Due to health issues I may have to use a crossbow to hunt someday. But until then I WILL use my selfbow, longbows, recurve bows, compound bow, handguns, muzzleloader, shotguns and rifles for shooting sports and hunting. God bless America!

I'm not sure why there should be different seasons for different equipment. Set season dates and bag limits for the sake of conservation and management and let folks use the equipment that they like.

Deer rarely come through my property in the fall these days but, when they do, it's usually at night. It's my property (lol, sure it is), I should be able to hunt at night...or bait...or even snare.

But no, somebody who shoots deer on Grandad's farm where shooting deer is like shooting fish in a barrel is going to impose his hunting "ethics" on me and deny me my "share" of the meat.

Thanks.

In Ohio crossbows and muzzle loaders were used in primitive weapons season. They had 5 days per year. Then they added the handicapped people thing for archery season and a year or 2 later gave them our 4 month archery season. Archery kills around 30k ,crossbows around 40k, and guns around 120k-130k. I don't care about crossbow hunting but give em their own season so if kills get too high their season can be shortened without effecting real archers. Or put em back in with ML's.

[email protected] BOW!

(I sent you a PM)

They are a short cut into the archery season. Some people do not have the time to put into archery any longer so this is why they ended up in the archery season. They are not archery equipment...

Ron

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