Editor’s Note: This opinion piece, along with two stories about crossbow hunting were published in the September 2008 print edition of River Hills Traveler, and produced a number of letters to the editor protesting Mr. Cooper’s views. Those letters are posted as entries below. We invite our online readers to participate in the discussion.

By Bill Cooper
Hunters and soldiers have been using the crossbow since well before the birth of Christ. The Chinese first used them in combat at the battle of Ma-Ling in 341 BC. They were still being used by Montagnard peoples and U.S. Special Forces during the Vietnam Conflict. In the last 20 years, crossbows have grown in popularity in the United States sparking a hot controversy among hunters and wildlife managers concerning the sporting qualities of the weapon and whether or not they should be legal for hunting.
Opponents to legalizing crossbows for hunting have long made the statements, “It will ruin bow hunting,” “It will wipe out the deer herd,” “They are unsafe,” “They do not have to be drawn and released by hand when the animal is within range,” “They’re too easy.” “They’re the No. 1 threat to bow hunting,” is the stance taken by the North American Bow Hunting Coalition.
The Missouri Department of Conservation classifies the crossbow as a firearm. Webster’s dictionary describes a firearm as any weapon from which a shot is fired by explosive force; especially, such a weapon small enough to be carried as a rifle.
While MDC has a world wide reputation for its professional management practices, the agency has missed the mark drastically when defining the meaning of a crossbow and establishing regulations for its usage in the realm of hunting. In Missouri, it is legal to use a crossbow to hunt wildlife in lieu of a firearm. However, the only way a crossbow can be legally used
to bowhunt is through a medical exemption.
MDC is the most progressive conservation department in the nation, so why the negative attitude towards crossbows? Is there long term research available to support the MDC stance against the ancient weapon? I have been writing about outdoor subjects for 35 years and have never come across any such research or reports. Perhaps it is time for MDC to consider the long term research of states such as Ohio and Arkansas. They, along with Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Wyoming, have had crossbow seasons for two decades. All their hunting statistics are positive.
Ohio expanded its crossbow season in the 1982-83 seasons to coincide with its 4-month long bow season. Over the next 20 years, the deer population continued to grow. Crossbow hunter numbers increased almost 10 fold. In 2001-02, the crossbow season provided an estimated 1.8 million hunter-days of opportunity. Success rates for crossbow hunters hovered at almost 15 percent. Vertical bow hunter numbers increased during the same time period with 15 percent of hunters successfully harvesting a deer.
Ohio biologists also discovered that crossbows provided another management tool for harvesting burgeoning urban deer populations. And another spin-off of legalized crossbow hunting has been a positive effect on the recruitment or women and children into the hunting sports and the retention of older hunters.
The statistics in all states that have legalized crossbow hunting are much the same: positive for hunters, wildlife managers, and the resource. So, there must be some other reason that MDC has not chosen to legalize crossbow hunting in Missouri during the regular archery season.
Is it the energy issue? Simple physics. The power stroke of a compound is about 20 inches. That of a crossbow is about 12 inches. The shorter crossbow power stroke, combined with its short, thick limbs, creates a lower efficiency of energy transfer. That is why draw weights of crossbows need to be more than twice that of a compound bow in order to accelerate a similar weight arrow to the same speeds.
Is it the range issue? Again, simple. Crossbows lose their energy quickly making them a 30-yard proposition, which preserves that in-your-face aspect of bow hunting. Too, crossbow users must practice to gain tight shot groups just like the compound users. As far back as 1346, Genoese crossbowmen were defeated at Crecy by English long bowmen.
It seems the issues of crossbow, compound, recurve, or longbow has followed the same path that muzzleloader hunters traipsed a decade ago. The consideration then was how far to go. Should muzzleloaders have been restricted to flintlocks? Muzzleloaders have become very sophisticated and MDC allows them for hunting.
Why does MDC stick to its ludicrous classification of crossbows as firearms, when in fact they are what their name implies — a type of bow that has been around for thousands of years? With the state’s extensive deer and turkey populations, why would MDC not want to extend the same hunting season to crossbow hunters that users of vertical bows enjoy? Too, why would MDC not want to see the influx of new hunters, (women and children) that crossbow hunting would bring? And predictions are that Missouri will have 100,000 fewer deer hunters within 25 years. Perhaps crossbow hunting could retain or recruit hunters.
In Minnesota, the traditional bowhunter’s interest in the sport peaks at age 39. Blown-out shoulders, wrist and elbow problems attribute to some of that. It is a proven fact that in numerous states that crossbow seasons help to retain many of these individuals. I wonder how many millions of dollars the millions of man hours of crossbow hunting would add to our local economies each year.
In the August 2007 issue of Field & Stream, in his article The Skeptic’s Guide to Crossbows, Anthony Licata said, “Before you make up your mind about a crossbow, shoot one first.”

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 12th, 2008 at 8:05 pm and is filed under Crossbows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.