Cooper responds to critics
It was with great interest that I read criticisms of the crossbow hunting article I wrote in last month’s Traveler. Of particular interest to me is Mr. Goodman’s assessment of me and the editor of Traveler, Emery Styron.
Mr. Goodman suggested that the article material was unfit to be printed. Must I remind him that this is the United States of America, where freedom of speech and freedom of press are two of our dearest rights under the U. S. Constitution? I intend to continue both for as long as I breathe.
I am approaching my 60th year and Mr. Goodman provided the first insult I have ever received in regards to being lazy. The two of us have never met. He refers to my wanting to take shortcuts to get an easy deer during bow season.
Perhaps I should provide Mr. Goodman a little of my background. I grew up a member of a poor farm family in the swamps of Mississippi County. I learned firsthand the value of placing wild game and fish on the dinner table. Hunting and fishing were our primary source of outdoor recreation as well. My father taught us to follow the rules and to respect our quarry. We offered thanks at the dinner table to the Creator who gave us the skill and the opportunity to harvest the bounty He had provided.
I worked my way through college washing dishes and cooking. I completed a Masters’ Degree in Outdoor Education and Park Management and simultaneously earned an officer’s commission in the U.S. Army, all with neither loans nor help from my parents.
I have worked as a park superintendent, park naturalist and worked on the side as an outdoor writer for thirty-five years. I have credits with Bass Pro, Cabela’s, Turkey Call, Turkey and Turkey Hunting, North American Whitetail, Women in the Outdoors, Missouri Conservationist, Game and Fish Publications, Traveler, Outdoor Guide, Springfield News Leader and many others. I hosted my own outdoor radio show for 8 years and my own TV show for two years. I am a regular at Ray Eye’s media hunting camps for deer and turkey. I have rubbed elbows with and learned from the finest outdoor writers in the nation.
I just completed a 20-year volunteer career with the National Wild Turkey Federation. I ran youth (JAKES) hunting camps. Juniors Acquiring Knowledge Ethics and Sportsmanship is one of the finest youth programs in the nation. The NWTF recognized my efforts with several awards and the Conservation Federation of Missouri recognized me with their “Conservation Educator of the Year Award” in 2000.
I have spent thousands of hours and thousands of dollars of my own money to promote outdoor education, ethical hunting and enjoyment of the outdoors in Missouri alone. Much of time has been spent as a volunteer, the most rewarding work of all.
I am approaching my 60th birthday. I love my country and the land where I live. I carry life’s scars from the battle field and the work field. I fought for Mr. Goodman’s freedom to express himself, even if he chooses to call people, whom he has never met, lazy. That is his freedom, but reflects poorly upon his character.
Mr. Goodman, it seems, would choose to limit my opinion, freedom of speech and freedom of press, if he could. The blood of my compatriots says he can’t.
I did not harvest a deer with my crossbow last season in spite of my hours of practice. I found the crossbow to be just as challenging as my old compound and my recurve before it. I suppose I don’t have the agility I had at 45. Hate to admit that.
I slung no mud at MDC. I admire our greatest of all conservation organizations. I carried petitions to pass our conservation sales tax and would proudly do it again. I just happen to disagree with the agency’s stance on crossbows. It is still legal to disagree, too.
I have widely researched the crossbow issue and have written numerous articles about the subject. I have reports on my desk from many states that allow crossbow hunting. Almost all have long term research that indicates that crossbow hunters enjoy a 15% success rate each bow season, the same as users of compound bows. That is the end of the arguments about crossbows wiping out deer herds, unless someone out there has research that they have not sent to me.
The push to legalize crossbows in Missouri is coming from hunters. Of course manufacturers are pushing for the same. Do all of the compound bow manufactures push for bow seasons? Of course they do. They fought the same fight against recurve enthusiasts when compounds first came on the scene. All manufactures of outdoor products are in the business to make money. They are the hunters’ friend, not our fore. If they destroy the resource, they destroy the source of their income. So, the money motivation argument proves, too, to be a bad case against crossbows.
It is an established fact that hunters are declining. Missouri is one of the very few states that are actually holding their own. However, Lonnie Hansen, our MDC deer biologist, recently released information, based on studies, that indicates that within 25 years Missouri will have 100,000 fewer deer hunters than we have today. Does that scare any of you hunters?
Denny Ballard, a past director of the Conservation Federation of Missouri, blasted me in Outdoor Guide magazine last year because of an article I had written regarding crossbow hunting. He stated some of the same arguments Mr. Goodman mentioned – manufacturer greed, easy hunting styles. Ballard also stated that legalized crossbow hunting in Missouri would immediately bring 160,000 new archery hunters into the populace. I rebutted with the question of why Mr. Ballard would not want 160,000 new archery hunters in the field. We never heard from Mr. Ballard again.
I have studied outdoor recreation interests for 40 years. The primary problem between user groups is competition. Mr. Ballard simply did not want the competition of more archers in the field. That seems to be the unspoken foundation of most arguments against crossbows.
Mr. Goodman also seems to be in favor of hiding facts. He asks the Traveler editor to refrain from running articles which mention missing and wounding deer. Both errors are a fact of hunting. All of us work hard to minimize both, but it happens. Hiding or covering the truth is the worst information we can provide anti-hunting groups. That is exactly what they do. And if Mr. Goodman has never missed or wounded a deer, I am ready to invest money in a hunting school run by him.
I have worked long and hard to promote the enjoyment of our great outdoors in Missouri. Now, I watch middle age men drop out of bowhunting because of wrist, elbow, shoulder and back problems. Crossbows come with cocking devices and users are not subjected to the painful rigors of holding a bow back. These people are eligible for medical exemptions which allow them to use crossbows. What about the young and women and the other men who would like to use a crossbow? They cannot legally do so in the state of Missouri. Research from a dozen states indicates that legalizing crossbows brings thousands of women and children into the sport. Those states need the hunters and the revenues they produce. Too, those states have sufficient deer herds to support additional hunters.
Missouri, too, has a sufficient deer herd to allow crossbow hunting. Do the math. If we did get an influx of 160,000 new hunters from legalizing crossbows, at a 15% success rate, that would amount to 24,000 deer, which would be scarcely noticeable.
So, what is the basis for the anti-crossbow sentiment? Competition? True but absurd! We need those hunters more than ever. They just might help us hold on to our hunting rights a little bit longer. Let’s pull together rather than fight among ourselves.
Mr. Goodman, only a few years ago, I agreed with you totally. However, I have done the research. The facts are in. And I am not slinging mud at MDC, but I have never seen factual, long term research reports from them documenting that crossbow hunting is in any way harmful to the resource.
And as for your habit of insinuating that people, whom you have never met, are lazy, drop the habit. It makes you look bad. I still work 80 hours a week. Oh, I would love to have commanded you in one of my combat units. Lazy we weren’t. However, we would still fight for your right to call us lazy! Crazy American ideals.
Bill Cooper
