Quote
Originally posted by delaney:
Paul, yes, I'm happy. JJAS, I will simply say that any deer is a "quality" deer in my opinion, or at least should be considered such by any hunter in the field. Jeff, I don't think for one minute the crossbow is the culprit of any of this herd reduction issue. In fact, considering the many smiling faces of youth from this year in archery, I'd say crossbow was a huge success and since the real big picture is not about deer numbers or size of bucks but instead how do we assure the youth of today somehow get engaged for the benefit of the future.

2013 and the new rules aren't really the issue that caused this situation. 2013 is merely an outcome of years of harvesting, liberalization of the deer bonus tags and lack of sportsmen giving a crap and engaging about the overall deer herd because they had plenty of resource to shoot at. Now, the current season structure and liberal tags becomes the issue of the future. To start with reducing season lengths, while admirable, is ridiculous because it immediately brings in the gun vs bow issue. The first and foremost issue should be tags, tags, tags. Secondly, it should also an issue of worrying about the other guy, which of course will never happen unfortunately because in general sportsmenship in deer hunting is largely dead. Eventually, season length (all seasons) should also be addressed but again, it is not the season length that is the issue but instead the ability to harvest numerous does. Any argument of gun vs. bow vs. crossbow is totally without merit because all can be maintained as is if doe harvest numbers are reduced dramatically via available tags.

And yes Paul, the process years ago when there were a few representing the groups at the table was a better process in my opinion, if not a good overall representative situation. But back then I will suggest there was less "me" in the equation although the bow vs gun issue was always a shadow in the room that had to be dealt with. But when things are good and resource is plentiful and everyone is getting more, it's easy for a process to work well. Today is a different day for sure.
+1

Spot on Delany, especially about kids and crossbows...

Hunters are their own worst enemy... Sad that some can't see past their own prejudice and think they may never be part of the problem and that everyone else is...