Okay, now I’m mad! I just returned from a 17-day trip to the Great Northwest and I’m loaded with stuff to write about and have hundreds of pictures to share. BUT! I get home to find information concerning legislation that has been presented or re-presented to the state Assembly concerning the legalization of hunting with a crossbow.

Like I usually do, I have my opinion about this and surrounding issues and crossbows in general. Let’s start with the crossbow and please take into consideration that I have been bow hunting for about 40 years.

To me, crossbows are extremely dangerous pieces of equipment. They may be great for defending a castle. They may also have some justification for use as a sport target shooting instrument under controlled conditions, but quite frankly, that’s about as far as I’ll go with them. 

A substantial part of the justification for passing their use for hunting is to further enable the handicapped to be able to participate in the sport and thereby broaden the sale of hunting licenses. What bull ---- that line is!  These things require more effort to load than even a muzzle loading rifle. But, the “justification” does provide a clear insight behind this latest attempt. Money! As usual, follow the money and you will get to the real issue.

In this case, the money leads us to two primary sources. One, the sale of equipment. A cheap crossbow sells for about $300 and can go up considerably from there. Then there are the arrows. Totally different than those used in any long or re-curve or compound bows currently in use. And then there is all the other equipment that is necessary to load these instruments. And then there is, well, I think you get my drift.

Next comes the licensing issue. For a Super Sportsman license, I pay a total of $68. Included in that is a separate fee for me to be able to hunt with a bow. Another portion is for me to hunt with a muzzle loading rifle. Another is to allow me to hunt turkey. I think by the time I was able to take off all of the little add-on fees, the basic hunting license would cost about 12 cents.  It’s all the little add-ons that get you. It’s sort of like your telephone bill. So, now we are faced with yet another little add-on bill. I wonder how much a “crossbow tag” will cost us.

But, to me, here’s the real kicker, it will make hunting more accessible to the handicapped. What pure bunk this is! Let me ask you a question, what could be easier than to be able to sit on the seat of an ATV and pull a trigger? Not much if you ask me. Yet we can’t do that. Oh! As a handicapped person, I am allowed to sit on the ATV and pull the trigger, BUT, I’m not allowed to drive my ATV on any state land.

Some of you might recall that a few years ago, a program was put into effect to allow handicapped persons to be able to ride and hunt from ATVs.  However, and this is a big HOWEVER, ATVs could only be ridden on approved trails and roadways. Guess what, there aren’t any! In all of the Adirondacks, there are zero approved trails to ride on. Oh yeah, there are some roads. For example, in Washington County, there is a dirt road that is approved. It runs from the state parking lot on Shelving Rock Road for about one-and-a half-miles into an area known as Daisy Clearing. This particular road is also wide enough and improved enough to allow a trailer truck to drive on it. In fact, if you were to go to the end of the road right now, I’m sure you will find horse trailers big enough to carry a half-dozen animals.  So, what’s the purpose of my driving my ATV on this road if I can also drive down it in my Jeep Grand Cherokee? 

So now we are faced with another program that really isn’t a program, or, at the very least, is being sold to us on some trumped-up basis that we have seen over and over again in the past. How refreshing would it be if we were to hear one of these “experts” stand up and say, “Hey, we need more money and here’s a way we can do it. There are two or three guys out there who want to hunt with a crossbow, so we are going to allow them to and if any of you want to join in on the fun, you too can buy a new crossbow hunting tag. Or, you could just kick in an extra hundred bucks. Either way is okay with us.” I’d probably send in my 100 to get the medication I’d need to be able to cope with the honesty.

The real culprit behind this latest move is the equipment manufacturers.  They’re the ones out to make the big bucks. How difficult do they think it is to follow the money? Hello campaign contributions, here we come!

Next week, Montana.

See you outdoors!