Back in July in Vernon Center, NY a friend of mine at Huntstock approached me and asked if I would be interested in mentoring on an all women’s archery hunt this season. I was elated! When she gave me more details and I found out it was a crossbow hunt, I was immediately very hesitant. Crossbows have been the subject of some controversy since they were introduced into the hunting community, and as a compound bow hunter I was not sure if this was an event I wanted to participate in. After talking with her and a few other people that were involved who are also friends of mine, I agreed to go as long as I would be educated on crossbows. I had never used a crossbow and I wanted to make sure that I knew how to safely handle the bows that the ladies would be using so that if I was needed in a situation with my mentee. I wanted to make sure we were all safe, and that starts with education. I also expressed that I would be more interested in assisting with any tracking, field dressing, and butchering that might be needed. When it came time to head to New York for the event, I tried my best to go into the weekend with an open mind.
The education we received on the range on Friday was phenomenal. There were two women, Kate and Colleen, who really broke down the crossbow and how to use it for us. They demonstrated to us all how to safely use a crossbow and talked about distances that shots are ethically taken with. I was very surprised to hear them say “We do not recommend taking a shot over 40 yards” because many negative comments I hear from anti-crossbow hunters is that people shoot too far and are potentially wounding animals. Which I would say, is pretty much the same for any compound bow hunter.
We learned as mentors how to load and fire the crossbow as well as how to safely teach this practice to our mentees once they arrived. New York Crossbow coalition president Dusty was at the range with us. He and his team are working in New York to get the Crossbow laws to coincide completely with the archery laws and to get the state to recognize the crossbow as a piece of regular season archery equipment. He has a lot of experience in teaching hunters education too, and they would like the bow education required for Crossbow hunters, which currently it is not. He also said that Crossbows are a great gateway to compound bows and even firearms – in essence starting off with a crossbow really can build someone’s confidence up as well as allow them to experience the thrill of hunting without having to be around a firearm.
We put 10 ladies behind crossbows. Some had hunted before, some had never hunted.
I write this with the message of keeping an open mind. Just because mechanisms of hunting are foreign to you or you don’t think that you would use them, does not mean that they are necessarily bad. Before this event my views were that crossbows are great for someone who can no longer pull back a bow, because that has been my only experience with them. I figured that they were a way to keep archers in the woods. Well, now I can say that I believe they should be considered a piece of regular archery equipment with no special permits or requirements, but the hunter should be required to have their Bowhunters Education. Would I ever hunt with one? Probably not, as long as I can still pull back my compound, but I can tell you that I will now be actively advocating for the use of Crossbows as regular archery equipment in my state.
As a hunter I feel it’s important to educate ourselves in areas that we are not well versed in. This experience for me was a great reminder of that lesson. There are a lot of people that might have an interest in hunting but have never had anywhere to start. The crossbow is a weapon that I feel could help bridge a gap of people thinking about trying to hunt vs actually being able to try it. People who might not be comfortable with firearms, people who aren’t yet confident enough to try a compound bow or longbow.
It is important as a community that we continue to talk about controversial topics, like the crossbow. I have been among different discussions on this topic and as a hunter it always comes down to the hunter practicing safe, legal, and ethical hunting. Us seasoned hunters who can sometimes be very “set in our ways” need to try to keep open minds. If it were not for so many of my friends participating in this event, I am not sure I would have attended simply because I thought less of Crossbows. But I was wrong, and that’s ok. That’s growth and it was an experience that will help me be more open to new things in the world of hunting.
If we are not constantly learning and evolving as hunters, how can we properly educate others who want so badly to learn? How else can we keep up with the evolution of the sport that we love so much? Food for thought.
Wild Woman 
Good read – and nice pictures!
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