Bill A.924/S.6793, better known as the crossbow bill, has passed and now awaits the governor’s signature. However, the bill was so diluted from its original writing, its impact will be miniscule, both in expanding deer hunting opportunities as well as generating more money to fund the DEC’s shrinking fish and wildlife budget pool. As passed, the revised bill would empower the DEC to establish a crossbow hunting season but “only to coincide with the regular firearms and late-season muzzleloader hunting seasons.” The original bill would have also allowed crossbow use on private property during any deer-hunting season, including archery.
Crossbows have been illegal tools for hunting in New York for decades, despite proponents having tried to reverse that law for the past 20 years. Only Oregon still bans crossbows for hunting, but given the watered down version of New York’s new crossbow law, for all practical purposes New York may as well have not wasted time passing such an anemic law, although claiming it would draw more people and license money into the hunting fold and help manage deer.
Common sense should’ve indicated that big game hunters that are given a choice between hunting with a modern firearm, even a muzzleloader, after the early-archery-season ends would rarely opt for a crossbow (and also have to buy a special license to do so). Heck, even the vast majority of the most avid archers trade their vertical bows for a firearm once the firearms seasons open (the exception being Westchester County where no firearms deer season is present due to heavy suburbanization development). The normally frigid weather during the regular firearms and late muzzleloader seasons is highly unfriendly to any type of bowhunting, be it with a vertical or horizontal bow.
Let’s see …New York has a problem controlling its deer population in many regions, especially those where firearms hunting is not practical or safe due to suburban development. The state’s hunting force is aging and decreasing, and as such, many have or have already quit hunting or buying a hunting license. The DEC says it’s strapped for money to effectively manage those burgeoning deer (and now perhaps add black bears). Hunters using vertical bows in problematic areas cannot harvest enough deer to keep the population stable. A growing percentage of young people are not choosing to become hunters. Hunting access to the more developed areas containing overly high densities of deer is rapidly disappearing.
So the answer seems to be to come up with a solution that would: keep aging hunters hunting; make hunting?especially deer hunting?more attractive to young people and small frame women; generate a spike in hunting license sales to stop the red ink leaking from the deficit Conservation Fund; and determine a short-range hunting method and tool that would prove safe yet effective in areas where firearms aren’t practical and access is private. Our law-makers might as well have passed a special law allowing boomerangs as legal hunting tools, given the pathetic impact the new watered down crossbow law will have.
Currently Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming allow crossbow hunting during deer seasons, including the archery season. In every state where crossbows were made legal archery tools, hunter numbers and license sales increased. And in all these states, the deer herds weren’t decimated by the additional hunters afield, poachers still opted to use rifles, vertical bow users’ success rates didn’t plummet, more young people and women became archery hunters, and many aging bowhunters who’d quit hunting with a vertical bow started buying archery licenses and hunting again.
Opponents to crossbow use keep singing the same old song that they require no skill and minimal practice. Having spent 40 years hunting with a vertical bow, I and many others had the same misconception when compound bows were introduced. Back then there was sizable support to make any compound bow illegal for hunting big game in NY. Same happened with the technological advances in muzzleloader hunting. Having hunted with crossbows, I can safely say they don’t “shoot like a gun,” and require practice to shoot accurately. Also, their effective hunting range is less than that of my Hoyt Razortec vertical compound bow, or about 30 yards. They are nothing more than a short-range primitive bow, albeit horizontal. What they do offer is the elimination of the stress required to draw and maintain a full draw of a vertical bow. Forget all the bells and whistles such as sights, safety, triggers, etc. since just about every vertical compound bow has the same things on them.
The NYS legislation requires acceptable crossbows to use 14-inch and longer arrows and include a working safety. The effective date is October 2011 and the bill requires all future hunter education classes to include crossbow instruction. The bill has a two-year sunset clause which is also included in the effective date.  After which the legislature would have to renew the bill. Let’s hope they get it right the next time.

Remembering “Little Big Man”
When Nick D’Agostino passed away last week at the age of 101, his century-long legacy of dedication to promoting fishing and conservation will survive for generations. Trout Magazine had an article that only two people were original, founding members of Trout Unlimited, and Nick was one of them.  Last year was TU’s 50th anniversary. In addition to TU, Nick was also actively involved in Boy Scouts of America, and spent countless days patiently teaching youths the joy and values gained from fishing. Nick was not a large man physically, but he was a giant in his dedication and drive to share his vast knowledge and life experiences with the others. The Chenango County Chapter of TU is planning a special event at Rogers Center in memory of Nick. Details will be released later.