Thursday, November 09, 2006
Crossbow hunting winning converts
Bill Cochran
Recent columns
It was just minutes until quitting time, when Penn Riggs would have to climb out of his treestand and call it a day. That’s when things started happening fast.
“I heard branches crackling in the cutover behind me,” Riggs said. Then 7-foot tall reeds begin rustling 10 feet from his perch overlooking a food plot that he had planted.
It was a buck, its head down for dinner. Riggs took aim with his crossbow.
The food plot was a project that Riggs had worked on through the summer, but when crossbow season opened, the wind was always wrong to hunt it.
Finally the back side of a front came roaring out of the west/southwest, then the wind laid just before dark. That’s when the deer appeared and Riggs sent a Spitfire broadhead through both lungs.
The buck weighed about 150 pounds, had an 8-point rack and — get this -- a stomach full of grapes.
It was the third deer of the crossbow season for Riggs, who is a project development team leader for the U.S. Coast Guard. Earlier he killed a 6-point buck, a doe and a 21-pound turkey gobbler.
“I have taken more game with the crossbow this year than I did with a compound in 28 years total,” said Riggs, who lives in Norfolk and hunts the southeastern section of the state. “In the past, my bowhunts were glorified scouting trips for gun hunting. Now I am hunting seriously with the crossbow.”
He isn’t the only one lauding crossbow hunting. While it is too early for a final count, an early look reveals that crossbow licenses are up this year from last year’s initial season, even through their price jumped $12.50 to $18.
Some hunters who watched from the sidelines or participated sparingly last year, took the plunge this time. While the movement included converts from the ranks of traditional bowhunters, that doesn’t account for all the growth. Bow license sales also have been healthy.
“I would expect crossbow deer hunting to increase a little each year for the next 2- to-5 years and then plateau at some relatively low level--at the most 5 to 10 percent of the total deer kill--maybe equal to traditional bows,” said Matt Knox, deer biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Confidence is a key factor in winning new crossbow converts, Riggs believes.
“I’m thinking that the word about their accuracy and ease of use is spreading,” he said. “Lots of folks, like me, don’t have time to practice a great deal and work on form and function, or spend the time necessary to keep their bows in tune. A crossbow builds confidence very quickly; it’s very accurate and doesn’t require much tuning.”
The payoff has been about a 30-percent increase in the crossbow deer kill so far this year. Last year’s reported kill was 5,476 deer.
“But kept in context, it will still only constitute 3-to 4-percent of the total deer harvest,” Knox said.
Crossbows aren’t without demands.
“You still have to hunt within the limitations of the crossbow and practice to become proficient,” Riggs said, adding that scouting, also, is important. He believes the skills he gained through years of bowhunting have helped him become more proficient with a crossbow.
“A lot of crossbow users that I see never bowhunted before,” he said. “Some of these guys don’t know much about deer or habitats, and it will be interesting to see how many of them give it up because they are not seeing deer.”
If the crossbow has a major drawback, it is its bulkiness, Riggs said. “I am hearing complaints about how heavy they are, and awkward, in the woods. But I see myself dragging the heavy beast in the woods for a long time to come.”
