A good strong knife may cut a stray arrow out of a tree, trim the thread on the serving in the field, skin or gralloch (opening the stomach cavity using ones fingers to prevent puncture to the intestines) the quarry. Folding knives have their own advantage. Their use is more discreet, sparing on the machismo. Worn in a secure belt-pouch, they are generally perceived as much safer than their rigid cousins when use aboard floating craft, in vehicles on rough terrain or on horseback. However, they can also have mechanisms which can fail, blades which close on fingers, and may be too slow to deploy when needed urgently. In such circumstance, it pays to get the best.

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The 2010 ATA show (the seventeenth consecutive for me) was another grand ol’ family reunion.This annual pilgrimage presents a much anticipated opportunity for Ike and me to get together with good friends that have become an important part of our lives over the years, as well as meeting many new folks that will be playing a primary role in the years to come.  But the most exciting part of the expedition is seeing all of the new products that are being introduced in 2010 by the proud manufacturers of the archery industry.And 2010 definitely will be the best ever for the exploding numbers of North American crossbow hunters.

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Crossbow trivia question for all ACF members and crossbow enthusiasts:

Your crossbow shoots a 2219-XX75 arrow tipped with a 125 gr. Spitfire broad head at approximately 310 fps. You're sighted-in for a 20 yd. zero. You have a steady wind from left to right at 30 mph with gusts exceeding 50 mph. Your target is at 25 yds. o you hold:
     a) 6 inches left of target
     b) 12 inches left of target
     c) 18 inches left of target
     d) other

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For three years running and for reasons you could care less about, I once again find myself suffering from a severe case of winter blues. It is not terminal however, and by the time you read this spring will be making me feel much better.

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DEC wildlife managers report that the department plans to have Cornell University’s Human Dimension Research Unit conduct another survey of Empire State hunters, concerning the management of whitetail deer. Primary goal of the survey is to assess hunter preferences for potential strategies that may provide crossbow hunting opportunity, alter buck harvest management and modify deer hunting season structures, say officials.

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A whole lot of energy is expended in the consideration of which of the hundreds of broadhead choices has the best flight consistency, shortest blood trail, or toughest construction, but in my experience very little thought goes into the delivery package that puts that broadhead where it needs to go.  By “delivery package” I mean the arrow itself.

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I think it is a sign of old age remembering stuff. I’m not sure because I have trouble remembering stuff. But I remember my 1990 Chevy pickup truck well.

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How many of us have true friends? People that you know, no matter what the case, will always be there for you. It is a matter of trust only this type of friendship can provide. In my case, it is two brothers, Scott and Gary Kolstad and their better halves, Candie and Becky.  Every year the six of us go on our annual anniversary weekend, since we all celebrate our annual wedding dates in October.  That was the case in March of 1999. Of course, we all had a great weekend of food and drink and companionship only close friends can enjoy. Little did we know that Scott and Candie would receive disturbing news upon returning to their Door County home.  In November of 1996, Scott and Candie were blessed with their first child, a beautiful little girl they named Amber. To be able to share in the excitement of such an event is beyond words. Her long dark hair and beautiful features, along with a personality that matched, made this little girl a joy to be around. Little did we know life’s challenges would rest solely on little Amber and her family.

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There is a certain pride in a job well done in any sport, and so I would like to express my pride and appreciation to the Crossbow Archers who came to the First ACF State Crossbow Championship ever held in the United States. Sanctioned by the American Crossbow Federation, Fort Polk Louisiana was the starting point for future events, with the world class Shooting Complex being able to host any shooting sport event you can imagine.

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In late September of 2008, my good friend, John Dale from Natchez, invited me to participate in the first private lands alligator hunt ever held in Mississippi. Although I had only one night to hunt, I eagerly accepted the invitation. The Dale camp on Brierfield would be our hunt headquarters. The club caretaker, Scott Skipper, would be operating the boat; I would be manning the crossbow; John would be in charge of the video camera.

The weather turned foggy and cool - not the best situation for hunting alligators at night. The big lizards simply would not cooperate! Every time we got within range, the gators would silently slip beneath the surface and disappear. I did manage to get one arrow into a big alligator, but he managed to pull off after a brief fight in the thick brush and aquatic vegetation. I had to leave the next day, but Scott was able to fill all the club tags during daylight hours with his rifle over the next few days while the big ones were sunning along the shore.

Fast forward to Friday, September 18, 2009, this would be my second attempt at getting an alligator on Davis Island with a crossbow. This year I would be shooting my new Horton Vision 175. I arrived early in the afternoon, and Scott and I prepared our equipment for the hunt. Boat batteries had to be charged, arrows and buoys checked, and the boat launched before dark.

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My curiosity about TenPoint’s new Defender CLS immediately went off the scale the moment I laid eyes on it at the 2009 SHOT Show. My first thoughts were: this looks a lot like my TenPoint Phantom CLS, minus the camo pattern on the riser and barrel. When I read the specs on this new crossbow, I knew I had to have one. My test sample arrived at home base not to long after I had finished unpacking my bags after returning home from the SHOT Show. I eagerly opened the box, and began to assemble the crossbow. It was still early enough in the day to take it out for a test run. I quickly laid down a layer of string wax and rail lube, grabbed my chronograph and headed outside to the test range.

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Greetings Dan! - Hope this note finds you and Karen doing well. Our elk season began September 1st  and is now over. I called in a spike for Judy on the 4th and as luck would have it, her arrow clipped a small branch and she shot under him. 4 days later I called him back up and Tim Martell, a friend of ours managed a 20 yard shot from his Hoyt. Then on September 16th Tim called in a cow for me. I'd been practicing shooting with either hand and it paid off!

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Every year, smack dab in the middle of October, a half a dozen ACF members gather for the Fall Rendezvous in Houston, Missouri, the home of Ozark Mountain Outfitters.  Jim and Darlene Wilson and son Eric play host to our group in some of the most beautiful deer and turkey country that America has to offer.  The hunt allows the taking of a whitetail buck and doe as well as a wild turkey.  The hunt this year was a three day hunt, but in 2010 it will be expanded to five full days of exciting hunting with toasty-warm hospitality, lots of great home-cooked food and plenty of wildlife being seen by all who are sent out to guard Jim’s lush food plots.

This year I was joined by ACF members, Jackie Seale of Alabama, Harold Webster of Mississippi, Bob Jacobs of Minnesota and Randy Archer of North Dakota for four days of what turned out to be wet and colder than normal weather...

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I watched as the animal meandered through the dense brush, disappearing occasionally only to reappear closer than it was before.  Suddenly I thought that I saw sun glinting off an antler.  I raised my crossbow to my shoulder, located the deer in the scope and was delighted to discover that the fat doe I had been watching was a “Poke `em Young” buck.  It was show time!  Immediately the context of the moment changed.  The first surge of adrenaline immediately swept over my system causing tremors to ripple through my body as an increase in blood pressure made my eyes feel like they were being squeezed in a vice.  Oh how I love the very instant the decision is made to shoot!  It is the point in time that all hunters work towards and live for, the moment of truth and ultimate test.  And as the buck continued to close the gap that separated us, I prepared for my final exam.

The nearer the animal came, the more it angled directly towards my position.  Straight out in front of me was a 4-wheeler trail that would give me a clear shot out to forty yards, but as the animal angled closer, I knew that it would probably be under twenty when the it cleared the brush.  As luck would have it, the whitetail stepped onto the trail right in front of my twenty-yard marker and then started to turn away from me.  I had been focused on the spot even before the fledgling buck entered the kill zone so when it began to turn, my finger quickly applied pressure to the trigger of my bow.  As the bow’s bark shattered the quiet landscape, the arrow was launched, entered the hapless whitetail at mid-body, just short of the rib cage, exiting behind the scapula on the opposite side of the animal and buried its head deeply into the rich, black soil...

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For just about 16 years I have been “confined “to a wheel chair following an ATV accident.  Being an avid hunter and outdoorsman prior to my accident it has been very difficult for me to “settle” for the very limited access to the outdoors that I loved and still love so much.  Tim Swenson from Action manufacturing is now selling an item that redefines more than just confinement it redefines life for me.

The Action Track Chair by action manufacturing in Marshall Minnesota has come a long way in removing common obstacles from the person wanting heck needing to be outdoors.  Though not capable of going anywhere, it definitely makes most places and terrains accessible to the ambulatorily impaired individual.  From the elderly person that simply has trouble getting around the yard or garden. To the paralyzed folks that want to go to that place they used to go.  Hunting spots, fishing holes, hiking trails, beaches, swamps and just plain adventurous people have gained significant access once again!

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I first saw the Excalibur Exocet crossbow in the 1998 Cabela’s Fall Archery catalog. Thinking back over the bows I have owned,, most were recurves just like the Exocet, from one of those green fiverglass kid’s bows at age ten to the Ben Pearson Javelina 66” target bow I shot in high school archery club to the Bear Black Panther Hunter that I used to hunt everything from squirrels to deer. I just had to have an Exocet, and as easy as a phone call to Cabela’, my new toy was on its way. Having had the crossbow for the better part of a year, I needed to find somewhere and something to hunt. The answer came in the form of an ad in the back of an archery magazine “Where to Hunt” section. Forest of Antlers, located in Minocqua, Wisconsin offers hunts for whitetail deer using the crossbow. I was met at the Rhinelander, WI airport a guide named Bob. He told me the lodge was brand spanking new. The handsome building was handicap-accessible and the ground bathrooms were designed with the disabled hunter in mind. The food was top shelf and never ending. A large sitting room offered TV, books, magazines, a stereo system and a video library. After unpacking and lunch, I headed to the target range...

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Bad River Outdoors offers bow-type open sights for field or hunting crossbows, with mounts tailored to suit the crossbows made by the principal bowyers. When I was invited to test one I requested a mounting to suit my Excalibur. This is my favorite bow for shooting with the open sights with which it is already fitted, so I am use to how it performs without the now ubiquitous telescope sight.

The Tagged-Out aperture sight is a simple, robust peep, adjustable for windage and elevation and which mounts onto the rail normally used for the telescopic sight option on the Excalibur. Immediately I could see a practical advantage in this in that, were a telescopic sight to receive serious damage in the field, perhaps a far and foreign field, the aperture could be ready to replace it on the scope rail...

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This British made sight from Hawke Optics is the one Jim Kempf selected for his Scorpyd crossbow. It is a conventional multi-reticle sight with a particularly nice image quality and evidently, as you will see, robust build.

To the uninitiated, it might seem that a telescopic sight is just a telescopic sight, but actually the application for which it is intended has critical implications for the design, one size done not fit all. For a crossbow, parallax adjustment has to be within the same parameters as the normal shooting range of the bow, units of adjustment for elevation have to be realistic and the delicate innards have to be protected from vibration and done so specifically with regard to the directions from which impact will arrive – the recoil patters of a crossbow may feel like a medium bore rifle but are actually quite different...

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Starting in the Summer of 2007 the American Crossbow Federation instituted a new award to be presented on a quarterly basis to an outstanding supporter of the grassroots crossbow movement. The ACF Lion Heart Award is presented to a deserving member that has gone the extra mile in helping to promote and preserve the crossbow hunting opportunity during the course of his or her daily life.

Any ACF Member whose dues are current or is a paid Life Member may present the name of a nominee for the ACF Lion Heart Award.  The criterion is simple.  Each candidate should be nominated because of the effort that he or she is putting forth to expand the crossbow hunting opportunity.  We are not looking for the professional writers, TV personalities or other industry figures; we are instead looking for the grassroots crossbow advocate.  You folks know who they are when you see them.  They may be working with legislators or doing public speaking on a local basis.  They may be working to organize crossbow events or found organizations.  They may be posting on web sites and taking the lead in crossbow discussions and debates.  But, whatever they are doing, they are doing it to help create more opportunities to hunt with and shoot the crossbow, worldwide.

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My road to recovery, since my fall, has been a long and painful one. And, I am still not 100%. But throughout my recovery, I have set a series of GOALS to strive for. And yesterday I achieved one of my most difficult.

About a week ago, I climbed back into one of my treestands, to check it out, with the aid of my new full body harness! I have to admit that I was shaking a little. Considering that the last time I was in a treestand, I fell twenty-five feet, changing my life dramatically.

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Born in 1949 and schooled during the 50’s and 60’s, the year 2010 seemed a million miles away to me during those formative years. But now that it is here, not only does 2010 denote the passing of the first decade of this century, but for me, it marks another important milestone in my life as a hunter. This is my fiftieth year of hunting big game animals in the wild. Tacking on another four years or so for small game hunting is required to complete the report, but it was half a century ago that I shot my very first whitetail deer along the edge of a thick, willowed swamp after a long, cold day of hanging in the limbs of a small poplar tree (without a stand of any kind). I still remember it as if it occurred just yesterday. What a triumph it was for that twelve year old farm boy that was nearly frozen stiff by the time he pulled the trigger of the old Stevens 30-30 dropping his very first whitetail deer...

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The GT Flex crossbow is made by U.S. Crossbowyer TenPoint, but they label it “SixPoint” a logo type reserved for bows marketed within the lower end of their price range. Interesting as that may seem, anyone who reads my reviews will know that I recognize and applaud high quality; what is less well known is that I warn companies to take care over what they send me. If they want a good review it had better be a good product. And there, on my doorstep, I see an inexpensive bow from a company famed as the marketer of the Cadillac of crossbows. Inexpensive is a relative term, but the GT Flex is around a third of the price of some.

The box felt light. In it was a crossbow in two main parts, a recurve prod and a mainframe with stock attached, and some bits and pieces...

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Miss quick or eat well. It sounds a bit silly, but this is a question that all modern archers must consider when purchasing new equipment. It seems that every new bow on the market hypes its speed capabilities. Though the feet per second that a given bow has the ability of throwing an arrow is fun to know and even to joust about with other archers in the off season.

I submit to you that the real question is “how accurate” is this new bow I’m considering...

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I can remember like yesterday the first time I came to the end of a standing cornfield as a driver and witnessed what seemed like hundreds of pheasants take flight. Some today would trade sighting a dozen whitetail does for that experience. And obviously I remember the fall of my 11th year when I graduated to toter, and was presented with an Iver Johnson 16 Ga., single shot shotgun. But the learning process went on from there. We could hunt until 5 p.m. each day, and I was allowed to hunt alone with my beagle, so I’d jump off the school bus about 3 p.m., run in the house to change, grab the shotgun and my five shotgun shells, and dash across the street into the standing corn. If, when I needed more shells, I hadn’t added a combination of rabbits and pheasants adding up to three to the family table, I got a lecture. “Boy”—I’m sure if he were alive today at 65, I’d still be called Boy – “Those shells cost good money. Stop wasting them.”

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It was the eve of the 2009 firearms season and as was their nature the hunters in our family deer camp were bantering around the campfire.  Their normally jovial mood was slightly tempered, however, and I knew why.  The lack of deer sign had subdued their usually high expectations. 

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2009 has been a very “interesting” year for all crossbow manufacturers. “Interesting” in the Chinese sense, as in “may you live in interesting times” that is. Sure, it’s great to see the new opportunities opening and welcome all those new potential crossbow hunters into the fold, and yes, it’s great to see our sales figures soar in these uncertain economic times. That said, it’s been a madhouse here at Excalibur with new building expansion, new machinery, and lots of new crossbows to build, ship, and service. Personally, I was more than ready for the sales season to trail off and I have really welcomed the peace and relaxation that deer hunting near my home has brought to me recently.

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The New York Bowhunters and New York Muzzleloaders Association are jointly floating a proposal which would radically change the N.Y. State hunting season structure. Everyone will benefit, except for vast majority of hunters who hunt the regular firearms hunting season.

The NYB is seeking an October 1 opener in the Southern Zone for the bowhunters, and they also want to run the bow outing late into the year. The plan will essentially “gut” the regular firearms season and move the majority of the hunting days into December.

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Africa for many of us is still an unfulfilled dream that simmers in our mind overpowering our nostrils with the heavy aroma of mystery and adventure. It is my fondest hope to travel there someday before my stay on this magnificent earth is ended by that final punching of life’s daily time clock. I do not feel compelled to harvest a kaleidoscope of the unique and exotic animals that call that strange land home, but instead would rather capture their magnificence on camera. My chance may never come to visit the Dark Continent, but in the meantime, I sate my thirst for Africa through other people’s adventurers that have been captured by the movie camera and then chronicled on DVD.

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As the crossbow and crossbow hunting becomes more commonplace, we are seeing a surge of quality hunting videos appearing on the market featuring our favorite tool for procuring excellent table fare. Crossbow Compulsion, which is produced by Team Backwoods and stars Bill & Kath Troubridge from Excalibur Crossbows along with some of their many friends, is an excellent addition to your crossbow-hunting DVD collection. There are eighteen hunts with a ton of different species from all across the North American Continent. All of the hunts are entertaining and well filmed, documenting some great encounters with handsome animals, in beautiful places and along with some terribly excited hunters as well. We all participate in this sport for that one magic moment when the hunter is in the right place at the right time and suddenly it is “show time”. This production captures that “show time” moment over and over again allowing the viewer to share the adventure of our on-screen hunters. A dark room and a big screen television put you right there in the middle of it all. You can almost smell the action as you pulse speeds up and you feel your muscles tense in excitement.

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There is a new kid in town as far as crossbow scopes go and this young feller is really getting around. As a matter of fact, if you shoot a Parker, TenPoint or a Scorpyd, you have probably already been using one. The new crossbow scopes from Hawke feature a high performance optical system, designed to increase your success in the field. The wide angle image is bright and crisp, and the long eye relief eye bell design allows the scope to quickly ’come up’ to the eye. The entire range of scopes feature: Ballistic reticles compatible with the Hawke BRC software, fully multi coated optics, fast focus eye pieces and 1/2 M.O.A finger adjustable and resettable turrets. Be sure to always hit the target with Hawke's Ballistic Reticle Calculator (BRC). Simply put the crossbow power information into the BRC and it calculates the exact trajectory of your arrow. The aim points of the SR and MAP reticles are then calculated equating to precision in the field. It's simple to use and extremely accurate. Geoffrey Toye, our European Correspondent with do a in-depth review of this scope in the Winter 2010 Issue of HBM and I will comment on it from the hunter’s prespective. In the mean time they have a great website at http://hawkeoptics.com

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New for 2009 Parker Crossbows offers value and performance in the New “Spartan” Crossbow.

As many hunters get introduced to the joy of hunting with a crossbow, a lot of new enthusiasts want enough crossbow to get the job done with out having to skip a meal or two to pay for it. The designers at Parker Crossbows have introduced the New for 2009 Spartan crossbow. It isn’t Spartan in its features or performance in any way; rather it’s ready for battle in the woods like the “Spartans” of historic lore.

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New for 2009 RED HOT™ Introduces the HOT SHOT crossbow accessory Kit.

All crossbow enthusiasts are seeking more performance, more consistency and better accuracy from their equipment. This is especially true as the modern hunting crossbow continues to evolve and improve. The designers at Parker Crossbows have introduced the first complete accessory kit that will virtually turn the average crossbow into a sniper’s dream and a big buck’s nightmare.

The RED HOT™ brand of High Velocity Crossbow accessories have all been compiled into one ultimate performance kit called the “HOT SHOT” kit. Appropriately named, the Hot Shot kit is all about performance and accuracy shooting at extended distances and from High performance crossbows.

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Suffield, OH. TenPoint Crossbow Technologies®, a leader in the production of technologically advanced, high-performance crossbows known for balance and precision shooting, introduces the NEW and very affordable Titan HLX, a faster, enhanced performance version of its longstanding TenPoint Series workhorse.

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Bad River Outdoors is the first company that I am aware of to jump on the bandwagon, bringing crossbow hunters fine fixed, fiber optic peep-sights for their crossbows. These sights, appropriately names “Tagged Out”, are not only extremely tough, durable and serviceable, but they also have a built-in “Quick Range” rangefinder making it the most unique and practical crossbow sight on the market. The sight is designed for crossbows with speeds of 320 to 360 feet/second.

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This past year has been a banner year for the expansion of the crossbow hunting seasons. The first state to add the crossbow to their bowhunting season was North Carolina. For some unexplainable reason, the southern states have marched at the very front of the movement to include crossbows into the archery seasons. Wyoming has always (since the very first day of its archery season) considered the crossbow to be just another piece of archery equipment. The South answered back in 1973 when the second state to include the crossbow in its archery season was Arkansas. In 1976, Ohio was the next state to jump on the “bandwagon of common sense” making the crossbow just one more choice for its bowhunters.

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One cold Winter’s afternoon a few years ago, I was over at Bow-Plus, the pro-shop that imports crossbows to Britain for my reviews, talking over a coffee with owner Dave Horder about crossbow that might be interesting to review, and he told me about the reverse-draw concept bow mad by Jim Kempf, whom he had met at one of the international shows. Essentially, the reverse-draw concept involved mounting the prod of what was a compound crossbow with the string on the target side of the riser, implying that the string was, as it were, pushed towards the riser instead of pulled away from it as one does when drawing a conventional bow. Dave reported that, on the prototype, the standard of engineering was high, the design radical and the performance seemed good. He also advised that Jim Kempf was a very pleasant man and I should get in touch with him.

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If you are a subscriber to the Horizontal Bowhunter Magazine, and even if you are not, we invite you to join us on one or more of our upcoming hunts. We travel to some unique and terrific locals that are teeming with wild game and natural beauty. Our host outfitters are some of the very best that our industry has to offer and the food and accommodations are always great.

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The old hunter quietly sat in his makeshift ground blind; his trusty old recurve laid gingerly across his lap.  As he watched over the trail crossing the creek bed as it led from the big woods to the adjacent farmers’ field he hoped tonight would be his lucky night because the first of three long firearms seasons started tomorrow.  He could be off the ground if earlier this fall he had not procrastinated and fixed the wooden platform in the tree behind him.  Instead, he had planned to buy a metal ladder stand before the two-week bow season had begun.  Unfortunately the firearm hunters had snatched up the few stands the stores in his area carried.  The longer his vigil went, the more his thoughts wandered.

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It’s been less than one year since the Game Commission legalized crossbows here in Pennsylvania. Since that time the Pennsylvania Crossbow Federation has been rallying and leading an unstoppable movement throughout the commonwealth. For the first time crossbow hunters in Pennsylvania have a united voice to represent them at the state capitol. Since its inception the Pennsylvania Crossbow Federation has sent delegates to every Board of Commissioners meeting to testify on behalf of the grass roots crossbow hunters in the state.

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    I’ve killed a fair amount of pheasants and quail in my day, having grown up in Kansas. The memories of those hunts are forever burned into my mind. The birds are really the small part of what I remember. I lost a good hunting buddy recently, and he is a big part of all those memories. He is also a factor in what I now do for a living and who I am.

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Oh Man, what a good article and very thought provoking to say the least!  My compliments to Mr. Boeh for his interesting take on the subject.  I have never been real far to the left in the pew, tending to lean more to the right.  Now, I'm kind of in the middle and its getting a little crowded, but there's plenty of room. Stay well, Doug Gray – CO

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 Once again, the State legislature chose to shelve the crossbow bills for another year.  This time, however, it was primarily because of the upheaval in the State senate. The resulting rule and procedure changes that have evolved from that struggle for control, should actually improve the chances of our crossbow bills, by making the process more transparent and extending greater influence to the individual senators.

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Daniel - My name is Aaron Ott and I stumbled across your name and email address while searching for information on the Scorpyd crossbow.  I am wondering if you have any further information regarding the Scorpyd crossbow.  I am very interested in this crossbow, but it is so new that I cannot find much information about it.

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In the still morning, just as the first shafts of sunlight began to filter through the heavy canopy of the thick forest, I sensed a sneeze coming on.  I tried to fight it, and then muffle it, but still the release of the building pressure shattered the silence around my treestand.  The explosive sound that was created was a cross between a sharp snort and a burst of the raspberries.

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Dear HBM – It is Don Lindh, touching base with you again.  I read this article supporting crossbows in the NRA’s American Hunter Magazine.  I was glad the NRA printed it and was pleased with their supportive response.  The guy that sent in the letter is so far off base I thought you might like to see the NRA’s response.

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 Hi Daniel - It occurs to me that the ACF has reached a crossroads, which in fact was the motivation for my recent editorial.  The message I was trying to convey may have gotten lost in my attempt to be diplomatic.  Which way are we going to go, I wonder.  Is the focus on money or mission?  Crossbow manufacturers are motivated by profit, as any commercial entity should be.

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Back when we were still communicating with wet blankets over a wood fire at the tops of hills, I had a journalism professor that said, writers block is akin to a surgeon having cutting block. If you are trained to write, you simply write. Hell, that makes this column, when I have no idea of what I’m about to write about, a piece of cake, or maybe I’ll just do surgery on myself.

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 Greetings Daniel – It’s been a while since my last e-mail, but I just returned from my first ever black bear hunt in Canada and what a blast it was!  I started working on this trip after meeting Jeff and Annette Smith of Kutawagan Outfitters at the Richmond, Virginia hunting show last August.

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 The “dark ages” of crossbow hunting, starting in the latter half of the nineteenth century, lasted around a hundred years.  The final straw that ended their limited use for small game hunting in Europe was the advent of cheap rimfire rifles. 

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About 10 years ago, Paul injured his left arm during S.W.A.T. training classes. Paul could pull his vertical bow back, but doing so resulted in a weeks of pain. He continued to hunt with a vertical bow in NJ, but because of his inability to practice, his shots were limited to 20-yards or less and his confidence lagged. He applied for a New Jersey Handicap permit, but was denied, so turned to PA for a crossbow permit under their more liberal requirements for a handicap. He still wanted to hunt in New Jersey with a crossbow, however.

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Dear HBM - Second night of bow season here in Wisconsin, I got two shots off with my TenPoint crossbow. Six bucks and two does came out into the hayfield anywhere from ten to thirty yards away.

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Dear HBM - Thank you so much for including my picture in the Winter 2007 edition. You've made this crossbow hunter very happy.

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As hunters who pay hunting license fees and game managers whose programs come from those licenses, we are blessed by the ability of the whitetail deer to adjust to the continued encroachment on its habitat by man and still multiply. If it I were not for the far sighted sportsmen who preceded us and insisted upon scientific management practices, most modern deer hunting today would be very costly and conducted on preserves, behind high-fences.

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Since the inception of the American Crossbow Federation’s Individual Membership program in 2001, one question regarding ACF benefits has overshadowed all of the rest combined – “When are we going to have a crossbow record book?” We are pleased to announce that work has finally begun to establish the ACF BIG GAME REGISTER, which will document and record the harvest of big game animals with the crossbow.

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