posted on May 20, 2010 11:44
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.
I had been a Ford man, but got a deal on a new Chevy. The first thousand miles I put on the odometer I kept asking myself, why did you take those beatings all those years. The new bowtie rode just like a car, but still served well as a pickup.
That was about the time I was hitting the road with Horton’s Market Expansion Program -- the program Mark Bower (a principle of company at the time) and I had put together. At that time when I pulled up and started unloading crossbows and targets, the under-the-breath grumbling usually started going on around me. Funny, on the fourth Chevy Silverado, I don’t know how many hundreds of thousands of road miles (I know I put 225,000 miles on the ’90 Chevy with the bulk being crossbow trips), and hundreds of ‘Crossbows-101’ later, I can’t remember ever leaving a presentation where the majority of those in attendance hadn’t done a 180 degree turn on their feelings about what a crossbow was and how it performed.
I do remember at one function in New York where we did a shoot with members of the umbrella group representing sportsmen – a hands on crossbow shoot and then we went inside where I debated the president of the NY bowhunter group – when my black truck got keyed. That person didn’t change their mind on what a crossbow was or wasn’t. I guess the person wasn’t quite up to reflecting their feelings to my face, so my truck took the hit. Then there was the time at the Deer and Turkey Expo at Lansing, MI, back in the early 1990s when the president of the Michigan bowhunter group told me, I’d be long dead and buried before Michigan even had a “handicapped season.” I’m thinking I outlived hat prediction.
All those trucks and thousands of miles later added to the capacity of the whitetail deer to multiply its numbers, there isn’t much grumbling any longer when someone calls a crossbow archery equipment. Sure there’s a few of the big whitetail states that still do not permit crossbow use throughout the archery season for anyone choosing to use it, but those days are numbered, and even those “sky is falling, it’s a gun not a bow” opponents would admit that -- as long as they aren’t quoted.
A part of the MEP effort Bower and I drafted was inviting outdoor communicators, state agency decision makers and state legislators to Horton’s Camp Opportunity for three or four days of hunting with a crossbow. I had been an active fulltime outdoor communicator when Horton approached me to develop the MEP educational crossbow activity and knew most of the community. Bill Hilts, Sr., Niagara County, NY, was an old friend and fellow scribe and, so too was his son Bill, Jr. Both were among the first group invited to come to Ohio and hunt at Camp Opportunity. Both accepted because I invited them, but both thought the crossbow had no place being mentioned in the same sentence with a bow and arrow set.
Like most who spent time at Camp Opportunity with the instructions: “Here got hunt with it for three days and then make up your own mind what it is and where it belongs as a hunting implement,” Hilts Sr. and Hilts Jr. both changed their minds about crossbows. Sr. went back to New York State on a mission and formed the first state affiliate to the American Crossbow Federation – the New York State Crossbow Hunters Association. His efforts in the Empire State has seen every major sportsmen’s group, conservation organization and state agencies involved with both endorse the crossbows a viable hunting tools.
Unfortunately, Hilts lives in a state where the tail wags the dog and hunting issues aren’t of major interest to New York City state legislators. With the largest grass roots support of any state, New York remains without recognizable crossbow hunting season. And the irony there is the state bowhunter group – calling itself a sportsmen/conservation organization sees that as their one true major victory in the state. Go figure. I’ve told Hilts that New York State will have a crossbow season someday and it will be called the Hilts/Snyder Memorial Crossbow Season since it will be long after we are gone. Maybe the president of the Michigan bowhunter group confused his state with New York way back in the early 90's.
I know I seem to get confused more often these days. I think I’m growing more senile every day, but I can’t remember.