Why Do Compound Bow Hunters Hate Crossbows?

I got this month's Virginia Game & Fish today. I was excited to see that they dedicated an entire section this month to crossbows. It contains tons of great information for both the beginner and the seasoned x-bow user. I especially appreciated the article "Triggering Safety" by Daniel James Hendricks. It contains a plethora of safety tips and answered a few questions I had, such as "Do I cock the bow in the stand or on the ground and then pull up the cocked bow?" (It's the second one.)

What they do not address is how much some bow hunters absolutely hate crossbow users. Here are some direct quotes from a few popular archery forums:

"I dont think that crossbows should be used by any other then those not physically able to draw a compound bow."

"I hate crossbows from the pit of my soul."

"The X-bow is the devils tool......"

"its pretty much cheating and take away all the excitement in the hunt"

"I dont hate them, I just hate how people think they should be in the same season as a vertical bow."

You get the point.

Speaking of points....

To those who hate the crossbow:

Why?

Crossbows are not a superior weapon to the modern compound. They are not more powerful, nor do they have a longer range. They do have the advantage of having a much smaller learning curve. It takes less practice to master them, but it does take practice. This ease of use comes at the price of being louder and much slower to reload. Both can be amazingly accurate. Side by side, and in my opinion, a compound bow is a better hunting weapon. So, x-bow users do not have an advantage over compound bow users.

Is it because you are afraid that there will be more hunters in the woods during "your" bow season? While I could not find any hard data, there probably are more people participating in bow season now that crossbows are legal. How is that a bad thing? Our sport is slowly dieing, fewer and fewer people hunt each year. The more ways we can get people involved the better. To not want to share "your" bow season is simply selfish.

One of my favorite things

Do you feel that it is unfair that you spend hundreds of hours practicing, only to have someone like me shoot as well as you after only a few practice sessions? That would suck, but it is not the crossbows fault that you chose the harder-to-master weapon. I choose to use a crossbow for two reasons. 1) I don't have the time to master the compound bow. I wish I did! Which leads to: 2) I don't want to wound a deer. Choosing a x-bow is the most responsible thing to do if you are not an expert with the compound.

Come on! We are all in this game together. We have plenty of people attacking our sport. Why do we have to squabble over something as petty as the form of our bow?
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