Hunters split on plan to lift ban on crossbows

AUGUSTA – A proposal to lift a ban on hunting with crossbows in Maine has split hunters between those who welcome the increased opportunity and those who fear that a too-liberal atmosphere could lead to “No Trespassing” signs.

Tuesday, the Joint Standing Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife dedicated several hours to public testimony on LD 67, sponsored by Rep. Stan Moody, D-Manchester, who characterized the ban as based on “voodoo science that threatens to divide [Maine’s] hunting community.”

Maine, along with Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island, allows crossbows as hunting weapons only for those whose physical disabilities restrict their ability to use other weapons.

Moody believes that opening up some portion of Maine’s 14 weeks of bowhunting to crossbows could raise as much as $500,000 in new revenue for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, while offering the opportunity to bowhunt to teenagers and elderly hunters who lack the strength to handle other bows.

“Why would we object to adding a new group of hunters to the sport?” Moody asked.

The response came from the Maine Bowhunters Association, which has led the opposition to the use of crossbows during archery hunting season. Spokesman Mike Rovella testified Tuesday that legal crossbow hunting in Maine would draw hunters from throughout the region, increasing the number of animals killed by so much that other hunters would lose opportunity.

“More hunters mean more harvest … it doesn’t take the resources of Einstein to figure it out,” he said.

Bowhunting requires a great deal of skill that can only be developed over time, while crossbows can be used by almost anyone, with “little or no practice,” and can even be carried into the woods cocked and loaded, Rovella said.

“We will not just sit back and watch archery season become a mockery,” he said.

Fear about crossbows’ silence and power, as well as the inexperience of the hunters using them, could lead landowners to close off their property to other bowhunters, he predicted.

Peter Lawrence, speaking for the Small Woodlot Owners Association, agreed. “Rightly or wrongly, many woodlot owners would see a person with a crossbow as carrying a medieval weapon and up to no good,” he said.

Bowhunters have special hunting rights in Maine, because they have been seen as the best means of controlling nuisance animals such as deer and turkeys – particularly in residential areas where guns cannot be used.

Moody believes that crossbows would only add to that effort, as bowhunters have been unable to meet deer removal goals, despite the 14-week season and unlimited kill in some areas.

George Smith, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, agreed. “We’re not even shooting a fraction of the deer that could be harvested in these expanded zones,” he said.

Opposition to legalizing crossbows is no more than a “small but vocal” group of bowhunters “pulling the ladder up behind them,” Moody said.

“The archery community has had it pretty much their way for a long time and pretty much to themselves,” Moody said, arguing that crossbows and other types of modern hunting bows are comparable in terms of distance and velocity.

Rovella argued that crossbows have little in common with his weapon of choice. With laser and light gathering sights, the security of a shoulder mount and a safety and trigger system – all of which are absent from vertical bows – crossbows are more comparable to rifles than other bows, he said, adding that his group would not oppose the use of crossbows during rifle season as now is the case in New Hampshire.

Five states – Ohio, Arkansas, Wyoming, Georgia and Alabama – allow crossbows to be used concurrently with vertical bows.

Ottie Snyder, executive director of the American Crossbow Federation, testified that no state has ever reduced its hunting season or bag limit for other types of hunting as a result of legalizing crossbows.

Pat Ruble, a retired biologist from Ohio, the state that has allowed crossbow hunting the longest, testified that he has not seen any negative consequences, either in terms of hunting opportunities or public safety issues.

Opponents raised concerns that those who cannot own firearms – such as convicted felons and spousal abusers – would be among the first to buy crossbows for hunting and might also use them for illegal purposes.

Peter Lamarre of West Bath, chief deputy for the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department, testified that arrows can penetrate a bulletproof vest and that he worries that legalizing crossbows for hunting could put law enforcement officers at risk.

Others testified that the silence of crossbows would make them the preferred weapon for illegal hunting, calling them “a poacher’s dream.” However, officials with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which took no formal position on the bill, stated that they do not predict an increase in poaching, and Ruble testified that no such increase has been observed in Ohio.

Several older hunters who hope to try the new sport were surprised by the opposition Tuesday. “If each hunter can kill a single deer, why should it matter how it is killed?” they asked.

“It’s just a bow turned on its side,” said Bill Smith of Mount Vernon, one of two hunters who asked Moody to introduce the bill. “There’s nothing inherently evil about this thing called the crossbow.”