MOUNT VERNON – A Roman Catholic edict issued during the Middle Ages that labeled crossbows as “deadly and God-detested” and banned their use nourished scorn for the weapons that lasted through the centuries. Even today, bow-and-arrow purists cast a wary eye toward weapons long associated with lances, maces, knights and castles.
But times are changing for the crossbow.
In Maine, a bill allowing its use during deer firearms season worked its way through the legislative process and will likely be signed into law by Gov. John Baldacci.
Neighboring New Hampshire already has a similar law, as do a growing number of other states.
“People are becoming educated about it. I call it crossbow mania,”‘ said Daniel James Hendricks of the American Crossbow Federation in Glenwood, Minn.
While still less popular than traditional bows and arrows, many hunters like Bill Smith, 60, of Mount Vernon, believe the crossbow’s acceptance as a hunting weapon is long, long overdue.
“It’s a silly fool who thinks killing an animal with one tool is different than killing him with another,” said Smith, a crossbow owner whose home’s wood-paneled walls are adorned with trophies of caribou, elk and a buffalo.
Giving an impromptu demonstration, Smith bends over and, using a special sling, lets his fingers guide the string of his camouflage-colored crossbow to about 180 pounds pressure before a click signals it’s cocked. Then he loads a small arrow called a “bolt.”
A guest holds the crossbow’s stock to his shoulder, aims through a scope and releases the safety. With a pull of the trigger and a slight kick, the bolt darts away at 300 feet per second, three times faster than an arrow shot from a more traditional compound bow.
The relative ease of handling a 7- or 8-pound crossbow adds to its growing popularity, said Smith. Longtime bow hunters who are getting older find it much easier to hold and aim, without straining to keep pressure on the string.
The same goes for disabled people, who are already allowed to use crossbows in Maine and at least 20 other states.
For younger hunters, many are “absolutely fascinated” with the crossbow and its medieval ties, Hendricks said. They were effective as a military weapon capable of piercing a knights’ armor, and the Second Lateran Council convened by Pope Innocent II in 1139 banned their use, declaring the “murderous art” to be “hateful to God.”
The taboo carried over into modern times. In American colonial days into the 19th Century, crossbows were associated with European nobility and spurned, said Ottie Snyder, a cofounder of the American Crossbow Federation. In Maine, crossbows were banned for hunting in 1856, but have remained legal to own.
Gradually, the taboo wore down as more deer became available and state wildlife departments began looking for new revenue sources. Enthusiasts finally sought to gain a foothold in Maine this year, and state Rep. Stan Moody introduced his bill to legalize their use for hunting to the Legislature.
Moody, D-Manchester, first submitted a broadly worded bill that would allow the use of crossbows to hunt any wild animal or wild bird, even during archery season.
“We came out with all of our guns blazing on this,” Moody said, mixing his metaphors. But he soon crossed swords with those he labels as “purists” – bow hunters.
Archers saw potential competition during their special season, said Mike Rovella of the Maine Bowhunters Association. Moody’s bill, if passed in its original form, would have more than tripled the ranks of archers to more than 40,000 during bow season, compromising landowner relations with hunters and resulting in heavy deer kills, Rovella warned.
Rovella sees the crossbow as a different weapon anyway.
“It’s really not a bow. It is shot from the shoulder with a trigger and with a laser sight. And it can be carried cocked,” said Rovella. He also derides the weapon as “a poacher’s dream” because it isn’t loud like a gun.
But Moody, a registered Maine guide who has a bowhunting license, contends that the much-maligned crossbow is ballistically the same weapon as a compound bow. The main difference, he said, is “it is more accurate.”
And Max Perkins, a hunting friend of Smith’s from the rural central Maine town of Mount Vernon, scoffs at the charge a crossbow makes poaching easier. “A crossbow is noisy,” he insisted.
Perkins also noted that a crossbow can’t be misused in ways a firearm can, saying dryly, “It’s not the type of tool you’d hold up a Seven-Eleven with.”
Also drawing a bead on the crossbow were groups representing farmers, hunting guides and a wildlife organization.
Before Moody’s bill got out of committee, it was amended twice and now is worded to put Maine on a par with more than a dozen other states, which allow the crossbow to be used during firearms season.
In northern New England, New Hampshire and Vermont allow crossbows during deer firearms season, and in Vermont they can be used by disabled people during archery season.
According to the American Crossbow Federation, 17 states allow crossbows during firearms season, while eight allow them during their archery seasons. Disabled people are allowed to use crossbows under certain ground rules in 22 states, also including Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island in New England.
But Hendricks said several more states are considering bills to allow crossbows during archery season, putting manufacturers “in a panic mode” as they try to keep up with demand.
In Maine, Rovella said traditional bowhunters can live with Moody’s scaled-back bill. It requires a person to hold a valid big game license to be eligible for a crossbow hunting license. Crossbows could be used to hunt only bear and deer during firearms season.
It bars the use of pistol-type crossbows or those with a draw weight of more than 200 pounds. It also requires archery-hunting education to get a crossbow license.
Moody, who handed out small crossbow pins during his lobbying effort, called the bill’s success “a major accomplishment” that will lead to further inroads for enthusiasts.
But he acknowledges more work needs to be done on public education.
“Rightly or wrongly, many woodlot owners would see a person with a crossbow as carrying a medieval weapon and up to no good,” said Peter Lawrence the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine, which opposed the bill.
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On the Net:
American Crossbow Federation: http://www.horizontalbowhunter.com/
National Bowhunter Education Federation: http://www.nbef.org/
AP-ES-05-13-05 1556EDT
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