Air Arms Owners Club

So what do people feel about the use of bows and crossbows for hunting? Obviously illegal in the UK yet it's legal to use a catapult I think?
I've seen video of turkeys being bowshot and that seems fairly humane, I do feel slightly uncomfortable with some of the larger game being shot though.
I can understand the ethics of allowing bowhunting as a traditional method for native tribes, something that has happened for millennia, but I do feel a bit awkward about the rise of bowhunting for large game for what I see as purely sport or recreational purposes. The fieldcraft needed is obviously way above that needed by a shooter with a high powered rifle but somehow I still feel uneasy.
How do you feel?

I have watched vids on youtube and its not for me.
I would like too hear what others think about it though.

I dont have a problem with it.

If its been used by certain tribes for millenia , then why not the likes of Zingpow? I'm not sure where/why/how you can discriminate

Another absolute joke of a law IMO, made by folk who are completely removed from normality .

I dont mind others using them. it sparks no interest for myself thats my opinion on it.

I'd love a go!

Not saying I'd ever achieve the amount of bottle required to loose a broadhead towards a live target but in essence it is the pinnacle of hunting IMO

You surely can't hold any doubt towards the hardware?

Not for me at all,,, in regards to hunting any animal using a crossbow... to many variables and things to go wrong the animal could be lamed and too slow to reload a second arrow.

Crossbows, with any hunting power are very difficult and very slow to load, so if the user is unskilled or the wind takes the arrow you could lame the animal with not enough time to reload and the wounded suffering animal is long gone!... in pain.

As I said, people need too understand how slow it is too load a powerful hunting Crossbow... if you miss and lame... no! time for a second humane shot...

thing is with a lot of it it`s all heart/lung shots which they, along with powder burner hunters regard as clean kills, i`ll stick to brainbox shots with the instant switch off thank you but as it is legal in the countries where it happens then leave them to it, I have no real right to try and change things without possibly leading to more controls over what I do

Having seen 2 Mallards swimming around with crossbow bolts through their necks on my travels around the canal system, I think it is deplorable, and whoever did it wants punishing, preferably in a like manner.

neil wrote:thing is with a lot of it it`s all heart/lung shots which they, along with powder burner hunters regard as clean kills, i`ll stick to brainbox shots with the instant switch off thank you but as it is legal in the countries where it happens then leave them to it, I have no real right to try and change things without possibly leading to more controls over what I do

Heart and lung shots are the accepted practice for a number of reasons Neil. First and foremost is because the heart and lung area present the largest effective target area. Remember also that the energies generated by a centrefire rifle cartridge particularly those calibres which are used for the taking of Deer are hundreds of times greater than those generated by an airgun. Brainbox shots are the accepted practice for shooting bunnies with a sub 12ft lb air rifle granted but this is not the case when shooting Deer and other large game. Firearms are very capable of taking large game with heart and lung shots. I have never had a wounded animal in all the years of Deer stalking with a correctly placed heart lung shot Neil. i've had a couple injured with a poor shot on my behalf but both were quickly dispatched with a follow up shot. Sometimes with a heart shot a deer may run for quite a way. But they are in fact dead as a dead thing just the same as a buuny sometimes kicks after being shot.

Someone posted a video of a deer where a head shot went wrong. It was horrific! The guy who caught it on camera quickly ended its misery. Its whole lower jaw was missing. I remember the guy saying that that is why he never opts for head shots as deer move there heads frequently.

I wish I had the link to it.