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[buckeye dan]

Crossbows to be restricted by commissioners vote
Sunday, July 12, 2009
By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Six months after legalizing the general use of crossbows in Pennsylvania, and two months before the first deer season when they could be used, the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners has placed new restrictions on use of crossbows for the upcoming fall hunting seasons.

By a vote of 4-3 the board gave preliminary approval to regulatory changes that would limit use of the sporting arm, if approved at a later meeting and published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.

Under the proposal given preliminary approval Thursday, any hunter holding an archery license could use a crossbow during the first two weeks of the statewide early archery deer season (Oct. 3-16), but not throughout the entire archery season. Disabled hunters with a crossbow permit could use the horizontal bow through the early archery season and late archery season. In the Wildlife Management Units surrounding Pittsburgh (2B) and Philadelphia (5C and 5D), crossbows would continue to be legal throughout all deer seasons, including the early and late archery seasons. Only hunters with a disabled person permit to use a crossbow could use it during the two-day archery bear season. Crossbows could be used by any hunter with a muzzleloader license in both the October antlerless muzzleloader season (Oct. 17-24) and the late flintlock muzzleloader season (Dec. 26-Jan. 9).

Changes in Game Commission board members, the lobbying of some sportsmen's groups and an internal debate over the impact of an additional sporting arm on the archery harvest and overall white-tail population, resulted in wild flip-flops in the evolving regulations this year. With one vacant seat remaining, the momentum favors retaining the crossbow's legal status but monitoring its impact on archery seasons.

Voting in favor of the proposal to restrict the season were commissioners Ron Weaner (who proposed the restriction), Tom Boop, David Schreffler and Jay Delaney. Voting against: commission president Greg Isabella and newly sworn-in members David Putnam and Robert Schlemmer of Export.

United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania was among the groups lobbying for restrictions. A message on the group's Web site states "UBP supports Commissioner Weaner's motion and the efforts of three of his fellow commissioners to put the science back into the general-use crossbow decision."

Sam Rush, president of the Westmoreland Sportsman's League, said his members were "split down the middle" on the issue.

"If [commission board members] feel there's a need to control the herd, I think the crossbow is a good thing," he said. "Anything that creates interest in the sport and gets people out is a good thing."

The state senate has not voted on Gov. Ed Rendell's nomination of Ralph Anthony Martone of New Castle to fill the remaining vacant seat on the commission board. It's next quarterly meeting will be held Oct. 5-6 in Philadelphia.
John Hayes can be reached at jhayes@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1991.
First published on July 12, 2009 at 12:00 am

Source:http://www.post-gaze.../983168-358.stm