But you have half of September, all of October and at least half of November as archery only correct?

Boomers=Lazy LOL!

The "Haters" clearly know little about actually HUNTING with a crossbow. They are HEAVY, incredibly cumbersome, and without a rest, difficult to shoot accurately any further than a bow. For platform and/or stand shooting, they do allow responsibly shooting further than most should shoot with traditional bows.
However, those who are whining about crossbows being un-fair, advantageous weapons that "take opportunity from them", and kill way more successfully than they do with "traditional" equipment must not use sight-pins, releases that are mechanical, bow stabilizers, expandable broadheads, carbon arrows, retractable arrow rests, or even whisker biscuits, let alone compounds.
All those things add "advantage", as well as efficiency. Why is that a bad thing?
If the haters want to get a piece of Osage or Yew and craft a bow, spin sinew for a string, knap some flint or obsidian and chip an arrowhead and strike out for a deer, in season, of course, then have at it. Problem is, those newfangled recurve hunters will have the advantage!
I HATE RECURVE BOWS!!!!

I'll really blow some minds now, I have a crossbow now and haven't picked up my compound in a good while. I still wish they'd go back to how it was. I don't fault anyone for using them, I do think it was bs the legislator circumvented the dnr and forced them to be legal.

Now let's complain about ATVs, treestands, e-bikes etc

I'd like an answer to this question. Donner.

I must get on my soap box a bit on this point. Too many people seem to refuse to learn how to free hand shoot crossbow or rifle. This question comes up constantly in the saddlehunter community. "can you use a xbow or rifle out of a saddle?" Yes! I almost never use a rest, cant really do that with a xbow anyway, unless its sticks. I've had to contort myself several times to get shots with my xbow out of the saddle if the deer didnt come into the lane i setup for.

The xbow you gotta watch not banging the limbs when you shoot on a tree hence why you cant use a rest. If you bang a limb, you might crack the limb of the xbow.

With my compound, I can brace myself a lot easier using the tether to make those more awkward shots. Which is another plus with the saddle because I dont have to worry about falling out of the stand, worse thing that will hapen is i get swung back on to it

Now your descriptions is what I think will be my kind of hunting once the boys get to busy with life to hunt with dad all the time. I can sit in a stand all day when with the kids but 15 mins alone and im not enjoying it with to much other stuff to get done.

So I was thinking maybe get a well broke mule and head to state ground and ride. if I see and shoot a deer or two it will be easy to drag them out. If I dont see any deer I can have an enjoyable ride.

I was thinking mule becuse im no horseman and they seem sure footed and less likely to spook as fast.

Archery runs the 3rd Saturday in September- December 31st. Firearms is the first saturday in Nov then runs for 2 weeks. Muzzleloader follows and runs for 2 weeks also (top of my head dates).

I would be happy with ending bow season with the end of Muzzleloader and I personally feel that with the increased pressure from xbows we should shorten it to atleast that.

Im talking about out of a tree saddle not off horseback lol.

Does anybody else think it's at least a little bit comical that the OP got butt hurt enough over this thread that he bailed and hasn't been back?

So six weeks minimum statewide and more in some areas of archery only. And you are still opposed to sharing that long season with crossbow hunters?

2025 Minnesota deer seasons & hunts
Season Dates
Archery (PDF) Sept. 13 - Dec. 31

Statewide firearms (PDF) - 100 series and 604, 679, 684 Nov. 8-23

Statewide firearms (PDF) - 200 series and 338, 341, 605, 642, 643, 644, 645, 646, 647, 648, 649, 655, 661, 666, and 671 Nov. 8-16

Late southeast firearms (PDF) - 338, 341, 605, 642, 643, 644, 645, 646, 647, 648 and 649 Nov. 22-Nov. 30
Muzzleloader (PDF) Nov. 29 - Dec. 14

Metro deer management zone (PDF) - 601 Nov. 8-Nov. 30
Youth - Statewide Oct. 16-19

Early antlerless Oct. 16-19

Hunt Dates
Special hunts Varies
Late CWD season Dec. 19-21

LOL, took his ball and went home....delicate little thing....

I do. Pafoxman was rabble-rousing and trying to see how many folks shared his snobbish, elitist views on archery and his hatred for crossbows and those that use them.

When only a handful of folks agreed with him and the vast majority of T-man members turned out to be reasonable folks who didn't really give a crap what legal weapon anybody killed deer with, he took his ball and went home. He hasn't been back since.

It must have been a pretty big blow to his giant ego.

So basically if a Senior Citizen gets to where he can't pull back a bow, he should stay out of the woods....?

Seeing how archery season starts the beginning of Oct. and runs up to rifle season the end of Nov. here, looks like the complainers will have to carve out a crossbow season From their season. Split it in half, but crossbows only if they don't want crossbows in their half.

Bet they change their minds real quick if they have to give up a couple weeks!

No, he wants them to still be able to use them if they are really old and pass his test of being not able bodied.

But, those he deems able bodied should only use them during the muzzleloader or firearm season.

He wants to dictate who can use or not use a certain method of take when he believes they should or shouldn’t be able to use it. Doesn’t want extra people hunting when he hunts basically. And he thinks they are short range “guns”.


Honestly, he did a pretty good troll job. This is a pretty long thread .lol

Or they'd be rushing out to buy a crossbow!

That's a great idea. Lets give the non-crossbow hunters October and crossbows only in November.

I'm guessing the OP didn't come back yet after the site security snafu.

The rest of the arguments are Red Herrings.