When Ohio first allowed crossbows during archery season, they were derided by many traditional bowmen. I had one good friend who would not even sell club raffle tickets on a crossbow even though the proceeds would benefit his club.

Be that as it may the crossbow has been around for many decades. In fact it was supposedly invented in China, and I wonder how many modern crossbows are built at least with Chinese parts. And, according to Wikipedia, a crossbow manufacturer is call an arbalest. I doubt that term will ever come up in a parlor game of Trivia, but at least you now know it.

Despite what some might think I was not around when China developed the crossbow, but I certainly had one many years ago. It must have been around 1950 and I had just entered my first teen years when I ordered a crossbow from a catalog.

They were definitely not a legal deer hunting implement, but there was not a deer season in our area anyhow. I planned to use it as I walked around the wilds of East Palestine’s reservoir hill. These were old strip mined fields that had been somewhat reclaimed and served as our youthful equivalent of an Alaskan tundra or Serengeti Veldt.

Even back then I possessed a wild imagination. Who knew when I might need my crossbow to stop a charging Grizzly or hungry lion?

Of course my crossbow would have been vastly inadequate as its metal bow only required 75 pounds to cock it, but even so there was enough power for small game such as groundhogs, and I did have three bolts (arrows) with field points and three with broadheads.

The shafts were wood. I do not remember shooting any game with it, but at least I didn’t shoot myself or a buddy as this contraption had no safety.

Somehow the string broke on my crossbow and my hunting turned to a series of recurve bows and eventually a compound. There came a time, however, when diminishing strength and arthritis made drawing back a heavy bow no longer an option and I decided a crossbow was a smart choice.

I bought my Horton Hunter Supreme crossbow a long time ago and it was state-of-the-art at the time. Like anything else crossbows have become more sophisticated, but the Horton has proven itself over the seasons as it added venison to our menu.

It is heavy though and I listened to an expert claim that the Horton weighed 12 pounds and modern crossbows weighed 6 pounds. That would be a factor if I was going to walk around carrying my crossbow, but since I no longer climb trees to hunt and sit in my blind it is not a problem.

I did add to the Horton by adding a crossbow scope to be sure of accuracy. Yes, the crossbow looks like a rifle, but it is still a bow and not a .30-06. I sight mine in to consistently hit a small bull’s eye at 30 yards, and never shoot any farther than that. I also added a rope device to help me cock the 150-pound bow. I think cocking without help in the beginning heled me achieve a hernia.

Since my Hunter Supreme has been so effective I doubt I will ever buy a new crossbow, but the new features are enticing. I like the light weight, and the built in cocking devices are a definite advantage.

There is one that rides the track like a trolley and pulls the string back to the exact same location each time. This will improve accuracy, and a good hunter demands accuracy for any hunting implement out of respect for the quarry.

New technology always costs, and like most of my readers I am on a limited budget. Last Sunday’s sale supplement in the Morning Journal had an ad with a crossbow for less than a hundred bucks, but my Horton cost well over that and I don’t plan to regress. I guess that in today’s inflation a similar crossbow would cost over $500, and I’ve seen a couple crossbows costing as much as a very good rifle.

For many of us a crossbow is the only way to take advantage of archery season, but just remember that any implement is only as good as the hunter behind it. Make certain you never shoot beyond your capability and always pray that anytime you shoot you make a quick kill, or miss entirely.

That is what I always do.