increased challenge. They are in general better more ethical 

 hunters than the average rifle hunter is. 



If this questionaire was becausee of complaining by non 

 bowhunters I think they had better take a hard look at their own 

 ranks . The current bowhunter education course required for under 

 18 was asked for by bow hunters not by rifle hunters. 



If the crossbow or muzzle loader is ever made legal for elk 

 during the bugle season, the bull kill would be tremendous and 

 would be a total disaster. It is not real hard to get within 

 crossbow or muzzle loader range of a bull during the rut but it 

 is hard to get close enough to get a proper shot with a bow. 



I would like to see area 260 opened too blackpowder hunters. 

 There are numerous whitetail deer here in this riverbottom 

 district and I don't believe that archery hunters harvest amounts 

 to much. 



I think bow hunting is dangerous, inaccurate and should be 

 eliminated. Too many elk and deer are wounded and not tracked. 

 I do not hunt with a bow and no member of my family does. 



Reduce the archery season by three weeks for a statewide muzzle 

 loading season. 



There is nothing you can do about it, but what bothers me is, 

 during rifle season I always hear hunters say they saw deer or 

 elk with an arrow stuck in them, either running around or lying 

 dead. I think that if archery season was after rifle season, 

 we'd see a lot of wounded or dead animals from rifle hunters. 

 This just gives archery hunters a bad name. 



I would like to see crossbows included in the archery season. 



Thank you for your interest in the archery season. I am strongly 

 opposed to the use of crossbows in Montana. Would like to see a 

 "post season" for archery hunters. 



With the equipment available today anyone can archery hunt. With 

 practice anyone can shoot with accuracy. In total numbers I hear 

 about more game being wounded with rifle than archery. The 

 season is during a time of the season when about any vehicle can 

 get you into the mountains. What this all amounts to is that 

 archery only discriminates against people who are lazy to take up 

 the sport. I constantly hear about the advantage archeryhunters 

 have - it ' s not because the gun hunter doesn ' t have an equal 

 opportunity. I think the early Forest Service road closures for 

 the archery season is largely a result of F & G input. I haven't 

 read any research that substantiates that the archery hunter is 

 significantly and permanently displacing elk nor are they 

 reducing the "bugling" elk in numbers that effect the big bull 



