I know this won’t happen, of course, but I’d like to see all hunters support the Maryland Wildlife & Heritage Service proposal that would legalize crossbows for all licensed hunters throughout the deer archery season.

The public meeting to discuss this and the other proposals that will govern the next two years of hunting takes place Tuesday at 7 p.m. at South Hagerstown High School. View the proposals at www.dnr.state.md.us. We ran most of them on this page a week ago as well.

So what’s the big deal about allowing everybody to use a crossbow? I think it is a great idea.

I think it is a great idea for a number of reasons. I have only bowhunted since the mid-1990s, but since then I have done it a lot and with some success. I learned right away that the toughest thing about getting a deer with a bow is getting the darn thing drawn without being detected.

I watch these TV hunting shows and see people without face masks or gloves drawing on deer within 20 yards and I have to think that at least some of it is faked. What I’m saying is they shoot a photo of the guy drawing on the deer when there is actually no deer there and edit it into the show in the sequence they prefer. In these hills, you sometimes can draw on a buck in full view if he is rut struck, but try it on a doe at any time and you will see a white tail running away.

Point is, with a crossbow you simply lift and shoot. I see that as more opportunity to take a deer with a good hit.

What are some other reasons to allow the crossbow for everybody?

It brings more people to the party. Simple as that. And, believe me, we need as many people at our hunting party as we can get. There’s strength in numbers.

If the only objection is a philosophical one, drop it. Let’s not get into the snobbish thing such as exists with some, not all, fly fishermen and their looks down their noses at folks who use bait to catch trout.

Deer managers are very clinical. A dead deer is a dead deer. They agree upon how many should be harvested and then count the ones that were. They don’t care if the hole in the deer was made with a round ball, a .270 caliber bullet or an arrow and broadhead that were launched from a longbow, recurve, compound or crossbow.

Let’s all head for the woods as bowhunters, not specifically as those who use a vertical bow or those who use a horizontal bow. It has worked well in Ohio for years. It can work well in Maryland.

I have never been able to understand why anyone who hunts on private land would oppose any expansion of hunting methods. If you want to continue to hunt on private land then you do what the landowner requires of you.

The late John Barton for years wanted no muzzleloader hunting on his land. If you wanted to continue to hunt there during the modern firearm season, then by gosh you wouldn’t traipse that part of Dan’s Mountain with a smokepole in hand.

If private landowners don’t want crossbows used on their properties, they have the hammer to make that happen.

As far as public lands, I think crossbows are a great idea.

Let me begin by saying that I have never even shot a crossbow, but I have thought about them to some degree.

It is illegal to leave a treestand in place overnight on public hunting lands in Maryland. If I go up a tree, and I do, it is in a ladder stand or a securely fastened hanging stand with sidewalls that is accessed by an extension ladder. Obviously this is not the kind of equipment I can tote in and out of public land on a daily basis.

However, I envision crossbows as a tool that can be used effectively from ground level. Thus, I can hike deep into a public holding and, if I am successful, all I have to get out of the woods is my butt and the deer’s.

Let hunters choose the type of bow with which they want to hunt. You will find that most choose a vertical bow.

In 2008, in the urban counties where anybody is allowed to use a crossbow throughout the season, 8,451 deer were killed via vertical bows and 1,921 by way of crossbows. In 2009, the numbers were 8,920 vertical and 2,241 horizontal.

Brian Eyler, who heads up deer management for the state, said he estimates the deer harvest increased 5 percent in those counties once the use of crossbows was blessed.

Statewide in 2009, there were 24,193 deer whacked and stacked by vertical bow hunters and another 3,180 by crossbow users.

If I am doing the math correctly, that means only 939 deer were taken by crossbows outside of the urban deer hunting zone. A 5-percent increase in that number would not be significant from a population standpoint, but would provide a lot of hunting-man-hours.

The Maryland Bowhunters Society officially opposes the regulation as drafted, according to its president, Lou Compton.

“The crossbow is not just another bow,” Compton said during a phone interview Tuesday. “We are not against crossbows, but we believe that they are sufficiently different from (vertical) bows that they should have their own season.”

Compton said the argument that at arrow is an arrow, no matter which bow it is fired from doesn’t hold up. Both a muzzleloader and a modern rifle fire a lead projectile, but the weapons are substantially different, he argues.

“The Maryland archery season is long enough that some time could be carved out of it somewhere to have a separate crossbow season,” Compton contends.

Compton said the Maryland Bowhunters Society is putting its faith in the public comment period and encouraging its members to speak their individual minds about the crossbow proposal.

“The crossbow is just an entirely different way of hunting than (vertical) bows,” Compton said. “It is already cocked so you don’t have a lot of movement to get ready to shoot. It can be used with a high-powered scope and it is conducive to being shot from a rested position.”

I guess the reasons that Compton sees for keeping crossbows out of the general archery seasons are the same ones I see for including them.

It’s like Compton said Tuesday. This is a controversial subject and there are as many opinions out there as there are hunters.

“There is no middle ground on this one,” Compton said.

By the way, the Maryland Natural Resources Police supports the proposal, according to Sgt. Art Windemuth.

Contact Outdoor Editor Mike Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.