Whether recurve or compound; compound or crossbow; shotgun or pistol or rifle; single shot or repeater; optics or open sight; .243 or .30-06; there will always be those who think they are better than others because of their method of harvest. Meanwhile, there are those who work their every breath and spend their every cent to prevent you from hunting any species with any method - and for this simple reason - I wish we all focused on teaching land stewardship, wildlife management, the discipline of knowing your weapon and knowing your target species and knowing your State Representative and Senator.

The following email was sent to me by Wendy White to give everyone another perspective of the HB 968.

It passed the Senate yesterday with a 31-1 vote. We spoke before the senate committee the week before and it passed with a 4-1 vote and the 1 was someone that came in at the last and replaced another committee member. LSBA lobbied those senators hard too.

Only 3 persons showed on the opposition and one chose not to speak. The two who did speak were the current president of the LSBA, and the past president.

Their testimony was based off of non facts or truths so they weren't taken seriously. Comment pertained to crossbows shooting game at 100 yards, which is not the truth. Then the other part of the testimony pertained to the PSE Tac-15 which isn't even on the market. It's a bastard weapon which consists of an AR-15 lower end, and so far, in the Crossbow community here in the USA, there isn't any interest in it. There is some interest in Italy, but would have to get a permit since it has the AR-15 lower end.

The LSBA put out a call to arms at 9AM Friday morning before the Monday 3PM hearing. There were over 2,000 views to the thread, but alot of the membership didn't disagree with allowing crossbows into archery season, so no masses of protestors showed up at the Capitol. It was Butch and myself, two reps from Barnett Crossbows and one rep from the American Crossbow Federation, then Speaker of the House Gibb showed up to testify FOR.

Also, my good friend Keith Warren and daughter Mattie testified FOR and she did a great job following in brother Colton's footsteps offering testimony describing what it would mean to her and her hunting girl friends to be able and hunt during Archery season.

I'll attach my rough draft of my own testimony. I also had videos to show as proof you hand draw and shoot game while game is in the shooting zone.

It's BS about that moment of truth thing as I disproved it publically a few years ago. Of course, there are some that will hate me, but there will be much more that will thank me for getting them the opportunity to use their choice of archery equipment during archery season where it belongs.

That's what it's all about~ Freedom of choice and opportunity for all, not just a few. Getting hunting families opportunity to hunt together without rifles firing off around them. Now, dad, mom, grandpa, brothers and sisters can hunt quietly together in mild weather, and allow us to recruit more hunters to the outdoors. We need more hunters to carry on the family tradition of hunting with the current declining numbers. TPWD needs more funding as well for conservation projects.

Wendy White

The following is a draft of my testimony...

Good Afternoon and thank you for today. I have been waiting many years for this day. Let me introduce myself. I am Wendy White. I am an avid archer who competes using a crossbow and a vertical bow. I am also a hunting and Bow fishing guide who has guided and recruited many who would otherwise, never have the opportunity or interest in our tradition of hunting. My partner and myself are Butch and Wendys Hunting Adventures. We work with the SCI Dessert Chapter and the PVA to provide a hunting opportuity for those who need special attention and effort to be able and enjoy the outdoors in wheel chairs, our disabled veterans, and also, other special needs persons and children who are first time hunters that most will not work with in the hunting community. We also volunteer to work with TPWD each year at the Texas EXPO to introduce the general public to outdoors activities and we run and educate those by teaching them safety and shooting at the crossbow range. We work with the TPWD Hunters Education dept.

TPWD puts this event on each year, to help promote and recruite outdoors activities including our hunting and shooting heritage.

ARCHERY- the practice of using a bow or crossbow to shoot arrows. as defined in the dictionary of wikipedia and Merriam Webster.

BOW- A bow is not a bow without limbs. They bend with the draw and store energy.

PROJECTILE or ARROW- The projectile or arrow for ALL the various archery equipment consists of: a shaft, vanes or feathers, a nock, and a tip. Arrows are all propelled using the same exact energy source.

So, to compare the variety of archery equipment, all consists of limbs, with a string, Both Crossbow and Compound bow utilize a trigger, they all send a projectile using stored energy, under these collected definitions. The conclusion is that a Long Bow, A Recurve Bow, a Compound Bow and a Crossbow are all archery equipment. They all consists of limbs which store energy, they all have a string, and they all shoot a projectile called an arrow, the all have the same trajectory distance. In other words, the shot distance is the same. While hunting, the average shot distance on game is 20-30 yards for all the various bows. Hence, there is no advantage using a compound bow or a crossbow in a hunting situation.

Crossbows belong in Archery season as they are archery by all definitions and have been justified as such.

Crossbows are subject to the Federal Archery Excise Tax and are considered archery equipment by the IRS which in turn, contributes 10% of that total to the PITTMAN-ROBERTSON FUNDING PROGRAM collected from the archery industry.

TPWD considers Crossbows as archery equipment as determined by the language used. When Crossbows are recognized as archery equipment by the state of TEXAS legislation, TPWD will be able to bring additional income by classifiying it as such and sell an archery stamp to bring in yet more funds to the program for future efforts to recruite hunting being it's our family tradition in decline, conservation and other various efforts. Our wildlife dept. needs more funding at this time.

The most recent improvement in bow design is the compound bow. Compounds are popular for two important reasons. Where a recurve gets harder to pull as you draw it further back, the compound bow reaches peak weight at 1/2 way through the draw, then LETS OFF or gets easier to pull toward the end and has a reduced holding weight at full draw. For this reason, it can be held at full draw longer for steady aim. Also, because of the let off, the peak weight of the bow is not immediatley transferred to the arrow. Compound bows use or can legally use, triggers, stabilizers, bubble levels, drop away rests, peep sights and fiber optic pins, 80% let off at full draw, nocks and d-loops for ease of trigger use, and even a draw loc system that holds the string until released by a trigger.

This is not the same as for a long bow or a recurve bow which we call Traditional archery, but is the most popular amongst bow hunters utilizing the archery season. The compound bow is a whole new kind of weapon compared to theTraditional equipment.

In review, all bows have to be drawn. All bows use stored energy. All bows consist of limbs. All bows have a string. All bows send a projectile. All bows have a comparable trajectory. There is not one argument that would not allow, or reason to discriminate a crossbow to be legal for use during any archery season. It is ARCHERY EQUIPMENT by all definitions.

Please, do the right thing and pass HB968. The crossbow has allowed myself to promote and recruite hunters, and personally, it recruited myself into utilizing a vertical bow.

The reason most people do not pick up and use a vertical bow is ther are very intimidating and predominantly for right handed shooters only until the past few years where very few left handed bows are now on the market. The next problem is the various individuals draw lengths. You can't just pick up any bow and shoot it.

Then, the various draw weights. So, in my personal experience, the compound bow is a weapon predominently used by 20-40 something right handed males. I'm obviously female and I'm left handed. I am discriminated against in the world of vertical bows. I picked up a crossbow because it was ambidextrious, and allowed me to archery hunt. I love archery. I would love to not be discrininated against by my own state legislation and be able to hunt during our archery season and recuite others to participate as well and have the opportunity to bring the tradition of archery hunting back to our youth and our families instead of sitting at home or in deer camp having to wait for the 20 to 40 year old family members to come in and tell us women kids and aging hunters what they experienced in the field. Texas families need more opportunity to hunt together. If us mothers and grandmothers are hunting, you can bet the rest of the family , especially our youth, will be outdoors and not in the city, or in front of a TV or video game, or out in the streets getting into mischeif, and we can do it in mild weather without having rifles being shot all around us. We would have the same advantage then as other archery equipment users. Diversity always equals strength. It's why compound bows were allowed in archery season back in the late 70's and early 1980's while traditional archery shooters fought that new compound bow with all of it's advantages being allowed during their season. In hindsight of that fight, it promoted archery hunting and did not devistate any deer herds to date. With passage of this bill, it would help to insure our future to keep archery hunting strong.

Again I ask all of you personally, to please work to pass this bill. As TPWD says, "Life is better outside". God Bless Texas.