I grew up reading about Fred Bear and wanting to emulate him, on a smaller scale of course. But I get the compound bow. Still have to aim, still have hold steady. I owned one for years and 40 yards is plenty challenging and primitive enough for me. Crossbows now, that’s a different animal. Only place I see it is for older, and I mean old, bow hunters who can’t draw anymore. Like my cousin who switched. 70 something and hunted archery for thirty minutes Luis years. He gets to. But the heart of primitive season wasn’t to sell lots more tags, or sell lots of fancy new equipment. It was for outdoorsmen, real outdoorsmen to have a time when the woods weren’t full of yahoos (rant coming but you know who I mean and if you don’t and you’re offended, you might be who I mean) with their Cabelas catalog wardrobe still fresh from the box, this years top rated rifle and newest hottest round etc. My dad called them Sears and Roebuck hunters. Nothing wrong with having good gear, even the best gear, but for some people it isn’t the woods that matter. It’s the 4x4 Polaris to drive 400 yards to your stand so you can impress your buddies. I’m old enough now to be talking about back when but I do remember asking farmers for permission to hunt and getting it. That was before people took advantage, left trash, and left gates open pissing off a great resource. Or worse, someone paying big money to lease so that he could charge huge money to hunt. Elk hunts for $25000 and up. Tags going to guides and not people. Goose and duck hunts $500 a gun and up. Hunting has changed and I miss the chance to just get in the woods with a primitive firearm, my skill and experience against a very wary and alert opponent. I’m still new here and hope I didn’t go too far but this rant has been building. Thanks for your ear.