Redneck Shootouts

It had to happen in Alabama.

MONTGOMERY — Alabama's relaxation of hunting restrictions has drawn the ire of an unlikely group — hunters themselves.

The criticism centers on the state's decision to allow anyone to use crossbows, which were once reserved for the disabled.

Archery season begins a month before the regular season so that bow hunters can have a fair shot before hunters with guns enter the woods.

Archer Lynn Harrelson, who uses a regular draw-string bow, is upset with the move.

"If we continue to make the seasons more liberal and continue to bring in more and more weapons and extend it to people in primitive season to bows that are just, to me, a poacher's weapon — where do we stop?" Harrelson asks.

Other hunters say that by allowing the use of crossbows, turkey decoys and sights on muzzle-loaders, Alabama regulators are compromising the integrity of the sport just to increase the sale of hunting licenses and products.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with the hunters. I don't think bow hunting sounds terribly exciting (I'm a one shot, one kill, down and dead kind of hunter), but allowing crossbows or sighted black powder weapons just cheapens the entire thing. It's things like this that are destroying the integrity of hunting as a sport.