anonymous

I love that area up there. We setup moose camp 40km's north on Basket Lake road each year and the scenery, wildlife and fishing are excellent. One day I will retire up that way and enjoy everyday of my life.

There is an existing International Bowhunters course. It is mandatory in some province's as well as several countries around the world. It wouldn't surprise me if Ontario brought this into play in the next decade. The hunter's ed course in Ontario does cover shot placement, but only briefly touches on bow hunting. Just the same it briefly covers firearms as well. The hunter safety course was revamped to ensure that you as a hunter can safely get in and out of the woods, survive if you get lost as well as make sure you identify your game and ensure you can safely take the shot. In the past the hunter safety course focused more on the tools used to harvest game, but as of late those topics are being covered by the CFSC for firearms and nothing for archery. Just for interest sake, anyone who has a valid PAL, POL or RPAL has an H1 designation on their outdoors card allowing them to hunt with firearms. People who have done the hunter safety course but do not have a firearms license have an H2 endorsement on their outdoors card which means they can only hunt with archery.

There was talk a few years ago about needing the PAL for a crossbow. Nothing ever came of it. Only requirement to purchase a crossbow is that you are 18 years of age or older. Asking a comparison of compound to crossbow is apples to oranges. Bow vs Crossbow, correct. Recurve vs Compound, correct. Bow vs Compound, incorrect. I have a Ten Point compound crossbow, my friend has an Excaliber recurve crossbow. If you are going to use a crossbow for hunting, just as you have used a bow, keep in mind that the conditions set for a firearm are the same for you while you are using archery. Unloaded in/on a vehicle, cased from 1/2 hour after sunset to 1/2 hour before sunset.

misfish, I wasn't sure what you were asking me to clarify but I am gathering that based on other replies you were wondering why it's ok for you and your friends to hunt public areas, yet other cannot. Generally in an urban setting there are bylaws which make it illegal to discharge firearms in certain areas, generally within the urban boundary of any town/city. Such is the case where I live. My back property line is also the urban boundary for the town I live in. With regards to firearms discharge, from my back yard, not allowed. One step off my property into the neighbours field, allowed to discharge. This is why it is important for any hunter to contact the municipality they are hunting in for clarification on firearms discharge. I also live in the only rural township in niagara that still does not allow sunday gun hunting. Quite a shame considering I work an hour away and bring all that money back into the local community and spend it here. They for all intents and purposes limit me to saturday gun hunting only as I work mon-fri. I'll be moving soon enough.

A crossbow by definition of the federal firearms act is not a firearm. There was a thought of classifying it as a firearm at one point which is why certain people have crossbows listed on the back of their PAL. It never came to fruition. An item becomes a firearm when it's projectile reach's 500 feet per second or more as well as meets a specific muzzle energy factor. In terms of hunting, the provincial hunting regulations classify any item used to hunt game as a firearm. This means that crossbow's are subject to all of the requirements of long guns. Namely whether it can be loaded or unloaded, encased at night, etc. Whoever said the crossbow was a weapon is mistaken. Weapons are used to inflict harm. In the case of sport shooters, hunters, farmers, etc. Firearms are not weapons, they are tools. A baseball bat used during a game is a tool, used in a back alley to beat someone is a weapon. Either way, when you are hunting a crossbow is considered a firearm and if there is a no discharge bylaw where you are, you cannot use archery to hunt game.