Very well said TB :D

Don, thanks for being honest enough to declare your intentions. I hope you understand that I will no longer support Texas Fish & Game in any way because of your statement above. I will not be buying the annual Lakes issue this year or any regular issue of your magazine.

Why don't you x-bow people do something constructive and lobby for your own season and quit starting this same fight over and over again. You are the ones trying to divide hunters by forcing everyone to accept what you want. We are and will continue to preserve the archery season because that's what our members want.

Ronny, call me tomorrow for the answer to your question about Bowtech and this effort...you probably won't like it.

I hope you are wrong about this but you might not be, I'm sure tradtional archers felt the same way when the compound bow started to take off. Just remember as our so call primitive weapons get more effective/efficient there is less an less reason to have a archery or primitive weapons season.

You better buy another bow, they make quite possibly the most technologically advanced crossbow on the marked (I believe its close to 500 fps), its called the stryker, but they don't endorse it with the bowtech brand. Here a link to the site http://www.strykerxbow.com/faq.php

Seems we have an enemy not an ally in Texas Fish & Game . I don't have a clue as to how it functions (state or private org) but if state, there has to be funding streams and revenue allocations; If private, the sponsors (other than Xbow manufacturers) need to answer for its anti bowhunting stance. ALL the sponsors need to be contacted.

Tinman...you seem to know. Is there an Organization list with officers and/ sponsors list out there? Same with the Xbow manufactureres. What other product names/brands are associated with the XBow. Bowling balls, Boat Equip, golf..etc all.

Given the hostile nature of the above threat, I vote for a product boycott of ALL product lines being a sponsor of the Mag and the X-Bows.

300,000 bowhunters families boycotting these lines may get someone to back off.


I'll run down ALL the product lines and post a list if someone can give me the target manufacturer who is cramming this down out throats!!

Here is a start
 

Roy Neves is the Publisher here in Houston. I'm going to start with him and the above advertisors to start. This is dated so I''ll look for more current data. Neves is the only officer listed so its NOT a big enterprise.

1745 GREENS RD
HOUSTON, TX 77032-1119

Status: IN GOOD STANDING NOT FOR DISSOLUTION OR WITHDRAWAL through November 15, 2007
Registered Agent: ROY NEVES
2350 NORTH BELT EAST, SUITE 240
HOUSTON, TX 77032
Registered Agent Resignation Date:
State of Incorporation: NV
File Number: 0702440523
Charter/COA Date: March 7, 1997
Charter/COA Type: COA
Taxpayer Number: 30119390216

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Texans reel 'em in - Texas Fish & Game periodical - Magazine Strategies
Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 1992 by Heidi Dawley
Texas Fish & Game bagged the competition; now it's stalking national
advertisers.
Back in 1985 when newspaperman Bill Bray decided to start Texas Fish & Game, he
didn't know much about the magazine business.
Some six years later, though, Bray, who is chairman of Highland Publishing Co.
Inc., is putting out profitable issues and, with a paid circulation of more than
100,800, his magazine ranks as the third largest regional in Texas, according to
Audit Bureau of Circulations' (ABC) December 31, 1991, figures.
To date the key strategy has been one of low-cost circulation budding and
retention. However, with the 1991 acquisition of his major competitor,
18-year-old Texas Fisherman, Bray has shifted his focus to securing a larger
pool of advertisers.
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Success with compiled lists
After starting in Marble Falls, Texas, with an ABC-audited circulation of 9,439
in July 1985, Texas Fish & Game now weighs in as the biggest circulation gainer
of all city, state and regional magazines audited by ABC for the last five
years, with an increase of 149.2 percent, according to "Capell's Circulation
Report."
Although Bray relinquished day-today control of the magazine to president and
long-time employee Roy Neves in June, the strategy will remain the same.
To build circulation, Bray has relied heavily on direct-mail drops with lists
made up of Texas fishing- and hunting-license holders, licensed boat owners,
outdoor catalog recipients and outdoor magazine subscribers. The response rate
has been high.
Advertisement
The most recent drop of 900,000 came in at a gross rate of 2.9 percent, the paid
rate at 2.3 percent, reports Bray. The December 1990 drop had a gross response
rate of 2.8 percent and a paid rate of 2.4 percent. Dan Capell, editor of
"Capell's Circulation Report" and president of Compu-Name, says: "To get a 2.8
percent gross response with a 2.4 percent pay up is fantastic. That's an 85
percent pay-up rate. Most are in the 50 to 60 percent pay-up range."
While many compiled lists (those composed of unproven buyers) don't yield
competitive results, Bray has had success with the Texas hunting and fishing
licenses and the Texas boat-licenses lists, with response rates averaging
between 2.2 and 2.5 percent. Again Capell is impressed: "If they did 1 percent,
they'd be doing pretty well." And the price is right, Bray says, at just $5 per
1,000 names, compared to $75 and up per 1,000 for a list from other magazines.
"We lose on procurement, when the dust settles, about $3.05 per [new]
subscriber," says Bray in his slow West Texas drawl. Fulfillment cost is $8 to
$9, making the cost of a new subscriber $11 to $12.
In addition to the fact that there are some four million hunters and fishers in
Texas, Bray has another reason to believe that there is still plenty of untapped
potential out there. "Normally, as a title grows in a finite universe, your cost
of acquisition starts going up on you," he says. For Texas Fish & Game,
subscription-acquisition costs are dropping. (The subscription price is $15 per
year.)
Building up to the current renewal rate of 62 percent, including conversions,
took some doing, says Bray, who admits that it was a disconcerting eye-opener
when his renewal rate came in at 43 percent in 1986.
To boost renewals, the staff scrambled to create a premium that would be
complementary to the magazine. They came up with two annuals, a guide to fishing
in Texas called Texas Lakes and Bays and one for hunting called Texas Deer
Hunting. The premiums, says Bray, carry advertising and are used both to "get
folks to renew and to encourage folks on the circulation drops to subscribe and
pay in advance." The most successful premium, Texas Lakes and Bays, is now sold
as a stand-alone publication on newsstands for $3.95. Last year, some 14,000
copies were sold at a sell-through rate of 64 percent, says Bray.
Hunting bigger advertisers
Happy as Bray is with his renewal rate, he still falls short of regional ad-page
giant Florida Sportsman, which has a 75 percent renewal rate, and for eight
years has carried more ad pages than any other major outdoors book, national or
otherwise, according to Bob Mitchell, marketing director for Florida Sportsman.
He says that Florida Sportsman, whose circulation sits at 100,109 for six months
ended December 31, 1991, does not use any premiums or price-cutting offers in
its sub efforts.
As for Bray's strategies to procure advertising, when Fish & Game picked up
competitor Texas Fisherman it also picked up the magazine's advertising,
including a handful of non-endemic advertisers such as Toyota Trucks, Chevy
Suburban and Budweiser. Fish & Game's 1991 ad page total was 568.34, up 166
percent from 1990, says Bray.
Bray hopes to compete with other regional magazines like D, Houston Metropolitan
and Texas Monthly for this national advertising. And he hopes that, with a 97
percent male readership, his cost-effective male CPM will help.
Despite Bray's claim that regional publications are taking advertising from
national publications, Field & Stream and Outdoor Life's advertising general
manager, Robert C. Hanna, says, "A national advertiser is generally looking for
national media, and we feel very little competition from the many, many local or
regional magazines out there."






[/i]

My guess it would be ten point crossbow technologies, a company out of ohio. I have never heard of them until I received this years cabelas fall magazine, I think they're in the bass pro one too. In the past the crossbow section of the magazine was maybe a few pages always a few horton or barnett xbows, this year its three or fours times the size, most of them being ten point xbows. They have a xbow that cost $2000, how crazy is that.

I think the one Bowtec builds cost about $1600

send to the sponsors and president of TF&G-Join in
 

To: ___________________, Governing Officer

I am contemplating joining an organized boycott effort against your products and services. This boycott call is initiated by a group of Texas Sportsman opposed to the introduction of modern weaponry into the Archery Only Sporting Season. Your sponsorship and/or advertising dollars in support of the Texas Fish and Game Magazine published by Highland Publishing Co. is the reason for your inclusion in this boycott.

A preponderance of Texas archery enthusiasts are opposed to the introduction of the crossbow into the early archery only season. A modern crossbow is a shoulder fired, telescopic scoped weapon capable of generating projectile speeds approaching that of a shotgun firing rifled slugs/bullets. We, the traditional archers, believe the current laws that allow these weapons during the general season should remain unchanged.

A statement written on a traditional archery blog, by a person who claims to be in the employ of the aforementioned magazine, that TF&G is dedicating its resources to push an alteration of current sporting laws in favor of the crossbows. It is theorized that the motivation behind this endeavor is either a personal opinion of a single employee or an attempt to gain advertising revenue from crossbow manufacturers with a vested interest in pushing this law change.

I ask that you use your influence as a sponsor or advertiser to maintain the Status Quo and have the Archery Only Season remain just that, devoid of modern weaponry. Should the Magazine pursue this course of action, the 300,000 Archery Only licensed Texas traditional sportsman will unite and boycott the magazine and those products advertised therein.

Please communicate your response to my request.


Sincerely,



Cc: ROY NEVES, President, Texas Fish and Game, LLC
2350 NORTH BELT EAST, SUITE 240
HOUSTON, TX 77032


I am getting addresses and emails of the CEO's of the advertisors and sponsors. I will post here for any who wish to voice their view.

Make sure to copy Roy Neves on each letter. I will look for a email Addy. He is in Real Estate and a Consultant. He should have a webpage

I don't really care if a bow company makes crossbows. I do care if for monetary gain they try to change an archery only season to allow crossbows.

I too dispute the numbers in the early post of 500,000 to 300,000 crossbow hunters. I'd like to know that that's based on.

Finally I am getting so sick of people calling me names because I object to someone wanting to take away the archery season. I don't care what you hunt with in the general season. I also don't care if you lobby for a special season of your own, but it really puts irritates me to be continually charged with not supporting other hunters just because I oppose crossbows in the Texas Special archery season. The folks pushing crossbows are the greatest divisive force in the hunting community.

Finally we are losing hunters every day not because crossbows aren't allowed in an extra season. It's due to habitat destruction and the fact that hunting grows more and more expensive every year. I can remember the $300 family lease. Today, with fewer places to hunt and the switch to QDM most ranches will only allow the one hunter, with a very limited harvest. It's hard to buy 4 spots at $2,500 a year. Crossbows will not solve this problem and the divisive push by crossbow manufacturers.

In relation to Bowtech, they also make these...

http://www.airowgun.com/

Kinda cool for a paintball/air-rifle toy...but what do think their R&D teams might come up with in the future? How could this product development eventually affect the archery season? They're already hunting small game with one in a video on the pellet side of the product website. Is this archery, Don?

I don't want to bash Bowtech but I think it's time for all of us to look at where our manufacturer stands on this issue before we purchase from them. As trailboss stated, it's one thing build a x-bow and go after your share of this "market". More power to you and the American Way. But it's another thing altogether to step on the toes of the hunters that brought you to the dance.

The most upsetting thing to me is that these people spend so much time bashing us that they don't even notice what we do for bowhunting and bowhunter education here in the State of Texas....these lies they continue to use in order to help push this agenda show their true ignorance. We need to take steps to insure these are exposed as false and promote the positive impact bowhunters make here in Texas. TPWD should know this, as they see us every year at many events but the Senators and House Reps need to know what we do as a group and individually to promote bowhunting on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, the only people they're promoting the crossbow to are legislaters that can/will help their cause. How many x-bow shoots are there each weekend in Texas? How many youth shoots have they hosted this year? I'd bet that Bob Wright alone spends more time positively promoting bowhunting and impacting the youth of Texas than these people do collectively promoting anything to the public.

Don Zaidle, if you're still out there...would you please over-articulate the reason why you personally (and Texas Fish & Game as your business) won't be striving for a separate season for x-bows and other primitive weapons? I have told you that the LSBA and most bowhunters probably wouldn't be opposed to this arrangement, if it helped to preserve the future of the archery season and allowed for the continued promotion of traditional forms of bowhunting through said season. Why do you guys want to prove us wrong so bad that you're going State to State with this fight OVER AND OVER and causing discord between hunters? Then you call us names, lie about us and even go so far as to blame us for the non-harmonic tones? Why?

You want to make difference in this fight? Lead your x-bow support efforts down a more righteous path. A path with little to no resistance. Lead your people toward your goals in a manner that won't compromise or jeopardize something as dear to so many hunters as the Archery Weapons seasons across North America. Quit causing these problems within the hunting communities across North America and start solving them.

LSBA - Preserving and Promoting bowhunting in the State of Texas since 1974.

Re: send to the sponsors and president of TF&G-Join in
 

OK, here we go....aneves@fishgame.com is the wife. Email her to get to Roy if you wish to voice your opinion on Mr. D Zaidle's contributions to harmonious archery discussion on this forum. My letter above may be of interest.

Publisher, Roy Neves
Vice President/ Advertising Director, Ardia Neves
1745 Greens Rd.
Houston, Texas 77032
Phone: 281/227-3001

Griz thanks for coming up with the addies.

I would suggest one small change in your original letter. Instead of "We the traditional archer..." , I think it should be changed to either "We the bowhunters ... or "We the archers....". I know that it's a small semantics thing, but the opposition to crossbows in the archery season comes from the majority of people who believe that a key part of the definition of bowhunting is that the bow has to be hand held and hand drawn, and that definition includes the majority of compound shooters as well as traditional shooters. Crossbow manufactureres keep trying to tag us (bowhunters) with the label of elitist who deny people an opportunity to hunt. With a compound with modern let offs, anyone can learn to bowhunt.

I will write with hopes of doing good, but it's probably about the money, more than the sport. It's really sad that the bottom line for many magazines is not what is best for hunting, but rather how many more ads they can sell to crossbow manufacturers.

THX will amend the document. I have not seen a reply to my email yet. I'll be watching the Mag to see if the threat comes to fruition. If it does, I'll post the letter and TFG sponsors addy's on all the internet Bowhunting forums so we can all give our opinions to those sponsoring this effort. I think they'd loose more sponsors than any revenue gained by the Xbow manufacturers. But, they may just risk that and call my bluff. I'm NOT bluffing as I've already shown by posting thier contact info. So Far I've kept it to this site.

I think all of you on the EC know how I feel about Don and his rudimentary comments about archery while trying to maintain that he is as much of a die hard bowhunter as the next addict. I did not even respond to his lambasting of us last time because I was not going to fall into his trap. Mr. Zaidle, anytime you take someone's words of fact, ie our surveys, and tell them they are not worth spit or the paper they are printed on the tell them that you can tell them why, you better watch out for your numbers to change. I will be real selective how I support your publication and will probably tell the story any time someone comes up to me with your magazine or asks about it. If you want to be a big boy, present yourself as such.

There will not be any crossbow bill action until the next session at which time the house can start over or forget about it. I can tell you the TPWD is not the reason for this bill, nor are they for or against it. They will maintain neutral. Too many misreprested facts revolve around it for one. Speeds the same, less or equal KE, only as accurate as a compound/traditional bow with a 30yd range blah blah blah. These things, most of them shoot harder, faster and much more accurate than anyone with the same amount of time behind a bow would be able to achieve.