RE: Blows my mind.
Seriously though! For me it's like... Dude... I'm months away from turning 50, got a house, a kid, a mortgage that's still got a good number of years to go... and many groups of people that rely on me returning home safely and attending to my responsibilities!
It just defies logic and reasoning because if *I* am out-and-about trying ti kill one of these large prey items... than logically it stands to reason that there is a much higher-than-normal-likelihood of me running into another one of the multitude of creatures that ALSO is out-and-about trying their damndest to make it to the next day by killing one of these larger creatures. A significantly higher chance than just your average ordinary out-for-a-hike person, since we do everything the OPPOSITE of the way the suggest that hikers should do it. We PURPOSEFULLY try to be quiet, blend-in, surprise the animals, etc.
I dunno... I mean heck... ok, let's say your big concern is that you don't want people being dishonest and shooting the animal with a firearm and then poking it with the arrow to try to pass it off as you actually took it with a bow. First of all.. Come the Freak ON!!... the wounding is drastically different between Arrows and bullets. But alright... cool... whatever... people are shady... I get that and everything, but it sure seems to me there are some other in-between choices you *could* allow.
A for instance might be.... maybe you have a limit on barrel length and caliber they are allowed to carry as a sidearm? (Yeah, I know, stupid and kinda misses the whole point of being able to defend yourself, but I mean it's better than nothing, right?) You figure there is a REASON the regs have the minimum 4" barrel length mandate when it comes to taking of game with a pistol, right? So what if you said that if it's a sidearm for defensive purposes... that like... it has to be 3" and under or something? I mean, for goodness sakes, they are not magical death ray guns that emit a particle cannon that's laserbeam straight reaching out to infinity into the universe when they are fired, ya know?