No disrespect you your opinon, but I have bow hunted quite extensively for DG with mountain lion, brown bear, black bear, wild Russian boar, Asian water buffalo and Cape buffalo among them. I am well aware of the capabilities and limitations of archery tackle especilly in regard to it's effectiveness in taking DG.. Having bowhunted for 40+ years I have taken many DG game aniamls with a vertical compound bow, and I have never experienced any type of close call remotely resembling the one depicted in the video preciscesly because those of us involved took great pains to avoid them..
In regard to this discsuuion, I never made the argument that a well-placed arrow is more rapidly lethal than a well-placed rifle shot... On that point alone, there is no argument. But, that's not the basis of the controversy I was addressing in this discussion which is the belief by some here that archery gear is somehow inappropriate or unethical for DG based on the content of this video alone..
There is a presumption by some that the charge occured because of the weapon used which I reject completely.. The charge occured because of the situation and the multitude of bad choices leading up to the shot that were completely avoidable.. With minimal research you can easily find scores of videos whereby DG was ethically and safely hunted with archery gear without incident, not becasue of luck, but becasue the hunter was skilled, confident, and proficient with his/her equipment and sound decsions were made throughout the hunt by everyone involved..
I'm not really sure how your jackrabbit story is relevant to this particular incident.? I would hope that if you were indeed hunting dangerous game, you would be doing so with the expectaions of the worst case scenarios being the basis for the plan to begin with? That's where expereince and sound judgement on these types of hunts comes into play.. I have personally aborted more stalks and passed on more shots than I can remember specifically becasue the worst case sceanario was considered and the odds were not favorable for an ethical shot or an out if things went bad.. With all that being said, it's still DG hunting which means that there must be an acceptable assumption of risk which, in my opinon, is a personal decsion to be made by each individul involved regardless of the weapon to be utilized..
With this above we agree, but not because a crossbow was involved.. I watched the video closely several times and I honestly don't beleive that it started out as a planned stunt, but turned into one when the hunting party collectively decided to take an archery shot at an agitated lion that was well aware of their presence. At that point, a charge was going to be highly likely regardless of the weapon used.. It seems quite apparent that the PH(s) knew that likelyhood and decided to let the hunter take the shot anyway. Then the "hunter" culminated the shit-show by making a terrible shot from a badly positioned animal... Plenty of "foolish" there to go around, but none of it because of the fact that the weapon was a crossbow.. The exact same sceanario was just as likely to happen with a poorly placed rifle shot in this particualr situation...