Because it's the most fundamental and universal trait of human nature. In complete honesty, I'm far more perplexed by the guy who doesn't have contrary opinions (that's a feminine trait, not a "nice guy" trait). The single greatest human trait is self-centeredness...seriously, not trying to preach, but scripture says we are all born sinners, and the practical definition of "sin" is "self centeredness", it's literally in your DNA. Which is why I'm supremely curious of the guy who just loves everybody, and approves every thing, and wants other hunters to kill a deer more than themselves, and so forth. It's not natural. Jordan Petersen says the primary differentiating trait between male and female is "agreeableness". It's literally in the DNA of men to be disagreeable. Not to be an a-hole, but to stand up and call "bullcrap" sometimes. It's a feminine trait to hold hands and sing Kumbaya with eveybody who sees things differently than them. You say things about hunting deer that contradict everything else you say about every other facet of life. I guarantee you 99% of you are angrily against "everybody gets a trophy" in youth sports, but then you say crap like "any deer is a trophy."

Which brings me to another thing I observe (especially on this site) all the time... Y'all are the most opinionated and authoritative bunch of dudes I've ever freakin seen in my life about politics and cultural/social crap (like the Dicks boycott), really y'all are opinionated and authoritative about everything (just read any post on the general forum), but you are suddenly raging granola Libertarians about hunting. You become the softest, most selfless humans who have ever lived when it comes to hunting (especially if it involves youth). It's contradictory, and frankly annoying. You better see the world exactly like I do, and you better vote exactly like I do, and you better drive the same brand truck that I do, and you better do EVERY friggin thing on earth exactly like I do, except deer and how to kill them I suppose.

Lots of the comments above are saying that the person who criticizes a person for shooting a small deer, or using a "lesser" weapon, is actually just jealous because they aren't as good of a hunter. Seriously, that's stupid, did you actually think that through before you said it? In reality the opposite is the truth, which is why the guy who shoots the little buck, with an easy weapon, gets his feelings all rustled up when someone calls "bullcrap" on it. Don't act like it's not true. That makes a heckuva lot better sense. Oh, Ted Nugent is stupid also, because he's the biggest opinionated and authoritative hypocrite who ever sucked a breath on this planet. He's right about most things, I appreciate and agree with 99% of his stances on things like guns and citizens' rights, but then he goes off on this stupid rant about "every deer is a trophy" blah, blah, blah. Bullcrap. Just not true. It's NOT HARD TO KILL A DEER. But it's DAMN hard to kill a big buck, and it's even harder to do it with a harder weapon.

Most folks don't really care how you hunt, or what you kill, or what you shoot it with...at least not enough to publicly criticize you for it, unless it affects THEM. I stand and applaud Eskimo for being the most honest and real person on this website for what he said above....THAT is normal human nature, it's believable. I've been there a dozen times, I'd never let my buddy know I was jealous, but I was. I had a honey hole for years, killed some "okay" bucks from it. Had a buddy who routinely begged to go in there with me (he'd ALWAYS ask, "you got enough room in there for two of us?"). So one day I took him with me, and I did it the selfless way, I put him in the A-1 tree and wished him luck. He killed a 140" deer with a small extra main beam. He even said the deer was behind him walking straight to me (meaning I likely would've killed it had I been selfish like usual and gone alone). If I'm being totally transparent with you fellas, I've held a grudge against him for that (it actually happened twice with the same buddy, in that same season, on that same land). No, I'm not happy for him, I know I should be, but dangit man I put in years of work, hours of scouting, I did ALL the work!!!!!! I deserved that deer!!!! Do I realize how disgusting that sounds? Yes, but it's real. If he just went somewhere on his own, even if we had been together in some random place, I would be happy for him. But in this case it affected me, that's the only reason.

In closing, crossbows are not bowhunting. They are slow, short range guns.