"What did your study find for ethical yardages for hunting with a xbow?"
40 yds and under for hunting, mostly due to the noise factor....do what you want for targets

"If you ask me the kids can shoot vertical bows from as young as four or five"
Which is absolutely great way to go,(I never suggested not to teach vertical) however there are lots of people that are smaller in stature (even adults) that cannot pull and hold the required 40LBS to go hunting. So I recommend giving them another option...

"It would also teach the young ones responsibility to work up to shooting 40 lbs before going hunting. now I bet this opens up a can of worms!"
Not really, in fact I would tend to agree on this point.

"Sounds like the handicap rule needs to be revised!!"
Revised?!!!? How about completely rewritten. With horizontal bows in archery season, this would be a non-issue.

"second the poaching thing is it will just give them one more tool to use, "
#1, poachers use whatever they want, regardless of it being legal or not...#2, how many instances of poaching is there with any kind of archery tackle? 'nuff said I think.

Thank-you for your questions and input, sharpstick, I respect your personal decision on horizontal bows, however, I resectfully disagree on where they belong in the regulations.

Todd