The crossbow controversy has been the talk of the archery industry for several years now. As crossbows become increasingly high tech and their use during archery-only seasons across America more common – today they’re legal during archery-only seasons in 30 states, and only Oregon bans their use completely — naysayers often make the comment, “Success rates will grow so fast during the bow season that we’ll kill too many deer.”
Technical and performance comparisons aside — we’ll get to those in a bit — is it true that the white-tailed deer harvest has shot through the roof since the crossbow has become legal during archery-only seasons in so many states? Let’s take a close look.
NATIONAL DEER ASSOCIATION DATA
The National Deer Association published an article by Kip Adams in September 2020 that took a close look at actual harvest data. Adams focused on the 37 states east of the Rocky Mountains that are home to
