Hunting deer with crossbows is bringing more young Minnesotans into the sport

The increased freedom to use crossbows to hunt deer is drawing more people into the sport in Minnesota, particularly youth hunters, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

License sales data and a survey of hunters indicate that the state’s removal of restrictions around crossbows may benefit recruitment and retention of youth, older hunters and female hunters, the DNR reveals in a new report. The “R3s” (recruitment, retention and reactivation of hunters) has long been a goal in Minnesota and many other states to address declining license sales as older hunters age out.

“So far, signs are encouraging and promising,” said Kelly Straka, DNR fish and wildlife division director. “This could be one more tool to get people involved.”

The report was ordered by the Legislature as part of a law change that opened crossbows to all hunters in 2023 and 2024. They had been illegal for hunting in Minnesota during archery seasons unless a hunter was 60 or older or physically impaired. The new law is in effect through 2026 and could be extended.

Straka said the DNR so far has found no evidence that the expanded crossbow use has hurt deer or wild turkey populations. If negative trends emerge, especially in sensitive areas, the agency can adjust the rules, the report said.

“We need to stay on this,” Straka said. “It will be something we pay attention to.”

She acknowledged that wider crossbow use can be polarizing, partly because vertical bow users have owned the archery deer season — a prolonged period that precedes the firearms season and extends beyond it. In the DNR’s survey, archery hunters were split almost evenly on the premise that crossbows were negatively affecting the quality of archery deer season. In the survey, 57% of vertical bow hunters indicated that crossbows created more hunting pressure during archery season.

“The R3 benefits really seem to be there with this regulation change,” she said.

In the hunter survey, 11% of archery deer hunters indicated they would not have participated in the archery deer season if the legislative change had not occurred. Regarding retention, 62% of crossbow users who responded to the survey indicated that they are more likely to continue deer hunting because crossbows have been legalized without age and disability restrictions.

In 2023 and 2024, license sales for the firearm deer season fell below the five-year mean of 422,000. At the same time, total archery season license sales increased from the five-year mean. In 2023 and 2024, archery deer license sales averaged 109,000, up 6.5% from the five-year mean.

The report said the highest relative growth was among female youth hunters, whose license sales rose by 43%, while archery deer license sales for male youth hunters increased by 10%.

The overall archery deer season in Minnesota is a growing factor in the harvest of antlerless deer, important to keeping deer populations under control.

Pat Rivers, deputy director of DNR’s fish and wildlife division, said the growing popularity of crossbows for deer hunting is due to the relative ease of handling them. He’s a vertical bow hunter who recently attended a special deer hunt for veterans at Camp Ripley near Little Falls. Lots of participants chose to hunt with crossbows, he said.

Unlike vertical bows that are held manually and drawn by hand with physical strength, crossbows are fired from the shoulder with a trigger mechanism. Vertical bows demand consistent form and skill for accuracy, requiring more training and practice to operate efficiently.

“It’s an easier way to archery hunt and it extends the time that an older person can hunt with a bow,” Rivers said.