@schmalts is dead on about WI. The two county deer councils near me are seriously talking about finding a way to limit the archery season due to crossbows having such an impact on the overall deer harvest, not just bucks. However, the impact on antlered deer is certainly being felt more than anterless.
Q: Since Wisconsin legalized crossbows for all archers, which group – crossbow shooters or “vertical-bow” shooters – targets antlered bucks the most?
A: It’s a tie. Both groups in Wisconsin shoot bucks at amazingly similar rates. After varying by only 3 percentage points in 2014, the rates basically merged in recent years:
— 2014 archery season: Of the 81,701 total bowhunting harvest, 46,201 (56.55%) were bucks. The “vertical” bow harvest (54,810) was 55.52% bucks, and the crossbow harvest (26,891) was 58.64% bucks.
— 2015 archery season: Of the 87,098 total bowhunting harvest, 51,823 (59.5%) were bucks. The “vertical” bow harvest (53,004) was 58.92% bucks, and the crossbow harvest (34,094) was 60.4% bucks.
— 2016 archery season: Of the 88,048 total bowhunting harvest, 51,734 (58.76%) were bucks. The “vertical” bow harvest (48,272) was 58.36% bucks, and the crossbow harvest (39,776) was 59.24% bucks.
— 2017 archery season: Of the 92,394 total bowhunting harvest, 53,214 (57.59%) were bucks. The “vertical” bow harvest (45,166) was 57% bucks and the crossbow harvest (47,228) was 58% bucks.
— 2018 archery season: Of the 87,629 total bowhunting harvest, 47,632 (54.36%) were bucks. The “vertical” bow harvest (40,405) was 53.65% bucks and the crossbow harvest (47,224) was 54.96% bucks.
— 2019 archery season: Of the 94,085 total bowhunting harvest, 54,380 (57.79%) were bucks. The “vertical bow harvest (42,128) was 57.86% bucks and the crossbow harvest (51,957) was 57.74% bucks.
— 2020 archery season: Of the 113,567 total bowhunting harvest, 64,681 (56.95%) were bucks. The “vertical” bow harvest (47,836) was 56.72% bucks and the crossbow harvest (65,731) was 57.12% bucks.
— 2021 archery season: Of the 99,141 total bowhunting harvest, 60,751 (61.3%) were bucks. The “vertical” bow harvest (39,733) was 61.2% bucks and the crossbow harvest (59,408) was 61.3% bucks.
Crossbow hunters and “vertical-bow” hunters in Wisconsin shoot bucks at nearly identical rates, which was 61% bucks and 39% antlerless in 2021.
Here are the grand totals for the past eight Wisconsin archery seasons: Of the 743,663 deer taken with all bows, 430,416 (57.88%) were bucks. The total “vertical” bow harvest of 371,354 deer was 57.44% bucks (213,158), and the total crossbow harvest of 372,309 deer was 58.35% bucks (217,258).
Jeff Pritzl, deer-program specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said the state’s trend away fromantlerless harvests is unmistakable and concerning. He notes, however, that it didn’t start with crossbows.
Antlered bucks made up 27% of Wisconsin’s archery kill in 1970, but jumped to 43% in 1980 as compound bows took over. The buck kill then climbed to 53% in 1990, and 57% in 1995 — roughly its current rate.
Bowhunting’s buck kill fluctuated from 46% to 50% from 1996 to 2010 when “earn-a-buck” rules and other incentives forced bowhunters to increase their antlerless harvests. The Wisconsin Legislature passed a bill outlawing earn-a-buck in 2011, and former Gov. Scott Walker signed it into law shortly before the season.
“Incentives” like earn-a-buck, which requires hunters to shoot an antlerless deer before shooting a buck, dramatically increased antlerless harvests from the late 1990s through the 2000s.
Pritzl and other biologists are concerned because most hunters today only shoot one deer annually. If they shoot a buck with a bow, they’re often done for the year. They might keep hunting with friends, but they’re not motivated to shoot a second or third deer.
Therefore, Pritzl encourages bowhunters to try shooting antlerless deer in September. “We’d like them to step up their game, and not pass those early-season opportunities,” he said. “If you can’t use the deer yourself, donate it.”
Pritzl’s concerns underscore something important: When crossbows were legalized, some folks feared they would prove so effective that Wisconsin would have to shorten its nearly four-month archery season. That hasn’t happened.
In fact, Wisconsin is relying more than ever on its short gun-hunting seasons to manage its antlerless deer, but gun-hunting’s trend is also toward bucks.
Without incentives like earn-a-buck rules the past decade, Wisconsin bowhunters — whether they carry compounds or crossbows — are choosing to be ineffective at managing antlerless deer.
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Seems it's more dad vs son, bag phone vs cell phone, yellow pages vs ask jeeves. Yall afraid of anything new cause 'muh tradition'.
The argument can be made compounds have done more "damage" than crossbows, get rid of compounds.
If the argument made is ethical kills only, no bows period as they aren't as ethical as other options, no?
Or is it, crossbows=potheads as elvis=killing our society with them hips, as it seems to be posted with 'all doped up in treestands'.
