Crossbow Hunters

[Steve D]

New York Hunters Interested in More Crossbow Opportunities

DEC recently conducted an e-mail survey of 10,000 licensed hunters to gather more information about crossbow use and preferences regarding big game hunting with crossbows in New York. Over 3,800 people responded to the survey. When asked in which wildlife management unit (WMU) they hunt most often, respondents named 81 of the 89 WMUs in the state.

Most survey respondents who don’t currently own a crossbow said that they would get one if crossbows could be used during the entire big game bow season. By a more than 3-to-1 margin, respondents are in favor of purchasing a bowhunting privilege rather than a muzzleloading privilege to hunt with a crossbow. Most respondents are also in favor of allowing 12 and 13-year-olds to hunt with crossbows and allowing crossbow use in archery-only WMUs. With respect to the latter question, respondents who hunt primarily in those WMUs support allowing crossbow use there by a 4-to-1 margin.

The full report on the survey results is available on the DEC website. http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/xbowsurveyresults.pdf

[nyslowhand]

Shouldn't be anything startling or new about this survey's summary. Similar legit survey(s) taken over past ~5yrs have shown the same findings.

I do find the "Method" (who got surveys) outlined within the above link to be sort of questionable &/or limiting.

[Steve D]

20 hours ago, nyslowhand said:

I do find the "Method" (who got surveys) outlined within the above link to be sort of questionable &/or limiting

I never have been able to understand the method to their madness when it comes to selection for surveys or record reporting.