crossbow for web

Wisconsin is the latest major whitetail state to allow crossbows during the regular archery season, which opens September 13. A crossbow license costs $24 for a resident and $160 for an out-of-stater.

Up until 10 years ago, this would have been big news, and it would have caused a firestorm amongst bowhunters, many pro-crossbow and a fierce minority anti-crossbow. But when Governor Scott Walker signed the crossbow bill late last year and the Wisconsin Assembly passed it on a 91-0 vote, there was hardly a whimper.

Crossbows are here to stay in most archery seasons across the U.S. and people, some begrudgingly, have come to accept that.

We have a lot of hard-core bowhunters from Wisconsin on the blog, and we have posted hundreds of bow-killed giants from across the state in the last 5 years. I wonder: What do you Wisconsin compound hunters think of the new crossbow law? Good or bad?

What do the rest of you think? Wherever you hunt, have you tried the crossbow, and if so do you like it?

BTW, over in Michigan, the legislature legalized the crossbow during archery season in 2009, and the state’s DNR followed up with a study of the goals/impacts of expanded crossbow use. No matter where you hunt, you’ll find it interesting.