The 89,480 deer that arrow-slingers registered during Wisconsin’s 2023 archery and crossbow seasons marked the third straight year of decline after the kill hit 111,628 in 2020.
The 2023 bowhunting kill was also the first time since 2018 that it finished below 90,000, a 20% decline from 2020. Even though crossbows delivered 60% of the bowhunting kill the past three years, their overall impact on Wisconsin deer hunting could be fading after triggering a 37% increase in the bow-kill from 2014 to 2020.
Crossbows were legalized 10 years ago for anyone hunting the state’s nearly four-month archery/crossbow season.
The 90,000-deer mark is a significant milestone in Wisconsin bowhunting. Only once before the year 2000 did bowhunters reach or exceed that number, and that was 1999 when they registered 92,203 deer. Since 1999, bowhunters fell short of 90,000 kills 12 times, and exceeded it 12 other years. Likewise, since the crossbow’s introduction in 2014, bowhunters have fallen short and exceeded 90,000 deer five times each.
The trend lines for crossbows and “vertical bows” — defined as compound bows with a smattering of recurves and longbows — are strikingly similar. Although crossbows have been the most popular choice for bowhunters since 2017, deer kills by both weapons generally declined at parallel rates starting in 2018.
Has the crossbow’s shelf life as a bowhunting stimulant expired? Even though crossbows kept many aging hunters afield the past decade, the typical Wisconsin deer hunter is in his 60s, and isn’t getting any younger.
Jeff Pritzl, deer-program specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, thinks Father Time might have regained control.
“I wonder if the slide (in the bow-kill) since 2020 is showing that hunters in their 60s are losing their desire to kill deer,” Pritzl said. “The harvest they produce is disproportionately lower than what you’d expect for a group their size.”
Another indicator is whether crossbows keep more bowhunters afield from Dec. 1 through the end of the archery/crossbow season. Those five weeks typically draw little interest, and accounted for only 5.2% of the 2014 bowhunting kill.
When crossbows leaped in popularity in 2016, the December bowhunting kill contributed 9% of the season’s kill. Since then, December’s contribution to the overall bow-kill has again declined, and was back to 4% in 2022 and 5% in 2023.
Again, Pritzl notes the possible disproportionate impact of baby-boomers. Besides allowing these older bowhunters to stay afield by switching to crossbows, many gun-hunters bought crossbows so they could hunt before the traditional Thanksgiving-centered gun season.
“As more of people embraced crossbows, they chose to harvest a deer before gun season, which takes the steam out of their desire to take one after gun season,” Pritzl said. “Their need to fill their freezer was already fulfilled.”
After all, the archery/crossbow season is open for 10 weeks before gun season, with most of it occurring in warm weather. It also allows arrow-slingers to hunt from late October through mid-November, when bucks are most active. Given all that time, bowhunters feel less pressure to hunt on bad-weather days or take the first good shot they get.
“They put themselves in situations they like with their preferred weapon of choice, and then they’ll wait for that right situation to shoot,” Pritzl said.
Ever since 1986, that “right situation” typically means waiting for a buck with antlers; the bigger the better. Through 1986, Wisconsin bowhunters always shot more antlerless deer than bucks. But when the 1987 bow season ended, bowhunters had registered 21,278 antlered bucks and 21,253 antlerless deer, the first time in the state’s first 54 archery seasons that antlerless deer weren’t the primary quarry.
Since 1986, Wisconsin bowhunters have killed more antlered bucks than antlerless deer 21 of the past 37 seasons, including the past 10 since crossbows were legalized.
Here are the totals for the past decade: Of the 927,072 deer taken with all bows from 2014 to 2023, 540,148 (58.3%) were bucks. The total “vertical” bow harvest of 443,126 deer was 57.7% bucks (255,705), and the total crossbow harvest of 483,957 deer was 58.8% bucks (284,438).
Perhaps most amazing is that no matter their weapon, bowhunters target antlered bucks at nearly identical rates. After varying by only 3 percentage points in 2014, the rates basically merged:
— 2014 archery season: Of the 81,701 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
— 2022 archery season: Of the 97,000 bowhunting harvest, 56,000 (58%) were bucks. The “vertical” bow harvest (37,476) was 57% bucks, and the crossbow harvest (59,524) was 58.2% bucks.
— 2023 archery season: Of the 89,480 bowhunting harvest, 54,415 (60.8%) were bucks. The “vertical” bow harvest (35,536) was 60.4% bucks, and the crossbow harvest (53,955) was 61% bucks.
Those 10 years of nearly identical buck-shooting rates don’t surprise Pritzl. “When it’s time to decide whether to let an arrow fly, the weapon doesn’t really matter,” he said.
Wisconsin's crossbow hunters and “vertical-bow” hunters shoot bucks at nearly identical rates, which was 60.4% for verticals and 61% for crossbows in 2023.
— Patrick Durkin photo
