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

“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.

Minnesota is one of many states where wildlife managers want a larger harvest of female deer. In 2024, 52% of archery-harvested deer in Minnesota were antlerless. In addition, archers were responsible for one-fourth of all antlerless deer taken throughout the year. Continued increases in archery-deer licenses would help the trend.