Not sure where to get that data from, Nub. Arthur actually had a pretty good history along with dates in his post above.

One of the things I do see is that the success of bowhunters went up significantly, way before you started to see bows with greater than 65% letoff in any numbers until the mid-1990' s. In fact, there has been almost no impact if we look at the numbers. If the first one appeared in 1991 as Arthur stated, then in looking at the numbers...: 1991 succes was about 31%, in 2001 success was 32.2%. An increase, but also one that could be exlpained by any number of factors.

Meanwhile, the success rate jumps from 7% in 1966 to about 31% in 1991, and P&Y remains relatively silent on almost all of the technological advances discussed above. Now suddenly a line in the sand is drawn over letoff, even though we don' t see any significant increase in harvest since the introduction of high-letoff bows. To me, the whole issue of the P&Y rule is a case of closing the barn door after the horse is gone. Again, they can make whatever rules they want; I just wish there was some consistency.

Nub, your point about the 80/20 rule is very true. That may also affect success since that 20% probably turn into very good bowhunters as time goes on. Though I don' t know too many who take more than one deer per year with a bow. Most folks I know tend to wait til gun season to get " greedy" .