Craig, here is a modified excerpt from a post I made on another site. I can't say it applies to every state, but it is what I think the impact would be in Texas.

"1999. A total of 25,548 deer taken in archery season statewide. Of those, 10,984 were taken by conventional bows, meaning longbow, recurve and compound. The remaining 14,564 were taken with crossbows. So, the crossbow accounted for 57% of all deer taken during Ohio's archery deer season.

2000. 29,319 deer taken. 16,946 crossbow kills. 12,373 conventional bow kills. Nearly 58%

But that's nothing new. According to ODNR, the crossbow has been outproducing conventional bow harvest every year since 1989, only 13 years after they legalized the crossbow in 1976. ODNR is really proud of that for some reason, because they go to great pains to point out that little tidbit of information in many of their news releases.

There used to be a breakdown of all hunters by weapon that showed crossbow hunters also outnumber conventional archers, but it seems they removed that page from their archives. At least, I can't find it any longer. Anyway, it seems things started out with a few crossbow hunters wanting inclusion in what was originally a BOW season, but the season has now become more of a CROSSBOW season.

Nobody seems to remember how long the gun season was before Ohio legalized the crossbow, so I've done some research. Deer were totally eradicated from Ohio in 1904. They didn't come back strong enough to allow hunting again until 1943. Gun hunting doesn't have anywhere near the tradition or history in Ohio that it does elsewhere. Certainly NOT like the rabid obsession it is here in Texas.

That is undoubtedly why Ohio's gun hunters can accept a 6-day season. Ohio is successful with crossbows because of your state's game managment history. If the bow harvest in Texas was eventually more than doubled by the inclusion of crossbows, like what has happened in Ohio, our 29 day bow season would be cut. Probably terminated. The game commission will not allow the gun season to suffer in this state."

I agree with your point that Ohio statistics do not show an increase in total number of hunters as a direct result of allowing the crossbow. I presume that most of the crossbow hunters are gun hunters that choose a crossbow rather than learn how to shoot a bow. After all, they are used to shouldering their weapon and squeezing the trigger, so it's a familiar operational format. Better to be in the woods, hunting with a crossbow, for 4 months than to wait all year for a 6-day gun season.