Originally Posted by
blkpowder
These numbers came from our local paper supposedly quoting the PGC .From the article-By Aug.31 of last year,the agency had sold 170,109 archery licenses. By the same date this year,it has sold 210,230 archery license.
As for what the archery shops claiming large numbers of past archer's trading in their compounds for crossbows. I have no numbers
for their claims. But it was also mentioned in the article along with the jump in archery license sales.
From the article-Crossbows were legalized for use by all hunters in special-regulations areas several years ago. That lead to more deer being killed. After the introduction of crossbows for 2B,the total reported kill was a jump of 13%. Interestingly.though,the percentage of the harvest taken by hunters using crossbows jumped from 12 to 36 percent over the same time.
Again,IMO, changes will have to be made. Especially if the archery buck kill increases. The firearm hunters are going to demand changes.
You can'y go by what lisence were reported being sold last August compared to this year.First of all,this year they knew the exact number because of the pos system.Last year,they only knew what the distributers reported.You can't compare the two.
I have two friends that own pro shops.They've each sold one crossbow thsi year.