Crossbow Hunting Season Proposal Gets Positive Reviews At Hearing

An Assembly bill that would establish a crossbow hunting season saw positive support in a public hearing Wednesday.

People speaking on behalf of various hunting and outdoors organization voiced their support for the bill before the Senate Natural Resources Committee. There was also a significant amount of time spent discussing an amendment that technically wasn’t a part of the hearing.

The amendment, which will be introduced this week during an executive session and presumably added to the Senate version of the bill, includes a provision for crossbow and archery seasons to run concurrently for two years. It’s a compromise meant to ease the concerns of bowhunters who want to keep the seasons separate.

Mike Pjevach, who is president of the Southeast Wisconsin Bowhunters chapter of Safari Club International, said the amendment should comfort crossbow proponents because their season will run alongside the archery season for two years. For bowhunters, it gives the Department of Natural Resources the opportunity to collect data on and assess the crossbow season.

“Truly, our hope is that the crossbow season has no impact,” Pjevach says. “I really hope it has no impact either on the deer kill numbers or on social matters like it does for gun hunters.”

Sen. Terry Moulton, R-Chippewa Falls, who is a member of the Natural Resources Committee, also testified during the hearing. He said he supports the bill but questions the economic impact of creating a crossbow season. Moulton says that crossbow sales may increase initially, but he questions whether or not that will last: “I not sure that that economic gain would be long term.”

Moulton said the committee is expected to vote on the bill and substitute amendment this week. It’s possible the full Senate will consider the issue in September.