Dan Ladd: New York legislature should move on crossbows in 2025

The 2025 legislative session is coming and after years of discussion, New York lawmakers should consider the hunting community, the Department of Environmental Conservation and even the white-tailed deer herd this year and pass crossbow legislation that is on par with other states, and in line with a growing interest in crossbows and modern technology.

The bottom line is that the current regulations implemented in 2014 are vastly out of date, if not archaic, and the issues that are surfacing today are the result of the decisions made back then. 

Of course, the prime debate when it comes to crossbows in New York centers around whether they should be allowed during the entire archery season, which has been part of most proposed bills. But it goes beyond that as there are other issues, including a few that might even be more relevant.

The first, and likely most important, is an educational requirement. One should not be able to purchase a crossbow, fill out a form in the regulations guide, purchase a muzzleloading privilege (which makes no sense) and simply go afield when and where legal. Roy Dust, president of the New York Crossbow Coalition, who is a hunter education instructor, has told me repeatedly he would like to see a bowhunting education requirement for crossbow hunters, along with the required purchase of a bowhunting privilege rather than muzzleloader.

And I’ve had more than one retailer that sells crossbows report that purchasers who have never handled a bow, much less taken a bowhunter education course, often have little or no knowledge of how a crossbow operates when they walk out the door with the unit. Some even scoff at instruction when it is offered.

We can’t assume that everyone purchasing a crossbow is an experienced bowhunter migrating from using a compound or recurve bow. An educational requirement would teach prospective crossbow hunters about effective and ethical shot distances, arrow placement, kinetic energy and so on. 

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Next is the size specifications in New York, which too have become archaic since they were implemented in 2014. Crossbows in New York are supposed to have a minimum, uncocked limb width of 17 inches, a minimum overall length of 24 inches, and a peak draw weight that is between 100 and 200 pounds.

Just like compound bow technology, things have come a long way with crossbows and today’s units are trending toward being smaller in size. Each year when we run our annual preview of new crossbows I have to add a disclaimer that few, if any, of the units are even legal in New York State. Modernizing crossbow specs in this state should also pay dividends at the retail counter.

It’s time for our legislature to propose and pass legislation that among other things requires any crossbow hunter who has not done so to take a bowhunter education class and purchase a bowhunting privilege to go afield. The package should also relax crossbow spec requirements, or at least allow DEC the flexibility to adjust them as they see fit.

On that note, a bill that would put crossbow usage solely in the hands of DEC would simplify things. Crossbow opponents obviously wouldn’t support that because it’s assumed the agency would expand crossbow usage throughout the entire archery seasons, again, as most of the crossbow bills proposed since 2014 have suggested as well.

While that may or may not happen, it’s paramount that we get with the times from an educational and technical standpoint. Failing to do so might not send us backward, but it certainly won’t propel us forward in terms of using a hunting implement that is here to stay.