(Posted 5/4/10)

NY Bowhunters, Inc. 'Facts' Come Under Fire

In a recent membership "Red Alert" release (http://www.newyorkbowhunters.com/current.html) the NY Bowhunters, Inc stated: "Crossbow proponents’ state that the inclusion of crossbows will increase archery sales in cash strapped NYS.  The example most cited is the state of Georgia (GA), which proponents say showed an increase in archery license sales revenue when crossbows were introduced into the archery season.  This statement is slightly true for the first year as about 1,000 more archery licenses were sold and true for the second year.  However, why is no data cited for years 3-7 up to 2009?  Because GA saw significant drops in archery license sales over this 5 year period!  License sales decreased by as much as 30,000 licenses when compared to pre crossbow license sale numbers."

NOTE: The State of Georgia no longer even sells archery licenses, which is why those sales have plummeted following the change. They simply sell a hunting license and went to an automated system (and had the usual implementation problems).
 The GA hunting license is good for hunting with any legal implement:: gun, bow (long, compound, crossbow, whatever), muzzleloader or whatever is a legal hunting implement in the State of Georgia. So crossbows are now legal to hunt with during GA's archery season.