Bill to expand crossbow hunting heads to House Floor

Participation in deer hunting in Minnesota is experiencing a long-term decline due to an aging demographic and fewer young people entering the sport.

The Department of Natural Resources has several active programs and strategic initiatives specifically designed to combat this decline. There’s been legislation, too.

A 2023 law modified hunting statutes to temporarily allow any deer, bear, or turkey hunters with an archery license to use a crossbow. Prior to that, only hunters over age 60 and disabled hunters could participate in the expanded crossbow season.

That change was the beginning of an experiment to see if opening up crossbow hunting to all archers during the lengthened archery season would attract more hunters.

HF1531, sponsored by Rep. Josh Heintzeman (R-Nisswa), would extend that experiment by removing the planned June 30, 2026, expiration date of the crossbow allowance.

The bill, as amended, was approved by the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee Thursday and sent to the House Floor.

Heintzeman, the committee co-chair, noted the topic of the bill received a “robust” discussion following a Feb. 26 presentation by DNR officials on its October 2025 report analyzing the expanded crossbow use on deer and turkey populations during archery seasons.

[MORE: Watch the Feb. 26 meeting]

The DNR report shows the expansion successfully attracted “new faces” to the field, significantly boosting recruitment and retention, particularly among youth and female hunters.

Archery license sales rose by 6.5% through 2024 compared to the five-year mean and approximately 11% of crossbow users reported they began archery hunting because of the 2023 change.

Nick Amunrud, president and treasurer of Minnesota Bowhunters, expressed skepticism of the DNR data, arguing that much of the “growth” is existing firearm hunters shifting to the archery season rather than entirely new recruits to hunting.

His group opposes the legislation, in part because it is fueling a decline in bow hunters.

“Based on data from other states, we are likely to see the majority of bow hunters leave archery in favor of a lower effort and more advantageous crossbow,” he said in February. “This notable decline in archers is expected to have a lasting negative participation impact on archery clubs and whole-family community events centered around archery.”