after 40 yrs of bowhunting, with recurves, old crappy compounds, new tech compounds, and now crossbows....the difference noticed over time is:
way better chance at a lethal shot with the current technology. The underlying issue with this is: the types of shots and/or distances have greatly increased, which then negates the lethal shot advantage. Most everyone here who's ever bowhunted a day in their life can attest to taking a shot that may have been a bit too long. You learn from it, figure out your limits, and don't do it again. So yes, I would expect the harvest to go up w/ crossbows, and the injury rate to stay flat, considering most younger bowhunters have never held a stick bow, let alone hunted with one.
I personally think everyone should hunt with a stick bow first when getting into bowhunting. The massive amt of experience gained will make the transition to compounds/crossbows understandable/relatable for the average person. When posters here say "gunbows", I understand, because compounds/crossbows feel like a gun after using a stick with no sights/triggers. Note that our wildlife department considers the air guns that shoot bolts to be legal to use, but only during gun season.
My home state Oklahoma seems to have a decent handle on harvest opportunities, and they're fairly liberal. We're not as exposed to winterkill issues like you all in the northern states, but, the wildlife dept can and will change bag limits/zone limits depending on their surveys. Whatever they say, gov't agency or not, I'm usually fine with.
Lastly, remember when you took your son to a front door of a landowner, and asked for permission to hunt/fish? It was usually a slam-dunk, but those days are long gone. The prices of some of these leases are astounding, usually when the landowner hires a third party to market their place, and then they get their cut. If I was a landowner, I wouldn't lease my property out, let alone let someone hunt for free. But, if a dad showed up with his kid...
