The Wisconsin Conservation Council held their annual statewide meetings earlier this month. Wisconsin’s hunters were given 84 proposed hunting and fishing regulations changes to cast their vote for or against.

Two of these proposed regulations changes concerned hunting deer with crossbows. One proposed crossbow change was to make crossbows legal for all hunters in the full archery season. 1,969 hunters voted for this proposal with 3,017 against this proposal. The second crossbow regulation change proposal was to make crossbows legal for all hunters over the age of 55 in the full archery deer hunting season. 2,806 votes were cast in favor of this proposal with 2,198 voting against.

These voting results, along with other facts such as deer herd size, urban deer management, hunter numbers, will be considered by the Wisconsin DNR. After consideration all the facts the Wisconsin DNR may ask the Wisconsin legislatures to change the crossbow deer hunting regulations. These possible changes could not take effect before the 2012 hunting season.