Why It Matters: On Tuesday, August 26, New York Assembly Bill 8330 (AB 8330) and Senate Bill 6360 (SB 6360) were signed into law, which has normalized crossbows. Effective immediately, crossbows are permitted during the full archery season and onerous size requirements on width and maximum peak draw weight are removed from New York statute. Hunters can now use crossbows with the minimum peak draw weight of 100 pounds anytime and anywhere a vertical bow was allowed for harvesting big game.
Highlights:
- The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) has been in the fight advocating for crossbow inclusion for over 15 years. CSF worked directly with legislators in support of AB 8330 and SB 6360.
- Legislation to normalize crossbows and include them in the full archery season has been attempted for over two decades.
- Crossbows were first permitted in 2014 by adding compromise language into the New York Executive Budget to authorize their use for only two weeks of the archery season or during muzzleloader season, both requiring the muzzleloader privilege (stamp).
- This victory was a result of CSF working with the New York Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus and the New York Sportsmen’s Advisory Council (NYSAC).
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation has been on the front lines working towards including crossbows in archery season since before the original language was first adopted in 2014. For over a decade and a half, CSF has been working with lawmakers, NYSAC, other sportsmen’s organizations and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) to normalize crossbows. This year’s success could not have been achieved without the help of both the Senate and Assembly Committees of Environmental Conservation. With a resounding bipartisan vote of support in both chambers of the New York legislature, only four “nay” votes in both chambers combined, and the signature from the Governor, New York has now been added to the growing list of states that permit the unrestricted use of crossbows during archery season.
When crossbows were first approved in New York, they were only permitted for hunting use during the muzzleloader season and the last two weeks of early bowhunting season and had stringent size requirements. Since then, crossbow technology has accelerated quickly and the dated language in statute made many modern-day crossbows illegal for hunting in New York. Now that the Governor has signed the legislation, these requirements have been removed, allowing the use of newly engineered and constructed modern crossbows.
By allowing more opportunities for use and by removing the dated size requirements of crossbows, hunters will be contributing more to the American System of Conservation Funding (ASCF) when buying new archery equipment. NYSDEC will benefit with the addition of a wildlife management tool and more conservation funding through the ASCF.
Although this law did not make it in time for publication in this year’s printed NYS DEC Hunting and Trapping Regulations Guide, NYS DEC plans on updates to their website to share the appropriate new regulations for crossbow use. For licensing purposes, crossbow hunters will be required to purchase a bowhunting privilege. Therefore, a bowhunter education course will be required before obtaining the bowhunting privilege. In-person or online courses are approved by the NYSDEC. Also, Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau counties must conform to a 500-foot residential buffer zone, with an option for other counties to opt in to this provision.
CSF would like to thank our leadership in the New York Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus: Senator Hinchey, Senator Griffo and Assemblyman Smullen, as well as the two sponsors of this legislation, Senator Harckham and New York Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus member Assemblywoman Woerner. CSF would also like to acknowledge the dedicated members of NYSAC who have been advocating alongside CSF for this important change since the Council was formed by CSF in 2012. CSF thanks Governor Hochul for signing this important legislation into law to make crossbows available for the full archery season this fall.
