A federally funded study offers the archery industry its clearest look yet at who's buying crossbows, why they're buying them, and what keeps them coming back to the counter.
“Crossbow Hunting in the United States: Understanding Crossbow Hunters' Participation, Characteristics, and the Factors That Contribute to Their Retention in Hunting," funded through a Multistate Conservation Grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and jointly administered by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, was conducted by the Archery Trade Association and Responsive Management. Surveyors collected more than 10,000 completed interviews with licensed bowhunters across 13 states, including 5,398 who had hunted with a crossbow in the past five years. The result is one of the largest, most statistically rigorous portraits of the crossbow market to date — and it's full of practical signals for anyone selling gear, stocking shelves, or planning a marketing calendar.
Here's what manufacturers and retailers need to know.
The single biggest demographic finding is age. Crossbow hunters started hunting with some kind of weapon at a median age of 12, same as everyone else. But they didn't pick up a crossbow until a median age of 47. More than half of crossbow owners first purchased one after age 44, and 55-and-older hunters are far more likely than the average bowhunter to use one.
That has direct retail implications. The data from the study reflect that this isn't primarily a youth-recruitment product; it's a retention and reactivation tool for hunters already established in the sport, often ones dealing with the physical realities of aging — reduced draw strength, joint issues, or old injuries. Marketing copy and in-store conversations built around comfort, ease of use and reliability will resonate more with this buyer than messaging built around speed or challenge.
A persistent industry worry is that crossbows cannibalize compound and traditional bow sales. The data complicates that story. Crossbow hunters are remarkably multi-equipment hunters: 92% also hunted with a firearm in the past five years, 80% have hunted with a vertical bow at some point, and 47% have done target archery outside of hunting season.
Where the data does show a real shift is in frequency, not abandonment. Among crossbow hunters who've also hunted with a vertical bow, 47% say their vertical bow use has decreased over the past five years, compared to just 20% who say it increased. So the typical pattern isn't a hunter switching brands or categories outright — it's a hunter expanding their gear closet while gradually leaning more on the crossbow as the primary tool, often as they age.
For retailers, that argues against an either/or merchandising strategy. A customer buying a crossbow is still a prospect for traditional archery accessories, broadheads, and target equipment — just possibly not the primary vertical bow itself.
Crossbow durability is a double-edged sword for manufacturers. Once a hunter owns one, they tend to keep it: 76% of current owners have just a single crossbow, and the typical owner has held onto their primary crossbow for a median of five years.
When it comes to replacement intent, the picture is sobering for anyone counting on quick upgrade cycles. Nearly half of crossbow owners, 46%, say they don't intend to buy another one at all, while a third say they'll buy a replacement only every four years or more. Just 6% plan to buy a new crossbow every three years or less.
That puts a premium on two things: getting the first sale right, since it may be the only one, and building a robust accessories and consumables business around the installed base. The good news on that front: 81% of crossbow owners have purchased accessories such as cases, scopes, strings, wax, or oil, and the average buyer spent $786.89 on their primary crossbow ($556 median), signaling real willingness to invest at the point of purchase even if repeat-crossbow sales are rare.
Outside the initial purchase, crossbow hunters aren't big in-season spenders specifically on crossbow-related gear. The median spend during the 2024-25 season was just $100, with a mean of $296.29 — and roughly half of crossbow hunters spent $100 or less.
This suggests the bigger revenue opportunity tied to the season isn't crossbow-specific consumables, but the broader hunting trip — shooting sticks, blinds, clothing and firearm-related gear, since crossbow hunters are heavy firearm users (85% hunted with a firearm in the most recent season, more than the 78% who hunted with a crossbow that same season).
Crossbow hunters rate themselves less confident with their crossbow than with their firearm. Just 39% consider themselves advanced at crossbow hunting, compared to 73% who call themselves advanced with a firearm. Half describe themselves as intermediate crossbow users, and 11% as beginners — with female crossbow hunters and those new to hunting overall more likely to call themselves beginners.
That's a meaningful opening for retailers and manufacturers to build loyalty through service rather than just product: sighting-in clinics, maintenance demonstrations and clear instructional content at the point of sale. A buyer who feels supported through that early learning curve is more likely to return for accessories, even if they're not back for another crossbow anytime soon.
For manufacturers thinking about where new customers come from, the path into crossbow hunting is illuminating. The vast majority of crossbow hunters — 83% — first hunted with a firearm, not a bow of any kind. Only 4% started hunting with a crossbow itself. And among those who started with a firearm and later moved into archery, 92% bowhunted with a vertical bow first before ever picking up a crossbow.
In other words, crossbow hunters are typically firearm hunters and then vertical bow hunters before they're crossbow hunters — a multi-step journey that often takes decades. The mean gap between a hunter's first hunting experience and their first crossbow hunt is more than 30 years. That has implications for where dollars are best spent on customer acquisition: firearm retailers and ranges, and existing vertical-bow customers reaching mid-life, may be more fertile recruitment ground for crossbows than entirely new-to-hunting audiences.
The crossbow market isn't a story of disruption; it's a story of expansion among an aging, multiweapon hunting population that buys once, holds on for years, and spends modestly but steadily on accessories and upkeep. For manufacturers, that argues for durability and comfort-focused product development aimed at older buyers, alongside strong accessory and consumable lines to offset slow replacement cycles. For retailers, it argues for treating the crossbow sale as the start of a long relationship — one built on service, instruction and cross-selling into firearm and traditional archery categories — rather than a transaction to be repeated every season.
Do you want to learn more? Download the study from the ATA’s Resource Library at .... More information about the study and additional analysis from the researchers will be available at the Archery and Bowhunting Summit, taking place Jan. ... during the 2027 ATA Trade Show in Indianapolis, IN. Additional event details can be found at atashow.com.
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