Crossbows were legalized for all Virginia deer hunters in 2005. Virginia's combined 70,000 bow and crossbow hunters represent less than 30 percent of total deer hunters and harvest about 10 percent of the state's deer annually.

• Archery tackle (including crossbows) may be used for hunting wild birds and animals.
• Crossbows are legal to use by any hunter.
• If a crossbow is used during an archery season (including the urban archery season) the hunter must have a crossbow license.
• If a hunter chooses to use both conventional archery tackle and a crossbow during an archery season, they will need both an archery license when using the conventional bow and a crossbow license when using the crossbow.
• If a hunter chooses to use a crossbow during the firearms season, no crossbow license will be required (just as there is no requirement for a person to have an archery license if using conventional archery equipment during the firearms season).
• The laws governing the use of archery tackle also apply to crossbow tackle.

 Current computer reconstruction models provide a prehunt population estimate of 850,000 - 1,000,000 deer in Virginia.

  Hunting is the most effective and efficient method available for managing deer populations. Hunters may take deer during urban archery, early and late archery, early and late muzzleloading, and general firearms seasons.

• Virginia's total yearly deer harvest has averaged over 220,000 for the past decade.