Florida Crossbow Laws: Seasons, Licenses, and Equipment Rules

Florida crossbow laws let you own a crossbow without any permit, registration, or background check, but hunting with one is regulated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission through seasonal rules, licenses, and equipment standards. A crossbow is not a firearm under state law, which is why ownership is unrestricted and why even people with felony convictions can legally hunt with one during the right season.

Owning a Crossbow in Florida

Florida Statute 790.001 defines a firearm as a weapon that expels a projectile by explosive action. A crossbow uses mechanical tension, so it falls outside that definition. No concealed-carry permit is needed to transport one, there is no waiting period at purchase, and the state keeps no registry.

Target shooting, backyard practice, and collecting are legal statewide. Cities and counties, though, often have their own ordinances about discharging projectiles in residential areas. State law can allow the shot your city code prohibits, so check the local rules before setting up a target in the yard.

When You Can Hunt With a Crossbow

Florida’s deer calendar runs through four sequential seasons, and crossbows are not legal in all of them.

Archery season: bows only. Crossbows are prohibited unless you hold a Persons With Disabilities Crossbow Permit.
Crossbow season: crossbows, bows, and airbows are all allowed.
Muzzleloading gun season: muzzleloaders, crossbows, bows, and airbows are legal.
General gun season: nearly everything is legal, including centerfire rifles, shotguns, pistols, muzzleloaders, air guns, crossbows, and bows.

Dates vary by zone. For the 2025–2026 season, crossbow season runs August 2 through September 5 in Zone A, October 18 through November 21 in Zone B, September 13 through October 17 in Zone C, and October 25 through November 26 (plus December 1–5) in Zone D.¹ Wildlife Management Areas often set their own dates, so check the WMA brochure before hunting public land.

Licenses and Permits You Need

Hunting with a crossbow requires a Florida hunting license plus one or more permits depending on the game and location.

Hunting license: required for anyone taking or attempting to take game. A resident annual license is $17; a non-resident annual license is $151.50.²
Crossbow Season Permit: required in addition to the hunting license when hunting during the dedicated crossbow season. $5 annually.²
Deer Permit: required to take, attempt to take, or possess deer. $5 annually.³
Management Area Permit: required to hunt on Wildlife Management Areas and other designated public lands. $26.50 annually.²

All required licenses and permits must be in your possession while hunting. Customers hunting on a licensed hunt preserve are exempt from the individual hunting license, deer permit, crossbow season permit, and several other permit requirements under Florida Statute 379.3712.⁴

Anyone born on or after June 1, 1975, must complete a hunter safety course before buying a hunting license that allows unsupervised hunting with a crossbow. Hunters 16 and older who have not yet finished the course can use a Hunter Safety Mentoring Deferral to hunt under the supervision of a licensed adult at least 21 years old who has completed the requirement.⁵

Equipment Rules

The main equipment rule concerns what sits at the end of the bolt. Arrows or bolts used to take deer, bear, or wild turkey must have broadheads with a minimum width of 7/8 inch.⁶ Field points are fine for small game and feral hogs.

Explosive and drug-administering arrowheads are prohibited for taking any game or crows, and taking crow with a crossbow is separately prohibited under Florida’s administrative code.⁷ Scopes and optical sights are permitted.

Hunter Orange During Crossbow Season

On public land during any open deer season, anyone hunting deer or accompanying a deer hunter must wear at least 500 square inches of daylight fluorescent orange as an outer garment above the waist. A hat or head covering counts toward the total. The statute carves out one exception: hunters using a bow and arrow during seasons restricted exclusively to bow-and-arrow hunting.⁸

Because crossbow season also permits bows and airbows, it is not archery-exclusive, so the exemption does not apply. Crossbow hunters during crossbow season should wear orange.

Hunting Feral Hogs

Feral hogs are among the most common crossbow targets in the state, and the rules are looser than for deer. On private land with the landowner’s permission, wild hogs can be hunted year-round with no bag limit, no size restriction, either sex, and no hunting license required. Crossbows are specifically listed among the legal methods of take.⁹

On Wildlife Management Areas the rules tighten. A management area permit is required even though a hunting license is not, and some WMAs require a quota permit for hog hunting during certain seasons. Check the specific WMA brochure.⁹ The broadhead rule that applies to deer and turkey does not apply to hogs.

Bowfishing

Crossbows are legal for taking nongame freshwater fish during daylight hours, from a boat or from shore. Game fish such as bass and panfish must be caught by hook and line. A few locations are off-limits, including the spillways of the Eureka and Rodman dams on the Oklawaha River and the spillway of the Jim Woodruff Dam on the Apalachicola River.¹⁰

Disability Permit for Archery Season

Crossbows are normally prohibited on public land during archery season. If you are permanently unable to draw any bow with at least 40 pounds of draw weight, you can apply for a Persons With Disabilities Crossbow and Airbow Permit. The application requires an original certificate from a licensed physician documenting the disability.¹¹ The permit allows a crossbow, airbow, or bow with a draw-lock device during archery season on public land. A management area permit is still required on WMAs.¹²

Hunting With a Felony Conviction

Because Florida does not classify crossbows as firearms, people with felony convictions can legally own and hunt with them. The FWC states that properly licensed convicted felons may hunt with bows, crossbows, and air guns during seasons when those methods are legal.¹³

The problem to watch for is constructive possession of a firearm. If you hunt in a group where someone else has a gun and you know about it and are in a position to control it, you could be charged with constructive possession. The FWC warns specifically about that scenario.¹³ Anyone on probation should confirm with a probation officer before heading out, even with a crossbow.

Penalties for Hunting Without a License

Hunting without the required license or permits is a Level One violation under Florida Statute 379.401. It is a noncriminal infraction, not an arrestable offense, but it still costs money. The first-time civil penalty is $50 plus the price of the missing license or permit. For a repeat within 36 months, the penalty jumps to $250 plus the license cost.¹⁴

You can resolve a Level One citation by paying the penalty and buying the missing license within 30 days, by mail or in person. Ignoring the citation or refusing to accept it escalates the matter to a second-degree misdemeanor, which carries potential jail time.¹⁴ At $5 for a crossbow season permit, skipping it is not worth the risk.

Trespass While Carrying a Crossbow

Entering someone else’s land to hunt without permission is trespass under Florida Statute 810.09. Carrying a crossbow at the time turns it into armed trespass on property, a third-degree felony, because a crossbow qualifies as a dangerous weapon.¹⁵ Basic unarmed trespass is a first-degree misdemeanor, so having any weapon in hand during a trespass raises the exposure sharply.

Florida Statute 790.15 separately prohibits knowingly discharging a firearm over occupied premises or across public roads. That statute is written for firearms, not crossbows, but local ordinances may extend similar rules to all projectile weapons. Sending a bolt onto property you do not control invites charges under one theory or another regardless of what state law technically covers.

1
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Florida Resident Game and Furbearer Hunting Season Dates and Bag Limits
2
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Recreational Hunting Licenses and Permits
3
Go Outdoors Florida. Florida FWC Portal – View Package
4
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Do I Need a Recreational Hunting or Fishing License or Permit
5
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Hunter Safety Requirement
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Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Taking Game
7
Cornell Law Institute. Florida Admin Code 68A-12.002
8
Florida Senate. Florida Code 379.3003 – Hunter Orange Clothing
9
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Wild Hog
10
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Methods of Taking Freshwater Fish
11
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Persons With Disabilities Crossbow and Airbow Permit
12
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Persons with Disabilities Resident Hunting/Fishing License
13
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Hunting With a Felony Conviction
14
Online Sunshine. Florida Statute 379.401 – Penalties
15
Florida Senate. Florida Code 810.09 – Trespass on Property Other Than Structure or Conveyance