If you’re a bowhunter, you can thank Roy Case for his persistence in getting archery hunting legalized in North America. His efforts took years, but the end result was a new kind of activity in the woods, fields and swamps across the country.

Roy Case hailed from Racine, Wisconsin, and he was an avid field archer in the 1920s. After realizing how efficient he was with a bow and arrow, he lobbied the state to allow him to hunt deer with his bow during the state’s annual gun season. It took a lot of convincing, but Roy and his buddy were provided written permission from Wisconsin’s chief game warden, Harley McKenzie, to use their homemade bows, arrows and broadheads to hunt deer during that year’s firearms season, which ran Dec. 1-10, 1930.

On the last day of that season, Case killed a spike buck that came running through the woods after gun-hunters had rousted it from its bed during a deer drive. The gun-hunters, who didn’t know Case was in the woods, were not kind to him. They ridiculed him and told him he didn’t belong there.

That day started a four-year quest in which Case and his friends lobbied the state for a special archery season. Their efforts paid off in 1934 when Wisconsin held the nation’s first archery season. It only lasted five days and only attracted 40 participants. Only one deer was killed, a buck, by Bill Ostlund, a Chicago resident who traveled north for the special event.

As of 2022, there were 11.4 million deer hunters in America. There are 4.63 million bowhunters in America who hunt deer. So, if you are one of those 4.63 million bowhunters, raise a glass and give a cheer to Roy Case. We will be forever grateful for his contributions to archery and bowhunting!