Hunting Archery Duck Deer

Bow Hunting Restrictions - Henrico supervisors restrict bow shooting

Bowhunters and archers will no longer be able to practice their craft in some residential neighborhoods.

The ordinance prohibits the use of high-powered bows and arrows on all land in the county zoned for residential use, as well as land zoned for commercial and industrial purposes. Violators will be charged with a Class IV misdemeanor, which carries a maximum fine of $250.

The ordinance does not restrict the usage of bows and arrows on A-1 (agricultural) land or C-1 (conservation) land of any size in the county. Some subdivisions in Henrico exist on A-1 land, with most lots more than one acre in size but some as small as a half-acre.

Prior to adoption of the ordinance, Henrico Police lacked the authority to stop archers or bowhunters from using their equipment in areas where a stray arrow could cause harm to others.

Passage of the new measure will make the county safer, Brookland District Supervisor Dick Glover said.

“It adds to the public safety that if someone is [being] irresponsible, you can call the police and they can stop it,” he said.

But Glen Allen resident Tom Sherlock, a bowhunter and archer who routinely practices in his backyard, told the Board that the ordinance was unnecessary and over-restrictive.

“If so many people were being irresponsible, then you’d see more accidents reported every year,” he said. “There are a lot of really good archers who realize that what they are using are not toys.”

Sherlock said that he never practices when his neighbor’s young children are outside and that he shoots from an elevated position toward the nature preserve that borders his backyard, so that his arrows will hit the ground if they miss their targets.

“I am against punishing responsible people who are conducting a recreational event that has been around since the founding of this country,” Sherlock said.

Henrico Police officials will not pro-actively seek out violators of the new ordinance, County Manager Virgil Hazelett said; rather, they will respond to complaints from citizens.

Glover told Sherlock that archers and bowhunters who continue to practice in their own yards responsibly likely wouldn’t be reported by neighbors anyway.

Henrico officials began investigating the issue about a year ago, after a resident of the Kingston subdivision in western Henrico complained that his neighbor was taking target practice with a high-powered crossbow. He worried that his young daughter, or other residents, might be harmed by a stray arrow.

Delegate Jack Reid of Henrico helped pass legislation during the 2005 General Assembly session that allowed localities to establish regulations for bows and arrows within their borders.

Supervisors initially considered a new ordinance in July but delayed a vote until this month in order to study the issue in more detail.

Varina District Supervisor Jim Donati voted for the ordinance but said he did so reluctantly.

“I still feel like we really don’t need this ordinance,” Donati said.

He suggested that the county establish public archery and bowhunting practice areas in county parks, so that citizens who want to practice can continue to do so.

Citizens who live in neighborhoods that contain common land zoned C-1 also may be allowed to practice there, Hazelett said, if the homeowners’ associations that govern that land permit them to do so.