Opinions On Crossbows

[love the woods]

I Hunt With A Pse Nova (60 Lbs) Compound Bow.i Have Recently Aquired A Horton Crossbow.although The Crossbow Is Awesome To Play With I Dont Know The Reaction It Would Get Me If I Came Across Other Hunters In The Bush.i Could Never Put Down My Compound But The Curiosity Of The Crossbow Is Killing Me.what Do You Guys Think,would You Hunt With One?

[3kills]

if i had one sure i would hunt with it...learn ur limitations with it and dont go beyond that like any thing u hunt with...

[willyqbc]

Personally i can't see myself hunting with one, nothing against them ethically or anything like that. The performance from a compound is just so much better than the crossbow. Bowhunting is tough enough without further limiting yourself with a weapon of such limited range IMHO. If and when I want to challenge myself with a 35yd and under weapon i will go to a recurve.

Just my thoughts
Chris

[Thunderstix]

I have never shot one but would like to try. A friend is buying an Excalibur so I will have the chance soon.

[Dirty]

My dad has a tenpoint titan compound crossbow and the thing is sweet. It has a laser dot scope and is dead on. He cas shoot bullseyes at 50yrds +, in my opinion it is only personal preference between hunting with a bow and crossbow. Some people don't get to practice as much as others so a crossbow offers a better choice than a compound.

[leftcoast]

I am kinda into primitive type thinking and by bow preference is a long bow. If I was too move up to an easy shooting bow I would choose crossbow because they are much older than compounds.

But trad bows like longbows and recurves can be very accurate out to 60 yards or so. Practise and a good attitude are the key. Howard Hill and others shot game at 80 yards quite often.

=keith=

[houndogger]

I am with Keith on the Trad gear. I enjoy my longbow and its simplicity. I guess the only way I would shoot a crossbow would be if I was not able to pull a bow. Don't know much about them but what I do know is they have their limits and tuning is very important. Not just the kind of thing ya pull out of the box cause you want to hunt in the bow only zones.

[416]

love the woods..........screw what any one else thinks. It's a legal means of harvesting big game, so why not? The anti's already harass us about the whole "killing"
trip, so what ever we use is unacceptable to them any way, and as for the narrow minded view some of fellow hunters have..........l have never considered their opinions of any value. As some one mentioned "every one has an opinion and an asshole" including me!!!

[greybark]

Good then you will know where to put it. LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

[rrfred]

used to be a serious archer/ bowhunter and used several kinds of archery tackle- and crossbows off and on over the years. a good quality x-bow will deliver the same as a good quallity compound. efficiency is poorer than compounds as there is a very short power stroke. my current x bow is a plain horton, spits the bolt out- 500 grains at 260 FPS, whch matches my buddies compound at 60 lbs- his pushing the same arrow weight at 255 ish. X BOWS are great for the same, sane ranges used for the comparable tackle; they are not long range weapons. 40 yds is the suggested max by numerous manufacturers, stretch a little maybe,; my longest whitetail with an xbow was at 45yds. I much prefer my 50 lb recurve, shooting instinctive and it wrks fine to almost 30 yds if I do my part.

consider:
speed of sound is about 1100 fps give or take, speed of fast x bow/ bow arrrow is 300-320ish/
arrow gets to 40 yds in about 4/10 second due to deceleration, sound is there in 1/10 second,- 3/10 second is a lot of time for a high strung animal to react. at 70 yds the arrow takes about a second, the sound gets there in 1/5 second = app. 3/4 second delay- the "good" shot turns into a miss or bad hit, the really long shots are best left for the 3-d and the archery range.
my two bits/ cheers rrfred