I always used to think that I would never get a crossbow. Well today I picked up a Horton Storm RDX. I love shooting my vertical bow but practice time is getting harder to find and my eyes are starting to like looking thru a scope more and more. The last thing I want to do is wound a deer. My kids will also enjoy shooting it. I've only put a few bolts thru it but my first impression is wow.
There are pros and cons to crossbows. Some folks tend to be snobs when it comes to bow hunting. "A crossbow isn't a real bow like a compound...Anyone can shoot it...It is no challenge..." Of course, this is the exact argument recurve shooters made when bows with wheels were first legalized, and probably what stick bow hunters thought when recurves came along.
There are lots of myths about crossbows. Many folks think they have better ballistics than a compound, but they don't. Bowhunting is a short range sport by nature and a crossbow does not extend the range. Arrows, even the fastest, are still very slow, and much can happen to a live target from the time the arrow leaves the bow and when it arrives. Crossbow arrows are subject to deflection from small objects just like compound bow arrows. In general, a compound bow is actually more accurate a long range in the hands of an expert than a crossbow. The shorter arrows of a crossbow lose stability faster than longer compound bow arrows.
All of the challenges associated with getting close to game, shot selection, distance, blood trailing. The two exceptions are 1) drawing, and holding in the presence of game and 2) the requirement for shooting form consistency.
When crossbows were legalized in my state, they were slow to be accepted by bowhunters. The expressed fear was that gun hunters with no concept of bowhunting would end up wounding a lot of deer. The hidden agenda of many bowhunters was that they wanted the early season to themselves and thought gun hunters would by crossbows to extend their season and they would need to share the fall woods with more hunters.
I'm a hunter education instructor, so I got an early look at crossbows during a training session before the first hunting season they became legal. The first thing I noticed was the noise. Some were so loud they sounded like a .22 rifle. One of the first things I looked for when I bought a crossbow was quiet. Unless you get a quiet one, string jumping can be a real problem. It became a problem when compound bows started shooting light arrows, but companies like Mathews found ways to make fast shooting bows that were also quiet. In those days, few companies were focusing on silencing crossbows.
I continued to hunt with my compound for many years after I bought a crossbow. I found it a great way to introduce kids into bowhunting. I had hoped to graduate to a recurve bow but I was never able convince myself that my accuracy was sufficient to keep my wounding rate at a level I'm comfortable with. Instead, as I've gotten older, I've started using both the compound and crossbow. When hunting in warm weather I love the challenge of the compound, but with my arthritis, drawing it in colder weather with heavier clothing is problematic.
I hope you enjoy your new acquisition!
Thanks,
Jack
