Crossbows were invented back in the 5th-century b.c. They were invented to reduce the skill cap of archery. Archery is not easy to learn at all. Archers were trained from an early age to be recruited in the army. They were treated highly and better than a regular soldier. You can understand archery is not for everyone. To reduce the skill cap and improve archery. The Chinese invented crossbows.
Like buying a crossbow now you’re going to learn how to choose a crossbow. Think of it as buying a smartphone. Sure, you can buy the most expensive one and call it a day. But do you need the most expensive smartphone on the market?
How To Choose A Crossbow
Choosing a crossbow might not be as straight forward as you are thinking. It will take some research and a fair share of your time. If you are in a hurry, I recommend you bookmark the page and read it when you have time. Trust me, you don’t want to skip a single detail from now on.
Fix Your Budget
There are hundreds of crossbows available on the market. That doesn’t mean all of them should be on your shortlist. That’s why you need to fix a budget. Don’t try to stretch the budget too much.
Trust me, you don’t need the most expensive crossbow to start with.
A less expensive crossbow is more than fine, to begin with. Unless you add accessories or need a feature that you can’t live without, increasing the budget makes sense.
What Kind Of Crossbow Do You Need?
This can shorten the list even further. There are two types of crossbows available on the market. Compound crossbows and recurve crossbows-
Recurve crossbows are a true successor of first-generation crossbows. While compound crossbows are the modern version of crossbows. Compound crossbows are, most of the time, cheaper than a recurve crossbow. If you know which one you are going for. The decision making will become even easier.
Weight Of The Crossbow
The weight of the crossbow is quite an important part of it. A crossbow can weigh over 8lbs in some cases. Are you physically capable of carrying a crossbow that heavy?
If not, you must take a lightweight crossbow. Keep in mind some crossbows weigh less than 6 pounds. Don’t try to overestimate yourself. Just because the crossbow is lightweight, that doesn’t mean it’s less powerful.
Draw Weight
The draw weight is another important part of a crossbow. Usually, the ideal draw weight is between 90-125 lbs. But none of the modern crossbows have a draw weight that low.
Most modern crossbows have a draw weight of 150-190 lbs. Some even cross the 200 lbs mark. But that’s too much draw weight for a beginner. You can’t forget about the legal limit of a crossbow’s draw weight in your state.
Don’t let the high draw weight scare you. You can cut that draw weight by half using a rope cocker. You can take the draw weight down to 5lbs by using a cranking aid. Keep in mind, cranking aids are expensive. All crossbows don’t even support a cranking aid.
Speed And Power
Speed and power should be the next priority on your list. If a cheap crossbow says, it can fire over 400 FPS. Don’t trust that. Most of the time, it’s a fake advertisement to fool beginners.
Most of the time, the crossbow will have a healthy balance between speed and power. Depending on which crossbow you go for, the maximum kinetic energy of that crossbow and the speed of that crossbow will vary. You should always go for the maximum speed available on that budget.
How To Choose A Crossbow For Hunting
Crossbow hunting is getting more and more popular. Each year a ton of people decide to pick up crossbow hunting. When they find out how expensive they can get, they get discouraged. That shouldn’t be the case. You can find good crossbows for a low-budget too.
Read this completely. Go through this twice if necessary. I can guarantee your knowledge about crossbow will increase by a lot. Let’s start-
Budget
Once again, the key thing here is the budget. If you have a ton of budget to spare, definitely go for a high-end crossbow. They are well worth it. If you don’t, that’s not a problem. There are plenty of less expensive crossbows.
Weight
While hunting, you need to spend a lot of time running and looking for prey. The crossbow will stay on your back for most of the time. If it’s heavy and hard to carry, you will get tired way too easily. That’s why lightweight crossbows are best for hunting.
Draw Weight
The draw weight of the crossbow is another crucial part. In my opinion, it’s one of the most important parts of a crossbow. As we are talking about hunting crossbows, we can’t cap the draw weight. Most of the time, more draw weight equals a faster crossbow.
Keep in mind each state has its own legal limit of draw weight. Stay within that limit, but don’t be scared to take a crossbow with the high draw weight.
Speed And Power
You don’t need the fastest crossbow on the market for hunting. It’s always a good choice to go for a fast crossbow. But fast crossbows can often have a tough learning curve. Learning how to control the crossbow will require some time.
As for power, make sure that the crossbow can generate at least 90 ft-lbs of kinetic energy. An arrow flying at 350 FPS with 100 ft-lbs kinetic energy can slay anything you throw in front of it.
Noise
In a crossbow, you can’t use a silencer on the barrel like a rifle. What you can do is, installing a sound dampener on the limbs and the bowstring. Most compound crossbows come with a noise dampener installed on the string. Sometimes, manufacturers don’t include that to reduce the cost. Installing them is not that hard.
If your crossbow didn’t come with a sound dampener, make sure to install noise dampeners. Noise dampeners will reduce the vibration and noise of the crossbow.
Scope
Crossbow scopes aren’t as powerful as riflescopes. Crossbow is not meant to be a long-range weapon. That’s why most crossbow scope only offers a 100 yards or so range. 100 yards of a range is more than fine for a crossbow. I know you can shoot over 300 yards with a crossbow. But the accuracy will be non-existent.
Make sure to choose a bright and illuminated crossbow scope. It will enhance your hunting capabilities and increase accuracy.
How To Choose A Crossbow For Deer Hunting
Most of the time crossbow is used for hunting smaller animals. But a crossbow can easily hunt deers. Sometimes, you just wake your inner Russian and end even slaying a bear with a crossbow. Not that I recommend you to do that. But it’s not off the table completely. While choosing a crossbow for deer hunting only, you need to keep some things in mind.
Noise
Noise is the most important part here. If your crossbow is too loud, it can alert the deer when you fire. If you miss the shot by any chance, the rest of the pack will hear it and run away from the spot. That’s why never go on a deer hunt without using noise dampeners on your string.
Power
The skin of a deer is quite thick. To penetrate that, you will need some force. If your crossbow can’t even generate 100 ft-lbs kinetic energy every shot, it will be tough to kill a deer in a single shot. Unless you are a professional and know every vital spot of a deer.
Speed
Surprisingly the speed here is not that important. Why? Most of the time, you will hunt a deer that is isolated from the group. That deer won’t run like the rest. That’s why you can take your time and take the shoot. But if you are looking for the thrill and want to shoot a running deer, you will need a crossbow that can shoot over 380 FPS.
Choosing A Crossbow Summary
Choosing a crossbow is not that hard. If you want it to be a difficult topic, we can do that too. Here I tried to explain how to choose a crossbow in a simple manner.
If you still have questions left, you can ask them down below. No matter what kind of crossbow you end up choosing, make sure to follow the guideline. Make sure the crossbow marks all the tick marks on your list. With that said, I hope you enjoyed reading this small but insightful guide. Till next time, see you later.