RE: Barnett Predator crossbow
I know there are numerous crossbow makers on the market but I happen to have owned most of the major brands that you normally hear about, at least around my home in Virginia; Excalibur, Horton, Parker, TenPoint and Barnett. I currently still own an Excalibur, TenPoint and an Excalibur / Bear hybrid called a Buckmasters Maxpoint (now discontinued). Unfortunately there is no way to tell if a model is going to be discontinued so you need to rely of the company being around to help out in the future. I believe all five mentioned above will be there for you. This is just my opinion of the models I have owned along but with quality, fit and lack of problems I rank them like this:
Tied for number 1 is Excalibur & TenPoint.
Number 2 is Horton
Number 3 is Parker (I had to get three different trigger / anti-dryfire mechanisms within a two month period)
Number 4 is Barnett (my Barnett Quad crossbow had both trigger and limb problems).
I have used customer service on all of my crossbows as several of them were used when I got them and were missing some very minor parts while others were brand new and had issues. I rank them like this:
Tied for number 1 is Excalibur, TenPoint and Parker.
Number 2 was Horton
Number 3 was Barnett.
Excalibur, TenPoint & Parker always responded back to me via email within the same day. Several of the parts on the used crossbows I bought (Excalibur & TenPoint) were so minor they just sent them to me. Parker was a new crossbow and of course I didn't have to pay for the repairs either. My main concern was the time in which they responded back to me and all three of these companies were tops in that category. Horton and Barnett made things right but it took a little longer getting through, getting a reply and getting repairs.
Again, this is just my opinion from dealings I've had with the companies and their products. I'm sure others have had the same with the major crossbow makers while others have had better or worse experiences with their respective crossbows and their makers.
There are some other crossbow makers that I've heard good things about which is Darton, Crossman and Eastman. I've also been told Eastman crossbows are made by Darton. But I've never personally owned any of these, maybe in due time?