RE: Crossbow or Cross-Blows
This will be my second year shooting a xbow. Haven't gotten anything with it yet. They are very accurate once you get them dialed in. Depending on which bow you go with depends on your distance of shots you can take. I am just shooting a PSE Copperhead which is 150lbs and will hum a bolt at around 260 - 270 depending on your setup from what I read about them. Have yet to get my setup chrono'ed. If you go with more powerful xbows you can get some further shots but I wouldn't go past 40 yards when taking an animal.
The power stroke on a Xbow is alot shorter than a compound bow. So the bolt will run out of steam pretty fast.Up to30 yards I can knock the nipples off a squirrel but pastthe 35with my xbow the bolt just starts to drop very rapid. Kinda has the bottle rocket effectof moving to a certain distance sputters out and *bang* thats all she had.
You will also see how loud they are in comparising to a compound bow which is another reason to not take such long shots with them. The sound of the xbow alerts the deer long before the bolt has gotten to them. (speed of sound is roughly 1,100 fps, VS some xbows shooting well into the 300's fps)
They are a blast to shoot though, just watch where you put your fingers especially your thumb when shooting. They can take skin, fingernail, and even your thumb off if your not careful.
Dave