A rifle that shoots a arrow can not be conciderd a bow,now way no how.........aint going to happen read definition of BOW......A recurve crossbow does fall under the BOW clasification.......
Myself I chose compound when in a tree and recurve,longbow,compound when stalk/still hunting but when it comes to sitting in a groundblind I like to use one of my crossbows....Ive tried tree stand and stalking with crossbow and they get too heavy after a short amount of time ......