After reading all the posts, IMO, The reason we have no deer is the 2 week doe and buck season together. The old 3 day doe season took less doe. Its ez to kill a doe with a rifle if you see any. Not so with a crossbow. I have a permit and I can say after 5 years of crossbow hunting I have had deer jump the noise it makes and have a clean miss at 20 yards. More than once. The only buck I ever shot jumped the string and instead of a lung shot I got him in the spine and he went down. He was only 10 yards. I still have to be closer to the deer than 30 yards as the noise and the crossbow is not very accutate past 25 yards. So as a longtime bowhunter I see no advantage to the crossbow over my old compound. I would buy one if I did not have one as they are fun to shoot, Even the youngsters like shooting it which means they will have some interest to hunt when a little older when its not freezing out. A red dot or a big scope will not make the bow shoot any better. I have tried both and the only advantage for me was when counting points to see if it was 5 or better.

Happy Hunting, Stan