Stay far away from Barnett. They are plagued with horrible limbs, and even worse customer service. Horton is better but not by much.

If I were buying a crossbow today (I will be next year for my wife) for the money I would be getting a Stryker strike zone 380 or 350. The 380 is $700 fully equipped and comes with everything you need (sling, 5 arrows, quiver, field tips, scope, and rope ****er) except broadheads. Every one we have set up has exceeded the 380 fps factory rating with a 400 grain arrow and with only a 160 pound draw weight. For a crossbow they are also damn quiet. They have about the lightest trigger on a crossbow I have ever shot and there are redundant safeties to keep the bow from being dry fired. And to top it off it weighs less than 7 pounds and is very compact.

For my wife I will be getting her a strikezone 350 due to it only having a 135 pound draw weight and still hitting 350 fps.

A very very close second would be the Parker tornado. Another damn fine crossbow. Great trigger that can not be dry fired, very compact and light weight, not as quiet as the strikezone but still very quiet for a crossbow, 160 pound draw weight getting 330 fps with a 400 grain arrow and usually surpasses this speed in our chrono.