Ok, grow up I'm not talking gas here. I'm talking Silent But Deadly...keeping you alive when you need to be dead quiet. If you are reading this, then chances are you've watched Walking Dead. What weapon does Daryl Dixon carry all the time, that never fails him? That's right...a crossbow.
If you're silently stalking through the woods and Captain Dead Face is slowly trolling around, your weapon of choice needs to be silent, accurate, and fairly quick to load. A crossbow is certainly a great option. With dozens of varieties with hundreds of different models the crossbow is versatile and they are becoming more and more abundant.
I recently stumbled upon CH Kadels (wow by the way) and they have a decent little collection of various sized crossbows. From a small 50lb handheld for $19.99 that shoots 160 FPS (feet per second)....
...to this monster Barnett Buck Commander that fires arrows at 365 FPS, for a whopping $699.99.
In my opinion, having only shot a crossbow once, I would have to look towards practicality (surprise right?). I would have to get two...the first being the self cocking 80 lb hand held from Cobra...simply pull back on the rear lever and you have an aluminum arrow ready to shoot at 150 fps and with pin point accuracy out to 40 yards you wouldn't need to be in Harms Way while firing. Reasoning for picking a handheld...SPEED! I don't want to have to put my crossbow down, stick my foot in the front bracket and pull the string back, then set the arrow every time! This little guy is cock, set the arrow and fire. All of this for a moderate $39.99 with three aluminum arrows (note to self: order more arrows).
Secondly, I would need something for a longer distance, with extremely high accuracy; almost like a sniper rifle of the crossbow world. This would be used for distant shooting, maybe nesting in a tree holed up in a compound of some kind. Again, I'm gonna go practical here due to not being made of money! My pick would be the Barnett Quad 400 (priced at 399.99) Barnett provides a very high quality product at moderate prices. This particular crossbow fires at an extremely high rate of speed...345 FPS!
Again, I will say that I have only shot a crossbow once. But in comparing them to guns they obviously have positives and negatives. A quick positive list...quiet, fairly inexpensive, various sizes and models, easy to shoot, did I mention quiet? Negatives include strings wear out and eventually need replacement, fairly large design isn't exactly maneuverable for the shoulder models, and the biggest of all is the loading time. It can take up to a few seconds to cock, load and fire, whereas a semi-auto shotgun/rifle/handgun is just boom boom boom. Positives and negatives come with everything so take these quick lists for what they are. Will a crossbow be in your arsenal? It should be, partnered with a team member who is firearm equipped you could be a team to be reckoned with...Team Death Squad unite!
Thanks for reading! (First picture from Bungeecow on Redbubble) TKZ_out.
Nice write up Dan. I agree that the crossbow is a good weapon and being able to kill silently is a necessity in some situations. One main thing I really like about the crossbow is the ability to re-use your arrows so you're not always looking for ammo.
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