Before I bought my crossbow I shot pretty much everything available. Since I bought it I shoot everything I can at every opportunity. I only have experience with one Ravin, an R-9, not long after they came out, but I did shoot it quite a bit. I tested it shooting at 20 yards which was all i had available. I found it less accurate than Excaliburs, and most other compound crossbows. It was not a lot less accurate, but it was quite consistently so. I laid it off to a combination of the goofy arrow rest and the tight string pinch required of the nock because of the rest. With most of the rail based rests I could consistently get accuracy using the same arrow shot after shot to put that arrow back into the same hole as many times as I wished. The half moon nock designs were capable of being a little less accurate which I think was due to slight off center nocks. The flat backed Excalibur design produced the best accuracy if the rail was properly aligned.
None of the crossbows I put through their paces was inaccurate to the point of being a concern about putting the arrow precisely where you wanted it at 20 yards. So, unless a person is bound and determined to do something stupid, any of them would be better than vertical bows for general deer hunting. The degree to which they are better is shooter dependent and not easily measured across the general hunting population. All of them had the power to drive and arrow completely through Bambi at normal range and a double lung even with a large 4 blade head.
If you believe noise is a significant issue, some are quieter and some are louder. None will get past a deer's ears at bow ranges.
Speed helps, but realistically, you have to be moving an arrow awfully fast to discount the deer's ability to move much past 20 yards. That would be speed well beyond the capability of today's arrows and bows.
The ease of maintenance and use of the Excaliburs is probably the largest difference between the crossbows. Some ( Ravins) require pretty specialized nocks. The half moon nocks can and will cut strings on the first shot with them at the wrong angle and that can damage the bow and the shooter.
