I am old enough to remember when Pete Shepley, Pres.of PSE introduced the first practical compound crossbow. Bear Archery followed a year later with their own compound crossbow. I had a friend who was a PSE rep at the time and was able to shoot the Crossfire crossbow. The crossbow was very accurate and extremely noisy, The bows hollow body frame was like an echo chamber. The traditional bow hunters along with traditional stick bow shooters were outraged a crossbow could change the sport of bowhunting. The arrival of a suitable crossbow and its use in the woods eventually died out. The marketplace nor DNR/Game departments were just ready to tackle the issue and use of the crossbow.
So what has changed?? The aging baby boomers have made the crossbow what it is today in conjunction with changes in game laws to allow the use a field. In my own state of Maryland, the DNR established a 2 week crossbow season to allow it's use during the regular bow season of October/November. So who took advantage of this new 2 week season? An easy answer, former bowhunters who lacked the time for traditional compound bow practice and more importantly having a crossbow season gave an opportunity to those who had not bow hunted before to now hunt. Now Md regulations allow crossbow use throughout the entire bow season from September to the end of January. As an example when the first 2-week crossbow season was established Bass Pro Shop outside Baltimore was selling about 46 crossbows per week.
The crossbow is out of the bow and very much doubt the X-bow is going back into a box.....it is here to stay.
The archery Industry has to blame someone or something for the industry's downturn. 2018 was either the 3rd or 4th year in a row of declining sales. The industry is facing a cleansing of bow manufacturers as all industry's do at some point. Likely 5 to 10 bow manufacturers will still be around three to five years from now. The issue facing all manufacturers of hunting tools is declining participation along with negative recruitment. The high cost ($1,000 +) of outfitting a new Compound Bow has not helped sell more or new bows. Bow technology has essentially peaked, the days of serious bowhunters buying the newest latest bow
like they did in the early 2000's is over. The gun industry has managed to create new rifle sales with $399.00 rifles with 1 MOA guarantees. The archery industry needs to do the same....or ELSE.
As an example, muzzleloading peaked in 2007/ 2008 or about a year after Smith and Wesson bought Thompson Center Arms. " Opps for S&W." The closed breech muzzleloading technology peaked and so did the i markets ability to absorb new muzzleloading rifles.
