Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting To the dark side / crossbow

After a shoulder injury last spring I was hoping to heal up enough to shoot my compound bow this season. Didn't happen, I tried to draw it once in Nov. and had to face the fact, not gonna happen either.

I have followed the crossbow recommendation thread in anticipation of buying something after the first of the year. I shot my nephews crossbow this weekend. His is an excaliber micro 335 recurve. Small, light and fast. He sold me on the simplicity of the recurve limbs and ease of changing strings if need be even in the field. Life time warranty.

Low and behold, I found a deal on fleabay on an excaliber micro 335 completely set up and ready to go. Extra strings, 15 bolts, illuminated crossbow scope, nice case... About a $1200+ Set up, got it for $655. I decided to get while the getting was good.
I may even have it in time to hunt with a few days with this season. Should be delivered next week.

I really liked shooting my compound

Congrats, and no shame, I dodged a bullet by being lucky enough for a right shoulder rotator cuff tear to heal itself, it took a year and it sucked.

I have a 71 year old hunting buddy, he called this summer and said, "well, I guess you wont want to hunt with me anymore" I said, what the hell, he said, I had to buy a crossbow, cant draw my compound anymore, I ask, have you zeroed it yet, he said no, I said, well get your ass over here we have work to do.

I bowhunted with him a few times this year, it's all good with me, we're all still hunters!

I got my first deer 2 days ago with my neighbors crossbow (excaliber matrix). I could really get used to it.

I have torn rotocuffs at least three times. Two of which were badly enough that I figured my shotgun/rifle shooting days were over and it took over a year of painful, careful, diligent rehab work to recover some. I no longer have the strength and speed I used to have so bird hunting is frustrating. Oddly, the single best tool I have found for rehab is a run of the mill compound bow. I have done the work after each injury to maintain shoulder mobility and prevent adhesions so in my case building muscle to protect the shoulder was most important to me. I picked up a Mission Craze bow for cheap and cranked it down to 15-20 lbs and just started shooting. It built muscle where it needed to be. My right shoulder now is good. I am as happy with it as I would be with what I would consider a very successful surgical repair. The left shoulder has been damaged less, but it has not progressed as well because I shoot right handed. It is far better than it was though. When I first started shooting it had a tendency to pop out on me and would fling the shot some feet off target. Now it's stable and I can shoot respectable targets to the point that my current bow, a No-Cam, needs to be balanced with a decent sight to keep up with how accurately I can shoot. Those of you who shoot target archery know That a hinge release is absolutely dependent upon stability and strength in your shoulders. Even when I haven't shot for months, that hinge is still my favorite release now. For my money, the best rehab of anything I went through was the Craze. As long as you start at very low poundage (which not all bows will adjust down to) and go very slow it can work quite well. When I considered the Craze initially it seemed a no-brainer to me. I couldn't even get another referral to an orthopedic for what I got the bow for.

Full disclosure: I do shoot all of my deer lately with a crossbow, but for other specific reasons

The compound vs crossbow hate is humorous.

The very people that buy new bows every year or so, to take advantage of the latest technology,
condemn a form of their weapon of choice.....


That's many centuries old.

My dad has taken up archery, with a crossbow.
And I think thats the problem.
Compound users don't like the competition more hunters provide.


Damn shame to even make that statement.

Hunting shouldn't be about human competition.

Correct, the crossbow has been around since @400 BC. (Belly bow). It is a weapon with a long history in both military and civilian life. I use one by choice, as any Ohio archer can. It is a bow.

Got mine last Spring to get more quiet time in the woods for deer. Two shots, two deer. Once rifle season started, I was able to pass on some does with no "meat pressure", in hopes of seeing a buck. Was going out this morning for does, but I didn't sleep well, my back hurt, and it's cold. Went back to sleep. Still lots of time.

The best part is all the deer I saw while hunting with the xbow. Got to play a little hide and seek with a few bucks, again with no pressure, which is most of the fun. Only downside is that the xbow is kind of heavy and awkward to tote around the woods compared to a rifle. Overall, a good investment. Might use it for Spring turkey hunting.

I've had shoulder issues for years. Through specific exercises and a strict practice schedule I manage to keep things under control and hunt with my recurve or compound but there are random times shoulder pain becomes unbearable. It's bad news if one of these times is when I've scheduled time off for a hunt. I have a close hunting friend with similar issues. We went together and bought a single crossbow (Excalibur) as an emergency weapon for those times when one of us has a shoulder flare up and a scheduled hunt. I haven't had to use it this fall but my friend has for a couple of weekends. It's easy to be critical of crossbows until you really need one. I don't find the same enjoyment practicing with the crossbow as I do the recurve or compound but it's nice knowing I have the option if needed.

I have been shooting bows now for over 55 years ,won a few awards,killed some nice animals with recurve,long bow and compounds from the time Mr. Allen invented the compound. I have had 3 back surgeries,one neck surgery and both shoulders rebuilt. I missed this years bow season and it was a sad fall with no bowhunting, I don`t want to use a x-bow but in June 2019 when I am healed up from my last surgery on shoulder I will have to make a decision then. I just feel the dark side is not for me .

Sorry to hijack the OPs thread. I'm actually happy you've found a way to get back out during the archery season with a legal primitive weapon for that season. Congrats on finding a good deal too. Good luck if you're able to get out and hunt with it. From what I hear, they're a lot of fun.



That's one opinion. I tend to think of them differently. It's a primitive weapon for sure. A bow it's not. A friend of mine nicknamed them cross-guns. And I tend to agree with that. To me, a bow requires a different set of actions. The biggest difference being a bow requires you to draw, hold, "aim" while the animal is close. And there is no mechanism to have the tool hold the bow at full draw for you. Just a difference in opinion I suppose but to me, a crossbow isn't a "bow" at all, at least as far as what's required to hunt with a bow.



Classifying all of us archers like you do is ludicrous. We don't all feel that way. I shoot recurves, longbows and compound gear. I have zero issue with the state allowing crossbows during the archery season and I don't think the number hunters using them makes a significant difference, at least around here, as far as hunting competition goes. I've yet to actually see anyone in the woods with one. I just don't care what the other guy is using. But to call it a bow...well, I just disagree. Shooting a crossbow doesn't require different technique than shooting a rifle or muzzle loader. You can have the crossbow in ready to fire state with the safety on for a whole hunt/sit/whatever. What it does require is getting/being closer. You can't cock a bow and hunting with a bow requires more motion from the archer.

Perhaps I'm picking nits, but to me a crossbow isn't archery at least in the way I think about it. Maybe it's a form of bow, but I just don't see it as archery.

Like I said before, have no problem with the state allowing their use during the archery season.

You don't consider cams that drop the hold poundage down to less than 1/6 of the bow's draw weight to be a mechanism that more or less allows it to hold the bow at full draw for you?

I shoot compounds and crossbow. I damn sure can't hold 60 pounds forever, But I can for certain hold ten pounds for a very long time. Unless we are talking about hunting on the ground in plain sight, even that advantage to me is pretty small. I hunt from elevated stands and maybe one out of four ever even looks up unless I try to get them to. I have for years shot a lot of my deer at very short range even for archery. The bow I shoot most is 85% let off. It has a 4x lense and a lense in the peep to correct for my eyesight. It's not quite the optics currently on my crossbow, but there is no principle difference.

It sure does help. But I still have to draw the bow, hold the bow at draw, aim the bow and make the shot all without alerting the deer. I can't pick up a cocked compound bow hanging on a rest next to me, aim, turn the safety off and fire it. Compound bows sure do help. But I still can't hold my compound bow at full draw for a whole day sit. Like you, when I hunt with my compound bow, I'm shooting 70# draw with 80% letoff so holding about 14# at full draw. The past few years, I've spent more time hunting with traditional gear, which changes the game again. Try holding back even a 50# draw recurve for more than a minute. I hunt from the ground a lot with my bows but use stands too. My experience in stands is that if a deer senses any movement whatsoever, they will and do look up. That's my experience. I understand your points and your opinion. But I still don't consider a crossbow a bow. No disrespect to those that choose to use them, but right now, in my life, they aren't for me. To each their own.

So, the only real difference is that with a compound you have to hold 8-14 pounds, perhaps for a somewhat extended period, and that you don't like crossbows.

I may gain a lot of precision with the crossbow that just is not available to a compound. I definitely gain a lot of precision in just the use of the scope to see the deer, recognize it's orientation to me and to visualize the internal target I am shooting at over either a sighted bow or a instinctive shooter. As conditions deteriorate in terms of light the advantage shifts dramatically to the scope sighted crossbow. While I do have the precision to shoot more accurately at longer ranges with a crossbow, the advantage in that regard is diminished by the simple fact that crossbows are not only loud, they are VERY loud and shots past 20 yards might even be very much less advisable with them than a compound. My No Cam may not be the quietest bow available, but I have yet to be in the line with one that is quieter. If my life depended upon me shooting Bambi at 50 yards with either the No Cam or the Excalibur, I'd go with the No Cam. which is accurate enough in my hands that I can keep my shots in the white on a 5 spot target at that range. I have cut away 3/4 of the sight ring on a sight that I planned on using for hunting with the No Cam whilch also precluded the use of a lense with that sight. I still will not hunt with it though because that peep arreangement just does not allow me a good enough view of the deer to be absolutely certain of orientation. The last deer I shot with the crossbow for this year I tooks a shot that was just not reasonable with a compound because I had the time and the ability to ascertain precisely where the stuff I wanted to hit and the stuff I wanted to avoud was inside the deer. That is one of the main things a crossbow affords the user that a compound any vertical bow will never be able to offer, and that is something that bow hunters need badly if they want to decrease wounding losses.

I have shot bows for 60 odd years and killed deer with them since I was a young teen. I used to shoot 55 to 85 pound recurves. I look at cross bows as just another bow because they are still shooting arrows and comparatively low speeds and thus rainbow trajectories. The biggest difference to me between them is that in order to make a shot and be able to see precisely where that arrow will go the vertical bow archer needs to be a lot more selective in which shots he takes especially so in low light conditions.

Yeah, crossbows provide some significant advantages. But... they are nowhere near the leap from recurves to compounds when it comes to putting arrows on paper targets. Go to any range that sponsors league shooting and you'll find lots of people turning in targets that would have been excellent for olympic shooters pre-compound bow era.

Actually, that isn't what I said. I think crossbows are great. I don't think of them as bows. And they aren't for me.

Also, no on the "only real difference"...if you read what I wrote, I think the biggest difference in a hunting situation is that you don't need to draw the crossbow. It's already locked and loaded. You pick it up, aim, fire. There is still a difference between holding back 14# (or 50# like I do with my recurve or longbow) and holding back NOTHING.

I'm glad OP can get out with a legal primitive weapon and hunt. Good for him. And I've no issue with crossbows during the archery season. Look, MILES58, it's just an opinion. You don't need to agree and you won't change my mind. to each their own. I'll continue to use my bows and you fellas that want to use a crossbow, good. Go for it. Enjoy and good luck.

Big difference between them not being bows and you not thinking of them as bows.

Glad you don't mind us getting to use them. Now I can sleep at night.😜

Happy to help you out.

as I have said and posted on this site even with my health issue`s and being 65 years of age I still feel the need to be a true bowhunter and draw my bow on the animal and release the arrow,otherwise I might as well just use a rifle. but that`s just my thought as a long time archer not wanting to go to the dark side and use a x-bow,its just not the same for me, but that is a bridge i may have to cross in June 2019 to start using a x-bow ?

Pete, you are of course, welcome to your opinion, but by the phyiscs, it is a bow. How that power is held, is immaterial. As I'm sure you and I do not shoot a vertical bow the same, either. I have never used a release, never even tried one. I do not draw and hold at full draw waiting for that shot to appear. I draw only when the shot is already in front of me. Until then, I don't even move. When I draw, it's one movement, and release. Very fast and no sights at all on my bows. We have two very different styles, but they are both bow hunting. Mine is simply an older style, designed for warfare.

until my last injury I still shot my long bow and at the age of 6 years old that was the type of bow I started with 59 years ago a long bow.yes I shoot a compound too. my son uses his Black Widow 70 lb. Longbow for deer . my son is very fit and strong he handles that 70 lbs of his long bow much better than I do my 50 lb. longbow .so you shooting archery different than us no I don`t think so .

I like the longbow, but I've been shooting the same Indian Stalker compound for the last 39 years. (Other bows as well, recurve, longbow, crossbow, foot bow, ect.)