Crossbow Bolt Archery

Jul 10

admin

Archery help ?

I'm looking for a new hobby and ranging sparks an interest.

I need to know:
Cost of bows, bolts, and arrows

Which is safer - Crossbows or Long/shortbows
And Which is more fun to shoot/hunt with/more powerful

Fun is different for different people, some people like challenge, like to really learn the craft, other people don't want to be bothered with learning and just want to hunt. As the other poster said, the crossbow(if legal) would be the easiest to use, it's a rifle that shoots arrow, then next in line is the Compound Bow, also very easy to use, you still need to hold back the string but the aiming and shot execution is also like a rifle. Longbows and recurves are at the other end of the spectrum, it takes time to learn to shoot these well enough to hunt. Instead of taking 20 minutes it'll take 20 months, but in the end, once you've taken your first game, you know you've accomplished a great thing.

Safer, I'd say longbows or recurves are safer. Compounds and crossbow has so many mechanical gears on them that it's bound to fail. I've seen more people release arrows by accident shooting compounds than recurves. If you observe all safety precautions/rules you will limit the danger of archery to a minimum. One of the cardinal safety rule in archery is to never sky draw a bow. This means, pointing the bow toward the sky and drawing the string down, usually done by people drawing bows that are way too heavy for them. All it takes is for the release to malfunction or for your finger to touch that trigger and the arrow will fly beyond the backstop possibly hitting someone else several hundrer yards away.

More powerful, while crossbows have more draw weight, they're usually not more powerful. Some 150 pound crossbows have the same amount of kinetic energy as a 30 pound recurve drawn back 30". This is due to the shorter powerstroke of a crossbow, the distance that the arrow is moving under acceleration from the string.

Now costs. A traditional wooden bow can be had for as little as $200 plus the cost of arrows. It can also be as much as $1000 plus arrows. Compound Bows cost anywhere from $300 to $900, just for the bow, then you add on the sights, stabilizer, rest, release etc. which can add up to just about as much as the bow, plus the arrows. Crossbows, some toy crossbow can be had for as little as $150, the good ones can cost all the way to the $2000 mark plus bolts.

Arrows, cost also varies from $50 per dozen for aluminums to $250 per dozen for Hunting Arrows, Target Arrows can go up to $400 per dozen.

Lumenok Crossbow shooting