I don't know a thing about crossbows - however, my brother went out and bought one. He bought the Barnett Wildcat from Field and Stream (our local shop closed and owner is now the head manager of the archery department). Anyways, the bow was only a couple days old stored indoors and he went out to shoot. First arrow flung the string snapped and whacked him hard in the face. He took it back to them and this is common. When he was there yesterday - FIVE of the same bows were brought in for the same problem. One guy brought three. They gave him a full refund and he ended up just buying a compound - but just a friendly FYI if any of you are looking into one. Seems to be a defect in this bunch! A quote I took from bestcrossbowsource.com
I have a Barnett Raptor, and it snapped the string the first time I pulled the trigger. I took it to the local shop and had another string put on it, and the guy there showed me 7-8 sitting behind the counter waiting on new strings. Apparently, Barnett is using a flimsy string from the factory, but aftermarket strings are fine. I now have a couple hundred shots on mine with no appreciable wear on the string.
