Yes and no. Better accuracy at further distance depends on the situation. In a tree stand with a shooting rail where you can rest the crossbow - absolutely more accuracy at further distance. Hunting from the ground shooting off hand with no rest - I'll take the compound over the crossbow. They aren't easy to shoot accurately offhand without a rest. As for that distance, my opinion is 50 yards is max distance with either and 40 yards and in is even better when shooting at live animals that don't always stand still in the wide open like a static target at the range. And from 40 yards and in, the accuracy difference isn't enough to make a difference. If you have an accurate range to the animal, either will hit within the 8" -10" vital area of a deer with boring consistency. I have said it before and I will say it again when it comes to drawing a bow while the animal is there - it's just not that difficult. I hunted with a compound bow from 2012 season through the 2016 season before switching to a crossbow. I killed 5 deer and 1 turkey during that time with a compound bow. I missed many more deer (honestly can't remember how many - guessing between 15 and 20. One of the deer I missed twice so had to pull off the draw 2 times - I was in a stand that time though) and at least 4 other turkeys during that time frame. None of the missed opportunities were due to the animal catching me during the draw. It was due to range misestimation and shooting either over or under the animal, deflected arrows due to brush, or the animal jumping the string. The vast majority of these shots were from the ground with no ground blind. Not hidden in a blind or elevated 15+ feet up in the air in a tree stand like most bowhunters hunt which makes the draw even less detectable than from the ground not in a blind. I don't understand why some feel that drawing a bow when an animal is there is some monumental feat. You have to be smart about it. You don't do it when the animal is looking directly at you. You wait until the deer's head is behind a tree, lowered to feed and below the level of the grass/brush, or when the animal turns in a way that puts their head behind their body blocking their view of you. If you are patient, an opportunity will present itself. If you are impatient and draw at the wrong time, you will get busted. Same with a gun or crossbow. If the gun or crossbow is in your lap when the animal appears and you impatiently raise the gun or crossbow to your shoulder when the animal isn't otherwise distracted, you will get busted as well. It's not hard to figure out. Choosing a location where you are concealed and not skylined or silhouetted is also key. If you stick out like a sore thumb you won't get away with much movement. When I hear people talk about how hard it is to draw on an animal I imagine them standing out in an open field with a deer 20 yards away looking directly at them and they attempt to draw. The deer runs away and they then proclaim that drawing on a deer is almost impossible. If not that, I just don't get it. Drawing on a turkey (from the ground and not in a ground blind) is much harder than a deer and even then, I could do it without being detected. Unfortunately for me, hitting the smaller vital area of a turkey proved to be much harder than drawing the bow.
point taken...but I have 30 years in the woods as a bowhunter, and 64 deer killed with a compound and I will have to disagree... it is harder to draw a bow and hold steady with a vertical bow on a live animal. with all due respect you hunted 4 years with a compound, not enough encounters with live animals imo. There is no way around this. a xbow is easier to kill with period. I am not saying they are wrong to use, I am just stating a fact. and I am also saying that a trad bow is much harder than a compound to draw and kill with ...now you are right about the rest rail or whatever with a xbow. those things are heavy. I just don't understand why this is so hard for people to accept. There is a hierarchy of difficulty.. 1. trad bow- 2, compound,-3 xbow. I don't think people need to justify why they choose the weapon. If it works for you and you enjoy it, by all means hunt!
I have never hunted with a traditional bow (well as a teenager I took out my recurve a time or two but never saw anything and never took a shot so I'm not counting that) but have hunted with the compound and crossbow. Overall, all situations taken into account, I will give you the hierarchy of difficulty you put out there. I will add though that the difference between compound bow and crossbow is a lot less than between a crossbow and any type of firearm and I would guess is also less than the difference between a traditional bow and a compound bow given my experience shooting a recurve although my hunting experience with one is almost none. My wife has missed two deer this year with her crossbow that she would have absolutely smoked with her muzzleloader or rifle. She would have probably missed them with a compound bow too. So what I am saying is if I were to assign levels of difficulty with 10 being the most difficult it would go something like this: 12 - atlatl (yes they are legal in Missouri during certain seasons and yes, there have been a few deer taken with them. I imagine that atlatl hunters look down on compound bow hunters like compound bow hunters look down on rifle hunters but that's just supposition on my part ;-)) 10- longbow or recurve bow, 8 - compound bow, 7- crossbow, 5 - handgun, 4- Large bore air rifle (also legal in Missouri during certain seasons and deer have been taken with them) 3 - shotgun, 2- muzzleloader, 1- rifle. Or something similar to that. I have taken deer with everything on that list except atlatl, longbow/recurve bow, handgun and large bore air rifle. I still take the .44 magnum revolver out from time to time but haven't had a chance to shoot a deer with it yet. I will never take one with an atlatl or longbow/recurve bow. Probably will never get into the large bore air rifles as they are expensive and less expensive options can be used when they are legal. I didn't include spear on the list since it isn't legal in Missouri. Not sure about elsewhere but spear would be a 12 or 11 right there with the atlatl. Any beef with my order of difficulty above?
Regarding spears, I recall reading a long time ago that it was legal in Pennsylvania. Any thoughts or comments from PA hunters? The link should indicate there is a market for them. https://www.outdoorwars.com/best-hu...onal protection and safe storage of the spear.
https://www.wideopenspaces.com/keit...unique-air-powered-crossbow-on-deer-and-hogs/ I'll just put this here
Crossbows belong in the regular season where they are appropriate given the ease of use and effectiveness
In ny they are aligned with muzzle loaders(?) although given the end of Bow season with bows,for me this works as I now,again,get out with my trad longbow,recurves or my compound( 90s era Bear my wife bought me)despite reports of their performance advances I just can’t sync with the newer vertical bows,I find them not exciting or attractive in the least,but each to his own,I got my first crossbow this year and I love it ,just another weapon system to enjoy and I’m happy ,at least,with the season setup in ny. I actually gave up bows for nearly 10 years due to an injury ,when I got my crossbow it rekindled the archery fire in me and I dusted off my bows,even a longbow I was not much of a master with,even though my shoulders sometimes ache I have actually got good with it ,sticking a raccoon who came too close to my chickens coop,dead coon! Met a guy this year who builds longbows an hunts with flints So sort of going backwards but enjoyin’archery again.and why?Because I got a modern crossbow that looks like an AR 15! So is it a bow ,to me ,yeah
Some states (including the one I live in) are only legal for the archery season if you have a handicapped permit.
I do pretty good ignoring non-constructive comments from other hunters. Sometimes I give in to the purists and deliberately say something to get their rice to boil over, like, "When I gun hunt, I prefer a Texas heart shot. It's lethal!" Then, I listen to their Captain Obvious ethics lecture with a bemused look on my face, thinking, maybe I'll get to see him stroke out.
Regardless of the weapon, you still have to calm your nerves and make a good shot to harvest an animal.
I use one cause I have 8 pins in my left shoulder and I’m not able to draw a bow back I use to hunt with a Hoyt all the time and enter bow shoots but since my surgery all that has stopped
