I'm looking to buy a cross bow. I see so many brands and models. I'm sure you probably cannot go wrong with any. I don't want anything heavy, slow arrow speed or super loud. I don't mind spending around $500 since it's a long time investment. I want to shoot expendable broad heads. I just don't want to make the wrong choice. UHG. gets confusing!!!

I am in the same pickle. SO many brands and so many models under each brand.

For your price range, look at the Wicked Ridge outfits made by Ten Point or Excalibur 340 series if you prefer the simplicity of a recurve. Both companies have outstanding warranties and customer service

You cannot go wrong with the Centerpoints. i have a Sniper 370 from them. She been great for me. Trigger isn't great. Scope isn't perfect. But she also can be found for less than $300 new.

Economy line agree with Tigger go Centerpoint, but the scope on their lower priced bows leaves a lot to be desired and is often replaced. 'Not sure how they are now but when they got in the crossbow biz they stood behind their product well and they have bought Ravin crossbows so have high end bows as well.

Wicked Ridge three is an invader X4 I think it is on sale at Cabela's for 399.99 and is a good deal. Not as fast as some of the others but built well by TenPoint and the scope will be much better than the ones on the cheaper CPs.

As you go up in price with any brand you generally get more speed, better scope and smaller bow.

For the toughest bows out there go with Excalibur they are reliable and tough with great backing from the company. If you have a spare string and changer you can replace the string in the field. they being recurve will also have the heaviest poundage to draw back to get that kind of speed from a recurve.

Barnett bows when I was selling crossbows were a brand I tried to get people not to buy. In those days the more we sold the more warranty work we were setting ourselves up for. I think they have improved on that but there are better choices IMP although they do make some fairly quite for crossbows bows.

Quietest and easiest draw cycle xbows I have sold were Darton but they are in short supply now and more than 500 in price.

Carbon express and PSE are ok for the price until they are not, they may be better now but they also had issues more so than some of the others.

I would also stay away from Bear crossbows, They should stick to vertical bows. Not saying with those brands you do not get a good one but not saying you will.

I did work in a shop that sold all those for 5 years and part time in another last year part time.

No dis respect intented. I read your post it can be tuff choces. I dont kow if you have any phsyical limitations, but have you considered a compound bow. You can get started with new entry level
bow [Cabelas} for not much money and alot of bows have alot of ajustability as far as draw & poundae. There is no draw weight requirement in Tx. i know people who have taken plenty of game starting at say 35lbs. draw weight. Also something to think on[ like you dont have enough already] Is you have a issue with a crossbow and walk into an archery shop. A good chance you cant find someone knowledgeable enough to fix it. Hope this helps you bowhunting/ archery is lots of FUN. Best of luck

Archery and bow hunting is a lot of fun and I enjoy shooting and hunting with recurve, compound and crossbow the most in that order. A lot of states have no restrictions for using crossbows during archery season these days and Texas is one of those with a few counties that are exceptions.

Traditional archery and hunting is the most fun to me but it takes a lot of time and work to be proficient.

Compound is still fun and is still time consuming to achieve and maintain hunting proficiency with it but requires less time and effort than Traditional.

Crossbow is fun like shooting a single shot short range rifle with almost no recoil. Being that it is so much like a rifle someone familiar with rifles can pick it up quickly and in a few minutes be proficient enough to go hunting. Which is an advantage to those that want to hunt during archery season without as much time and effort involved.

As for working on crossbows, Recurve crossbows you can change your own string in the field. Compounds any decent bow tech at a shop should be able to work most issues that arise with a compound crossbow as they are just compound bow mounted on a gun stock. Strings and cables are the same just heavier due to the draw weights, timing the bow the same..... Most archery shops I have been to these days sell crossbows as well as compounds and will work on the crossbows (I know we did). The only thing we did not work on was the trigger group as the manufactures would usually just send the entire group if needed and mgmt did not want the liability of some that might have tried. Trigger group and locking mechanism on most crossbows is one unit that is easily replaceable that most shops do not have in stock but to replace it there is just a few screws.


It is generally easier to find a good compound and crossbow selection than it is to fine a good selection of traditional bows.

I went heavy and slow (Excalibur) because maintenance is so simple.Don't underestimate the ability to make quick fixes conveniently in the field.

My one piece of advise, don't get caught up in the speed game. My order of importance is accuracy, reliability, warranty.
Crossbow Nation forums is a great resource.

I haven’t read all this but kmon always has great advice on this stuff.