crossbow comparisons

[jasonrfarber]

I was thinking of getting a crossbow for hunting next year, but do not have an over indulged wallet. Does anyone have or have info on the less expensive ones. I know I saw a barnett and a horton for around 200-250 dollars.

[PA Rifleman]

I had a Barnett Commando and currently have a Horton. The Horton is better.

One detail is the gate design. On older, cheap Wham-O crossbows the gate was split, allowing the string to rest directly against the bolt (arrow). These models seem to shoot very well. Same with the Horton. The gate on the Barnett is solid, so it whacks the nock end of the arrow on discharge, leaving a deep dend in the back of the bolt. Barnett recommends setting the bolt ahead about 1/2", causing the string to strike the bolt. It's hard on either the string or the bolt, so I bought a bunch of extra strings. Either way, Barnett accuracy was mediocre at best.

Barnett also has a bad habit of quickly dropping models, documentation and all support without warning, orphaning legions of obsolete crossbow models. I find this particularly annoying.

Fortunately there's a lot of mystique with the Commando, so I was able to get my money back out of it. But, I would not recommend Barnetts, the Commando in particular for serious crossbow use.

[1iarrowking]

I don't own or regularly shoot crossbows but I do work on them, repair and replace parts in my archery shop. If I were buying one for my self I would get an Excalibur. Other than replacing a string I have never seen a broken one. They don't have cams and cables and that is what breaks on the other brands. They also have nice triggers The triggers on the Barnett's that I have shot were really rough and were really loud. Horton's were only a little better. JMO