Chapter 7: Advanced Hunting Techniques
Know Your Crossbow

Comparing a Conventional Bow to a Crossbow

As the bow is shot, the string on a conventional compound bow pushes the arrow more than twice the distance as when a crossbow is shot. Therefore, to produce the same arrow speeds, a crossbow must have more than twice the draw weight of a compound bow.

Because of this much shorter “power stroke” (draw) on the crossbow it must have much heavier limbs. The powerful limbs move a short distance and stop quickly when an arrow is shot. Therefore, the crossbow must have more physical mass than a compound bow to absorb the shock, which otherwise would be transferred to the shooter. This short, heavy power stroke means the crossbow will create more noise when discharged than the conventional compound bow.