Why I prefer a crossbow for home defense
Many people say that a crossbow is not a good weapon for home defense. But think about it: a crossbow is a silent weapon that can be shot without being aimed. In other words, a crossbow is an ideal weapon for home defense, especially in terms of protecting the safety of children who may be sleeping during a break-in.
Crossbow advantages (and disadvantages) for home defense
Crossbows are quiet. Crossbows are fast to load. Crossbows are deadly accurate. Crossbows are great for home defense. But there are also a few disadvantages to using a crossbow for home defense.
1. They require training. The belief is that you don’t need to spend money and hours to learn how to use a crossbow effectively. Personally, I spent countless hours using and training with one before I felt comfortable with it. At this point, traditional weapons like barbed wire, bats, or rocks don’t scare me nearly as much.
2. They don’t depend on one person. While I was training with a crossbow, I wasn’t looking at a target. Instead each time it fired, it would blast into the ceiling at close to point-blank range. On rare occasion… yeah, that can kill ya. To lend perspective to this, I always keep one or two barbed wire anchors in various places throughout my home. They’re there for when I'm trying to figure out how something works (a crossbow is not great at this, as I have occasionally discovered).
3. They require sight. The ideal use of a crossbow is not face to face, and the perfect target is also difficult to see. I'm a decent fit with just about everything hence, but sighted crossbows aren’t ideal for targets with poor vision, such as an intruder.
4. They are very picky targets. Remember, a crossbow is designed to pierce a target. Through experience I’ve found it to be pretty selective with who it shoots at. And as bad as that sounds, it’s also the perfect hunting weapon – a rabbit is a poor choice. Why? The crossbow wants to penetrate the thickest part of your opponent’s skin. The person with the rifle or shotgun need only look forward. Preferably it also needs to see irregularity in movement, a color pattern, or evidence of an injury. The smaller the person, the easier this is to accomplish.
Crossbow pros and cons
Crossbows are great for beginners, if you’re considering learning how to hunt. They’re much easier to use than a traditional bow and arrow, and you don’t have to worry about stringing it or worrying about losing your arrows. You don’t have to sign up for a hunting season or spend any money to get a hunting license. But the hunting I’m referring to is archery on land and like it. Otherwise, you can just shoot into the distance with a crossbow. They also work well for urban sports, or when hunting down a Law Enforcement officer. If you’re looking for a hunting or sportsman license, you don’t get the option to take your crossbow, you just put 25 bucks into a designated zone. You’re allowed to shoot in the designated area, but you don’t get the benefits without signing up and paying for a license.
I haven’t shot a crossbow in 14 years, but anyone can fire one with any crossbow app. And you don’t need to spend any money to shoot it either. So, why should you consider an indoor firing range for your home? Well, first of all, it’s a nice tool to use for target practice if you’re trying to reach for a particular bend in the front of your house or tree.
Also, with distance options, you can practice at shorter ranges than you could one behind the safety of a cage. For example you can practice about 15 feet away from the target, which is the most distance you’d be able to get in a traditional shooting range. If you’re practicing further away, 50 feet may seem like a reasonable distance as well, but practice at closer ranges, and you’ll need a different approach.
Target Practice
Target practice with a target is valuable because it’s more “efficient” than hunting in the bushes or over an acre of wilderness. This requires limited non-essential habits to interact with the environment.
What you should consider when buying a crossbow for home defense
When you’re looking for a crossbow for home defense, you’ll want to make sure it’s powerful enough to kill most animals like coyotes, bears, or mountain lions. You’ll also want to check the draw weight and firing speed to make sure it fires fast enough.For survival scenarios, I think a 15–30 pound crossbow is about as good as you can aim for wildlife.
Let’s look at the hunting side of this. I’ve hunted at least two bear and range-banned one mountain lion with a crossbow. Killing these big guys required good eyesight, familiarity with the terrain, and lots of ammunition, but it was possible. You can also hunt bobcats, opossums, raccoons, skunks, opossums, and weasels with a crossbow.
And, for shooting small things like squirrels, weasels, mice, rabbits, and small birds, you can use a 15–25 pound crossbow. You probably won’t kill anything with a crossbow, but you will at least contribute to your household rodenticide crisis.
A modern crossbow weighs as much or more than a hunting rifle, and some can be much heavier. Here in the United States, you really have three choices for heavy or “battle” crossbows:
If you shoot a “battle” crossbow, the butt of the weapon is connected to the stock with an elastic band, so the weapon is designed so you can’t use it if your hand or hip take significant punishment. However, modern “battle” crossbows are still quite strong and can fire even the tension measured in pounds of force (PPF). For smaller animals like mice and small ducks, a modern battle crossbow can be lighter, nearly impossible to accidentally shoot, and still quite powerful.
In my opinion, the heaviest “battle” crossbow is probably the Sharpshooter 15/25 pound model. However, you have to choose between accuracy and capacity. The Sharpshooter is not actually designed to be fired from the hip. However, you can, and it works.
With this powerful “battle” crossbow, you can take out a large animal or large rodent and maybe even scare off some larger predators altogether.
The best crossbows on the market today
When choosing a crossbow, there are many things to consider. The most important factors, however, are the bow's weight, draw weight, speed, and accuracy. The draw weight is the weight that you need to pull to cock the bow. A crossbow with a higher draw weight isn't necessarily more powerful. A higher draw weight is just more difficult to cock. Often the faster you can draw, the higher your accuracy will be.
To determine how accurate you can be, you need three parts to complete the puzzle. First is the initial draw or initially aimed head shot. Second is the pulling of the arrow. And finally, the striking of the arrow.
The first shot might have a 120-pound draw weight, while the second might have a much heavier draw weight at 220 pounds. Of course, the higher the draw weight, the easier it is to hit your mark.
To determine how fast your target will move, different draw weight arrows can differ greatly. Generally speaking, the fastest arrows can be used at ranges of 30 feet or less. Lighter arrows can generally be used closer to 100 feet. Obviously, the further you shoot, the more accurate you will be (this is called accuracy in shooting). Of course, as you near the ground, accuracy decreases, but you still can't go lower than 30 feet.
To determine how accurate your crossbow shots will be, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Arrows should always be kept within an arm’s length of each other.
Ammunition should be tucked away from face-up targets when not in use.
Arrows should be checked and adjusted regularly.
As you become more accurate and either want to get even more accurate or don't want to load the same weight twice, inexpensive arrow restock kits can produce high-quality, consistent crossbows. Still, it should never hurt to load an arrow and check you have enough left.
In a pinch, a very cheap two-handed crossbow with a “light draw weight” of 20 pounds might be just what you need to get started with your Crossbow training.
