Fortunately for me, crossbows are legal for hunting here in VA. Unfortunately, I’ll still need someone to cock it for me. There are certainly bigger tragedies, but a slight inconvenience just the same.
The biggest difference I found between my high end, top of the line bows, and my “go to” middle of the road bow that gets (got) nearly exclusive use over the years is how dead they kill the animal. The top of the line, expensive bows kill the animals deader than my PSE Bow Madness. That said, the PSE mid-range bow kills deer dead, just not as dead as the other bows. (Before the tight panty squad takes this seriously, and writes a 40 paragraph diatribe about my comments, it’s called fucking “sarcasm”)
Had a Marine from Quantico come down to our property twice last season and was a first year bow Hunter using a ten year old PSE that he bought fully loaded with ten year old tech as a package deal with arrows, field points, broad heads, quiver, etc. He didn’t harvest a deer, but that’s because of other variables. He could shoot the bow extremely well for a rookie, and after only a few months of practice, had the ability and confidence to take a 50 yard shot under field conditions. IIRC, he was three bills lighter for the entire package. He had $ to burn, and bought a new bow, top of the line everything with the latest and greatest tech upgrades after the season ended. He’s now upset with himself for wasting money on shit that doesn’t make a practical difference in regards to his hunting applications. His max range is still 50 yards, and doesn’t expect that to increase simply due to the bow being more expensive. Time, training, and practice are what makes the difference, and he had to learn this the hard way. He’s going to use his new expensive top of the line bow because he paid for it, and his wife will shit a second chicken (first was when he bought the bow) if he doesn’t use it.
As you can see from the below photograph, the PSE Bow Madness doesn’t kill deer as dead as some hunters like: