Survival and Emergency Preparedness

I have a small handheld crossbow. I really doubt it would be of much us for anything. A real full size crossbow would be quite useful though. IIRC, when the crossbow was first invented it was thought to be a revolutionary weapon akin to a WOMD because it was so effective on the battlefield.

I have a couple of crossbows. Cannot practice as they can not be used at the city range. Have other bows as well.

Permit me to explain the advantages of a crossbow:
1. can be loaded and remain loaded for a period of time;
2. with a cocking device, your advancing age and decreasing physical strength is less of a problem;
3. you can use bolts of varying lengths and not be confined to one length.
4. you can reduce the necessary skill level to operate successfully and consistently

IF and WHEN I get through this covid 19 / Wuhan Flu b.s. and can start using a bow again at the city range, basically, I have to start over on my learning curve. I would not have to do so with crossbow.

At this point, I can already hear the "never take a knife to a gun fight", "I'll just use my 34 round capacity Glock" or "Illl build me a bow" wisdom. Really? I've had the challenge of building a bow from scratch out in the wild - good luck to you. And, I always have my trusty Spyderco on me while you left your gun in the car (have done that too-good luck when your gun is out there and you are in the store).

I have a crossbow I hunt with. It is very effective out to about 40 yards. Killed a few deer with it. You can spend $200-2000 on crossbows. Mine was about $300 on sale with a draw weight of 175 and about 350 FPS. The cheaper ones are less high tech and a bit heavier but will kill just as good as the $2K ones. Conceivably it could have some benefit in a SHTF situation but they aren't completely silent. They do put out a pretty loud "thwack" when fired. The thing is by the time somebody/thing realizes what the sound is they already been poked.

Here's an example of how easy they are to use. My daughter and wife came up to the cabin one fall to see the colors while I was bow hunting. I asked my daughter if she wanted to hunt. She had never hunted before with anything. She said "sure". We ran into town to pick up a license. Back at the property I gave her a rundown on how the crossbow worked and then had her shoot it. She was using her grandpa's crossbow (same as mine).

It was late afternoon by this time so she only got a chance to shoot it three times at the target about 20 yards away. All three shots were a tight group. Out to the field. Just as it was getting dark she radioed me and said she got a deer. One shot, paced off at 37 yards, right through the heart. Yeah, her dad was very proud.

I also have several regular and compound bows but cross bows are so much easier and more accurate to use.

I use recurve slingshot atlatl shave taken deer with all of them and the two legged predators would fall to them also in Necessary