Posted on 12/10/2015 11:37:40 AM PST by w1n1
While many preppers are busy stockpiling hordes of rifles, shotguns, and handguns plus cases of ammunition for a looming doomsday scenario, others are thinking more broadly about other weapons options. Thanks to the success of AMC's The Walking Dead, one of the options that has become popular with preppers is the crossbow.
On TWD, one of the main characters (Norman Reedus's Daryl Dixon) uses a crossbow with quite an astonishing amount of lethal success. But is this even remotely realistic? Let's take a look at this bolt (arrow) shooting implement to see its implications as a true SHTF tool.
Shooting a Crossbow Until you have some experience shooting a crossbow at real targets, inanimate or alive, you may initially consider a crossbow difficult to wield and awkward in its handling. You would be right. Crossbows can be quite heavy, and some are unbalanced front to back. Many of the models offer pistol grip handles on the stock, which can make handling them a little easier. Some stock finishes are slicker than others, so they're more difficult to grip well.
Range and Bolt Selection At best a crossbow has its certain capabilities and its own set of limitations. You may note on The Walking Dead that Daryl shoots the zombies at an incredibly close range - often it seems to me thirty yards or less distance. We'll excuse the argument here for a situation in allowing a SHTF adversary to get that close in the first place. Zombies do not wield their own weapons, so dispatching them becomes an easier task for a half decent shooter. This will not be the case in a real life SHTF scenario. Read the rest of the story here.
I prefer low yield nuclear devices launched via a pumpkin catapult.
.22 pistol or rifle suppressed.
More ammo carrying capability.
Longer range, and more accurate.
Wow. Covering the eyes renders this guy unrecognizable. Looks like my belief that Clark Kent still looks like Superman needs rethinking. Not.
But if you need to take something down, and dont want everyone within a mile to know where you are, it might just work better.
It's the only way to be sure.
Recently picked up a crossbow at Cabellas (not I don’t even watch the walking dead, I just wanted something to shoot which had re-usable ammo, and didn’t want to learn to use a bow). It was on sale, and came with some decent accessories.
Now maybe every other crossbow in the world, or at least the ones he’s handled are drastically different than the fairly cheap one I grabbed, but I see little similarity between what I have and what he describes.
My crossbow has a good trigger (with a few dozen firearms in my collection, I consider myself an adequate judge). It is balanced and quite easy to shoot. I generally shoot it at a range of about 100’ and the practice tips lodge quite deeply into the target. I haven’t really tried longer range shooing because I don’t want to lose a bolt if I miss the target.
He is correct that reloading is nothing near quick. However you can buy crank/ratchet set ups which do the job quicker than the device he describes (which I currently use).
Truth is, shooting a crossbow isn’t appreciably different from shooting a rifle to my mind. The author is also clearly not an expert because he proffers the weight of the tip of the bolt instead of the whole bolt when calculating projectile energy. Bolts are generally over 400 grains in weight.
Depending on the SHTF scenario in mind, a crossbow likely could be useful, but one has to keep in mind that not every tool suits every situation.
My concern with the crossbow is the reloading time required between shots.
In a SHTF scenario, that’s a deal breaker for me.
A crossbow would be better than a pointy stick, but that’s about it. They are fun toys, but practical applications are very limited.
IF zombies were real, a tomahawk doesn’t need to be reloaded (but does require arms reach targets). Else, it’s hard to beat a suppressed .22 rifle & pistol. Plus, you can more comfortably carry (relatively speaking) a thousand rounds of rimfire...
Now when it comes to SHTF “zombies” (all those inner-city entitlement-minded folks fleeing the big cities in search of your food & shelter), a .22lr may not be the best choice for stopping someone dead in their tracks, but it would probably cause them to rethink their plans when you start gut-shooting them before they can get within 50 yards of you.
Interesting to think about and strategize; not anything I expect to encounter in what’s left of my life though...
Don’t know what firing a Cross Bow sounds like, but I suppose it would be most useful when killing a target requires as little noise as possible, I wouldn’t count out the need for any weapon, there are to many possible scenarios to predict what is useful and what is not, you have to plan to be on the offensive not always defensive.
The best weapon you can have is at least one former combat military man who can teach tactics and the fundamentals of shoot move and communicate, in a serious SHTF situation you are not going to survive long standing alone, it seems to me real preparation involves more than protecting yourself and your family you must develop a team and prepare as such, if the WD show demonstrates anything real it is that.
Those are sunglasses.......hehe
If you want quiet...any bow is quieter than a gun.
This is certainly true. Reloading is not quick by any means, but as I said, if you pick when to use it, it could be useful. A lead off shot with the crossbow and transition to a pistol as threats close would be valid.
There’s no way that it would be a good sole choice.
Have fun with it! I’ve seen a few of these at a nearby weekly flea market, but the asking prices seem high compared to what you could get in a store (these are second-hand - buyer beware). My town has an archery range (on land donated for this specific purpose), but they don’t allow crossbows. To me the issue with bows & crossbows is the difficulty in carrying any quantity of ammo. For an isolated incident, I think nothing would be more terrifying or painful than having a bolt or arrow strike you instead of a bullet.
What if your target starts raising hell after it’s hit?
: )
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