crossbow as part of your shtf arsonal

[Lloyd Smale]

I think a crossbow or a standard bow is an important addition to your home defense arsenal. I just ordered two more dozen arrows and a dozen more broadheads. Idealy id like to have about 50 of each on hand. Ill be about there with arrows but im only about half way on broadheads.

[cjclemens]

I'd agree with that.  It would be more than handy to be able to take game quietly.  Not to mention saving ammo that can't be replaced by reusing arrows or bolts.

[Mxpe78a]

While I agree, I prefer a simple recurve, or longbow, compounds are harder to maintain and much harder on arrows. Long term it would be good to have arrow making supplies and skills to make your own.

[Bart Solo]

I think everybody needs a bow and arrows because they are fun and extend the hunting season.  It is really great to know how to use them.   I don't think they add that much if SHTF unless a person is forced to hide out in the woods for years at a time.  Absent an alien invasion, I have a hard time seeing that happen.  If a person did need to rely on a bow for the rest of his extended life, he would need to be an arrowsmith, skilled at making bowstrings and at building longbows.  He would have to know just which materials to harvest and how to shape them.  The current hunting bows are as technology driven as the current huntiing firearms.  The materials to make most of them won't be available.  The bow isn't what a person needs, what he needs is a good book on how to build a bow and an arrow.  I think it is important for anybody contemplating SHTF to be well educated in survival skills.  Skills are more important than tools.  A skilled person can make his own tools.  An unskilled person is SOL when the tool breaks. 
If you really want to prepare for SHTF, learn the old ways.

[Lloyd Smale]

no doubt harder on arrows and id do realize it wont last forever but there hard to beat for quite accurate arrow shooting. Most people dont have near the skills it takes to shoot a long bow or even a compound. With a crossbow my wife could pick it up cock it stick an arrow in it and kill something at 50 yards. I also dont consider it a primary weapon. Its nothing id want to use in a firefight. I figure with 50 arrows even if everytime i shoot it i destroy or loose an arrow 50 would keep me going for a long time and the string and limbs would surely hold up that long. As to learning the old ways to survive long term i dont doubt that but thats not my mindset. Im to old and crippled to farm. I would have a hard time even making my own firewood without help anymore. My idea runs more on the lines of keeping going for a couple years if things are straightened out by then God can have me. You wont see me running around out in the woods with a loin cloth and a stick bow. I really dont think that any possible senerio will get us that far back into the stone age. If anything does happen its proably going to entail having enough to get buy for a couple months and a way to protect it. Bottom line is after two months of sitting around in the dark every night without tv to watch you could probably have my food if you did me the favor of popping a cap in my head.

While I agree, I prefer a simple recurve, or longbow, compounds are harder to maintain and much harder on arrows. Long term it would be good to have arrow making supplies and skills to make your own.

[Land_Owner]

It does make some sense.  However, with my rifles, handguns, reloading, bullet casting, hunting and shooting skills practically anything I want after a SHTF event I can TAKE through superior force.  I just have to steel myself into becoming that animal, which I have lived long and not become in my otherwise civilized life.

[Lloyd Smale]

land owner one thing ive learned in life and in training in the military is that one man is not a superior force no matter what he has for arms. 99 percent of the time stealth will beat out direct force.

[cjclemens]

  It does make some sense.  However, with my rifles, handguns, reloading, bullet casting, hunting and shooting skills practically anything I want after a SHTF event I can TAKE through superior force.  I just have to steel myself into becoming that animal, which I have lived long and not become in my otherwise civilized life.

I wouldn't consider archery equipment to be a primary, secondary or even back-up weapon.  Just an alternative method of getting food that doesnt draw attention to me or my whereabouts.  I'll save the independently targeting particle-beam phalanx, tactical smart missiles, phase plasma pulse rifles, RPGs, sonic-electronic ball breakers, nukes, knives, and sharp sticks for others I might run into who share your point of view...

[briarpatch]

Lloyd, every thing you add to the bag gives you options in a SHTF situation.

[Land_Owner]

I'll save the..., knives, and sharp sticks for others I might run into who share your point of view...

And rightly so you should.  However, I am not advocating that Might is Right.  I offered a viewpoint that we don't talk about.

I hope that Civility (my own included) will be the norm rather than the exception, and in fact it will be in some vicinities.  We have all seen the opposite to be what happens more quickly. 

"Sensible" thinking will go out the window.  Survival, where "might is right", will reign for a while (depending on how prolonged the crisis is) in these areas. Preparing for that underbelly of society should be paramount in our shtf thinking (perhaps this topic has been discussed on other threads...I don't know).

The Human Animal is capable of both the most excruciating acts of inhumanity as well as the most gracious acts.  I hope to be in the category of the latter.

[Empty Quiver]

Longbow and a couple extra strings. Push comes to shove a person can start building arrows from scratch. The bow won't attract attention like a gunshot either.


 Honestly I don't quite understand the fascination with crossbows, I find them rather unwieldy at best. Slow to deploy as well, with follow up shots being best measured with a calender, Mayan or Roman your choice.

[Lloyd Smale]

never did master a long bow or recurve so there out of the picture for me. I can see the advantage of them over a crossbow though in the sound dept. Crossbows are noisy much more so then even a compound bow. Big advantage though is anyone that can shoot a gun can pick up a crossbow and make hits at 30 plus yards. If stealth is needed though a long bow would be the tits. At the range a crossbow is used your going to hear it shoot.

Longbow and a couple extra strings. Push comes to shove a person can start building arrows from scratch. The bow won't attract attention like a gunshot either.


 Honestly I don't quite understand the fascination with crossbows, I find them rather unwieldy at best. Slow to deploy as well, with follow up shots being best measured with a calender, Mayan or Roman your choice.

[Couger]

I think a crossbow or a standard bow is an important addition to your home defense arsenal. I just ordered two more dozen arrows and a dozen more broadheads. Idealy id like to have about 50 of each on hand. Ill be about there with arrows but im only about half way on broadheads.

I'm not keen on compound bows, altho I do like the idea of traditional bows and arrows.
 
What about also discussing Slings?
 
Slingshots?
 
and Blowguns?   

[Empty Quiver]

I think a crossbow or a standard bow is an important addition to your home defense arsenal. I just ordered two more dozen arrows and a dozen more broadheads. Idealy id like to have about 50 of each on hand. Ill be about there with arrows but im only about half way on broadheads.

I'm not keen on compound bows, altho I do like the idea of traditional bows and arrows.
 
What about also discussing Slings?
 
Slingshots?
 
and Blowguns?   

I don't think I could get used to wearing a gourd on my unit.   That seems to be the fashion on Nat Geo where I see those blowguns deployed. Too dang cold here during hunting season.