*puts high powered scope on crossbow* I'M PLAYING THE QUIET GAME!

went to the first gun show of 2019 in my area last weekend. scored an extra mag for my Smith M&P9 compact. and traded my smith mod 60 snub nose for a model 36-6 target.

nice crossbow/case and holster.

That must be quite a beefy crossbow!

Most crossbows are beefy for the short range. They lack "cast" in archery terms. The amount of time the bolt or arrow is being propelled by the bow. My 40 pound recurve has a cast of about 20 inches. It will drive an arrow into 3/4 inch plywood.. My 80 pound hand crossbow has a cast of 4 inches. At the same range, 20 yards, the bolt is dropping off and bounces. At 70 yards the recurve will still deliver a lethal hit. At 10 yards the crossbow is deadly, not much beyond that, but twice the draw weight.

Yes, I do archery.

A friend in an unnamed city had someone break in to his home. The someone had a firearm in hand, a green dot appeared on their chest then arrow flites appeared in the same place. Said someone dropped said firearm and fled the home. Followed by the sounds of a car racing off.

Said friend called 911 to report the home break-in. The cops took statements and the gun... No charges were ever filed. It was learned later said gun had been used in a number of robberies where shots were fired. It was a "stolen" county issued gun reportedly stolen about a year before.

The person that found out what it's like to be a pin cushion, was the son of the officer that reported the gun stolen... Said pin cushion was a month away from being 18. In the hopes of lighten the jail time... He told who his accomplices were, one of them was his father.

Like father, like son-of-a -- gun.

Oh yes, at any range inside a house, deadly. Two things I can tell you. He did not have a hunting tip on that bolt. The kid might not have gotten to the car if he did. Two a long bow, awkward house at best in a house, would have gone in one side out the other.

In hunting scenarios complete penetration is common.

I have seen a couple of compound crossbows reaching out to 100 yards going through a 2A vest with a broadhead. The same crossbow and bolt did a full pass through of a car door and clothed ballistics jell dummy.

The advantage of a crossbow is they are quick to learn to use, compared to a long bow.

Indeed that is the main advantage, and compactness, relatively. You cannot fire a bow from the prone position. You can also pack more power than a man can reasonably draw. The down side is slow loading. That was not a light crossbow.

Pass through a car door? Have you seen inside one? A thin piece of mild steel and a thin piece of plastic. a few things that might stop an arrow, like the stiffing bits, the door lock, the window mechanism, or the window if is is down. Car doors do not offer cover, only concealment. ZERO protection.

Yes, I have bounced arrows off of glass. It you do not hit it just right it will not break.

The new car doors are really thin, there is nothing to them. The door he used was a late 60s Ford Galaxie... I know because it was the same model as my first car. They were heavy because they had a fair bit of steel in them with the inner and outer skin.

People don't understand how hard glass is. Depending on the way the force is applied it can take a hell of a blow and other times just shatter.

Even old car doors are relatively thin mild steel. That is the vital part. Armor is hardened steel. I've seen broad heads punch though 55 gallon drums. Not much good for anything after that. But the hole is made. Those things are many times thicker than a car door, any era.

Glass is funny stuff. The breaking point is the flaw. If you can cause a flaw in the glass it will crack along that flaw, no flaw and a hell of a lot of force is required to break it. That is why window breakers have a point. I have seen hammers bounce off car side glass. And my son blew out the back window of my wagon by closing the front door. There was a flaw, it was ready to go.

Prince Rupert's drop, an elongated glass bead with a tail. You can beat the head with heavy hammers all the live long day, nothing. Snap the end of the tail off and the head explodes. Glass is funny stuff. Fun with physics.

I don't know about that... The cooperage I worked at made new steel drums and the body metal in my van was thicker than the drums were by about 10 to 15 thou at least. What makes it seem thicker then it is is the curve of the drum sidewall.

We hada few cut open and it was thick. It might be what the drum was used for.

Crossbows. For when you need to nail a motherfucker quietly. And want it to hurt in the process.

Only if a target point. Hunting broad heads are designed to bleed you out.

I have heard of deer shot that never twitched an ear before falling over dead. A truly sharp blade does not hurt at once. I know this personally.

That's a bit of a downer.

See, it's more enjoyable to use animal products from animals that were made to suffer excruciating pain before dying. That's why I look up "undercover" videos from Peta, especially the ones showing the animals being tortured and screaming.

That crossbow would put some hurt on an intruder... The nice thing is it's NOT a firearm!

Why is that nice? Reloading the thing takes time. A gun is ready for the next one.

If it is used to protect one's self, the antigun lobby can't say a firearm was used... It's a fancy bow and arrow!

When it comes to protecting myself and my family follow up shots are important.

I fully agree.

How's your reloading going? Doing anything special?

So, tell us about the ammo and the holster!

I had to miss one of my favorite gun shows Saturday because of that four-letter word: SNOW!

Ammo is a box of 10 gauge #4 shot huntin' shells, and some 30-06 softpoints. Got the holster for twenty bucks: it holds the gun with a clamp built into the leather, so you can yank your gat straight out of your jacket without having to pull it up first. Went to the show thinking to buy a nicer belt holster for my Dirty Harry special, but this is better.
Fits nicely, too. A good deal.

I don't know why but I've always found crossbows interesting for many years but never seem to be able to bring myself to actually get one always been curious. I suppose I'm concerned that I'll forward any number of reasons and up shooting somebody with one. Not bad reasons, mind you but reasons. Nonetheless. I can remember seeing small hand-held wands many years ago that fired arrows. Not much bigger than a number two pencil. Most people associate crossbows with the walking dead. Frankly, I've been interested in them for a lot longer than that and the show has nothing to do with my interest. Compact bows are nice, but I know a few people that have gotten badly hurt by the bowstring breaking. Not to mention there's A lot more moving parts to a compact bolo then a lot of crossbows.

You have to do a lot to break a string. Very strong. I've had a bow break in my hands, I've never broken a string. Crossbow strings are generally heavier than the sting for a equal draw weight any other bow.

Compared to a gun, crossbows are dead simple. Now you get into the compound crossbow it gets a bit complex, but it looks worse than it is. It is just a compound bow on a stock.

I know two people that nearly lost an eye that were using compact bow for huntingso it's always been on the back of my mind. I don't know anybody that uses a crossbow. However. I knew a few people that had the miniature handheld crossbows and they seem to be synonymous for breaking the cable but the cable on them was practically just a bungee cord they weren't made very well. You could order them in the 80s. From the back of a magazine for like 30 bucks and weren't much bigger than a slingshot. This Particular handheld crossbowlooks more like what I'd love to get my hands on. It's not that I Do any hunting. Just wouldn't mind being able to some degree mail a target and in all fairness, if I had to use one. I'm not going to shoot somebody with it accidentally or without a God damned good reason. When you think about the mechanical nature of it. It pretty much eliminates getting pissed off and shooting somebody with it and more a position of you are doing something because you have to, not because you are in a pissed off mood.

For the record, I'm not that type of unstable or I probably would've at some point nearly used a knife on somebody I've never gotten in that kind of a position. Grandfather tried to use a knife on somebody a few times so that's always been in the back of my mind so never picked up a knife. As weird as that probably sounds at least I don't think I've ever even use one for combat would have to be a pretty bad situation for me to pick up a combat knife. I've always felt kind of the same way about a crossbow that if I had to pick one up as a weapon, it would have to be a pretty bad situation and wouldn't mind having one around. Machetes and swords are usually less useful than a baseball bat. Say what you like, but there is always the thought in the back of my mind baseball bat doesn't get stock and slow you down. Yeah, I know I sound like a lunatic but they have lots of nice gun laws here in Canada!!! . I've always been concerned that if I did have and gone given my family history. I might use it unnecessarily. My grandfather back in the 1960s was involved in an incident family doesn't really talk about it much, so I don't know all the details but aa gang of individuals attacked his residence when he lived out in the woods. Police had been called by his wife and by the neighboring house, where they attacked a couple of houses, not just his police were over an hour away. I don't know the exact number of individuals but they attacked his house and his neighbors. And as I understand it were armed with knives. Neighbors had a baseball bat or steak knife and that was about it. He had a hunting rifle. All I know is they were apparently after the women at the two residents don't know how many of them got shot or how many were involved. Like I said the family never spoke much about it. He never did any jail time. So it must've been a pretty nasty situation don't know if he actually killed anybody but apparently a couple of them got shot. Was a lot of that stuff going on in the 60s. Apparently. What I mean by that is, there were quite a few home invasions in the 1960s and 70s in the more remote areas. There was a rash of home invasions in a couple areas here in Nova Scotia. Some years ago during one summer maybe four years back there were as many as 10 home invasions per month. In a couple places, about 40 miles from where I live. Believe it or not. You're not allowed to have a bulletproof vest in Nova Scotia and there's very little you can have in regards to a firearm even having a hunting rifle requires so much insanity that it's almost not worth it. If you knew the red tape. You got a go through to have a handgun. It's ridiculous. There's a range where any Joe dingbat can learn how to use a handgun, about 40 miles from my place. They treat the place like a video arcade, the way they advertise it. Needless to say it's a lot more difficult to actually own a handgun and if you do go through all that red tape. You have to have a trigger lock on the gun have the ammunition locked up in a separate area and have the gun in a lockbox on top of having a trigger lock so it defeats any purpose of having a handgun completely. I still keep considering having a half decent sword or machete somewheres in the house, and a easily accessible crossbow. Sound like I'm crazy? Back in the early 2000's. There was a real bad incident right on my property, so I'm not as crazy as I sound. There was a party that got out of hand across the street and turned into a riot situation. Police initially attended unwillingly. We had a total of four officers show up. They estimate there was between 150 and 250 individuals involved. Police were able to arrest for individuals. One of the four attending officers proceeded to run back to her squad car get in the passenger side of the car crawl up under the console and walk herself in the car. These guys spent several hours taunting the cops once they ran out of handcuffs. Eventually the cop was ordered to leave the area by his superiors and threatened with suspension. They literally tried to call in the fire department to turn the hoses on these people and eventually like I said some Sgt. got on the line informing the cops that backup wasn't coming and that if they didn't leave immediately. They'd be reprimanded and they shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place and should of let the situation handle itself. All the cop could do was wish me luck. And they laughed. At one point had to go out with a baseball bat and deal with a bunch of morons flocking around in my driveway rolling around beating on each other while people were setting up lawn chairs and watching other people throwing pure balls around and so on.yaa one of the guys tried to take the baseball bat away from the being significantly larger than me i was in no position to be using a baseball bat in the first place, but it was pretty much the only option I hadi ended up nearly breaking one of the guys wrists due to the way he grabbed the bat. Frankly, I didn't care what they were doing just didn't want them wrecking my place.we had two vehicles at the time and was pure balls getting chucked around bricks and all around shenanigans. Common next morning it looked like something straight out of Vietnam furniture all over the place across the street broken windows crashed vehicles in multiple areas and Jesus for as you could see broken beer bottles all over the road unconscious bodies everywhere. She you can imagine some of them fully or semi naked. God dammit I wish we had decent digital cameras back then. Still nobody believes me. Just out messed up. The scene was. There was two or three other parties like that but at least they avoided our property decent machete sword or crossbow is usually a bit more of a deterrent than a baseball bat. Visually speaking. You can literally get in crap legally for a machete or sword. I should point out you can also get nailed for having bear mace despite the fact they're fully aware of bear right on my property and the hospital and old-age home about a block from my place have had problems with bears getting in the dumpsters. However, you get into a problem with some home invasion clown and you bear mace, their ass they can sue you. I kid you not. Artie heard of one case where a guy got in trouble for using bear mace on a home invader. Personally, I've always liked the idea of having a crossbow and the baseball bat as a secondary. Baseball bats more good for close quarters. I don't like the idea of having a decent sized combat knife around most likely that's just providing them with something to use on you unless you're pretty damn good with a knife. Crossbow usually puts you in a position to do something before they get close enough to get their hands on you and you don't have to be very good with a baseball bat to make sure they don't get their hands on you. Shoulders ribs or knees usually gets the job done. And if you're not particularly squeamish. There aren't many people that are going to keep booming after a baseball bat to the groin.

I know some people will bring up the old close quarters billy club. Once again if you're not pretty proficient with it. They're just coming use it on you before you really get anywhere's. Good aluminum baseball bat gives you a bit of leverage and reach. And yes, there's been plenty of people charged with damn near killing home invaders. If you can believe that. So you really got it. Be careful what you use to defend yourself in Nova Scotia. You can get in more trouble using a machete or a sword. Then you necessarily get into using a crossbow or a baseball bat.

They don't really have much grounds for use of a deadly weapon when it comes to a crossbow or a baseball bat. Crossbow could merely have been a hunting object and I've yet to hear them charging anybody with doing a number on a home invader using a baseball bat. I know a couple people have gotten into trouble for using a combat knife or a machete. Basically, the excuse brought up by law-enforcement was about being close enough to use it, and that they weren't necessarily in danger and the whole you don't know if the other person was armed. You literally have to prove that you know the other person was armed and dangerous as dumb as that sounds. You do a number on some clown with a baseball bat in your house or a crossbow and you generally get in less trouble than if you took a couple stabs at them with a kitchen knife or something bigger.

And like I Artie stated knives can get stuck or taken away from you. If you're not skilled with one something like a crossbow or a baseball bat. Usually solves the problem a lot quicker. Crossbow gives you distance there aren't many hassles that are gimmicky coming armed or not. If you nail them with a crossbow arrow and if they're close enough to reach with a baseball bat, you usually got enough time to get one or two shots in and that's usually about all you need for a deterrent. Like I mentioned before. Shoulders, neck, or legs center mass makes a good target, but may not necessarily be what you need to turn that person around and make them rethink what they're doing. Usually one good shot to the legs. It's highly unlikely they're going to get up and do anything real quick. Same goes for the neck region. Unfortunately, you might kill the person or give them brain damage, but it's not the same as using a bladed weapon on a home invader. Law is funny like that around here.

I've been through a lot of weird screwed up crap. That's why I've put some pot into this kind of thing. I'm pretty lucky that I've got half decent neighbors or I would've had to put a bit more thought into that kind of thing. My next-door neighbors a drunken nuisance. 90% of the time but he's not a dangerous drunken nuisance only thing I really got a worry about is him driving the car into mine or into the side of the house never had any problems with him drunk and beating on the door in 20+ years. Neighbors across the street that have those parties haven't had that kind of problem. Now in about 15 years. Everything's been quiet. Talk a couple weeks of paperwork to get moved around but the guy that was renting the properties. And up getting a lot of crap neighbors in the community hate my guts for ruining their fun, but they don't have many parties like that that I'm aware of around here anymore. Apparently back on of thing used to be pretty common. Before we moved in. In the late 90s. Nobody ever bothered to call the cops about it before, and just let them trash and Troy. I'm not some kid. I'm 41 years old. 1 foot in the grave. So more and more keep kicking around the idea of getting one of those pathways decent crossbows and learning how to properly use it.

Like you said yourself. Sample mechanically, not many moving parts, no peril to get walked. No ammunition to misfire. Only real concern is the cable breaking and I don't think that's a problem with a decent crossbow. Compaq bow probably looks great on stuff like those green arrow TV shows, but I think would be a lot less useful in a indoor urban situation then a crossbow. You got a look at size and a few other factors.

I didn't read this but gosh darn that is a yuuuuge text block to drop on someone. It is like Tetris Attacks master's edition! Game over, you won!

I just type what ever is on my mind

You are a deep thinker...

that's one of the nicer things. I've had said lately. Keep having millennial run-ins the last two months. I've said something very brief that I met in the nicest way possible, commenting on a piece of fictional material and had somebody go off on a huge angry offense. It's not a real person. It's a piece of artwork and yet I still keep finding myself taking rap from young people for saying what they feel is creepy when you say something like, I wouldn't mind taking a roll in the hay with a pretty character like that. One of the things that always keeps creeping up on me is how sensitive people are nowadays. Dear Lord what would they have done back when guys like me were in high school and the crap we went through? What are things going to be like if people are getting this sensitive when these people are in positions of power and authority in another few years.

What until your in mid career and accuse you of sexual misconduct back in high school?

first of all, I'm 41 years old. Secondly, I don't have any kind of a career.
Third that's definitely not going to happen. Nobody was really interested in me that way. In high school.
I was in my 30s before I had anything resembling sex. Would've happened in my 20s, but was dealing with a lot of crap. Between what I was dealing with with my family and some personal stuff. Long story. I'm sure nobody wants to hear about. I don't have any skeletons that are going to come back and haunt me from high school.

It seems like guys in their 30s tend to have more sexuality activity.

Actually, that's completely incorrect. I don't want to get into a lot of it because people will break out the torches and picked forks but I've been a nice guy. The majority of my life and it repels women sexually speaking. I've only ever had women interested in me sexually speaking, if they were getting something out of it. Financial. The other couple instances have been women who were mentally unbalanced and what they were looking for was a relationship and were concerned about anything sexual. Generally I am a magnet for the kind of girls that you wonder if they've got their ex-husband chopped up in a deep reason the basement. I've literally had a few women say that I've fit to a t those news report descriptions of serial killers. Because they're always this nice guy that nobody ever suspected. I have horrible luck with women, and I've just gotten used to it. At the same token, I don't try to be something I'm not. Most guys I find that are good with women is because they are good at manipulating people in general. I know a lot of people are going to crap all over that statement, but you don't know how many guys I know that were getting laid constantly and were despicable dirtbags. One guy was married with kids and the way he behaved was just I can't even begin to describe it! I always felt so bad for his wife and I'm surprised she never beat him half to death that guides behavior was some of the most inexcusable I've ever been around.

I think it's less about them being good at manipulating people and more about them just being good looking. If you are a good looking guy it doesn't matter how you treat a woman because if you lose her another girl will quickly try to replace her. So a handsome guy never has to work at treating a woman nice to get their attention. When a woman says all men are jerks what she is saying is that she only goes out with men who know they can get away with being a jerk to them. They get good at manipulating people because girls are more socially active with them because they are good looking and that naturally boost their confidence and self esteem.

that's about 60% right. I know a handful of guys that I still can't explain. Judging from their looks. They shouldn't even be in relationships. I don't think I'm the worst looking guy around but there's any number of reasons. Women aren't interested in me. Besides looks and I'm fully aware of all the reasons LOL.

What are the other reasons?

Looking for 6.5X55 MM Rounds.

Man you sounded like Savage there

Fire!

If you're still a shortword guy -

I'm doing a lot of Tankendo these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8WJse9WNeI

I am a shortsword guy, yes. Got one stashed down the back of my bugout bag. A short sword is a big knife, and every preparedness kit needs a knife.

Would it stop a zombie?

Yes, aim for the eye (socket) to be sure...

"Don't list the expensive things you buy on the internet! It will attract robbers!"

"I list the expensive weaponry I buy that can be used to kill said robbers."

"BuT rObBeRs!!!"

Is that... legal? >.>

Entirely.

You got a license for that? >.>

I tell you one thing that makes me mad. You mentioned your gun safes, now I don't know how old yours are, so you might have some of the old good ones, but the market for gun safes has been utterly destroyed over the last 20-30 years or so by cheap low quality products. Today, unless you are willing to buy one at great expense from a small manufacturer, they are all garbage at keeping out an attacker. There's a UL certification series for safes (the insurance industry is big into rated safes). The UL Residential Security Container Attack Level 1 (RSC-I) rating is the lowest one. This rating means the container should resist a single attacker with hand tools (shorter than 18″) for around 5 minutes. You'd think AT LEAST a gun safe should meet this, but essentially none of the gun safes on the market today even meets that minimal standard. Even a basic work-site job box for storing large power tools has better resistance to attack. This is why manufacturers quietly list all their safes as fire safes. Oh wait, except they don't meet any of the industry standards for fire protection either (so manufacturers just made up their own standards to put on the cereal box...). If you want to know more, check this guy out: https://gunsafereviewsguy.com/buyers-guide/

Normally I'd like to think that I'm the kind of person who does their research, and when I buy something expensive I find the one that does the job right for a decent price. I gave up when confronted with the gun safe market. There are so few good options. All the manufacturers making a good product were out-competed by cheap crappy safes manufactured at the lowest possible cost (all bent sheet metal over gypsum, no welds, no tight tolerances on doors, etc). They instead use gimmicks that make the product feel solid to consumers (heavy doors, lots of bolts in the door, thick layers of gypsum board behind steel, weights in the floor etc.) Most are so cheaply built they will usually pop open if you push them down a flight of stairs... I just wanna buy a halfway decent safe and not spend $4k...

Looks like someone is getting ready for zombies.