Crossbows

In modern day, the crossbow has largely evolved into a weapon for sport and recreation, but it's fearsome medieval heritage has unfortunately given rise to some misconceptions. The most common misconception is that a crossbow has long-range capabilities like a gun. IT DOESN'T! While the crossbow is often shouldered and fired much like a gun, that's where the similarities end. In spite of the cool advances in modern manufacturing and machining, the crossbow is still a primitive weapon. Today, the average crossbow generates roughly 80 ft-lbs of Kinetic Energy. By comparison, a run-of-the-mill .30-30 hunting rifle generates over 1200 ft-lbs of Kinetic Energy. So if you intend to use your crossbow for big-game hunting and you expect it's range and power to be like a modern powder weapon, you will surely be disappointed.

Regarding range and accuracy, the modern crossbow is actually more similar to the modern high-performance compound bow.

Here are the current eBay listings for Crossbows: