CrossBow Scopes

Crossbow Scopes

Over the last few years, the popularity of the crossbow has been increasing steadily within the archery community. With that in mind, now the question of which crossbow to purchase comes to mind.

And just as complicated as the decision of which crossbow to purchase, Now, it is also a question of which Crossbow Scope will best suit the individual and practical needs of the perspective crossbow owner.

The specific use of the crossbow, such as hunting and target archery, will dictate what the needs of the intended crossbow owner may have.

Scopes are necessary to provide adequate aiming and practical functionality along with improvement in archery skill. The intended use will greatly narrow your search parameters to find the crossbow scope that will meet your needs.

In this article, we will help analyze and review the types and differences of crossbow scopes that are available on the market.

We will discover what their intended practical applications are, and some of the key features that make up each scope's specific unique style and value.

A good foundation of the knowledge of the way crossbow scopes are designed with certain features and how they work will be a vital part of knowing exactly which scope is best for your intended use.

Evolution And Adaptation of Scopes to Crossbows:

Wartime stands out as the time in our history and seems to be when the biggest jumps in technology are advanced by humanity.

The demand for improved marksmanship during World War I and World War II facilitated the desire to get a closer look at targets on the horizon.

We use to carry things with us, such as a telescope or spyglass, and this was the drive and motivation in the development and the inventing of the scope.

Using the fundamental principles of magnifying an image down range for a better sight of the target originated the idea of a scope as a tool.

We needed to help our marksmen fire more accurately at long distances, acquire their target, and make a successful shot. This technology and it's basic functions generated what we use today as modern hunting scopes, spotting scopes, and binoculars.

Warfare weaponry for most countries is marked with a long and primitive history of archery equipment. With this history and the effectiveness of archery and its uses has continued to be one of choice and development.

Archery hunting saw tremendous growth in popularity in the Twentieth Century and crossbows broke onto the playing field in the United States during the 1960s and '70s and has been constantly increasing developments and technologies since that time.

Vertical bows, like a recurve or a standard compound bow, will typically only have simple pin sight since the range that a verticle bow shoots will usually be less than 50 yards and most humans are capable of seeing that distance easily with the naked eye.

Crossbows, on the other hand, have been increasing the range limits and boundaries since the turn of the century. Since crossbows are very effective in use beyond the limited range of the vertical archery, scopes became adapted to be better suited for crossbows to assist in those greater range distances.

Different Styles of Crossbow Scopes:

There are only a couple different choices of scope styles available for rifle hunters and enthusiasts, these being traditional optics and night vision optics, with varying choices in terms of quality of glass, magnification, and reticle (which are the internal pieces that provide aiming points) with the choices being expanded for Crossbow Scopes. These different styles for crossbows include the two above mentioned choices, and additionally can be holographic (which can be used on some tactical handguns) and can also include an illuminated reticle (also referred to as crosshairs) with varying degree of sub-tension (which is the amount of space the reticle cover on the target).

One very distinct difference between the crossbow scope and the rifle scope is their magnification factor.

A crossbow simply is not capable of achieving the far greater distance like that of some rifles which are designed for up to half a mile at times.

Crossbow scopes typically feature small magnification ratios to accommodate the dynamics of the arrow and forces that archery equipment can attain.

Crossbows have become an adaptive tool for physically disabled people who still want to enjoy archery shooting sports and hunting.

Now, someone with poor vision can be allowed the ability to be competitive in target archery or successful in crossbow hunting. with a slight bit of magnification in a crossbow scope.

The highest technology developed is a Holographic scope and offers far more tactical design and is meant for tactical situations and close-quarters shooting. These, unfortunately, are the most expensive.

A focus for most of the hunting industry has been illuminated scopes. Hunters are most likely to encounter their quarry in low-light situations and the call for an illuminated reticle which allows for better target acquisition in these low-light scenarios.

These scopes come in a couple of different formats: simple illuminated dots or magnified with a reticle.

The benefit of magnification and reticle is that the scope still offers black aiming dots even if the battery or lights no longer work. A simple standard red dot illuminated scope just uses the projection of the light onto the glass. If the battery or lights no longer work you'd just be looking through a pane of glass with no point of reference for aiming.

Choosing the Right Crossbow Scope:

Now that you are armed with all the different information about scopes, there are various ways to determine which is the best crossbow scope for you. To begin, you need to evaluate your need once you know the purpose for which your crossbow is intended.

If it is for target archery competition crossbow or just a hobby crossbow, then the scope you choose should be a scope with a rather significant zoom factor. To make you successful you will want to be able to see clearly the area on each target that will help you shoot most accurately. Keep in mind, especially for competitions, there may be restrictions in the rules and regulations that limit the features of magnification of the scope used and may prohibit certain ratios. Always check with the event coordinators for these types of rules.

If the use for your crossbow will be as a hunting tool, an illuminated scope would be the best for you. The reticles offer the best visibility in low-light scenarios, which is the prime-time for encountering most quarry. Although, especially with the rising interest in hunting wild boars at night, a night vision scope might be necessary. Either way, you'll want a scope that is designed for the quickest target acquisition as possible.