Athlon Outdoors Tests and Ranks Seven Hunting Crossbows

Bowhunters searching for their next crossbow now have a fresh, hands-on resource to consult. For the 2026 Ballistic's Best Hunting Edition, the team at Athlon Outdoors ran its first-ever crossbow shootout, putting seven Ready-to-Hunt models from Ravin, TenPoint, Barnett, CenterPoint, Wicked Ridge, Excalibur, and Killer Instinct through a battery of real-world tests. According to author Steve Felgenhauer, the field was so competitive that only a single point separated first and second place, and a couple of budget-friendly entries managed to outscore pricier, more established names.

The panel wasn't made up of industry insiders alone. Felgenhauer, a 42-year crossbow veteran, was joined by an experienced bowhunter and a rifle shooter new to crossbows entirely, giving the scoring a mix of perspectives from novice to expert. Every bow was judged across nine categories, including aesthetics, ergonomics, sights, trigger, recoil, accuracy, reliability, value, and weight/balance, with Excalibur supplying the target block and Burris Optics contributing an Oracle X laser-ranging scope for testing.

How the Field Shook Out

Per Athlon Outdoors' rankings, the CenterPoint Sniper G4D finished in seventh place, hampered by a fussy cocking-cord setup despite solid accuracy and speed for its price point. The Excalibur Rev X TD, the lone recurve in the test, landed sixth; testers praised its looks and trigger feel but questioned whether the takedown feature justified the added cost over Excalibur's standard Rev X.

Fourth place ended in a tie between the Killer Instinct Boss X DC and the Barnett Hyper Raptor T Rex. The Boss X DC impressed as the cheapest bow in the lineup, proving that a bare-bones build didn't hold back its performance. The Hyper Raptor T Rex earned praise for its machined riser and cocking mechanism, but an awkwardly positioned trigger kept it from climbing higher. Rounding out the review, the Wicked Ridge Commander 400 claimed third, standing out as a value-priced option that punched well above its price tag in features and compact design.

Athlon Outdoors didn't skimp on detail for the top two finishers, Ravin and TenPoint, whose razor-thin scoring gap capped off the comparison. For the full breakdown of every category score and testers' hands-on impressions, check out the complete Ballistic's Best Hunting Edition crossbow review at Athlon Outdoors.