For the money this is a pretty decent weapon, it shoots consistently, and the arrows have quite a bit of force behind them. But it's far from perfect.

Main gripe: the sights it comes with are worthless! The front sight is almost flimsy enough to flex in a strong wind, and the threaded stud that holds the adjusting wheel for the rear sight obscures/interferes with aiming across about 1/3 of the adjustable range.

It does have a standard dovetail mount to accomodate better aiming devices, but sadly that mount (on the unit I recieved) was not quite exactly parallel with the track from which the arrow are launched. This defect put it a little bit beyond the adjustable range of the laser sight I tried; the electronic 'red dot/crosshairs' sight I tried with it was totally unworkable.

A very cheap ($7) .22 rifle scope was adjustable enough to compensate, and thus gave me the best accuracy, but it's not designed for pistols, it's cumbersome and time-consuming to use... (The laser sight would've been ideal.)

I did successfully use this crossbow to dispatch a few of the pests against which I intended to use it, but only when I managed to lure them to within 20' of me, and then keep them busy in one spot for several seconds.

One of them managed to escape with a couple inches of arrow sticking out of its torso, but hopefully it will expire somewhere sufficiently remote so that its cause of death won't attract any attention.

All-in-all, it's hard to go too wrong with this item -- what do you want for less than $20? But even so, if I had it to do over, I'd probably spring for a name brand pistol crossbow (at 3x the price) just to avoid the irritation factor of zeroing it in, if for no other reason.

A suggestion, for getting it dialed-in: use something soft, like a loosly packed bag of peat moss or an old foam pillow, behind your target; if the arrows hit wood or anything harder you only get to shoot them once (after which they no longer fly true.) Use new arrows until you get the sights adjusted, and then shoot them again a couple of times to get the feel of the weapon (with expectations of accuracy decreasing somewhat each time an arrow is re-fired.)

Happy Hunting,
Mark 3 stars

It's a simple design, maybe too simple. The frame is cast metal, which causes it to have some sharp edges that caused the string to fray. It has been fired about 150-200 times and is still going (not by much). The sights are wrong so the same day it arrived we modified it to work a bit better. It can kill small animals at close range if that's needed. All in all it's great for $20-30 and it's really fun to use. 4 stars

All the above mentioned rewiews are correct.In my case the string started to fray from the beginning and about after 30 or 40 shots it ripped now I try to replace it with some stronger material and if I succeed it was worth for $20 because its lots of fun. 3 stars

The crossbow came on time as described. It was a pain to put the string on, and the string started breaking since it was put on, so you might need an extra string for it. I got a way to put on the string: assemble the foot piece and the bow arm first,then step on the foot piece and pull the bow arm toward you with two hands.Have a friend put on the string on for you. It's easier than the way the manufacturer provided with the cross bow.
The sights on the crossbow are made of cheap plastic, so get yourself a decent one. 4 stars

I purchased this gun and had nothing but trouble with it. the bow would not stay in place and when I tried to tighten it up the stupid thing broke. You need two people to string it and it has to be assembled. Before it broke, I did get the chance to fire it once, but it didn't even shoot the arrow across the length of my living room. save your money and buy a real bow. 1 star