Crossbows have two designs, which are the recurve design and the compound design. The designs do not have many differences between them and you cannot say that one is better than the other bow. The main difference between the two is that the crossbow with the compound design usually has limbs that are smaller than the limbs of the recurve crossbow. As a result, the compound crossbows are very portable and they are mainly used for shooting at short distances with much ease. Therefore, the best crossbow would depend on your purpose for the bow. Irrespective of the design of the crossbows, different materials can be used to make them. There are the crossbows that have stocks that are made of plastic materials and others could be made of wood. In addition, there are bows that have stocks made of plywood with resin coatings. The main characteristic of plastic is that it is very light.