Risk Assessment

[bigpaul]

Thankyou BP, so you regard them as less of a threat with them being a prepper (unknown to you at the time).
That is what I am looking for.

I'd say they're about an equal threat as anybody else.
The fact that they will be less desperate than the average person is outweighed IMO by -
a) the fact that a prepper will 100% have at least a knife (and possibly axe, crossbow etc.)
b) they don't know you're a prepper unless your gear gives it away. So if they just barely see you through bushes and feel they're being stalked, they may just fire that crossbow without even getting a good look at you.

thats a good point, i would say that you should scout your location and know who is in your area, and firing a bow or crossbow into bushes without a clear shot is probably a waste of an arrow as it is more likely to hit bark than flesh and gives away your presence.