Hunting & Fishing Crossbow suggestions?

[sled_mack]

Crossbows are now legal here for archery season, which has my interest. My shoulders are too messed up for a compound bow so this opens up a lot of hunting time for me. But I know nothing about crossbows.

What features or specifications should I be looking for? Any brands that stand out above the crowd?

Likewise with bolts and broadheads. Do you pick a combo and go with it? Or is it like tuning a reload recipe?

Thanks for your help!

 

[checkmate101]

I recently helped my dad get into a xbow. as with anything you can get as expensive as you like.

What we did:
Centerpoint Spectre 375 - not sure if this model is still being made or not
Sent it to a guy in Tx for a trigger job. Guy's name is TX_RDXguy on www.crossbowtalk.com. Super helpful guy that just genuinely seems to enjoy tinkering on xbow triggers. The Spectre had a pretty bad one but the trigger job was a solid fix for it. I think he charged about $100 for the job and it was about $20 to ship it to him.
I liked the Spectre as it has a fairly small axle to axle width when cocked. For the price ($270 when i bought it) it was hard to beat.
If a deadlift type maneuver is difficult with your shoulders, you might look for a bow that has a crank cocking device. They typically are a bit more expensive.

Bolts: Black Eagle Executioners. You can get them spine indexed from a couple different guys online (if memory serves - Jerry at South Shore Archery was one) for a few or you can just turn the nocks until the bolts are all hitting the same spot. There are other good options but this seemed to be one of the best out there and the price wasn't terrible.

Broadheads: I went with an expandable as we were going to be turkey hunting with it first. Most quality broadheads should be fine. I haven't had time to mess around with his bow and fixed blades yet. Some good places to start for expandables: Schwacker (this is what I picked up), Rage (lots of hate but they work well in my experience), G5 Deadmeat, Grim Reapers. For fixed blades: Slick Trick, G5 Striker, Magnus broadheads (any of them work well).

With compound bow shooting it it much more about tuning the arrow rest/bow for your set up, sorry to say I haven't tried tuning my dad's xbow with fixed heads yet so I can't help you there. I am guessing it should be fairly tuned as the bolt rides on a rail (look for a xbow with a quality machined aluminum rail). Other than that I would refer you to the crossbow boards.

 

[Bully]

Decide if you want the ability to easily work on it yourself or if you're comfortable sending it out.

If the former, look at Excalibur Crossbows. They are a recurve style bow, no cams. Plenty fast and lighter than a wheel bow. Biggest downside, they are a bit louder than a wheel bow. They also carry wider. However being able to change the string in 5 minutes or less is really nice. Strings are super reasonable as well. The stock trigger is ok, there are some aftermarket triggers that are nice and can be changed out by the end user pretty easily. Very accurate. I had one for a season but never got a shot with it. Wound up selling to go full trad (thankfully my family doesn't depend on my hunting prowess).
Good luck with your search.

 

[checkmate101]

Bully makes a good point if you like to do things yourself. The Spectre that we got had to be sent out because the guy in Tx didn't make a kit to do the trigger yourself. He does make a kit for the Centerpoint Sniper 370 that can be shipped out to the end user to do yourself too. If you go this route, the factory trigger is pretty bad so I would plan on getting the trigger done from the cheaper Centerpoint tiers.

 

[Wading]

My Excaliber is dead accurate as far as you would want to shoot a crossbow.

 

[afv338]

i recently bough a raven couldnt be happier shot it out to 60 yds dead deer every time only shot one arrow at a time from a rrs tripod if i would have shot more i would have been buying more arrows.

 

[45cal4life]

I went with a Scropyd Death Stalker 370 (few years old now). I like the reverse draw = faster bolt speed with less draw weight and narrower. Using the Death Stalker bolts with Slick Trick Standard 100gr broadheads. Aimpoint 9000 red dot zeroed at 20 yards using DOPE and just holding over at whatever distance. This is strictly a hunting rig and only your wallet is the limiting factor

 

[Cjt1983]

whats your budget? The new barnetts come with a trigger tech from the factory. The ts380 is around 500

 

[Jigstick]

I have two Excalibur’s and love them dearly