OK... I have decided to get a cross-bow for next year hunting.

I will be hunting deer and turkey mostly, maybe hogs, coyotes, fox etc.

Money is not that important.

I want to be able to range out to 45 yards.

I am a relatively experienced hunter, compound bow, shotgun, rifle, muzzleloader.

I will purchase a cranking device on whatever cross-bow I purchase to make my life easier.

Having said this, does the cranking devices nearly deminish the effort? I am thinking about either an excalibur or possibly the new bowtech.

I would go with the phoenix, but since I am using a cranking device, should I go faster since it won't really require a lot of effort?

Are there any other drawbacks to going with a higher draw weight?

Thanks in advance.

I'd go with a phoenix because of our state's 200 pound draw weight limit, The exocet is 225 i do believe? you might want to tone down the 45 yards down to 40 max. you can buy an accudraw and dan miller will install it for you. The stryker is a huge chunk of money that is brand new, there are bound to be some bad things that happen with them because there hasnt been any time to work out the bugs yet. The only problem with having a higher draw weight is that you have to look for your arrow farther after it passes through the deer[8D]

Welcome to the crowd! If you do some checking on past threads you find your yardage rather debatable. Mine in idea conditions is 40 yards but seems to have drawn insults but then who cares? Sticks and stones! Awsucks offered a link to educate the masses about shooting ranges. The Excalibur site offers some good insite into ranges and I do not believe 45 yards is mentioned.
You'll only need a rope cocker which will basically cut the cocking effort in half as well as help align the string properly for accuracy.
The Phoenix will leave you wanting nothing assuming you are reasonable.
Ask Awsucks about the drawbacks of using more power. LOL, basically past the Vixen you burry your arrows deeper after zipping through a deer. You do not need more than a Vixen.
Now get ready for more good advice. Great thing about advice in general is that its free so there's no harm in tossing it! LOL!
Squirrel the Exocet is 200 and the Phoenix is 175.

Hi! Welcome to the forum. Lemme see what I can contribute. 1st off, can you spot me a couple of hundred til I hit a scratch off?? LOL. well, maybe I can save you a couple of hundred. The two crank type cockers you will have to deal w/ for an Excal are the Excal "Crankaroo" or the 10 pt Accudraw, which is regarded as the better of the two. The Excal gets taken out of a pouch and mounted for each cocking. The Accudraw bolts on the stock. It's the $200 we are talking about, Crankaroo about half that. Problem is they are both slow and noisy. Won't matter what pound pull bow you put them on, takes the same revolutions to cock, then you got to wind it back up. The rope cocker will do nicely. I've got an Emax, it has 100 ft lbs of k.e. at 328 fps the way mine is set up. It sits alot, lol. I would not buy one of them if I were you. They are a brute to cock, shoot too hard, are hard on servings, and just plain more bow than anyone in NA needs. The Stryker will be half of that again. 45 yds is cool for elk, moose, coyotes turkey ect, but a skosh far for deer. I won't go over 35 yds myself. Can you do it? Probably but not every time. I like my Phoenix the best. Do some reading on the Excal V-zone, which is right on the money from 10 -50 yds on any bow that shoots between 240 fps and 360 fps. They take away a need for the flattest trajectory you can get[arguably] good luck, hope I helped a tad, how bout just a hundred? lol We have lots of fun here!

awshucks is right on with yardage on those animals. I would choose the Exocet 200 because its abit flatter on traj. and that will help with those song dogs!

i have the exocet 200 and i love it. some of the guys have the phoenix and are quite happy with them. i have the rope cocker and the crankeroo. usually use the crankeroo because it hurts my back too much to use the rope cocker. very little effort needed to draw the bow with it and string is always perfectly aligned with it. however ....it is slow and noisy. not an issue for me cause you're not going to get off a second shot anyhow. good luck.

OK... I think I have basically decided to either go with the Exocet or the Phoenix. It sounds like they are basically the same CB, $50 difference and maybe 10% faster.

Are these bows very quiete? Should I buy the dampening system?

Any thoughts on the differences between the Exocet and the Phoenix?

Thanks for the replies!

I have never shot my bows next to other brands. I really don't think my bows are noisey at all. I use a flemish dacron and I serve my cat whiskers (which makes them more affective) and I really don't notice the noise.
I hope you've visited the Excal web site. This page is pretty accuratehttp://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/demo/m/content/article.php?content_id=153
Other than that either choice will be excellent!

if money is no object and you want the best wheeled crossbow on the market and since the Strikers are not going to be available till after the first of the year do yourself a favor and look at the TenPoint lineup the Proelite has to be the finest wheeled crossbow on the market and if you wait for the 2007 modles I hear thear are going to be some nice improvements on what is already a awsome crossbow, and the Proelite is deadly accurate it is tacking a chance shooting at the same apot on a target twice unless you like spending money on arrows..

Both of those bows are good choices, either will be more than adequate for hunting. If you think you might be an arrow junkie, lol, go w/ Phoenix, easier to cock. Here's a few facts for ya to consider. [1] crossbows are fun. [2] crossbows are loud, comparatively speaking to verts. [3] anything you do to quiet them costs fps [4] most things that attempt to reduce the noise fly off or fall apart.

You can tame an Excal down some by going to a tad heavier arrow than stock issue or using a different string. Stock Excal arrows are 360 gr GT's. For every 5 gr additional weight you will lose about 1 fps. The two most popular string choices are the Flemish Fast Flight [FFF] or the Excel endless loop dacron. The difference there is about 10-15 fps. My hunting arrows currently weigh 431 gr, w/ Excel on Phoenix I'm at 280-290 fps. With FFF on Emax I get 328 fps. The advantages of this is less shock, vibration, noise, ect. Good luck to ya!!