CARBON BOLTS
10-13-2007, 04:45 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 25
CARBON BOLTS
HI,
New guy with some questions, looking for advise. I just bought a Excal Vortex. Based the purchase on a friends experience, I triedhis and liked it.Hewilled me his crankaroo so I can get the thing loaded.He shoots the aluminum and believes in them, I've been an active archer till I broke the laws of physics, specificly gravity and after both rotator cuffs and bicept tendons being repairedI'm a crossbow hunter for awhile. With my archery experience being that carbon arrows are a tougher, more durableshafting material, I will assume the same goes for xbow bolts?My question is this, what carbon shafting is used for bolts? What spine, or designator is used for excal, I shoot cx maxima 250out of my compound, I know that they would not be appropriate for the crossbow. With the Vortex being 200 lbs. what size/weight shaft would I buy to build my own bolts? The 2219 store boughts bolts, that i gotwith the excal are hitting the target on an angle, nock to the left, are there tunning methods for better arrow flight?
Please help, been shooting arrows for 25yrs, bolts for 25 minutes. don't know sh*t
Thanks to all or any that would help out.
andy
New guy with some questions, looking for advise. I just bought a Excal Vortex. Based the purchase on a friends experience, I triedhis and liked it.Hewilled me his crankaroo so I can get the thing loaded.He shoots the aluminum and believes in them, I've been an active archer till I broke the laws of physics, specificly gravity and after both rotator cuffs and bicept tendons being repairedI'm a crossbow hunter for awhile. With my archery experience being that carbon arrows are a tougher, more durableshafting material, I will assume the same goes for xbow bolts?My question is this, what carbon shafting is used for bolts? What spine, or designator is used for excal, I shoot cx maxima 250out of my compound, I know that they would not be appropriate for the crossbow. With the Vortex being 200 lbs. what size/weight shaft would I buy to build my own bolts? The 2219 store boughts bolts, that i gotwith the excal are hitting the target on an angle, nock to the left, are there tunning methods for better arrow flight?
Please help, been shooting arrows for 25yrs, bolts for 25 minutes. don't know sh*t
Thanks to all or any that would help out.
andy
10-13-2007, 05:08 AM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Land of Rocks, Ozarks of Mo.
Posts: 3,048
RE: CARBON BOLTS
OK several good carbon arrows/bolts around. Lot of the folks use GTII's with brass insert from Dan Miller. Some use carbon express bolts and others use the new excal firebolt. I am will be using the power bolts from easton, i think its the same as fire bolt that easton makes fer excal, not positive on that. Anyway they're my next ones. I have been using alum. fer years but will see how the power bolts work out. I think the O D is .340 which should work well in CB's. Tuning ck. dis pad screws and make sure they are all same measurement, mine are 7/8" Ck. tiller just like regular Bows cept its horizonal instead of vertical. I don't care fer the 5" vanes or feathers, you have to have more wt. up front fer yer FOC to be right. 4" seemed to work for me with the helicalfletch. If you twist yer string keep it equal amount on each side or it will pull limb back on the twisted side and get out of tiller. Don't worry about string being above high brace line it will stretch fairly quick.
10-13-2007, 05:53 AM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: May 2006
Location: MA
Posts: 1,653
RE: CARBON BOLTS
I use the simple store bought Easton Power bolts out to my effective range of 30 yards. I tend to bend aluminium arrows pretty quickly just pulling them out of the target.Mr. Miller agreed that in that range they are just fine but his overall view of them was NOT steller. He thought that their weights were inconsistant.
I am sure in the hands of a good shot which I am sorry to say I am not you could sore tighten up your groups with Awshucks/Miller Killers.
Mike.. What did you mean about disipator pad screws and tuning?? All I ever do is crank them down so tight I strip the holes in the pads. Sigh...
I am sure in the hands of a good shot which I am sorry to say I am not you could sore tighten up your groups with Awshucks/Miller Killers.
Mike.. What did you mean about disipator pad screws and tuning?? All I ever do is crank them down so tight I strip the holes in the pads. Sigh...
10-13-2007, 07:47 AM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: No.MN
Posts: 1,053
RE: CARBON BOLTS
Welcome to the world of horizontal bows. After trying a variety of commercial carbon bolts (Carbon Express, Beman, Super Carbon, Gold Tip Lazer II) in my Vortex, I found they all had two things in common that prevent max accuracy: not enough weight forward, large vanes. So I assembled my own using Gold Tip Lazer II shafts, 110 gr Brass insers and 2" Blazers. Made the mistake of aiming at the same spot (at 30 yards) on the first try; luckily the aluminum nock prevented a complete Robin Hood. These things fly like darts. Accurately.
Try the Flemish string. It lasts longer, is quieter and gives me about 15 pfs more velocity. I'm hearing good things about Boo flemish strings on this forum. I make my own, it's fun and relatively easy. Lots of info on web re same.
Also settled on the Slick Trick magnum in 100 gr as my broadhead of choice. I'm finding that the smaller sized, 4 bladed BH does not steer or rotate the bolt as the larger 3 bladed heads did for me (Thunderheads cost me two bucks to find that out). Besides, Slicks have shown me exceptional terminal performance.
X bows and verts have some things in common but lots of differences too. Keeping string well waxed is a must to prevent abnormal wear from Crankaroo and string dogs. String stretch becomes a problem due to the heavy weight of pull, esp on recurves like our Excals. Watch your brace height and readjust as necc. esp with new strings that have'nt settled. Lubing rail is important too. They can't be made as quiet as a compound vert..no matter what you do. A little bit quieter than stock, but not QUIET. Some folks use heavy bolts, big strings, string silencers and catcher. Everyting I've tried still leaves them relatively noisy. I'm thinking that quiet is over rated. So what if it's noisy, deer have a difficult time jumping the string at reasonable shooting distances when the bolt leaves the bow at 330 fps.
If you have'nt settled on a scope (vs a red dot) do try the Excalibur LumiZone. It gives you magnification, 5 aiming points and the reticule can be lighted on demand. In a word: Fantastic. Good shooting.
Try the Flemish string. It lasts longer, is quieter and gives me about 15 pfs more velocity. I'm hearing good things about Boo flemish strings on this forum. I make my own, it's fun and relatively easy. Lots of info on web re same.
Also settled on the Slick Trick magnum in 100 gr as my broadhead of choice. I'm finding that the smaller sized, 4 bladed BH does not steer or rotate the bolt as the larger 3 bladed heads did for me (Thunderheads cost me two bucks to find that out). Besides, Slicks have shown me exceptional terminal performance.
X bows and verts have some things in common but lots of differences too. Keeping string well waxed is a must to prevent abnormal wear from Crankaroo and string dogs. String stretch becomes a problem due to the heavy weight of pull, esp on recurves like our Excals. Watch your brace height and readjust as necc. esp with new strings that have'nt settled. Lubing rail is important too. They can't be made as quiet as a compound vert..no matter what you do. A little bit quieter than stock, but not QUIET. Some folks use heavy bolts, big strings, string silencers and catcher. Everyting I've tried still leaves them relatively noisy. I'm thinking that quiet is over rated. So what if it's noisy, deer have a difficult time jumping the string at reasonable shooting distances when the bolt leaves the bow at 330 fps.
If you have'nt settled on a scope (vs a red dot) do try the Excalibur LumiZone. It gives you magnification, 5 aiming points and the reticule can be lighted on demand. In a word: Fantastic. Good shooting.
10-13-2007, 08:25 AM
#6
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Land of Rocks, Ozarks of Mo.
Posts: 3,048
RE: CARBON BOLTS
Pads get mashed easy. So i keep 7/8" spacebetween collars at all 4 corners. That puts enough squeeze on rubber pads to soften limb recoil, but not press them flat and make them worthless! Tuning tiller and limbs! If you constantly twist one side of string you will slowly put pressure on that side and make it out of even tiller. You will notice that yer string goes across rail at a slight angle. That my friends make yer arrows hit either tail left or tail right
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10-14-2007, 09:03 AM
#9
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 6,585
RE: CARBON BOLTS
I think carbon arrows are way over rated for X-bows,I get decent accuracy with them but not quite what I get with 2219 and much better penatration with the 2219 since my primary reason for shooting is for hunting as I gave up target 25 years a go I dont keep two set ups on hand any more. Lee
10-14-2007, 12:37 PM
#10
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,083
RE: CARBON BOLTS
I've been shooting the HortonCarbon Strike MXwith good results. The Carbon Expresses look decent too. The only reason I bought the Hortons is because you can get a half dozen at Walmart.com for like $36 shipped! Or you can have them sent to your local Wally World freeand pick 'em up. for only $30 The only thing is they have 4" vanes. Here is the link if anyone wants to check them out:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4241746
I've seen them for up to twice as much on some websites.
Can't go wrong if they work good for you. Could even change the vanes if you wanted.
Chris
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4241746
I've seen them for up to twice as much on some websites.
Can't go wrong if they work good for you. Could even change the vanes if you wanted.
Chris