New season extender
 

Picked it up today. Carbon express 390. Sighted in the scope at the shop and got used to it. It came with a crank cocking device as well as the rope cocker, quiver, three Carbon express bolts with target tips. Shot it through the chronograph and got 368 fps.

Awesome!
I've been tinkering the past few years with my xbow. I've been trying to whack the head of a turkey with no success.

And I do deer hunt. I have just acquired my disabled permit for upper Michigan as to use a xbow it is required. Only in upper and only late season.
I've had shots at does. But have been waiting for a buck.

I use Schwacker mechanical s. And have found a three bladed guillotine broadhead that flies just like my Schwackers. Can't recall the manufacturer but I'll post when I get back north.

One thing I would suggest OT is a Bednar arrow puller. I don't have the grip strength to pull bolts out of my Block any longer. AND those bolts are in there tight. The Bednar puller was a godsend. Allows me to pull straight back. Just google Bednar arrow puller.

And watch your thumbs and fingers. I have an older 10 point to which I added a finger guard. Have seen many posts of people taking fingers off as they have held the xbow incorrectly

JW

Thanks JW, I bought a target bag that allows the cross bolts to be pulled out with little or no effort. I bought it instead of a block because a friend of mine who has been hunting with a crossbow for years has to spray silicone on his shafts and then use a special contraption to pull the bolts from the block. I have not hunted archery for over 40 years and when I did it was with a Bear Grizzly re-curve, so I bought my crossbow from a well known archery shop, Lancaster Archery Supply, in my county that sells nation wide. I asked for advise on what to buy and they recommended the target I bought and it works as advertised. I will have to remind myself of where not to put my fingers until I get used to this new addition to my arsenal. I would really hate to see my fingers flying down range.

While I can't speak for your xbow, on mine there's really no way to shoulder the crossbow and have your finger(s) on the rail without it feeling extremely awkward.

I bought a crossbow in June (Wicked Ridge Warrior G3) for the exact same reason you did, a longer season (and less hunting pressure). It's been awesome having public land mostly to myself. I've got 2 deer with the xbow so far, a very small 8 point and an adult does.

I think you'll enjoy it OT. It's nice to have that long of a season. Especially in the early season before the weather is nasty.

-Jake

Oh you're gonna like that, its a lot of fun. I bought one last year and Ive shot a hog and a nice buck with it.

The bag target is the way to go for sure. You'll just have to figure out something else to shoot broadheads at and make sure they fly like the field points. Some of them will plane at those speeds. You will want your arrow to be front heavy. That will help them fly right. Do some research on arrow F.O.C. you will probably want around 20% more weight on the front half of your arrow. That will give you extreme accuracy and make a solid fixed broadhead fly right.

I have a target broad head that doesn't open when it hits the target, The pro where I bought the crossbow recommended rage mechanical and they come with a target head. I also bought three more cross bolts so I have a target set and a hunting set. I wanted to get out in our late archery season which is almost over now but with the weather we have had, below zero and high winds I didn't believe I had practiced enough to hunt with it so I will have to wait. I will have plenty of time to practice before next season and If I go to SC again this year for hogs, it will be going with me.

You know how I feel about those mechanicals :poke:

Well the problem is, I have friends who swear by them and some who hate them, the pro at the archery shop recommended them said it is what he uses and never had one fail him so I bought them. I reckon I will find out. I have seen the wounds on some of my friends deer with them and they were impressive. Since I have not picked up a bow since 1976 and was using bear razor heads with the insert, I am pretty far out of the archery loop so I figured I would listen to the pro at the shop.

They actually should do fine with a crossbow. The biggest problem is a lot of bows just don't have the power to push a 2 inch broadhead through any bones. They just don't penetrate very well which won't be near as much of a problem with a crossbow that shoots 368 fps. It might still be something to think about with big hogs but just for the record they still havn't really made anything much better than an old bear razorhead. Hit through the ribs and you will be fine but if you hit that shoulder you really would literally still be very hard pressed to find anything that would out perform an old bear razorhead.

I went to the indoor range at the shop where I bought my crossbow today and got it solidly dialed in at 20 yards, dead center, from a rest. I was shooting three cross bolt groups that were touching, I was worried about damaging a crossbolt. The I took the rage broad head off one of my cross bolts that are dedicated to broad heads, I have 3 for target and 3 for hunting. I put the target rage broad head on that bolt did not remove he battery from the the Ignitor nock because I wanted to see if that wold change the flight and POI as well. I am happy to say the hunting bolt with the lighted nock hit exactly where the target arrows hit, no difference. I then shot off hand for a couple of rounds, all in the bulls eye but obviously not as tight as from the rest. I am happy with the outfit, all I have to do is shoot at 30 yards to see which of the lower cross hairs I must use for that yardage. At least for now, I have set a limit of 30 yards to shoot at a deer.

Oldtimer here is a tip for you---Throwaway the multi line scope, especially if you are going to keep shots 35 yards and less-----purchase a heavy crosshair 1.5 to 4 power scope--I purchased a bushnell, dawn to dusk for about $75.00 you can see the heavy crosshairs better in low light, you will not confuse or think about which line to use, with my xbow I can shoot 10 yards to 30 with only 1 inch difference, you can wiggle more difference in impact than that, I also love to use a single shooting stick

I have been thinking about doing the very same thing this spring because I don't think the scope is clear enough to suit me. For now I will use the one I that came with the cross bow for practice till I get use to the cross bow.

The ones that don't hate them only don't because they haven't had them fail YET.

As Rock said, you're probably shooting fast enough that you'll be ok. I learned my lesson two years ago while shooting and older (and much slower) crossbow.

-Jake

I really like the multi reticle scopes. All my rifles and shotguns have them to. Most of the package deals come with pretty crappy scopes. Nikon and Hawke make a quality crossbow scope. I would definitely stick with a crossbow specific scope.

Rocky,I will keep that in mind when I look.

do ya think a guy really need 7 or even ten lines on their xbow scope to shoot deer out to 35 yards ?????? Really ?

I will shoot a deer at 50 no problem from a rest and I'll will use 4 pins to get out to 50. The Nikon crossbow scope has 5.

On targets I'll extend my range to the max. Practicing at 100 makes shooting 40 easy.

At 368 fps that arrow will go 50 yards in a hurry. However even if I didn't feel comfortable at that range on live animals I'd want to shoot targets at longer ranges. I just don't see any reason not to use a crossbow specific scope.

35 yards is very conservative for a 368fps crossbow IMO.

I would suggest a 40 yard limit to start and adjust accordingly as you practice at 50 and 60. My further than 50 I'd be afraid the deer might move before the arrow got there.


Oldtimr do you have a range finder?

Yes I have a range finder.

I shot a deer at 40 yards last night no problem. From my experience so far the animals have no reaction what so ever to the noise of the crossbow. Ive always said its the sound of the arrow they react to not the bow and by the time they hear that crossbow bolt its to late.

Rocky, it is 52 degrees here today so I put up my bag target and got out my range finder and measured off 25 yards. I already knew I was right on at 20 yards so I used the main horizontal cross hair and held about 3 inches high, at the top ring of the bullseye and I was just below center so 2 inchs high would be enough at 25 yards. Then I measured off 30 yards and set up my portable shooting bench at 30 yards. I used the first line under the main horizontal on the bullseye and shot cross hair. I was right on one in the bullseye and one touching the edge of it. I only fired two crossbolts at a time because I pulled a Robin Hood at 25 yards and hit the edge of my nock on one of my bolts. Gotta get a new one on Monday. My manual says each line below the main horizontal is abut ten yards further in distance and they were right.

Yeah from what Ive seen the scopes are pretty spot on as far as yardage. You will definitely want to shoot different spots on the target or you'll be ruining all kinds of arrow/nocks....Maybe something should have mentioned earlier...

Now you tell me!:biggrin:

Well I guess I'm just an idiot

:biggrin: Way to go William Tell.

I got some of them black eagle arrows with the brass inserts, I just wanted to see how well they grouped.....they group pretty good.

Looks like.:biggrin:

OT, which bag did you buy?

I got the Big Shot 450 X. I can pull the cross bolts out with two fingers. Only down side is it is heavy but it has a handle on top so it isn't too bad to carry or move around.