Redtail565

I have the Horton Hunter Supreme SL that I bought new about 8-10 years ago. I have hunted it off and on since then. I have 3 lightning strikes (2219) and 3 Lighting strike Lites (2216) and recently tried 2 new Easton Carbon bolts.

I test shot the carbons and the 2219’s against each other the other day, using a sand bag as a solid rest. The carbon bolts definitely had less drop than the 2219’s, but were not as accurate. At 20 and 30 yards the 2219s were virtually touching, the carbons were maybe 3” apart. However, the carbons dropped about 6” at 30 yards and the 2219’s about 9”

Both arrows are certainly accurate enough to feel confident at hunting.

I didn’t notice any difference in the noise of the bow.

What arrows do/did you shoot out of this bow? Which arrows seem to be the best for this bow?

awshucks

Redtail565: FWIW: I'm shooting GT LII's at 431 gr outta 3 xbows and they work the best of what I've tried. I get mine from Miller for $5.75 @. 10 pt sells the same arrow w/ 1/2 moon nocks and you might find them at Bass-Pro or Cabela's if one is near and time is important. Good luck!

Redtail565

Can I shoot half nocks out of the Hunter supreme?

Is there a noticeable difference in using 4” or 5” vanes?

Hotburn76

Red, The answer to this is in your post. The Lighting strike lites are not even offered by Horton any more because they were border line to light for most of Horton's faster bows and alot of guys were shooting them and breaking the limbs from the arrows being so lite that when shot out of the bow it has a dry fire affect on them. Those arrows were only made to be used with the steel force and the next bow up from that and I can not remember what it was called. They sell the Lites under a different name, and made them so short that you can not fit them on Horton's regular bows. And this gets back to guys shooting what they were not supposed to and breaking the bows and then saying it was bows fault, or if arrows can not be shot out of all bows then why does Horton sell them? So Horton stopped selling the 20 inch lites and now you can only get the 2219 that weight 430 grains which is the minimum weight for all Horton CB's with wheels. The only 20 inch lite you can find are overstocks that shops have not sold yet, Be careful!

Now to get back to you accuracy question. The reason the heavy aluminums are right on and the carbons open up a little, but hit higher is that they are lighter. Since they are Easton carbons and not Horton's, ( yes they make Horton arrows, not what I mean) they have a different spine stiffness. The arrows you are shooting are too lite! That is why they are all over the place. The arrow can not handle the poundage and is fish tailing out of the bow. It would be my recommendation that you stop using them ASAP! You are probably going to break your limbs because of the dry fire affect you are putting on it! And when it is all done, most guys say this bow is junk and say bad things about bow, when in fact it was cause they were getting greedy on speed and that was what ruined the bow.

As I said the 2219 are fine. The 2216 lites are border line and you can and could have problems. The carbons you are shooting are talking to you and saying "Look at us master! we are all over the place! that bow is going to kill us!" Yes you may be gaining a few FPS and a few inches but you are on the edge of breaking your bow! If you want carbons stick with Horton's, they are not as lite as the aluminums but I shoot the cause they do not bend. Good luck and give us an update!

Also I do not mean to sound like I am yelling at you, if I did sorry, keyboard comes across wrong all the time. I just get upset when I see guys start to put arrows that are fine for a vertical bow cut down to be on a Horton and then bow breaks and they say Horton is junk bows. If you are going under 430 grains you are voiding your warranty on them limbs!

Hotburn76

Seen this after my first post. Yes, Horton's are made to shoot half moon nocks. Since your bow is older you can shoot both flat and moon nocks. The newer Horton have a different style barrel on them and can only shoot moon nocks. But your bow came out before this and should be OK either way.

AS for vanes go alot of guys put blazer vanes on and like them, but as you said with your 2219 they were touching so why change and put more into the mix to make problems! K.I.S.S.

Redtail565

Hotburn76,

I definitely did NOT take it as if you were yelling. I appreciate all the advice and passed along experience.

The Easton bolts I tried were the Power bolt, made for crossbows.

Here are actual figures from weighing the arrows and shooting them through a chronograph:

Bolt Arrow wgt tip wgt total w# FPS KE
Easton Carbon Power bolt 317 85 402 260 60.36
2219 368 85 453 248 61.88
2216 295 125 420 257 61.61

I wish I had the FOC on these.

I’m gathering from what you are saying is that 402 is still too light for this bow? I did not shoot the lites except once through the chronograph.

Hotburn76

Hey good info in your post! When you said carbons I assumed you were using carbons not made for CB but regular ones. I have seen the Easton ones before but per Horton's web site they are to lite. When easton makes arrows for a general CB they have to touch bases with every one and not just one maker. If you compare Horton's arrows to everyone else they are on the heavy side of the scale. Lots of guys get by with shooting lighter arrows and there bow maker says they can. One that comes to mind is Excal bows. Alot of them guys are shooting below 400 grains and have no problems. Why Horton has to have a heavy arrow I do not know. It must be the design of bow not sure but I know that anything below 430 voids your warranty with them. Your 2216 were working, but you were using 125 grain heads, which put your weight up there and helped out with more mass weight. You prob ally had a high FOC and is why they also did good. Horton puts brass inserts in there arrows now to help get the weight up there and also give a better FOC. Why your 2219 weigh at 368 I do not know. Horton's web site says they are 331 with out point and they recommend 100 grain point so that should put them at the 430 mark I spoke of. As you said the 2216 was 295, which I can not remember but I thought it was right around 300 or so with a recommended 100 grain head that is to light of an arrow which is why Horton stopped selling them. So in a nut shell, yes I think the power bolt is to light for a Horton with a 100 grain and definitely with an 85 grain head. But will work with other CB's such as Excal. I have never broke a limb but have seen guys do it from to light of arrows. Like I said easton makes that arrow for all CB's. So they have to compromise in the middle or they would sell less.

Hotburn76

Also forgot to add in my last couple of post. You said your bow was 8 to10 years old. The data I speak of was when I first started to learn about the minimum arrow weight thing about six years ago. So I don't mean to confuse ya but there is a chance you could be able to get by with lighter arrows. My 14 year old super mag shot whatever Horton arrows the guy had on his shelf. I too could have shot the lites for a while. I know they did not start having the problems until they started upping the poundage and getting faster speeds and such. The only thing I could say is Email them or call and they may be able to help ya out, they have a great CS department. But like I also said your arrows are talking to you by the pattern opening up, they sound to me like they cannot handle it.

awshucks

Hotburn: I'd be the first to admit I don't know beans about Hortons, but I'm a little confused on your info that some models will take flat nocks and others need moon nocks. It'd been my understanding that how the claw pivots determines this, the ones that flip up to release the string take flat and the ones that flip down into the barrel take moon type, which are also called 1/2 moon.I was under the impression that Hortons and Barnetts both required the moon type nock. Maybe you can enlighten me?

Hotburn76

Well I wont say I know everything about them either but I am past the beans and working on the corn and potato's. All Horton's that I have ever seen have the flip down style that you speak of. My old supermag has that style and it is going on fourteen or fifteen now. When I first started buying CB bolts, Horton like most others only offered flat nocks, in fact I still have some around here somewhere, will have to find one and take a pic if I get to feeling froggy! So I will admit that I have heard you mention the flip up thing before, but you are the first person I have ever heard say it. All of Horton's CB used to have the standard flat and cut barrel. Alot of people don't understand why Horton has the half moon nocks and I did not until I got my new Horton. I was using the new carbons that came with it and loved them but wanted to save on them so I got out some old Horton's that had the flat nock on them and they went all over the place. But as I was shooting I noticed one arrow was always doing good and hitting its mark. After closer inspection of that arrow and the others I noticed that it was a half moon and not flat. I went to my local bow shop and he said with the new Horton's you have to have the half moon nocks because the barrel is not flat. They have what is called a Micro flight arrow groove. The lower end ones do not have it but its like the end of your barrel is like an arrow rest about 3/8 of an inch, and then the entire barrel is cut out more than what the arrow needs to be for the centered arrow. When your half moon nock is being pushed buy the string the arrow is actually lifted out of the barrel and is only resting on the very front of the barrel as it is being shot. It is the same as a regular bow with only the string and a rest touching the arrow as it is being shot. On the old Horton's the flats were OK because they did not have this but you can get poor shooting with the arrow in full contact of the barrel the entire length. If you use a flat nock in this barrel as the arrow gets to the end it will be spooned or pushed up at the end. It is another precise thing that Horton has that improves their quality.

Now most of this last paragraph was copied and pasted from an old post so it may sound kinda strange but that is why Horton takes moon nocks. I think the steel force and the next one up is the only one that can shoot flats but Horton does not even offer them anymore so its hard to find them. But as for the trigger goes I have never heard that before. I am not saying it is wrong, may be some maker out there that has a flip up kind but it is not Horton and I do not know who it is.