chiefks

I am a disabled hunter. Bow hunted for years and quit when it became more work than fun. Picked up a rifle and muzzle loader instead. I am thinking about buying a cross bow to deer and possibly turkey hunt with. I don't know jack squat about cross bows. So I have some questions. How do you uncock it after your hunt? Obvisouly you don't want to walk around with a loaded or unloaded cross bow. How quiet are they to shoot? Can you shoot a field point into the ground under your stand at the end of a hunt without spooking game? Are the triggers adjustable? Seems like from what I read online they are kind of heavy. Can a gun smith lighten them? I will probably go look at the CB's at Cabelas or Bass Pro before to long. What bow's would you recomend to a beginer? I was looking at them on ebay. They have a few excaliburs exomax CB's on there for around $300 to $450. Don't know if those come fully rigged or just the bare bow. Thanks for your help.

Chief

bouncer6475

welcome to the forum cheif. i uncock mine when i get back to my car after my hunt by just shooting a feildpoint into the ground. im sure you can do it under your stand but i never have just incase i would spook anything around. you can get a fully equipted horton 175HD at most places right now for between 300 and 400$ thats bow arrows scope and hard case. my neighbor got the package and loves it... hope my info helped.

btw.. some have adjustable triggers but most dont

smokepolehall

I'd say the Exomax is abit too much CB, its long abit cumbersome. The Phoenix would be a very good choice if you want a recurve CB. They can be had fer $350 on ebay. The compound ones are abit more costly. Oh you will hear all about those great pkg. deals fer $500 and $600. Don't need half that stuff just to get into the sport. This isn't a cheap way to hunt. I don't want to run you off but it does take some money. You can get couple of the Ten Points reasonable, but not like the Excals. They start at about $500 with fair trigger and good safety and dryfire inhibiter. You need a good CB, Excals all have the same triger assbly. and its great. I don't know had bad you are disabled but you may need one of the cranking cockers, high cost! If i didn't name a brand its up to you to try all and see what fits you and what you like. Parker's are in the running again high cost!

chiefks

Yeah thats one thing I have noticed is the cost! Right now Iwould require acocking device, but by the time next deer season rolls around I would not need one. How much difference in accuracy does a cocking device make? They are expensive. I haven't really looked at them in the stores yet. Just online. Will see how much I like shooting them before I actually purchase one.

The disablity, was mostly with my lungs due to a genetic diease called cystic fibrosis (CF). I just had a double lung transplant on Oct 17th and I'm doing GREAT! Thought I would look at hunting with a cross bow from climbing tree stand and get back into the archery season that way.

Green Pea

Welcome to the forum,

The best advice I could give you is buy a good bow the first time. The best bow out there dollar for dollar is hands down the Excalibur “ Phoenix” . I have a Horton and it’s a decent bow, but if I had it to do over I would buy a Phoenix.

Green Pea

The rope cocker is an inexpensive alternative. That’s what I use and it makes a huge difference

awshucks

Welcome to the forum!! I'm an Excal fan, got three and my favorite is the Phoenix. Most of us use rope cockers, which cut the effort to cock in half and promote maximum accuracy by centering the string each time. Some xbows have better trigger pulls than others, like Smoke said Excal uses the same on all their xbows and they are sweet. the trigger on an xbow is not something you want to tinker w/. It, the sear, and the claw which holds the string back are under alot of tension. Alot of the Excal shooters use the rope cocker to uncock the bow. You would want to choose a bow before getting into that. Shooting an arrow into the ground or a target is the easiest way to uncock it. Smoke gave you more good advice about ebay and the $350 Phoenix, and not to get package deals. IMHO, your best bet is to go to Cabelas and see which one you like, then come back and some of us may know info to save you $ or time. Most every brand is represented here by various owners. A good quality xbow by a major mfgr has alot better resale value than a cheap deal. Excal and 10 pt both have their own web sites. Good luck!!

chiefks

Say I get a new phenoix cb. Just a bare bow. $460 plus tax. What all do I need to go with it. What web sites do you guys know of that sells accessories cheaper than the bigger chain stores? Target points and broad heads I do not need at this time. From what I've seen on cabelas or bass pro's web sites, your limited to scopes or to red dot sights. Can you not shoot fiber optic sights like whats on a compound? I am considering selling my compound that would nock a couple hundered or so off the price of a cb.

awshucks

Phoenix: $349
Varizone 79.95
Mt & Rings 30
Rope cocker 20
Stringing aid 10
Miller quiver 25
1/2 doz arrows 34.50 [431 gr GT L II's]
3 pack 100 gr Slick Tricks 22.00 [1 1/8"]
Total: about $570
Get the first two at bowhuntersuperstore on Flea-Bay and the rest from Danny Miller at [740] 483-2312 Free shipping on bow and scope.

Edited to add,I forgot a couple of extra strings [$8-9 ea] and some string wax.[$3.00] And although you said you don't need b-heads, you might wanna give these a try, I know what they will do, and some b-heads for vert bows don't do well on xbows. Good luck!!

This is exactly one of my set-ups and you won't want to shoot twice at the same spot. Do a search on Excals forum for scope and quiver info.

shewe

welcome to the forum. there is great advice to be found here. the cost to get started is roughly the same as setting up a conventional compound for hunting. the best prices i've seen so far are at www.bowhunterssuperstore.com. check the site out before you buy. i have the excaliber exocet and i love it. the excals do come with a fiber optic sight....so you can save some bucks there....as time goes on tho, you'll prob want to put some type of scope on it. unfortunately most of the vertical bow accessories don't cross over to xbows