deciding on a crossbow
#11
Banned
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: N46° 27.914' W90° 10.614'
Posts: 383
RE: deciding on a crossbow
Excalibur makes a great recurvecrossbow and most everyone from Canada loves and recommends them. TenPoint now makes a recurve crossbow, plus compound cross bows. All of which are really great. Parker and BowTech also make great crossbows. You need to shoot some different CB's and see what fits and feels the best to you.
#12
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Ontario Canada
Posts: 604
RE: deciding on a crossbow
In choosing what you want for a crossbow, you first need to figure out what you want in a bow. Will you be still hunting, stalking, ground hunting or tree stands. Is your mind set on compounds or can you be comfortable with recurves. How will you be needing to cock the bow and what is your price range for a bow.
Compound or recurve .............. IMO the disadvantages in the compound do surpass the advantages. In the vertical world, compounds (wheels) do give you great advantages with the letoff when you have to hold the bow at draw, but with a crossbow, it is the bow which holds the string at full draw, not you. With this in mind, the fact that with recurves you can do almost all the maintance yorself and even in the field, I lean heavily towards them. You not tied into a proshop like you are with a compound (that is, if you do not have your own bow press equipment). At full draw, unless you go to the more extreem bows, the width are not that much different between the two styles.
Your hand, arm and body size will also dictate which bow fits you best. I have found that almost every bow (model) feels different. Some are front heavy and others are just extreemly front heavy, while some will feel very well balanced. This is a personal preferance, try some at a bow shop to get your own feel. I do not mean to just shoulder a few, hold them to your shoulder for a few monents, this will give you a good feeling at how front heavy they are and if you will have problems holding it on target for longer time while waiting for the correct shot.
IF your needing more then a rope cocker for cocking the bow, you might want to look into the mechanical cockers. The Excalibur has a nice one, but it is surpased by the acudraw, but it can be installed into the Excalibur Stock. The problwm with the cocker installed into the stock is that it will make the bow heavier, the weight is always there, but it is easier to use. The Excalibur model will attach and detach, but this could be cumbersome and slower to reload. If I have to use a mechanical cocker, I would use the accu-draw and have it installed.
Hope this has helped you some.
Compound or recurve .............. IMO the disadvantages in the compound do surpass the advantages. In the vertical world, compounds (wheels) do give you great advantages with the letoff when you have to hold the bow at draw, but with a crossbow, it is the bow which holds the string at full draw, not you. With this in mind, the fact that with recurves you can do almost all the maintance yorself and even in the field, I lean heavily towards them. You not tied into a proshop like you are with a compound (that is, if you do not have your own bow press equipment). At full draw, unless you go to the more extreem bows, the width are not that much different between the two styles.
Your hand, arm and body size will also dictate which bow fits you best. I have found that almost every bow (model) feels different. Some are front heavy and others are just extreemly front heavy, while some will feel very well balanced. This is a personal preferance, try some at a bow shop to get your own feel. I do not mean to just shoulder a few, hold them to your shoulder for a few monents, this will give you a good feeling at how front heavy they are and if you will have problems holding it on target for longer time while waiting for the correct shot.
IF your needing more then a rope cocker for cocking the bow, you might want to look into the mechanical cockers. The Excalibur has a nice one, but it is surpased by the acudraw, but it can be installed into the Excalibur Stock. The problwm with the cocker installed into the stock is that it will make the bow heavier, the weight is always there, but it is easier to use. The Excalibur model will attach and detach, but this could be cumbersome and slower to reload. If I have to use a mechanical cocker, I would use the accu-draw and have it installed.
Hope this has helped you some.
#14
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 9,175
RE: deciding on a crossbow
I'd recommend the same with crossbows as I do with any other kind of bow, traditional or compound. Shoot as many as you can get your hands on and pick the one that feels best and shoots best for you. But keep warranty in mind when you make that choice.
Oh... And also consider maintenance. You will have to have some means of doing simple maintenance like changing strings and cables. Recurve type crossbows are easy, compounds are more problematic. Do you live in an area where pro shops have the knowledge and equipment, like a crossbow press, to keep a crossbow up and running or are you going to be on your own? That was a biggie for me because crossbows aren't very popular in my state and there's not much service available for them here.
Oh... And also consider maintenance. You will have to have some means of doing simple maintenance like changing strings and cables. Recurve type crossbows are easy, compounds are more problematic. Do you live in an area where pro shops have the knowledge and equipment, like a crossbow press, to keep a crossbow up and running or are you going to be on your own? That was a biggie for me because crossbows aren't very popular in my state and there's not much service available for them here.
#15
RE: deciding on a crossbow
IMO there is no one best crossbow. What's best for me may not be for you. Too many variables involved I think. They all have their good features (well......most :-) and not so good features. Some people love Excal's simplicity but don't like the width, especially hunters that hunt in blinds. Careful consideration should be given before the purchase as most crossbows are fairly expensive. I love them allOne can never have enough crossbows:-)