Suggestions for a crossbow

[cls]

Not as accurate or portable as the ones I listed, @IvW , but hands-down the most reliable and easiest to service crossbow on the market today. All the crossbow geeks I know own an excaliber as a backup crossbow for use when their $4000 primary crossbow breaks. (and they do, they are all disposable items that degrade with use...never target practice with one for more arrows than is required to be confident as you're just destroying it)

Well, @rookhawk and @IvW have given me more to think about. The excalibur 440 comes with a crank cocking device which I would need while rehabing from shoulder surgery.

 

[cls]

I finally bit the bullet and purchased a crossbow. I decided to go wit a compound style due to size/ ease of use with a crank style cocking device. Because this is my first kick at the cat I bought a Center Point CP400 which is a cheap version of the Ravin R10. Center Point owns Ravin so the crossbow comes with some of the Ravin innovations at a lower price point. Here are a couple pictures.

 

[TOBY458]

I have an Excalibur Matrix 380. One of the most deadly weapons I've ever used inside 40 yards.

 

[rookhawk]

There are some big differences between a CP400 and a Ravin R10. The things that make the ravin incredibly accurate (arguably the most accurate Ravin) are missing from the CP400. The trigger group and the rail-less raceway being the two biggest.

That said, a CP400 is a $700 street price xbow and a Ravin R10 is a $1000.

Try it for a week and you can decide then.

 

[cls]

There are some big differences between a CP400 and a Ravin R10. The things that make the ravin incredibly accurate (arguably the most accurate Ravin) are missing from the CP400. The trigger group and the rail-less raceway being the two biggest.

That said, a CP400 is a $700 street price xbow and a Ravin R10 is a $1000.

Try it for a week and you can decide then.

Thanks for that but you've got remember I'm in Canada the R10 is $1700 and the CP400 is $1000, I've heard that the Ravin had a very good trigger group as well, will see on that after I give it a go. Also I wasn't all that sure on the rail-less system of the R10. I guess time will tell, if I find issues I will be sure to report back with an honest review later in the season.

 

[Rare Breed]

I have given some consideration to purchasing a crossbow over the last couple of years. It seems that there are constant innovations coming along. Some of the new stuff is Greek to me as I am not a bow hunter as of today. I would want a crossbow to use for deer and hog hunting here in the US.
I would appreciate thoughts from fellow AH members as to what one should look for and ask for in a crossbow. Thank you in advance!

I have bow hunted all my life from recurves to compounds to cross bow. I bought Ten Points secondary brand made by them for $1,000. I used it for one year taking two deer then never used again. Africa bug bit me and will never use it again. It just stays at my cabin. I will sell it for $400 which is a steal. Identical to the parent 10 point but $1400 less. Let me know. You would need to pay shipping. It has a built in bolt cock which you will find is so important and a red dot scope. No worries it just sits there

 

[Rare Breed]

I have bow hunted all my life from recurves to compounds to cross bow. I bought Ten Points secondary brand made by them for $1,000. I used it for one year taking two deer then never used again. Africa bug bit me and will never use it again. It just stays at my cabin. I will sell it for $400 which is a steal. Identical to the parent 10 point but $1400 less. Let me know. You would need to pay shipping. It has a built in bolt cock which you will find is so important and a red dot scope. No worries it just sits there

It is a wicked Ridge. Look it up online and just the cross now is now $1400

 

[Tra3]

Not a fan of the tenpoints. The scope mounting arrangement left me with much to be desired.

#1 Choice if you have $2500 to spend. Ravin R29X Sniper package with the jackplate.

#2 Choice if you have $1200 to spend. Ravin R10. Their oldest, slowest model has proven to be the most accurate and most reliable of all of them.

#3 Choice for honorable mention. Scorpyd reverse draw crossbows, made in Iowa, USA, are high quality, highly efficient crossbows but nowhere near as compact as a Ravin. The deathstalker is a great bow.

My kids have been hunting deer with Ravins and Scorpyds since they were 6 years old. Very, very accurate and a perfect tool for new hunters and those of use with health issues that preclude using a vertical bow. The Ravin R29X is small enough you can reasonably expect to spot and stalk with it whereas that is largely impractical with all the other choices.

@rookhawk do you think the double cost is worth it for the R29 vs the R10? I would like to crossbow hunt more during the rifle season. In the thick woods our 20-30 yard shots would be ok with a crossbow instead of a rifle, and then the organ meat would be salvageable for making pate and meatloaf.

 

[rookhawk]

@rookhawk do you think the double cost is worth it for the R29 vs the R10? I would like to crossbow hunt more during the rifle season. In the thick woods our 20-30 yard shots would be ok with a crossbow instead of a rifle, and then the organ meat would be salvageable for making pate and meatloaf.

Hello @Tra3 . The r29 is really powerful, and really compact. I’ve tried to spot and stalk with a large crossbow many times and only was successful once. I got the r29 because I think its a very reasonable goal to stalk something with that crossbow. It’s small. I also got the r29 because crossbows are really dangerous around children and groups in a blind. When they fire, they more than double in width. It’s pretty darned easy to have someone too close to the limbs in a blind. The ravin r29 gets you the additional room you really want for that use case as well.

So then to your question about accuracy for 20-30 yard shots. ANY modern crossbow will do that with ease. If you were target shooting or killing pest species where hunting ethics aren’t top priority (e.g. coyotes), you could easily kill coyotes at 100 yards with the r29. For hunting big game with an r29, my back of napkin math suggests that the ethical shooting distance on deer and other animals that jump the string with the r29‘s speed is between 67 and 73 yards. That speed, animal reaction time, and movement outside a lethal hit range is the same as a typical compound bow archer taking a 42 yard shot. So you‘re getting more speed which is what allows a farther ethical shot, but the limiting factor is animal reaction time with a crossbow, not accuracy. Surely you could hit a target the size of a deer perfectly at 120 yards every time with an r29, but you would never want to take a shot on living game at those distances as the animal will move before the arrow arrives.

The really useful thing about the r29 is the SNIPER package. That gets you the jack plate which is a $300 Mount for the optic. It allows you to tune the crossbow for the arrows and broadheads you’re using, calculate the drop at all ranges, and instantly range the animal, dial its exact yardage, and pull the trigger. It’s a very useful tool. You could also get one and put it on an r10 and do just fine.

Comparing the two, the r10 is slower so a 42 yard compound Bow shot is as fast as a 62 yard r10 shot which is as fast as a 67 yard r29x shot. You’d have to decide if it’s worth the extra money to go from an r10 to a r29x.

Last comment is this. Nearly every crossbow scope in the world is made in the same Chinese factory. They are all rubbish. The best $300 hawke is horrible in my opinion. I also find people get confused with all the crosshairs and wound game by picking the wrong subtension during a hunt. You want good quality rifle rings and the jack plate. Then you can find any old rifle scope and use a WAY WAY better optic. A $150 twenty year old leupold rifle scope is a fantastic crossbow scope. A brand new $249 leupold entry level rifle scope is 20x the quality of the best crossbow scope. That’s the way to go with any of the platforms, a jackplate and a rifle scope.

Don’t forget that a crossbow increases your ethical range on other animals. Whereas a turkey may only be accetpable to hit at 40 yards with a shotgun, a ravin is certainly a 70 yard doable shot as they don’t react to the string at those distances. It is a tool and it opens up other scenarios. As a tool, it allowed me to introduce three children to big game hunting at age 6. The youngest is 8 now and he has maybe 1-2 years to use it until the crossbow is retired over here as we are pretty big fans of bows.

One other weapon to mention to you that is not a crossbow, but is a wonderful hunting tool, is a Gearhead Archery D24 compound bow. We use gearhead bows over here because they are very powerful, very accurate, and so small you can stalk with them, shoot off your knees, butt, or in a blind. They are not toys, they are formidable hunting bows but they are compact enough to use for the same scenarios as many crossbow hunts.

 

[Just Gina]

Hi, I have a Ravin R10 and both of my shoulders are bad. It is narrow, thus handy in a blind, powerful, and very accurate. It is very easy to crank and release the tension with the crank, which is removable, and you do not have to shoot the bolt into sand, etc. I have ruined a couple of bolts by nearly "Robin Hooding" them. I love mine and it is very light also. 6.8 pounds! Good luck in your research!

 

[ActionBob]

I was in the market for a crossbow the year Ravin made it's debut with the R9 and I think the R15. Was in Scheels shopping and was pretty quickly sold on Ravin. Unfortunately they were sold out of R15's so I went home and researched on line but found non. What I did discover was that at that time, the 390 fps ratong of the R9 (with most reportedly clocking 400 plus!), was more than adequate for anything I cared to hunt with it. So went back and bought the last R9 they had in stock!

One of the cool features I'm not sure has been covered yet is the rollers the bolt rides on and that the string doesn't actually ride on the rail. Thus less resistance and much less wear other designs.

Wish I had waited a year and bought an R10 or R20. But the R9 is more than adequate!

 

[krish]

I have bow hunted all my life from recurves to compounds to cross bow. I bought Ten Points secondary brand made by them for $1,000. I used it for one year taking two deer then never used again. Africa bug bit me and will never use it again. It just stays at my cabin. I will sell it for $400 which is a steal. Identical to the parent 10 point but $1400 less. Let me know. You would need to pay shipping. It has a built in bolt cock which you will find is so important and a red dot scope. No worries it just sits there

Send me some pictures. I may be interested.
Krish

 

[Tra3]

Hello @Tra3 . The r29 is really powerful, and really compact. I’ve tried to spot and stalk with a large crossbow many times and only was successful once. I got the r29 because I think its a very reasonable goal to stalk something with that crossbow. It’s small. I also got the r29 because crossbows are really dangerous around children and groups in a blind. When they fire, they more than double in width. It’s pretty darned easy to have someone too close to the limbs in a blind. The ravin r29 gets you the additional room you really want for that use case as well.

So then to your question about accuracy for 20-30 yard shots. ANY modern crossbow will do that with ease. If you were target shooting or killing pest species where hunting ethics aren’t top priority (e.g. coyotes), you could easily kill coyotes at 100 yards with the r29. For hunting big game with an r29, my back of napkin math suggests that the ethical shooting distance on deer and other animals that jump the string with the r29‘s speed is between 67 and 73 yards. That speed, animal reaction time, and movement outside a lethal hit range is the same as a typical compound bow archer taking a 42 yard shot. So you‘re getting more speed which is what allows a farther ethical shot, but the limiting factor is animal reaction time with a crossbow, not accuracy. Surely you could hit a target the size of a deer perfectly at 120 yards every time with an r29, but you would never want to take a shot on living game at those distances as the animal will move before the arrow arrives.

The really useful thing about the r29 is the SNIPER package. That gets you the jack plate which is a $300 Mount for the optic. It allows you to tune the crossbow for the arrows and broadheads you’re using, calculate the drop at all ranges, and instantly range the animal, dial its exact yardage, and pull the trigger. It’s a very useful tool. You could also get one and put it on an r10 and do just fine.

Comparing the two, the r10 is slower so a 42 yard compound Bow shot is as fast as a 62 yard r10 shot which is as fast as a 67 yard r29x shot. You’d have to decide if it’s worth the extra money to go from an r10 to a r29x.

Last comment is this. Nearly every crossbow scope in the world is made in the same Chinese factory. They are all rubbish. The best $300 hawke is horrible in my opinion. I also find people get confused with all the crosshairs and wound game by picking the wrong subtension during a hunt. You want good quality rifle rings and the jack plate. Then you can find any old rifle scope and use a WAY WAY better optic. A $150 twenty year old leupold rifle scope is a fantastic crossbow scope. A brand new $249 leupold entry level rifle scope is 20x the quality of the best crossbow scope. That’s the way to go with any of the platforms, a jackplate and a rifle scope.

Don’t forget that a crossbow increases your ethical range on other animals. Whereas a turkey may only be accetpable to hit at 40 yards with a shotgun, a ravin is certainly a 70 yard doable shot as they don’t react to the string at those distances. It is a tool and it opens up other scenarios. As a tool, it allowed me to introduce three children to big game hunting at age 6. The youngest is 8 now and he has maybe 1-2 years to use it until the crossbow is retired over here as we are pretty big fans of bows.

One other weapon to mention to you that is not a crossbow, but is a wonderful hunting tool, is a Gearhead Archery D24 compound bow. We use gearhead bows over here because they are very powerful, very accurate, and so small you can stalk with them, shoot off your knees, butt, or in a blind. They are not toys, they are formidable hunting bows but they are compact enough to use for the same scenarios as many crossbow hunts.

This is very useful information and much appreciated. Thanks @rookhawk !!

 

[cls]

30yd target.
Took the new crossbow out to the cabin on Sunday to sight it in. Pretty happy with the performance. This target was arrows 7 and 8 at 30 yards off the sticks. The bow is very compact, shoots a 400gr arrow at 400fps. Silent cranking device took some getting used to but worked well. Trigger pull was around 6.5lbs but no creep so ok. I have a number of Leopold VXR scores on my rifles so I liked the lighted scope that was supplied with the package. Time will tell but it performed well in a controlled environment. I hope to have it out in September on a cow moose hunt so hope to have an update then.
Any suggestions on broadheads?

 

[Ragman]

I finally bit the bullet and purchased a crossbow. I decided to go wit a compound style due to size/ ease of use with a crank style cocking device. Because this is my first kick at the cat I bought a Center Point CP400 which is a cheap version of the Ravin R10. Center Point owns Ravin so the crossbow comes with some of the Ravin innovations at a lower price point. Here are a couple pictures.

View attachment 419060View attachment 419061

Very nice. I'm in the process of shopping for a crossbow right now as well. Primarily for hunting out of my blind. I gotta say the prices are rather alarming! Looks like I'll have to use my rifle motto...Sako taste with a Tikka budget! Good luck with yours on that cow moose!

 

[rookhawk]

View attachment 420033
30yd target.
Took the new crossbow out to the cabin on Sunday to sight it in. Pretty happy with the performance. This target was arrows 7 and 8 at 30 yards off the sticks. The bow is very compact, shoots a 400gr arrow at 400fps. Silent cranking device took some getting used to but worked well. Trigger pull was around 6.5lbs but no creep so ok. I have a number of Leopold VXR scores on my rifles so I liked the lighted scope that was supplied with the package. Time will tell but it performed well in a controlled environment. I hope to have it out in September on a cow moose hunt so hope to have an update then.
Any suggestions on broadheads?

Congrats. Word of advice, don't shoot two arrows at same point of impact or you'll be eating up arrows very quickly. They take damage even if you don't see it...then they blow up next shot.

For broadheads, I'll give you the Ravin answer, not the bowhunter answer as my advice is different with vertical bows.

For the ravin you've got, you want to use the Ramcat 100gr broadhead. They fly true. They are semi-fixed blade. Upon impact, the replacable blades jar loose. If you fail to get a pass through, they sweep back and will back cut the whole way out. Emphasis with the Ravin must be A.) They fly true, B.) They do not break upon impact at the point, C.) That they do not expand which at that energy level can cause serious movement of the arrow if one blade doesn't open correctly or if a big blade gets bent. (Put another way, you don't want rage mechanicals on that bow)

My kids have killed easily a dozen big game animals with the ramcat (standard, regular ramcats) on that crossbow. We've never failed to have a lethal kill.

One more word to the wise. By more bolts. I cannot recall ever recovering a shot bolt from the ravin under hunting conditions that wasn't trashed. Broken ferrule. Broken vanes. Cracked. Lost as it bounces off the icy ground on exit missing a vane and flying off 1000 yards never to be found again, etc. Think of your hunting arrows as one-time use products.


Edit post script: I forgot you got the CL400 rather than the Ravin. (they look just like ravin arrows/bolts). All advice still the same.

 

[cls]

Thanks @rookhawk I appreciate the advise. I've never been a big fan of mechanical broadheads anyway, although the WASP Jak-x mechanical was recommended by a friend, I will see if I can find the ramcats here. I have already purchased another 6 bolts.

 

[Wildrangeringreen]

I use a "cheap" 220lb knock off of the old-style Excalibur's (Chase-star) and a small 175lbs recurve one (bought when I couldn't afford better, never felt the need to buy "better"). I target shoot out to 75yd with the 175# one, 125yd with the 220#; and with good heavy darts, plenty accurate (I learned that I needed to start shooting at different aiming points each shot to limit nock-strikes). Heavy darts with good FOC have lots of momentum, and combined with a good broad head, have never worried about their abilities within reasonable ranges (60+- yards with a crossbow, depends on the size of the animal and wind). I like the Recurve Crossbows, they're just simpler to work on if you don't have reputable bow-shops right down the road from you (rural OH lol)

That being said, if I hit the lottery, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up one of the Micro-Excalibur's though, those look sick...

 

[Ragman]

I finally decided on a crossbow and went with an Excalibur Mag340. Seems like a good shooter so far.

 

[Buffalo1]

Never shot one and never intend to shoot one. I a diehard vertical compound bow shooter. If I were in the market for an xbow, my choice would be Ten Point