Love the Traditionals!!

[WTB]

I am 54 years old,married with three grandkids and three sons. The youngest son is 21 and a senior at App State University. I live in Western North Carolina and am not a Trophy Hunter. I have never figured a way yet, to cook the horns.I have hunted San Angelo Texas for a couple of years and am plannig a trip for November. I will be hunting for two weeks and driving to Dallas for a back surgery and then flying to NC a week later.

I shot my first bow at Church Camp in the late sixties. My Dad let me shoot ,and eventually gave me his vintage, Ben Pearson,Two Piece Long bow at 12 years old. It took awhile for me to reach full draw, as it was a 60 lb, hard shooting,forarm brusing,deer killing weapon. I had to retire it a fews years back due to limb stress.

Last year I designed and built two High Performance Custom Recuves. My Son's is a 55lb bare bow w/stabilizer WinAct Focus CF limbs,D97 FF Moutain Muffler String and flipper Rest, custom Copperhead Skin Limb Wraps. My Bow is a 58 lb "Loaded" HP Custom built Recurve w/peep eliminator V site and single hooded pin, Fuse stabilizer,Wisker Biscuit Deluxe,D97 Mountain Muffler Custom string,Beamans w/custom wrap and 2' Blazers, Whisper quite.

Since Sept. 2009, I have had one total hip R&R and Total Bi-lateral Knee R&R. I am heading to Dallas in Nov. for a back surgery. But two weeks before, I get to hunt near San Angelo.

I also "Blew" my right shoulder out Sept 2009, which has brought me to this site. I researched crossbows for months before I arrived at the choice of an Excalibur. Since I have also been a Traditional Archer all my life, the Excalibur Vortex was really appealing and the reveiws were astounding.

I was impressed with the bow from the first shot.I mounted a STS system and I am not real pleased with it. I have shot flites from 20yd-25yd-30yd-35yd-40yd. I don't have any where for a 50 yard shot. I shot 3 arrows,twice at each point. I was sitting and shooting off the back of plastic yard chair for a rest (very steady) A couple of times I would go through the flites and hold groups at 1-1/2", then all of sudden the bolts would start hitting very inconsistantly. One bolt would hit dead 1" bulls eye and the other two would be 3" right and 3" high.

I have gone through this for several days now. I have a 1989 FF string. I am shooting the Fire bolts and 150 FP. I plan on using the 150 Bolt Cutters. This combination was designed by Excalibur For a reason.

I don't feel that the Easton Bolt is all that good. (consistant)

I have been reading a lot of posts and this forum is no different than most other forums.There are Experts and there are "EXPERTS".

I always value advice, but I will question until I am conviced.

I am looking forward to learning all about CrossBows and most of all, getting my Vortex to be the best it can be. It already shoots better than I. My most concern is to consistantly accurate. I prefer quick humane harvests.

I understand that Excalibur did a lot of reseach to match bolt and point to their specs. They contracted with Easton to Man.the bolts. I have to agree with another post, that a lot of x-bolts start out as full lenght and are rejected and shortened.

I got 7 bolts w/purchase and ordered a new set of six. I guess I will be doing alot of shooting and changing tips to find (4) to carry iin my quiver that are consistant with each other.

WHO manufactures a bolt that has the same weight and spine as the Firebolts do, only with much better consistancy and accuracy?

I like the weight forward theory and agree that the 150 boltcutter should be devestating at 320fps..

Excalibur says that they have tested this combo( Boltcutter 150gr,Firebolt w/4' off set vanes (415gr total weight) extensively and have the acheived the best overall results.

You guys are the EXPERTS that have done extensive testing and I value your advice and suggestions. I can not afford much trial and error!

For The Excalibur Vortex with 1989 FFF,using 150 grain tips, what bolt/fletch combo have you folks (Excaliber shooters) arrived at for the best overall accuracy/consitancy???

What is the best bolt/fletch/150gr setup??

I know a lot of what I have written should be addressed in another area on the forum but I thought I would let the forum know where I was in my crossbow adventure.

Thanks in Advance!!

[briarpatch]

First things first...weclome to the forum. I'm no expert....but will share what I've heard from others. I'll assume you're using a cocking aid of some kind, either a rope cocker or an Excalibur crankaroo. Consistent cocking is essential to good grouping. Make certain that everything is tight on your crossbow, especially the scope. Weigh your arrows.....and check them for straightness. I've seen it where someone buys 1/2 dozen arrows, and only three out of them fly consistently.

P.S. I'll assume you meant 'humane harvests'....not 'human' harvests

[Mike]

WTB -

Welcome to crossbows.

For what it may be worth...modern crossbows shoot arrows...not unlike the vertical bows shoot. Just a little fatter and a tad shorter.

Bolts were shot out of Medeival crossbows and would be impossible to shoot out of a modern bow. They were/are, very heavy, short and have only two feathers for stability. The tip was/is the main part that makes them heavy. They were cast of the metal they had at the time and normally made up about 1/3'd of the bolt length.

While you can buy these today for Medeival crossbow replicas, I don't recommend trying to shoot one out of your new bow.

Have fun and be safe (keep your foregrip fingers down!!).

Mike

[WTB]

Sad day!

Had to break down my new Vortex and strap it down for its long, lonely trip to San Angelo Texas. The slightly modified plano pillar lock Bow Max case, I pray, will do it's job.

It is a sad day because I will not see it again until Nov. 8th when I get to camp. I'll be a nervous wreck until I release the first 20" 415gr "BOLT" into a
1"O. This Bow is so sweet to cock, decock, break down, change strings and most of all, shoot 1" groups out to 50 yards. ( that is as far as I have to shoot in my back yard.

I now have 12 new "BOLTS" and out of the 12 there are 4 that consistanly, fly away. The remainder fly better than I shoot.

Mike, I do have to disagree with you as to what the proper term is for Crossbow "bullets". You state that the only differance is that one is just fatter and shorter than the other.

I looked through all my magazines and looked at the Outfitters and do you know that 98% of the boxes of Crossbow "bullets" said "BOLTS" right on the box. I don't mean to be a SA but I shoot "BOLTS" from my Crossbow and "ARROWS" from my Custom Built HP Recurve. The " ARROWS" are full lenght, CF Beamans. Certainly longer and much skinnier.