Considering a crossbow, light recurve or heavy compound?

[Razorbak66]

I agree like all manufacturers there will be issues with a product but the main thing I like about Excalibur is there no BS approach to fixing any defects. Call or email state what issue is and they send you in my case limbs developed a splinter I had it in 2 days no haggling or blames. They send it right out! Most people can’t rope cock a crossbow and they make cranks for those people LOL. But another feature I like is I can uncock without having to bringing a target or dedicated bolt. Yes I cock my crossbow at beginning of the hunt and uncock at end of the hunt with no issues. I shoot a bolt that is 475 and 500 grains as I’m not chasing speed and my 310fps is fast enough with these bolts. How deep do I want to go into the dirt after a pass thru LOL. I got ol @Red Beard sold on the Excalibur and give me time I’ll have you drinking the cool aid LOL. The mission line is an excellent xbow. I like mine when I had it I just hated timing it when the string stretched when I make my strings for my excal it stays maybe 1 twist every 6 months to keep it at my dedicated brace height. So what ever you decide to go with shoot at least 450 grain bolt. I’ll even tell you where to get the best prices on bolts that you can fletch in the car on your lunch break haha

 

[Razorbak66]

Yeah man, That Excalibur Mag Air look sweet too. All depend on how Santa feels this year.

Umm dude you got to hit up the fat man or rob him. Your choice

 

[spinal tap]

Several thoughts here. I've been hunting with a compound bow until this year. I have a Barnett hyperghost 405 crossbow for fun and for my son so he could hunt ethically. Then, I injured my shoulder this year and got a Killer instinct Swat X1 and used it this fall to hunt.
1. IMO bows are easier hold the pin steady out of a harness, but with a 2 point strap, you can get pretty darn steady out of a harness with a crossbow. Of course in a traditional stand you can anchor your crossbow and get awesome accuracy/consistency
2. Hyperghost 405 is amazingly cheap, reliable and durable. I've shot thousands of shot in my back yard with the boys and never had any issues. The thinner bolts, like thinner arrows really do penetrate better. Something along those lines will give you a very fast, very capable, but heavy crossbow.
3. Killer instinct Swat X1...... They run $799 right now, so not sure of your budget. It is worth it's price but not a Raven either. The swat X1 is so amazingly compact and the width is crazy narrow. In a tree this fall, the limb clearance was almost a non-issue, it could almost make you lazy to check it. I loved it in a tree. I also loved it stalking. I also loved that I could move through brush easily with it. At 400FPS, if you use the 100 grain, you will have plenty of punch to kill anything at 50-60 yards (and beyond), but the cool thing is it is point and shoot to about 35 yards. In other words, the triangle on the scope is top of triangle for 20-30 yard shots and bottom of the triangle for 35 yard shots. Next dot is 45 yards. So, you really can be non-precise with your ranging and get away with it. This is an awesome feature in a tree where you likely only have a few lanes anyhow, and I found most of the time, it's just point and shoot. Other good things, is the Killer instinct bolts are inexpensive and accurate and the vanes are durably affixed. Okay, there is some bad... I wanted to mod the handle with an AR Hogue overmolded grip. Sweet feature, but it just didn't seat perfect because the threading bolt needed an additional washer. Well, I stripped the insert the bolt threaded into. Killer instinct is impossible to get a hold of, but eventually determined the whole bow was totaled and they sent me a new one. Kudos. However, the new one had problems from the beginning. One axle was noticeably tilted and the string jumped and that was that. There are no repair shops in San Diego. So, I took apart the base of my old one and realized it wasn't totaled at all, I just needed to move a plastic base piece from the new to the old. In the process, parts off the new one got stripped and I ended up cutting off the front handle and basically made a mess of my "new" one to make my old one work. No issues with the old one though. Seems reliable, but the string is getting way more wear than my Barnett. I'd say for overall function though, you really can't beat the X1. Not to mention, it is so small, I can put it in a check in bag and pack around it and not take a bow case!
4. Decocking - nonsense gimmicks. Just buy one of those aluminum pieces you screw on to the head of the bolt. They are on amazon. Buy a couple, they are cheap. Done, no need to decock or take a target with you. Weighs like an ounce.

My $0.02 is go for the Swat X1 unless you really want to invest in a Raven.

 

[spinal tap]

just a funny thing to notice for crossbows is that since you look through a scope, you can't track the bolt to the animal like you can with the naked eye and an arrow through a bowsite. With a bow, you see it come out of the bow and track it all the way to the animal. With a fast crossbow, you won't see it, even with lighted nocks. It just passes through and you see this nock in the ground and you only know if you hit the animal by their reaction and using your binos to look at your feathers. I definitely recommend you have a white feather so you can see the color of the blood. I had no idea if I hit a deer this year because I couldn't see the bolts path and I couldn't tell if it was a crash or if it was the deer making it to the pampus grass bedding area making a ruckus. I was able to spy the feathers and it was pink frothy, so I knew it was good. Turned out it was a crash just 30 yards away I couldn't see.

 

[The_Fit_Ness_Monster]

I am not a crossbow user. I do have a cheap Barnett Jackal that I picked up cheap for backup( as my backup to my backup bow) or when my son finally ready for the woods.

But father in law liked it when he tried it out so it is his now.

Anyway, slowly looking at budget option. So no Ravin. Nothing wrong with them, just not an area where I want to blow my money on, have other areas for that. I literally shoot less then 10 bolts a year. I just test it out before season starts and put it back on the hanger.

Some research lead me to the fact that the 3 main factors in deciding the cost of a crossbow is speed, packability, weight. There are many other factors in regards to qualities and things so I understand you get what you pay for.

My main criteria is low weight. I don't care too much about speed, even the cheapest crossbow is going to be faster then my compound. Packability is not that big a deal to me either. But the overall weight is my deciding factor. Dont get me wrong, I care about quality and accuracy and overall feel. But as long as it can hit baseball size group at 50 yards, I'm ok with not being a speed demon. Or is baseball size grouping at 50 yards not as easy as I think? My Barnett Jackal was golf ball size at 50 yards.

@Red Beard and @Razorbak66 has me intrigued on the idea that a light weight recurve crossbow is the way to go. They weight 1/2 as much as compound crossbow.

So has anyone have experience with both types and give their opinion?

I have an Excalibur recurve crossbow (matrix 380) and not so sure it’s low poundage but at 50 it will give you golf ball groups easily it’s insanely accurate but weight wise it’s the only recurve crossbow I know of (mainly) and it’s definitely not light like compound ones but it will also infinitely outlast any other crossbow there is and it’s not overly heavy I’m just stating it’s more than a compound crossbow. Biggest factor for my purchase of this is I can cut the strings in the field and also replace in the field and you don’t have to shoot it to decock it. But also as I quickly found out when getting a crossbow is I can shoot further and more accurately with my compound bow and I find the crossbow waayy more to wield than the compound bow or stick bow, and I definitely wouldn’t use my Excalibur in a saddle, he’ll ideally it’s best use would be in a box stand with a tripod lol not totally sure if your considering between recurve CB vs Compound CB or CB vs Compund bow. As far as crossbows Excalibur wins across the board just off of reliability and accuracy, but compared with compound bow the compound is far superior for lightness and accuracy in the right hands.

 

[thedutchtouch]

@HuumanCreed you can shoot the mini "backwards" or opposite handed in a pinch (assuming you take the quiver off)- just treat the front foot stirrup like a handle. I think @Nutterbuster was one of the first people to post about doing that on here?

 

[Nutterbuster]

@HuumanCreed you can shoot the mini "backwards" or opposite handed in a pinch (assuming you take the quiver off)- just treat the front foot stirrup like a handle. I think @Nutterbuster was one of the first people to post about doing that on here?

No idea if I was the first or not, but you can definitely shoot left-handed in a pinch. I've shot several deer that way with mine. Much easier than contorting to get an off-side shot.