Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Wow, awesome looking new x-bow and decked out too. Now I want one...

What a lovely place to be= makes one not want to leave doesn't?..

Gnepig wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 11:47 pm Wow, awesome looking new x-bow and decked out too. Now I want one...

What a lovely place to be= makes one not want to leave doesn't?..

You can spend a couple thousand or a couple hundred dollars on crossbows. The more expensive ones are lighter, more powerful, more range, have better optics, triggers, etc etc. But the cheaper ones will do the job.

As technology improves the cheaper ones today are better than the top of the line ones from 5-10 years ago. I've killed half a dozen deer with my $200-300 x-bow in the 6 years I've hunted with it.

Just spent 5 1/2 days up at the property hunting and putting up gates across the driveways. In the three days I was back in the city (Sunday evening-tuesday evening) all the trees turned brown and most of the leaves fell. Full color when I left Sunday evening, brown or down when I got back late Tuesday afternoon.



But yeah, really hard to go back to the city after being up there. Weather has been beautiful, sunny and high 50s, low 60s every day. About 30' in the mornings however.

Change of pace a bit....

I dug out my old compound bow. It is a Ted Nugent Gonzo Safari made by Martin. Has most of the bells and whistles on it. I bought it at a garage sale for $20 about 10 years ago. Fully set up, had a dozen arrows with it. Took it to a shop to have it checked out. They just laughed and said they didn't work on "antiques". Apparently it is 1990's vintage. It replaced my 70's vintage Bear Whitetail Hunter.



It may be antiquated but it still works and I killed a couple of deer with it back in the day before I broke my elbow and switched to a x-bow.

So I dug it out and tried to shoot it. I couldn't even draw it at first. It has a 70# draw weight. I finally put some back into it and was able to draw it back and shoot it. I hit the target at 20 yards with the first 5 arrows, albeit the shots were all over the place. Missed with the second 5. My arms were shaking so bad from drawing it I could hardly aim. May have to go back to my Whitetail Hunter with it's 45# draw. It sucks to get old. I guess my glory days are over.



I stopped shooting it after 10 shots. Now I could either quit or take that as a challenge to keep working at it until I can shoot it accurately again. I used to be able to put 5+ arrows into a 4" circle at 35 yards off hand. I may never do that again and I may never hunt with it again but the challenge is on. I should be able to work up to shooting it fairly accurately again...just because archery is fun. I may still dig out my old Whitetail Hunter just to see if it will still shoot.

Looks like you could loosen the two bolts where the riser meets the limbs and that would turn the draw weight down to maybe 55lbs, this would be easier to get more reps in and you could turn them back in as you get more used to it.
You don't have to have it at 70 lbs to hunt, you can kill most things on this continent with 35 lbs= just takes a little more skill.

Gnepig wrote: ↑Thu Nov 03, 2022 11:09 pm Looks like you could loosen the two bolts where the riser meets the limbs and that would turn the draw weight down to maybe 55lbs, this would be easier to get more reps in and you could turn them back in as you get more used to it.
You don't have to have it at 70 lbs to hunt, you can kill most things on this continent with 35 lbs= just takes a little more skill.

Good point. Based on that I read up on these and they are indeed adjustable from 55-70#s. BTW, my arm and shoulder are sore today.

I need to get my bow out. It has been years since I fired it. Most likely will need to be re-strung. I wonder where my wife has stored it at?

Just an update on xbows....

Last year after shooting mine my brother bought a used killer instinct 415 FPS. It came with a case, dozen bolts, broadhead, upgraded scope, sling, lighted necks, lots of stuff. Paid $300.

This year while cocking it one of the limbs broke. I lent him our dad's xbow and he killed a nice doe with it that evening. I guess dad was looking down on us.

He has since bought a new Barret bow.

Anyone with experience on Barnett® Crossbows? Their quality, durability, and Pricing? Thanks in advance. I have a couple of off brand X Bows, that I've used for some practice, but I especially like the feature of 'cocking assist'.