crossbows.info – Tips, HowTo's & Product Reviews

Author: crossbowguy

  • Bench Testing 🎯

    Bench Testing 🎯

    A fundamental chore is resighting your scope. With bolts costing ~£10 at the time of this writing, you don’t want to miss your target- especially if you’re hunting where it’s legal to with a crossbow (it’s NOT here in the UK); could mean going hungry. Although it goes without saying we need to make adjustments on a new crossbow, ideally you want to take a moment to validate the scope’s sighting is true each time you shoot. Again, at ~£10/bolt, unless you’re flush with cash, it’s worth a moment to validate the scope’s sighting is true.

    The ONLY way you can be sure your sights are accurate is by bench testing. Although there’s lots of bench test gear for guns, due to the awkwardly wide grip, you’ll ideally be looking for something made to fit a shotgun.I found such a gadget: a U-shaped yoke that mated to a standard camera tripod. I bought mine from koolehaoda.com and they were a bargain at about £5/ea when I purchased mine.

    I bought a few, one to attach to a mini tripod for shooting from the prone position, and a second to attach to a large camera tripod to shoot from a standing position.

    WARNING: When shooting with a this- or any other shooting aid– the limbs must be well clear of any part of the aparatus. Were a limb to strike any part of it, the limb will fracture and require replacement.

    U-Yoke attached to a mini camera tripod for shooting from prone position
    U-Yoke attached to a large 3-leg camera tripod for shooting from the standing position
    U-Yoke screws into the top of the male part that slots into the base of the tripod
    After attaching the U-Yoke to the male attatchment, slot it back into the base of the stand

  • Soap vs. KY-Jelly vs. WD-40 Silicone Spray? 🤔

    Soap vs. KY-Jelly vs. WD-40 Silicone Spray? 🤔

    As a first post, I figured I’d set the tone for the type of content crossbow shooters could expect to find here. Although there are specialized- and significantly more expensive– products to make ease of bolt removal from a foam target, there are many cheaper & readily available products. In particular Carbon Fibre- I shoot the Quill 16.5″ ones- bolts absolutely fuse to the foam and are a real monkey to remove from my Rinehart 18-to-1 foam target if they’re unlubricated.

    WD-40: A can of WD-40 Silicone spray does the business cheaply & effectively and can be sourced locally without any postal order lead time. And it also has the additional benefit that it can be used for other jobs. Spray it on a rag, wipe your bolts down with them and they won’t fuse to the foam target.

    SOAP: True, you could rub soap on your bolts, but I feel its’ tacky nature would affect both the speed & flight characteristics. As well as being more fiddily and getting your hands soapy. And of course, the soap will eventually make the crossbow rail tacky after shooting numerous bolts which also could serve to reduce bolt speed if you don’t constantly wipe it off.

    K-Y Jelly: I’ve heard that wiping bolts with K-Y Jelly works to ease removing bolts from targets too. Although it’s dual-use and can be used for sexy-time when not shooting crossbows, it’s certainly not cheap. An undesirable characteristic however it that it’s wet and will get in places that will be a PITA to clean it from.

    And of course distance from the target will affect the difficulty in removing bolts from it.The further away you shoot, the bolt will lose velocity. Just ensure your scope is sighted accurately or you run the risk of losing bolts and at ~£10/each last time I bought a bunch, that’s a different and more expensive problem to have then removing bolts from a foam target 😉