I am both a bowman and a rifleman and I shoot both very well. Todays crossbows can launch an arrow/bolt at sizzling speeds of over 500 fps, faster than the best compound bows.
Most crossbows today shoot bolts typically in the 300 to 400 fps but the 500’s are out there now. I own two crossbows, a Grizzly recurve from Excalibur which shoots at 300 fps and has taken wild boar and turkey. Full penetration.
Grizzly by Excalibur
My main crossbow is a 10 Point Turbo S1 which launches a 425 grain arrow at around 360 fps. Fast enough and with enough momentum to penetrate the largest of wild game.
Both rifle and bow are great hunting tools. We just need training and practice to master them!
I happen to own a great shooting tripod, a Bog Death Grip. But it doesn’t pack well for air travel especially with my crossbow and hard case.
Lots of hunters want a tripod that grips your bow or firearm like an extra hand. For several years the Bog worked for me with that vice like clamp. My search has found a new more compact tripod and clamp from Fooletu on Amazon. It has a saddle clamp and 360 deg. ball and height adjust from 25″ to 75″ high.
Pictured, is the new tripod holding my crossbow steady at chair height and stand up height. The clamp works great.
I can swivel and tilt at will. Cost $129.00 with a fabric case. That is a great price for the engineering that went into it. And it fits into my new hard bow case adding 4.4 pounds bringing my loaded bow case to around 40 pounds for air travel. See the fabric tripod case Below. Fits perfect in the case!
As most of my readers know, I am hunting massive male bears in Alberta, Canada in May/June this spring with my Ten Point 360 fps Crossbow. This black bear species is known as Ursus americanus like the bears of eastern canada and USA and americanus is extending its range to 75% of Alberta. Spring Alberta male bears are lean but often exceed 300 pounds. They live in proximity to the Olympic black bear which earned the sub-species Ursus americanus altifrontalis and the grizzly bear – Ursus arctos horribilis.
Encounters of grizzly can happen but are rare because the grizzly does not frequent thick boreal forests like the black bear. I will have a rifle for backup especially when I exit the stand in the darkness.
A black bear near a 50 gallon bait drum will aid very well in determining size. If the back of the bear is near to or greater than the top of the drum, then you have a “big very likely male bear” say 300 to 400 pounds.
UPDATE
If looking for Boone and Crockett trophies, check out Jim Shockey’s article on field judging black bear.
Shockey says, “Big bears are the toughest, meanest sons-of-a-guns in the valley, and they act it.”
For me, the fur must be in prime shape as well, not rubbed off.
END UPDATE
Look to identify male from female. Outfitters train hunters to avoid shooting female bears. Additionally, female bears are not unusually large as the massive 300 to 400 lb males.
Image Courtesy Wikipedia
Females with cubs or even older cubs give their sex away simply by being with cubs.
Further, female front legs taper from wide to narrow all the way to the narrow front paws, where male front legs are like large stove pipes like the above photo with no leg taper. Old mature bruins have smaller ears more on the side of the head and fat wide heads with a crease down the center of the skull as shown above.
If I encounter a black bear of the size above, I would make every effort to harvest him. If I could not arrow him, I would take him with rifle.
In less than 50 days I’ll be flying 2200 miles across the USA and arriving in Grande Prairie Alberta, Canada for a week of “two-fer” crossbow black bear hunting.
I chose to travel specifically to Alberta to hunt these unusually large color phase black bears. My Ten Point Turbo S1 Arrow/Bolts are equipped with Swhacker 231 broadheads.
With my Burris Oracle X Laser Scope, I practice at 15 to 30 yards for deer and bear and target shoot well beyond to 60 yards and more with supreme accuracy.
The laser works best after 20 yards by lighting the aiming point.
Back to Swhackers; It’s cutting sharp hardened steel trocar tip leads the entry till the sharp swhacker wings enter tissue and swing the 2 1/2 inch razor sharp blades to bear, (pardon the pun).
Literally, broadside exit wounds are nearly assured with crossbows shooting 360 fps. I remember in the 1960’s, reading Fred Bear, said of his two edge broadhead blades…”It makes them lay low.” The swhacker does that in spades. I shot a red practice swhacker head out to my 60 yards target yesterday. Here is a entrance and exit picture.
An Adventure filled Solo Maine Black Bear hunt is in my plans for September 2024. Come on along as I film some video clips too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear
I have not hunted black bear for quite some time, but it can be very exciting with a good outfitter and remote land access. I estimate the weight of this bear in the above image near 400 pounds.
What is even better is that very often you will see more than one bear or two or more on a 6 day hunt.
Most hunting is done in afternoon and evening on ground blinds or tree stands over bait.
Baiting is a great way to hunt bear, in particular, because you can be selective; e.g., to pass or shoot a smaller or larger adult bear.
The tough part is to gage the size of a bear coming to bait. Often, bears, particularly big ones, come to bait just minutes before dark, making judging size, and fur color even harder.
I am very pleased with my 10 Point Turbo Crossbow (390 – 400 fps) and my NAP Killzone Cut-on-Contact 100 grain mechanical broadheads. Bears often hit with a razor sharp broadhead in the heart/lung area, will run flat out for 10 seconds and then collapse deader-than-a-door-nail… never knowing what bit them. Too far forward may result in the arrow hitting the scapula bone and tough tracking so the shot must be true.
My Equipment, a 10 Point 400 fps Turbo S1 Crossbow Arrow Flight with Killzone Broadhead or my Browning 7mm Rem Mag.
Killzone provides a practice blade. It isn’t easy to assemble the practice blade but once done, it works. Note; that the there is a pencil point type head that you can get as well for this broadhead but i prefer a cut-on- contact point.
Haven’t killed a bear with the Killzone head yet, but we shall see. Many experts suggest fixed blade broadheads on bear. I have some to experiment with as well.
I will have my backup Kimber 45 ACP and my Browning Speed 7mm Rem Mag Rifle along with me as well.
I called to further discuss rifle at 75 yards vs bow at 20 yds and will decide when I get there. Rifle setups are further away from bait thus allowing less human odor at dusk near bait. Big bruins didn’t get big by being stupid. They use their nose and minor noise to determine when it is safe to approach bait, often after dark. Take away noise and smells at the bait site and maybe enough to to make a show.
What will I do with the hide, skull and meat? If the bear is large, I will make a rug and have the skull cleaned. I am a meat-eater and home-made butcher and self- trained chef. Bear fat can be rendered for lubricating/rust protection and also the lard makes a great ingredient for pie crust. Bear meat and fat was a real commodity in early America for its versatility in cooking/frying and for both lubrication and rust prevention and even lamp oil.
My Outfitter “Foggy Mountain Guide Service” hunts deep in the wild woods of Maine. Driving from southern New Hampshire to my Maine hunt location will take me about 5 hours, where I’ll spend up to six days hunting.
So you shot at a deer with Bow/Crossbow. It all happened so fast and you are not sure if the hit was in the vitals or in the gut. Here is an indicator wrap or a wipe (if you dislike the wrap) to tell you the kind of hit that was made. Wipe the arrow and it changes color. This helps you plan for a recovery of game, to follow now or wait hours or overnight before following up. I like the idea and I will likely buy the wipe type indicator for this fall.
Let me break bow/crossbow portable targets into two categories, bagged targets for field points and block like foam targets which can be used for both field points and broadheads. Bag targets often cost less and foam types often cost much more. What do you really need?
Bag type targets such as the Morrell Crossbow Yellow Jacket YJ-425 are cost effective $30 to $40 dollars for field points and the arrow/bolts are easy to remove.
On-line customer comments say it can handle 400 fps crossbow bolts. Wow! Cost effective and easy to remove the arrow? I like that! Most foam targets really hold on to your arrow and significant effort is often needed to retrieve the arrow.
Foam type targets on the other hand, are great for both field points and broadheads but they often cost up to 2 or 4 times more than bag targets and the arrows are harder to pull out of the foam blocks. The advantage of this target however is that “one target does it all”.
Example: The BLOCK Vault below does it all for $95 dollars. But you often will have a tougher time removing arrows and in some cases you will need an bolt/ arrow puller for fast bolts stuck deep.
Many quality foam and bag type targets are rated these days, e.g. 300 350, 400 450 fps etc., so look for the speed rating!
This summer I will likely purchase a very cost effective field point bag target for general target practice. I have 2 foam block targets now but hate to pull the arrows out!
Take it from me, its worth checking out these new TD crossbows like the Assassin 400 but there is so much more… Wow!
. I will try to get one this coming spring to test.
If you are in the market for a compact crossbow that is designed to be a takedown model and the bow portion easily reassembled, take a hard look at Excalibur’s new 2020 TD crossbows that can be assembled and disassembled in seconds and still maintain their accuracy.
The new 2020 Excalibur TD (takedown crossbows) with QUICKLock™ technology are here and reassemble/un-assemble in seconds such as the Excalibur Assassin TD, Suppressor, or the Micro 360 TD.
A softcase to store the crossbow is available. The only thing they need is a hard crossbow case that can be ordered separately for air travel. My guess is that a hardcase is in the works.
First and foremost, as millions of bow/gun hunters get into their senior years, like me, they have difficulty with shoulders, arms, muscles and even eyes thus pulling and holding a traditional bow or compound bow more difficult as compared to the crossbow which still employs stick and string and razor sharp broadheads.
Hunting is not just a pass-time for me, it is a way of life. And for millions of Americans too. We eat the animals we harvest. Wild game meat is the quintessential organic meat, no additives, no hormones. In today’s international food markets that is a very important lesson in raising a family. Safe meat to eat!
The hunter that loves the bow and broadhead will gravitate to the crossbow as prices vary widely from introductory to advanced hunter/shooters from say $300 to $600 and far above. Below the Ravin R29 Crossbow; Cost $2549. Among a long list of other great manufacturers
https://ravincrossbows.com/product/r29-crossbow/
Secondly, the technology of Crossbows is in the midst of a revolution with advanced space age material recurves, compound and reverse compound technology for faster and quieter crossbows. Crank like devices to cock and decock your crossbow, quiet technology to silence the oft louder noise that crossbows make. Rifle like scopes are the norm today with crosshairs and distance hash marks. See the PSE crossbow below Cost $295.00.
https://www.psearchery.com/crossbows/
Companies that dealt with just traditional and compound bows realized perhaps that they were losing market share too so they embraced the changes and here we are today. Other companies were always in love with crossbows and led the way.
The crossbow is more in line with a rifle once cocked and loaded. Yes the hunter still has to cock the crossbow, but for most hunters that can be accomplished with some effort or with a string cocking device. See the Excalibur crossbow below
Speeds of 300 plus feet per second are the norm and 400 plus fps are at the higher end. Energies delivered are often in the 80 and 90 ft-lbs that can harvest all North American Game with common sense distances attributed to today’s compound bows with a skilled shooter/hunter. Many larger species including elephant have fallen to a well placed broadhead from a crossbow.
Arrow and broadhead technology has advanced as well bringing newly designed carbon fiber arrows, broadheads and illuminated knocks to see where the arrow struck. This fast paced technology is just mind boggling. The Rage™ mechanical broadhead left and Lumenock™ nocks that illuminate for examples. Note that I do not advocate these as I have not tested them. I do favor fixed blade broadheads.
What is important to know , for me at least, is that crossbows are leapfrogging the technology from year to year making a three year old model seem ancient.
A must for me in New Hampshire is that the crossbow can easily be cocked and de-cocked in the woods or at the beginning or end of your hunting day without having to shoot an arrow into a target making a racket. Or have to shoot a heavy de-cocking arrow at days end.
There are numerous websites for you to research. Just enter your thoughts on your favorite search engine. It is just Wild out there!!
Today’s crossbows really throw and arrow so fast that they are often hard to see in dim light when deer hunting. Some on-line adds for lighted nocks peaked my interest for my crossbow arrow/bolts, particularly Luminok™. I bought a pack of three for 30 dollars for my Easton Firebolt Diablo bolts (EXCF) and tried to install them but the hard part wasn’t the Lumenok it was the epoxied aluminum inserts in my Easton Carbon shaft. No matter what I did they did not come out. Heating with water and pulling and/or the 1/8th steel rod failed and I damaged arrows too… a kurfuffle to be sure.
The best solution, for safety sake, and far less frustration is for us to buy the “same exact arrow and length” already professionally fitted with Lumenok’s. Below is what I should have bought! Lesson learned!
Be sure to measure your Front of Center (FOC) for the broadhead weight you shoot because the Lumenok is heavier on the wrong end. I bought some 5 grain brass arrow washers to add to my 100 grain broadhead if needed. Cheap but valuable for moving FOC to the front.
