Excalibur Crossbow Forum

As you increase the front end weight of an arrow can it be said that spine stiffness must be increased as well? As you increase the front end weight, the spine effectively decreases (flexes more). Not such a big deal with crossbows like it is with traditional bows though. I shoot BE Executioners wi...

I made a pretty radical change last hunting season that may be of interest to some: For the last 15 years my set-up was 100-gr Rocket Hammerhead expandables with a total arrow weight of 425 grains. I've harvested about 35 deer with this set-up, using my 2001-vintage Exocet. Velocity is 273 fps. Last...

46 lbs of meat from a 110 lb deer sounds right to me. Wild animals are a mostly bone and hide - very skinny compared to domestic animals.

Do yourself a favor and get some Microplane woodworking rasps: http://us.microplane.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=4 You can buy them online or at any Woodcrafters store. They're awesome for carving stocks! Take wood off as rapidly as a traditional wood rasp, but with a much smoother...

I believe Mark used Actionwood (i.e. resin-impregnated maple or birch) for his stocks. I made my own stock out of a blank of walnut. If you can get someone with a milling machine to inlet for the crossbow rail (my brother-in-law comes in handy sometimes!) carving the rest is fairly straightforward. ...

I've used Rocket Aeroheads (2-inch expandable) on numerous deer, and they leave an large blood trail. A couple times the deer have dropped and bled out right on the spot! With the aluminum ferrule they are a one-time use broadhead though. But unless you plan on shooting a dozen deer a year, replacin...

I've used the Rocket Hammerheads for 7-8 years, and dropped about a dozen deer with them. I'll echo what others have said: short blood trails (sometimes dropped in their tracks) but fragile blades make them a one-shot disposable broadhead in my experience. But I'd rather lose a broadhead than lose a...

Anyone know if there is a brand/size of brass inserts that will fit inside the Beman Thunderbolt shafts?

I've gotten about twenty deer with my Exocet over the years. My experience has been that more often than not they run hard in whatever direction they happen to be facing at the time of the shot. Even if it's uphill or into an open field. Occasionally I'll have one double-back and go the way it came....

Ditto for me. I bought it a year or two ago. The images in that book are very well done and easy to understand. I've seen it at Books-a-Million and Walmart too.

I put a sling on my crossbow this season, after getting tired of carrying the ungainly beast by hand all these years. Should have done this sooner! Buy one of those neoprene foam rubber slings with the non-slip surface (you can get them at Walmart for $10-15). I'll attach a photo of how I did mine. ...

Anyone ever check your camo with a blacklight? I’ve read articles before about how deer see in the ultra-violet range, and that a lot of clothes and laundry detergents have UV brighteners added to them which deer can see. I never gave it much thought, but the other night while buying lightbulbs at L...

I too like the beman thunderbolts because they fly like the 2216 aluminums that I used to use, but they're much more durable. Over the last five years I've used expandables almost exclusively - especially the Rocket Hammerheads (2 inch expandable). I always gotten pass-throughs with the Hammerheads,...

I got the "blank" from a dead walnut tree in Kentucky on my cousin's farm. The branches had rotted off, but the trunk was still standing and the heartwood was fine. It was a long-term project. I don't know how many hours, maybe forty? I was fortunate that to have a brother-in-law with a mi...

The wooden stock increases the total weight by about a pound. However, the balance is much better, the perceived weight is lighter because most of the added weight is back at the butt end. This acts as a counter-weight to the extreme front-heavy crossbow, and makes it easier to shoot. I don't have a...