Vixen & Vixen II Fans?

[Chris Dillard]

I am really looking hard at the Vixen II, if I do purchase one I am going to utilize the Var-Zone Scope and the Fast Flite String. Just wondering the thoughts from veteran owners of the Vixen. I have a self imposed limit of 40 yards on hunts
I will be hiking with the bow 2 to 3 miles back in the bush, hunting Public Land Whitetails and Wild Boar. My previous Bow was the Exomax. What advise could you pass on to a Vixen newbie?

[Chris Dillard]

Well I pulled the trigger, I'm getting a Vixon II.

[VixChix]

Congrats! Welcome to the Vixen cult!

[georgiaboy]

Buy it and don't look back!!!
I have the Vixen II, shooting stock firebolts with 2" blazer vanes. I have the excal fff string on it and using 125gr slick tricks anything inside of 40 is DOA!!
Getting 281 fps out of my set up...plenty fast enough for me.

[JUSTANUFF]

I named my Vixen II "Happy" for a reason,,,

it's happy shootin any arrow
it's happy when it's been dry fired
it's happy when I have dropped it
it's happy out to 40,and the some
it's happy when its wet and muddy


Good luck with your Vixen,,I hope you are as happy with yours as I have been with mine

[Chris Dillard]

Anybody getting the 285 FPS out of their Vixens? If so what is the setup your using thanks!

[mr meat]

Kathys vixen 11 shoots a 338gr arra at 293fps! and a 375gr at 282fps!Thats with a endless loop string!

[Chris Dillard]

Can you shoot the Diablo Arrows out of the Vixen? I know the Diablos are shorter arrows just wondering if they could be shot from the Vixen and what type performance could one expect

[galamb]

REAL MEN don't need anything more than a Vixen II

I have been shooting the Vix II as my deer hunting crossbow for about 6'ish years now.

Although some might say it's a woman's/youth bow I find it very comfortable to shoot and I'm not a small guy at all (6'1", 200 lbs and have a 31" draw on my vertical bows, 15" length of pull on my custom gun stocks).

I do shoot a heavier arrow (394'ish grains) given that the minimum is 325 grains with this model.

I have "tweaked" my bow over the years. I have dissipator bars and the S5 system installed, I use a flemish string (the Excal string for 5 years, now running a custom Vixenmaster), 20" Gold Tip Laser II's (110 grain brass insert) and 100 grain mechanical broadheads (a few different over the years, now shooting 100 grain Axe Archery "Battle Axe's").

I prefer red dot scopes so I can shoot with both eyes open so have a NCSTAR DB4 reflexive model mounted. Using a star burst pattern reticle it gives me three distinct aim points (on the reticle) - with the center dot zero'd to 25 yards the two other aim points (on my bow) are 15 and 33 yards.


And here is what it can do at 17 yards



(disclaimer - I did not "hunt" the chipmunk, it was shot in accordance with the protection of property provisions in the province of Ontario)

Needless to say I am more than happy with the accuracy of the bow as I have it rigged up - and when you can do that to a chip @ 17 yards, Bambi looks the size of Godzilla @ 25 - and the bow is just as deadly if you place the shot properly.

PS - shooting "heavy" I'm 272 fps @ 5 feet from the (muzzle). I'll take accuracy over a few more feet per second any day. Still has enough "umph" for a complete pass through at 27 yards (the furthest I have ever shot a deer).

[DES]

Love my Vixen II, I'm getting 282 fps using a 20" GT at 345 gr.

[JUSTANUFF]

Kathys vixen 11 shoots a 338gr arra at 293fps! and a 375gr at 282fps!Thats with a endless loop string!

Pretty good numbers!!

[Chris Dillard]

EXPANDABLE BROADHEADS & THE VIXEN

Who has used expandables and what were your findings on performance

[vixenmaster]

I had very good results using spitfire out of my vixens. You got one before I could post. I would trade my T C Blk Dia. 50 cal fer an older used vixen

[vixenmaster]

I had very good results using spitfire out of my vixens. You got one before I could post. I would trade my T C Blk Dia. 50 cal fer an older used vixen

[galamb]

(sorry, this will be a little long)

I have tested about two dozen different expandables with my Vix II. I look for proximity of impact compared to a field point, penetration AND durability in the broadhead I use - it must have "all three" at an acceptable level or they get "tossed in the box".

The results are not necessarily indicative of what other users (with more powerful bows) would see.

For example, as popular as the Rage broadheads are (mostly driven by their enormous marketing budget) I have found through testing with a Vix II, into various target media (both commercial and homemade) that their penetration, compared to almost every other expandable on the market "sucks" (that's as technical as I can put it).

The one exception is the Rage 40 KE's which were designed to be used on bows that impact at 40 lbs of KE or less (so think longbows, recurves and the Vix II), but again, many expandables penetrate better than even the 40 KE's.

I have test shot (and going from memory here because I'm too lazy to go down to my shop and get my notes), Rage 2's both the original design, the chisel tips and the latest needle tips (hypodermics?) - every other head I tested out penetrated these, some by as much as 100% (so if they penetrated 7", then the best comparative would have exceeded 14").

The greatest penetration I got was with a G5 T3 BUT the T3 also eats up almost the most amount of (power/KE compared to others) to deploy. Other G5 offerings including the Tekan and Tekan II (now discontinued) were my "go to" heads with the Vix since they flew well, were hard to destroy and had great penetration.

The G5 Havoc is the current version (or evolution of) the Tekan models, although they have replaced the chisel tip with a sorta half chisel, half blade and have gone to aluminum ferules (if I'm remembering correctly).

While those also fly well and penetrate deep I found 1) the cost and 2) the brittleness of the ferrule (where the blades are seated/slide) with both the T3 and the Havoc to force me to relegate them to the "tackle box".

They do have "practice blades" that don't deploy, but I like to shoot "the real thing" in practice and I buggered up one each (havoc/T3) heads shooting them into the target during practice - and at 50 bucks for three heads, I don't want them to be "disposable" after 1 shot.

I have also tested Meat Seekers (Trophy Ridge) - found them to fly excellent, penetrate well but damage easily when removing from a target.

I have also shot Blood Runner II's and III's (a sorta hybrid/expandable) and Killzones (which are just a Rage ripoff) from NAP.

I won't go into the killzones which perform the same as the Rage broadheads.

The Blood Runners are intriguing.

They fly excellent, have built in safety (because of their design) in case they don't deploy - still more than enough blade exposed to kill what you hit, but that also causes an issue. The blades "momentarily deploy" upon firing so if they are not oriented properly one of the "extended" blades WILL drag on the foot stirrup of the bow and launch the arrow towards the heavens (lost two arrows in the soy bean field that backs my range before I figured out what the issue was). Having said that, the Blood Runner II is my "back up" head at this point, carrying one arrow tipped with one in my quiver.

All of the above are rear deploying heads.

I have tested close to a dozen of the front deploying heads that hit the market many years ago. The names escape me now and most have been surpassed by today's offerings, although you can typically find the designs in the "no-name" packaging in places like Walmart for 5 bucks a pack of 3. The design was poor 20 years ago and just a poor today and should be avoided (my opinion) if you are an ethical hunter.

I have also shot/tested Bone Crushers and Battle Axes (I currently shoot the Battle Axes as my hunting heads) by Antler Insanity/Axe Archery. These are new style front deploying heads.

The Battle Axe has a (small - 9/16") fixed 2 blade tip and then 2 front deploying blades. The Bone Crusher simply replaces the tip with a chisel tip design.

Shooting a (weaker) bow I have gravitated toward these "hybrid" style blades (so specifically the Battle Axe or Blood Runner II and III) because there is some measure of insurance against "lower power" impact - they start to "cut" even before they deploy OR if you get no or partial deployment you "at least" have more cutting surface passing through than with most other mechanical designs (which could leave you nothing more than a hole the size of your shaft).

When you hit with 90 or 100 pounds of KE you can "get away" with less than optimal performance from an expandable head.

With the Vix you WILL hit with 50 pounds or less of KE and all the glossy ad's and testimonials will not aid in the penetration at that impact power level.

So when you read or seek advice from others, be sure that you keep that perspective in mind - a pass through performance testimonial shot with a 405 is of "zero value" to the Vix shooter...