Steve, The complication of servicing and maintaining a compound is an issue that also concerns me, so I went belt and braces over it, I bought 1 decent basic compound plus 3 cheapos Barnets as back up / trainers. I also picked up a couple of basic but decent take down recurves plus spare strings and limbs, nothing fancy but they will be used for hunting where as the very compact compounds with be used for other issues.
you may find this way of recocking a crossbow without a rope aid easier and less strain on the back.
instead of straining all your sinews and joints trying to pull the string UPWARDS, instead place the butt on the floor, put your feet either side of the butt, grasp the bowstring and using your body weight push the string DOWNWARDS until you feel it lock, job done and in a much shorter time.
anyway it works for me.(but then I've got the body weight to get the job done).
The Jaguar is possibly the most bought Crossbow in the Uk because of the price, mine cost me £99 with four bolts, a red dot sight and a sling! but you get what you pay for. The triggers can be very variable going from ok to terrible, mine has a fair bit of creep before the sear dissengages. The Bolts they come with are worse than useless and will take a bend very easily ruining accuracy, you will need to invest in some good ammunition. The power output is not that good due to the short 16 inch power stroke and shorter than normal bolt size, most "full size" bolts are 20 inches, whereas the Jaguar comes with 16 inch ones. There are no problems with using the longer bolts, but FPS will suffer. This crossbow is perfectly suited to 40yds, but not much further as the bolts lose speed very quickly and their trajectory at longer distances becomes pronounced. You can buy spare Prods, strings etc very cheaply so you can have a lot of spares, it is a very cheap crossbow to run, as long as you understand its limitations. The Red dot sight is a bargain basement model but will do an adequate job if you have sighted it in correctly and know what Yardage each of those dots represent. Do not assume that if the first dot is sighted in to 20yds then the next two will correspond to 30yds and 40yds because in my experience they wont. You need to sight the first dot to your preference 10-15-20yds etc, and then walk back using the second dot until you have point of impact with that second dot, do this for the third dot as well. Only then can you be sure about point of impact with all three dots. The plastic stock is bomb proof and will last forever, only needing a quick wipe down after a days shooting. You can make your string last a lot longer by using string lube, don't bother with the expensive "lipstick" style ones, just use good old Vaseline, and make sure you put some on the "Rail" as well as your string. I have had the same string on for two years now without any significant wear. If you run your string dry it will not last!
Thanks for the advice TH always wondered if those string lubes were anything special, will go for the vaseline in future.
try beeswax. I think that's what they used before we had Vaseline and lube.
Tried that BP ,kept getting stung on the ass
(10 February 2016, 19:36)Barneyboy Wrote: [ -> ]Tried that BP ,kept getting stung on the ass
funneeee man BB!! you can buy it on Ebay.
Just a joke matey ,Vaseline is best ,I find bees wax sticks to the runner and gums up .its bloody good for string care ,or silicon oil but that can cost
your not necessarily going to be able to find vaseline or lube in an emergency event, beeswax is a natural occuring alternative, it has other uses too, missus uses it as a base for all her potions and lotions.