1 February 2012, 11:55
VENOM Taipan self cocking compound crossbow
© Northern Raider 2012
I purchased the Taipan to supplement the Cobra Mk 1 pistol crossbow for the home,
It is an easy to operate self-cocking type bow with a similar cocking system to the Cobra pistol bows that are popular in many prepper housholds.
The Taipan is a very short and compact carbine sized compound bow of the four pulleys and steel wire system. The limbs are glass-fibre I believe or at least they are not steel because they are not magnetic. The prod is a twin overlaid leaf spring type layout with two pulleys mounted on the limb ends, the other two pulleys are free floating pulleys mounted on a steel U shaped cradle that folds around the body of the bow.
The compound prod comes pre-strung with a steel wire factory fitted, it should be possible to make your own replacement string / wire if needed from B & Q if required. The prod is only 18 inches wide which makes it easy to handle in confined spaces. The factory fitted prod is advertised as being a 100lb draw but my spring gauge read only 95lb draw! But it is effective up to fifty feet so this is most definitely not a toy.
The body and shoulder stock / cocking lever appear to be some sort of high density plastic or polycarbonate with steel/ alloy or brass fittings where required for re-enforcement. I found the safety catch to be borderline useless at best so extra attention to safety is required. It carries a dovetail rail for mounting optics and an adjustable leaf spring iron sight fitted to it for open sighting.
The bow is only 25 inches long which reaffirms my comments about its use in confined spaces.
Cocking is by simply pressing the locking catch at the rear of the bow and folding the bow in the same fashion as with the Cobra, two claws grasp the string and draw it to the trigger mechanism. The safety catch it applied automatically when the bow is cocked.
It uses the commonly available 6 ¼ inch pistol crossbow bolts which mean’s it can share its ammo with the Cobra Mk 1 & 2 Pistol bows.
Penetration tests into a Turnip at 25 ft gave a penetration of just over 4 /14 inches using the fairly blunt lightweight target bolts supplied.
This bow has one extra adaptation (two in the US because you can fit a fishing system to their version) As well as carrying the 100lb compound prod the Taipan can also accept the 80 lb draw recurve limb system from the Cobra series of pistol bows. When the Taipan is purchased from Crossbows 4 U they will sell you a complete Cobra Mk 2 bow kit for only £29.95 or you can shop about and just but a spare 80 lb limb from various suppliers like Ronnie Sunshines.
This bow is an ideal start bow for the preppers to learn from and serves a good role around the retreat if necessary.
© Northern Raider 2012
I purchased the Taipan to supplement the Cobra Mk 1 pistol crossbow for the home,
It is an easy to operate self-cocking type bow with a similar cocking system to the Cobra pistol bows that are popular in many prepper housholds.
The Taipan is a very short and compact carbine sized compound bow of the four pulleys and steel wire system. The limbs are glass-fibre I believe or at least they are not steel because they are not magnetic. The prod is a twin overlaid leaf spring type layout with two pulleys mounted on the limb ends, the other two pulleys are free floating pulleys mounted on a steel U shaped cradle that folds around the body of the bow.
The compound prod comes pre-strung with a steel wire factory fitted, it should be possible to make your own replacement string / wire if needed from B & Q if required. The prod is only 18 inches wide which makes it easy to handle in confined spaces. The factory fitted prod is advertised as being a 100lb draw but my spring gauge read only 95lb draw! But it is effective up to fifty feet so this is most definitely not a toy.
The body and shoulder stock / cocking lever appear to be some sort of high density plastic or polycarbonate with steel/ alloy or brass fittings where required for re-enforcement. I found the safety catch to be borderline useless at best so extra attention to safety is required. It carries a dovetail rail for mounting optics and an adjustable leaf spring iron sight fitted to it for open sighting.
The bow is only 25 inches long which reaffirms my comments about its use in confined spaces.
Cocking is by simply pressing the locking catch at the rear of the bow and folding the bow in the same fashion as with the Cobra, two claws grasp the string and draw it to the trigger mechanism. The safety catch it applied automatically when the bow is cocked.
It uses the commonly available 6 ¼ inch pistol crossbow bolts which mean’s it can share its ammo with the Cobra Mk 1 & 2 Pistol bows.
Penetration tests into a Turnip at 25 ft gave a penetration of just over 4 /14 inches using the fairly blunt lightweight target bolts supplied.
This bow has one extra adaptation (two in the US because you can fit a fishing system to their version) As well as carrying the 100lb compound prod the Taipan can also accept the 80 lb draw recurve limb system from the Cobra series of pistol bows. When the Taipan is purchased from Crossbows 4 U they will sell you a complete Cobra Mk 2 bow kit for only £29.95 or you can shop about and just but a spare 80 lb limb from various suppliers like Ronnie Sunshines.
This bow is an ideal start bow for the preppers to learn from and serves a good role around the retreat if necessary.