Crossbow Advice

[Mortblanc]

(1 July 2013, 07:10)Lightspeed Wrote: [quote='Mortblanc' pid='63376' dateline='1372438968']
Thanks MB. Very useful reply based on your real experience.

Not many of us here in UK have experience of hunting large game with our crossbows. ( again legality issues)

Out of interest, at what range do you usually take deer with your 150 lb bow? What length, material, weight darts do you use? I'm assuming broadheads are always used?

Looks like I'm going to have to progress to 150lb prods quickly.

Thanks again

Not many archers over here have experience killing big game with a bow either. That is one of the reasons I am skeptical of the prospect of the inexperienced hunters in GB attempting to stay alive with a bow SHTF.

Even with our long hunting season, profuse availability of equipment and easy access to hunting areas, only 1 out of 10 hunters fills his license. And those figures are skewed because some hunters take multiple deer, meaning that only perhaps 1 out of 50 hunters actually makes a kill.

It is not lack of accuracy that hinders the success of a hunt, it is usually lack of hunting knowledge and experience. Primitive peoples do not have access to the equipment we have, but they navigate their short lifespans using the knowledge of the terrain and the game they seek. Then hit a rough patch or a drought and starve to death at 35.

And those dinky little toy looking bows they use??? Well fellows, they are shooting poisoned arrows! They are not killing by shock, penetration or blood loss, they are killing with chemicals.

I do not know what my bolts weigh to the gram. I cut 5/16" dowels at 14" and split the tip using a band saw. The broad heads are cut from sheet metal that was formerly the jacket of a clothes washer. The blade is shaped with tin snips and a belt sander and fitted to the arrow with epoxy and a single rivet. I use two slender feathers set at 180 degrees for fletching and the job is done.

I set a 30 yard restriction on all my regular and crossbow shots. I hunt from a ground blind or tree stand and arrange the situation to my range needs.

Your success at slithering through the woods looking for the majestic stag will be useless. The stag can hear better, smell better, has better camouflage and better reflexes than you do. Approaching the game to a range of 30 yards is a near myth attainable only in a petting zoo.

All those game animals you see from your automobile every day become invisible as soon as you walk out the door with a weapon. I have actually chased deer out of my barn lot the day before hunting season opens and then had to search high and low to find a target deep in he forest the next day.

About 15 years ago I had to kick wild turkey off my porch to enter my home the day before hunting season opened. I did not see another turkey for the entire season and failed to fill my tag that year.
(wild turkey are a game bird that goes around 10-20 pounds and make a very tasty roast)

Even with every factor stacked to my advantage I have had deer that were seemingly unsuspecting and relaxed jump faster than my arrow could travel and dodge the missile at the sound of the string release.

It sounds impossible but it happens. That means all the "club activity",lessons and practice one can muster will have only minimal connection to success in the hunting field. As I said before, we have excellent hunters in the field using excellent equipment in pristine forests among massive deer herds and only 1/10 fills his tag. There is more to it than simply walking out and killing what you need like they do on the "canned hunts" you see on TV.