The Jaguar crossbow is a popular choice for many people as the price is quite low compared to many mainstream brands, and the complete package allows you to start shooting straight away. I decided to purchase one from Crossbows 4U a well known crossbow specialist for £99. The kit includes a removable bow quiver, a red dot sight (three dots), 4 bolts and a sling. You also get some safety goggles, some rail lube, and importantly a stringer.
Assembly is quite easy and straightforward, but for those unfamiliar with stringing crossbows I would strongly urge you to read and understand the instructions before attempting. One of the bolts holding the quiver on was slightly cross threaded, but a drop of oil helped.
The construction of the body and rail is moulded plastic and looks like it will take a fair bit of abuse. The stock is comfortable and comes to the shoulder very nicely to be honest. The sling is quite good and has solid mounts and swivels, when shouldered it distributes the weight quite well making the crossbow easy to carry. The Foot stirrup is solid and has enough room for any boot and wellie. The bow quiver holds six bolts and is easy to attach and remove, although I don't like bow quivers and prefer a side quiver this one is no hassle. The red dot sight supplied is bargain basement stuff, but it is functional and accurate and has 1/2 inch adjustment specifically for crossbows which is a nice touch at this price.
The crossbow was tested at a field archery club with 3d targets at ranges of 10-60yds and target size from rabbit to Grizzly Bear. Sighting in the crossbow at ten yards (top dot on scope) the first thing I noticed was the creep on the trigger. The trigger has a lot of travel before it slips and does not break cleanly at all, but once you get used to the travel the breaking point becomes consistent. Once sighted in it was very accurate for about twenty or so shots then things started to go wrong!
Initially the crossbow was accurate enough at ten yards to put the bolts on top of each other (which is why I only shoot one bolt at a time because they are expensive) gradually the accuracy became so bad that I could not keep a group smaller than a large dinner plate at ten yards, this is not good at all. I checked the crossbow over for loose bolts etc and found nothing amiss, similarly I checked the string and limbs for fraying/cracks etc and found everything sound. When I checked the bolts the problem became obvious, they were bending upon impact!! All of the four bolts supplied were bent to such a degree that when shot at a six foot high, four foot wide Butt from forty yards they missed completely. From my point of view these bolts are totally useless for this crossbow and let it down badly.
I changed from using the 16 inch supplied bolts and used 20 inch bolts and the Jaguar was reborn. Using Hawkes "Ballistic Reticule Calculator" and an initial zero range of ten yards, the three dots roughly equaled 10-20-30-yds. Out to thirty yards the crossbow can be very accurate once you get used to the trigger and are using good ammunition, past forty yards the bolts are losing velocity quite quickly due to the short power stroke of 12 inches. I would say forty yards is the maximum for this crossbow. There is a point I have to raise about the advertisement on the front of the box. It states 245 FPS, 90FTlbs of energy. This is wrong, and is either the mistake of a mathematical midget, or bullshit advertising that they hope no one will check.
I weighed the bolts supplied and used their velocity of 245FPS.
Mass = 379.64grains
V = 245 FPS
Now by my calculation I get 50.591 foot pounds of energy. If any of you folks would care to do the same and check to confirm for me. Now I understand why the velocity drops off so quickly over forty yards, their power calculations are wrong. This aside with the right bolts and some good optics this crossbow is a very capable weapon. With a selection of points you will be covered for any game you might meet, post collapse of course
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Jaguar 175lb Crossbow review
