My recent hunt in Maine was the first opportunity to hunt and harvest wild boar with the Excalibur Matrix Grizzly Crossbow.  Broadheads used in the hunt were razor sharp Muzzy fixed 100 grain 3 blade heads with trocar cut-on-contact tips.

The combination performed flawlessly.  The Grizzly crossbow  is a 200 pound, 305 fps recurve crossbow. It is an older but proven model and easy to load and unload.

It is priced to sell right now at around $499.00. I purchased a later kit to make the bow a bit quieter.

I began the hunt with my flintlock which turned out to be finicky to fire. My backup was this crossbow and it did a marvelous job at 20 yards providing full penetration and exit with an immediate blood trail.

The scope was set with the main crosshair at 20 yards but had triangle yardage marks on the vertical scope line out to 50 yards. I think that 30 yards would be my personal max without a very steady rest and a rangefinder.

The Muzzy broadheads come in a pack of 6 and also come with practice blades for $31 bucks. Proving in these broadheads for flight was an easy proposition with the, easy to pull out, practice inserts.

I tried other compound crossbows that were much faster but so much harder to load and cost way more.  As an older and smarter hunter, I knew that 300 fps is fast enough for the whitetails and boar I was after (excellent delivered energy) and that I could load it faster and easier.

A feature of this crossbow is to  also unload it easily in the field after a hunt. Here in New Hampshire you can’t have a cocked crossbow in a moving vehicle. Most other compound crossbows require you to shoot the bow into a target butt you keep in your vehicle. A pain the butt, pun intended.

The knocks on my arrow/bolts are Lumenoks and they work well to see them as they follow the lighted knock to your game hit and are easy to locate after. A word to the wise, if you want Lumenoks then purchase them installed on your arrow/ bolts already from  the factory. I had a difficult time removing old knocks that were epoxied in.

All in all the wild boar never knew what hit them.

Good Hunting!

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My Excalibur Matrix Grizzly Crossbow is a bare bones model for just under $500. It shoots arrow/bolts at 300 fps measured and very accurate. But it is louder (a high pitch like bang sound), measured with my sound meter at 102 Dba (a loud shout) at the bow.

In the woods, I believed it is truly a foreign noise and will surely spook game (not like a tree limb cracking for sure).

Accordingly, I contacted Excalibur and purchased their Sound Deadening System which consists of string stars, RAVS rubber limb dampeners, overmolded rubber stirrup and air brake limb dissipator to decrease the sound and get rid of the high frequency bang sound. Cost $130. I was also concerned that I would lose arrow speed but didn’t.

Before adding these devices I measured arrow speed at 300 fps and 102 Dba at the bow.

After adding these devices I measured arrow speed still at 300 fps and 98 Dba at the bow. Still loud but the high frequency bang noise was softened significantly.

I would have liked the sound level to be lower still, however,  it is what it is.

Adding these devices shifted my point of impact by 4 inches to the left at 20 yards and made scope adjustments to compensate. The installation, reading the detailed instructions, disassembling the bow limbs to add the air brakes, adding the string and limb dampeners took me a few hours.

Was it worth that effort?

Not really significant. Getting rid of that high frequency (almost metalic) bang sound was the best part.

The truth is that game, particularly whitetail deer will hear sound levels to spook at perhaps 70 Dba (the sound of a vacuum cleaner) or even much lower. My recurve bow at 45 lbs makes a sound level of 89 Dba without string silencers.  The recurve Dba cut the noise in half from the crossbow but still loud enough for deer to hear and maybe spook (jump the string). Was it worth the $130 dollars and reduced sound and time to assemble?

I believe It wont change the mind of a deer.

So the answer is no, but I likely knew that going into this review.

The valuable part for me is that arrow speed was maintained.

Even though my 45 pound recurve is quieter, its much slower arrow speed will allow a spooked deer more milliseconds to spook and drop to avoid the arrow, where my 300 fps crossbow at 20 yards will only be off by a quarter of an inch. On a 40 yard deer with 300 fps arrow, it will drop 5 inches. With a 256 fps bow the arrow will be off by 10 or more inches at 40 yards. Avoid these longer shots!

For further reading you can read my recent article on “Jumping the String” and the great work done by Dr. Grant Woods and his www.growingdeer.com team.

Bowhunter Arrow/Bolt Speed vs Whitetail Deer Drop- Updated

The bottom line is that arrow speed is vital and sound is less important given that many deer will react to drop at the sound of a recurve, compound or crossbow. Assume the deer will drop and aim at the lower 1/3 of the deer thus still  making a double lung hit. Here’s hoping we make better shot evaluations.

Good Hunting!

We learn something new every year!  This past October 2019, a young bowhunter was video’d at Dr. Grant Woods proving grounds. UPDATE: Also a second video that provides drop data at 20, 30 and 40 yards.

https://www.growingdeer.tv/videos/category/all-videos/#/the-best-hunt-weve-ever-videoed-about-deer-reacting-to-a-shot

The analysis of the video shared some insights to help me understand some key facts.

Fact #1 No matter what you do as the bow or crossbow is shot, a deer will hear the thwap sound of bow/crossbow and string before the arrow arrives.

Fact #2 Deer don’t always jump the string but a louder foreign sound increases that risk dramatically. UPDATE: Dr. Woods says assume all whitetail deer will drop at the shot!

Fact#3 If the deer is “on alert”, your chances of a solid double lung kill shot go down go down the further away the deer is.

Fact #4 Deer with a head down, can drop its body faster than gravity because it uses its head and neck to lever its chest downward. UPDATE: And drop its body even lower.

Fact #5 Deer with head up, when the shot is taken, can’t use its head and neck to lever the body thus can only drop at the speed of gravity, 32 fps² .

Fact#6 Aiming at the lower 1/3 of the chest (heart shot) , instead of center chest is the best advice for deer within 30 yards.

Fact#7 Shots beyond 30 yards even with a fast 300 fps bow are lower percentage success shots if the deer drops. UPDATE: Deer can drop 5 inches or more at 40 yards

Fact#8 Deer drop when startled and it need not be a bow or arrow noise that causes them to drop and turn away from the noise.

Fact#9 Only take high percentage shots for consistent harvests.

Another article to chew on below.

https://www.americanhunter.org/articles/2019/9/19/deer-trust-their-ears/

Good Hunting!

Campfire Talk: I have read many articles on deer jumping the string (ducking the arrow) over the years. Some because the arrow made a whizzing  noise from helical feathers on a traditional bow. Others because the bow or crossbow made a thump, whack or bang noise. Others because the arrow was so slow that the deer could see the arrow coming. And finally, it is a great excuse, if you miss! 

My compound bow killed deer were taken from a treestand and around 20 or so yards. None jumped the string! All could hear the bow-shot thwack.

That said, I ran into this fun-to-read article below by American Hunter written by Bill Winke on the “Science of String Jumping” written back in 2010. As the bow is fired, some deer instinctively duck and the arrow sails over the deer’s back. 

https://www.americanhunter.org/articles/2010/7/14/the-science-of-string-jumping/

The lesson I take away is “arrow speed trumps bow noise” for closer shots say 20 yards or less. At 30 yards other experts calculate hold low on the heart, if the deer drops then you are high in the lungs. If the deer does not drop then you have a heart shot. A winning approach. Maybe! 

So it is speed that Bill says is all important not necessarily the quieter bow. Quiet does help. How much? I like a muffled thwack not a hard bang. I think the unnatural bang sound from today’s crossbows can spook other nearby deer more than a muffled thwack.  But if the deer is close, say 20 yards, then it does not matter, the arrow is already there.

The video below demonstrates this lack of deer jumping at close range with Lumenok™ arrows.  Few really jumped the string in this video! The Lumenok tells the story! I ordered some of these lumenok’s for my crossbow arrows. But also purchased some brass washers to add to my arrows Front of Center FOC weight to account for the Lumenok weight. 

Food for thought!

Good Hunting!