Today’s crossbows really throw and arrow so fast that they are often hard to see in dim light when deer hunting. Some on-line adds for lighted nocks peaked my interest for my crossbow arrow/bolts, particularly Luminok™. I bought a pack of three for 30 dollars for my Easton Firebolt Diablo bolts (EXCF) and tried to install them but the hard part wasn’t the Lumenok it was the epoxied aluminum inserts in my Easton Carbon shaft. No matter what I did they did not come out. Heating with water and pulling and/or the 1/8th steel rod failed and I damaged arrows too… a kurfuffle to be sure.
The best solution, for safety sake, and far less frustration is for us to buy the “same exact arrow and length” already professionally fitted with Lumenok’s. Below is what I should have bought! Lesson learned!
Be sure to measure your Front of Center (FOC) for the broadhead weight you shoot because the Lumenok is heavier on the wrong end. I bought some 5 grain brass arrow washers to add to my 100 grain broadhead if needed. Cheap but valuable for moving FOC to the front.
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.
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.
I purchased an Excalibur Matrix Grizzly GRZ2 200 lb Crossbow Kit this past deer season, an early Christmas present, because of its lower cost, less than $500, and its simple recurve design with a single string shooting at around 305 fps.
I could have purchased a faster crossbow but this is easy to cock and de-cock and excellent for deer hunting! If you want a higher end or faster crossbow, Excalibur has them.
It comes with four 18 inch carbon arrow/bolts with field points and an attachable quiver which is parallel to the main body. I like that better than parallel to the bow limbs because it does not hang up when walking in brush as easy.
The bow makes a thwack that is a bit louder than I prefer. Neither the string suppressors or sound dampening kit came with the crossbow kit but I will have to purchase them to test in a future article.
It does come with a scope that works very well with hash marks to 40 yards. My broadheads are Muzzy 100 grain 3 blades which come with practice broadhead blades. In the next video I tested a 4 blade Muzzy 100 grains, and it shot the same as the 3 blade. This is the third arrow/bolt with a broadhead ever through this crossbow at 30 yards. Let’s see what happens! I have it mounted on a BOG™ DeathGrip™ Shooting Tripod.
What is most surprising and valuable with the Excalibur is that I can easily and safely, de-cock the crossbow at the end of a days hunt without having to fire it into a target. (Most all other crossbows need to be shot into a target or shoot a very expensive de-cocking bolt into the ground.)
In New Hampshire, All crossbows need to be de-cocked so they are legal to transport. A cocked crossbow is illegal in a moving vehicle says Fish and Game Laws.
Below is the video tip demonstrating the de-dock of the Excalibur.
There is another additional significant benefit that I find with this Excalibur crossbow: I can re-quiver my broadhead tipped arrow in the field, and de-cock the crossbow in the woods “with little noise” and carry the crossbow safely slung like a rifle on your shoulder as I like to do when moving from stand # 1 to stand # 2, or back to my vehicle.
Minimum energy needed for a crossbow arrow broadhead to ethically kill a deer, some experts say is around 40 ft-lbs recommended. Most crossbows today can kill well beyond 60 yards with a 350 to 400 grain arrow shooting over 90 ft-lbs at bow release. The problem is gravity and accuracy. Just like today’s compounds, your skill level drives that bus in part, and the awareness of the animal to move or jump the string, shot angle, brush in the way, are essential to the ethics of the shot. Keeping shots under 40 yards is recommended.
