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.
https://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/crossbows/matrix-grz2/
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.
https://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/crossbows
A great Christmas Present!
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.
Here is a source for Crossbow Energy. http://www.bestcrossbowsource.com/crossbow-kinetic-energy-chart-calculations-hunting-requirements/
Good Hunting!
© 2019 All Rights Reserved!