Best advice I've seen !! My dad has killed quite a few deer and I've never had a clue where he hit it when I started the tracking job for him. He says "how in the hell am I supposed to see where it hits !!". I just laugh and pick up the track, hoping for a good hit !
I never used lighted nocks until last year. I shot through a big Tom turkey and still found the bird before I found my arrow. Probably wouldn’t have found it without the lighted nock though. They do help some.
My crossbow is a Tenpoint Titan Xtreme. I guess it would be considered mid-range. I love it. It shoots a little over 300 FPS I think. It came with aluminum arrows. They suck. After a while, we realized that all 3 arrows had gotten a little bent, even though they’d never missed the target. I got a Bog Pod for mine and that was a game changer. To be honest, when I’m shooting the xbow free-hand, I’m not any more accurate than I am with my old Mathews. On a tripod though, it’ll drive tacks.
Lots of good crossbows out there... I would suggest you go to a retailer that carries a number of different brands and handle a bunch of them... Be careful about going for speed bows...anything over 300 ft/s (nearly all xbows) will kill any deer in range...as speed increases arrow stability becomes and issue with broadheads (limiting choices)...and ignore insane commercials like the Ravin bows shooting targets at 100 yards...all of them are capable of doing that though aiming 10 feet or more over a deer's back is not my idea of ethical shooting (mid-flight a Ravin's bolt is still nearly 9' above line of sight)... If you are hunting out of a tree stand, the ability to handle the bow is very important as cocking by hand or with a rope cocking aide can be tricky and unbalancing potentially causing a fall...practice recocking the bow with the stand very low on a tree before ever going up high... I run two different crossbows...an Excalibur Ibex (305 ft/s) and a Barnett Ghost 350 (350 ft/s)...most of the time, I carry the Excalibur as it is lighter and better balanced...it also allows me to decock it without firing that the Barnett requires...the Excalibur also allows for field repairs (like changing strings, etc)...accuracy is good from both bows, the Excalibur is unreal...never shoot twice at the same bullseye... Sighting in is very much like a firearm...you do need to verify the holdover range marks (my Excalibur scope is dead on out to 50 yards) and carry a rangefinder hunting...hunting from elevated positions shorten the distance to target slightly but usually not terribly...a 35 yard shot from a 20' elevation works out to just over 30 yards in reality (bracket the vitals between the 30 and 35 yards marks in the scope)...
Is this crossbow any good? As I've said before, I know nothing about them.... https://www.ganderoutdoors.com/barn...nting/archery/crossbows-accessories/crossbows
Barnett, one of the oldest names in crossbows. Always built well, good company, good warranty. Depending on the model they are sometimes heavy. Xpedition, nice bows, but don’t know anything about the crossbows. I’d say either will do you fine, if you get a deal you like.
I'm going entry/mid level on the first one. If I like the horizontal bow, I'll get a better one later. Gander only has 4 models left in stock, and two of those are the high end tenpoints ($1500 and $1900).
