New hunting Crossbow

Hi Guys
Just finished this in time for a 3 day hunting trip. Looking foward to putting some serious hurt on some goats , and maybe, hopefully, a red deer .
This crossbow is a bit of an assembly. The trigger, irons, trigger guard and stirrup have been made by other people, so I can't take credit for those components.

Anyway, the specs are:
Draw weight: 300#plus at 13" powerstroke.
Prod: Powertuff with micarta overlays
Trigger: Excalibur
Tiller: Homemade blackwalnut plywood
Barrel: Bloodwood and Hickory
Bow irons: trigger guard and stirrup: Purchased roughed out.
Buttplate: sideplates and sights: Brass
String: Fastflite
Finish: Tru Oil on wood. Caustic bluing on iron.

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This crossbow is a bit of a brute, and is an effort to load even with the Excalibur twin pulley cocking aid.
It does, however, shoot it's 1250grain hunting bolts extremely quickly !
I have the peep sights zeroed for 25m and have been pleasently suprised with it's accuracey.

Anyway, better go and pack!

Regards
James

That looks awesome. Did you make that prod. What are it's specs (length, thickness). Looks very classic .

Here's a pic of my ecal with a walnut stock (tiller) that I made:



Good luck hunting, BTW what arrows (bolts) are you using?, Todd

Well kiwijim,

You certainly know how to please the eye of the audience ...Excellent stock finish and over all craftsmanship!

And who really gives a damn about "assembly"...in one way or another we use something made or invented by someone else...so I got your back on that one.

Todd, wicked stock...I bet it feels great walking into the woods with it.

I wish you two and all with us - Good clean shots and Short blood trails! And of coarse Happy Birthdays to you two as well.

Those are both fine looking bow. They really look like they belong out in the woods on a hunt.

Hi Guys,
Well I'm back. Thanks for all the nice comments. To tell you the truth, I considered that crossbow a tiny bit rough. (lucky my camera has low resolution! )I was in a real hurry to get it complete for this trip
Unfortunately, no goats were harmed in the testing of this crossbow . Pest control had been down there and eradicated most of them. The survivors were very hard to get close to! Saw quite a few rotting carcus. What a waste of good, organic and free range meat!
On the bright side, we caught (and released) quite a few trout. The smallest was 2.75lb. The largest 4.25lb. All wild fiesty rainbows in surperb condition . And I got to test out some new fly designs, including a dry that I am now rather proud of- so the trip was not a total lose.

Hey Todd,
I cut the bolts out of fibreglass rod (9mm diameter). I like them because they are heavy, strong and cheap. I get 5 out of a 2m($7.50) rod.
The prod is 34" NTN. It is cut and ground from a 1.5"wide x 0.495" thick length of power tuff. The centre 2" are a parallel 1.5" wide x 0.495" thick. From this central section the limbs taper to 0.75" wide X 0.365" tick tips. Thickness taper, as Pavise observed, has been ground into the belly. The back is unground. The overlays are epoxied onto the tips and have been reinforced with a 4mm fibreglass rod pin to prevent them flying off. I also like to glue a small piece of leather on the back to protect the prod from the bow irons.
From my experience, Powertuff makes a good prod. If you combined it with a magnificent walnut stock, like the one you made, and a crisp trigger like some of the designs shown on this site, well, thats a better crossbow than nearly anything you can buy.

Regards

James

kiwijim wrote:Hi Guys
Just finished this in time for a 3 day hunting trip. Looking foward to putting some serious hurt on some goats , and maybe, hopefully, a red deer .
This crossbow is a bit of an assembly. The trigger, irons, trigger guard and stirrup have been made by other people, so I can't take credit for those components.

Anyway, the specs are:
Draw weight: 300#plus at 13" powerstroke.
Prod: Powertuff with micarta overlays
Trigger: Excalibur
Tiller: Homemade blackwalnut plywood
Barrel: Bloodwood and Hickory
Bow irons: trigger guard and stirrup: Purchased roughed out.
Buttplate: sideplates and sights: Brass
String: Fastflite
Finish: Tru Oil on wood. Caustic bluing on iron.

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This crossbow is a bit of a brute, and is an effort to load even with the Excalibur twin pulley cocking aid.
It does, however, shoot it's 1250grain hunting bolts extremely quickly !
I have the peep sights zeroed for 25m and have been pleasently suprised with it's accuracey.

Anyway, better go and pack!

Regards
James

I know this is an old post, but when you used the power tuff, was that the black or grey color, and did you have any problems with the unidirectional fibers coming apart? I was going to try one with a fiberglass backing with a scrim to give a little cross strength to prevent splitting. If it's not necessary, I don't want to make extra work for myself. Thanks.

Pat

After reading the silly quote you sign you posts with, I almost didn't bother replying but:

Grey powertuf has been ground both sides- it will lift splinters on the back. You want powertuf that is unground on one side. That unground side will appear black and shiney- that is to be the back of the prod.

James

kiwijim wrote:After reading the silly quote you sign you posts with, I almost didn't bother replying but:

Grey powertuf has been ground both sides- it will lift splinters on the back. You want powertuf that is unground on one side. That unground side will appear black and shiney- that is to be the back of the prod.

James

Thanks, Jim. The quote is from the movie, "Zardoz", a cheezy early Sean Connery film.

Another question for you Jim, when making your prod is the front view taper even on both sides or did you take off from bottom side to get the string nocks center line up higher for less string drag?



Todd

Hi Todd,

You're right in your thinking. From the front view, the top edge of the prod is absolutely straight. All the taper is on the bottom edge.



Regards James

Hey James,

Where does one buy the powertuf stuff ? Sounds like a very reasonable price for prod material. What was your technique for tapering the thickness ? I invision for using a jig and a router. Please elaborate. Very nice looking work in total , and sound very effective.

Thanks for sharing

Chaz

You can get it from Bingham Projects. You have to call or email them. A 36 inch by 2 inch by 1/2 inch thick piece is About $33.

Hey Chaz,

First I rough cut out all the tapers with a carbide tipped bandsaw blade. I then tidy up all the saw marks on the belt sander. Finally I grind the taper on the belly of the bow using a tapered board and a drum sander- the same way as you would grind tapered lams for a bow.

kiwijim wrote:
...the specs are:
Draw weight: 300#plus at 13" powerstroke.
Prod: Powertuff with micarta overlays
...

Hi James,

With the prod, what was your process for deciding brace height and powerstroke?

Ernest

What a beauty!

Quick question:

How sturdy do you find that type of front sight? Do you find it easy to knock out of alignment?

Also, where did you get that trigger and release assembly?

There are some talented builders on here. Fantastic work!

kiwijim wrote:Hey Chaz,

First I rough cut out all the tapers with a carbide tipped bandsaw blade. I then tidy up all the saw marks on the belt sander. Finally I grind the taper on the belly of the bow using a tapered board and a drum sander- the same way as you would grind tapered lams for a bow.

Hi Kiwi, fellow Guild,

Can someone point me in the direction to learn more about the "...[size=13.333333969116211]using a tapered board and a drum sander- the same way as you would grind tapered lams for a bow"?[/size]


[size=13.333333969116211]Ernest[/size]

Very nice work. You got me thinking about a powertuf prod now.