Hey all,
Since I moved last spring I haven't had much time for any new builds and still haven't got my new shop set up. Another reason I haven't been building much is that my new house is only 15 minutes away from a crossbow-friendly range, a little surprising in the Metro DC area. So for the first time since I started building these things I actually have someplace convenient to actually shoot them!
I just made a new string for this one, a little thicker for comfort and safety and a little shorter, bringing the brace height up to four inches where the center serving just kisses the bolt track. I also added leather sleeves to the nock ends, rather than padding the prod tips with leather strips or shrink tubing.
I had a blast for over 3 hours, starting at 10 yards shooting from the hip til I was sure my new string was a winner, eventually moving out to 36 yards, where I got this group:
I thought that was pretty good, considering the bolts I was using were among the first I ever made and the fletching of of dubious quality. I came with seven of those heavy fiberglass bolts and left with four, at 36 yards I eventually planted two of them in the wood frame of the target and had to break them off, one hit the top edge of the frame and bounced off into the woods. I have commercial aluminum bolts I plan to use with this bow, but I need to get some 150 grain field points and 110 grain brass inserts to get the weight up where I want it for this steel prod. Interestingly, the only bullseyes of the day were with the two super heavy quarrels I brought just for the fun of it, pretty consistently from 20 yards.
Gnome
Since I moved last spring I haven't had much time for any new builds and still haven't got my new shop set up. Another reason I haven't been building much is that my new house is only 15 minutes away from a crossbow-friendly range, a little surprising in the Metro DC area. So for the first time since I started building these things I actually have someplace convenient to actually shoot them!
I just made a new string for this one, a little thicker for comfort and safety and a little shorter, bringing the brace height up to four inches where the center serving just kisses the bolt track. I also added leather sleeves to the nock ends, rather than padding the prod tips with leather strips or shrink tubing.
I had a blast for over 3 hours, starting at 10 yards shooting from the hip til I was sure my new string was a winner, eventually moving out to 36 yards, where I got this group:
I thought that was pretty good, considering the bolts I was using were among the first I ever made and the fletching of of dubious quality. I came with seven of those heavy fiberglass bolts and left with four, at 36 yards I eventually planted two of them in the wood frame of the target and had to break them off, one hit the top edge of the frame and bounced off into the woods. I have commercial aluminum bolts I plan to use with this bow, but I need to get some 150 grain field points and 110 grain brass inserts to get the weight up where I want it for this steel prod. Interestingly, the only bullseyes of the day were with the two super heavy quarrels I brought just for the fun of it, pretty consistently from 20 yards.
Gnome