OT cross bows

[GunnyMack]

I quit bow hunting many years ago, compound and traditional bows but I just lost the desire to bow hunt. Then around 2014 I decided to get a cross bow, an Excalibur 355. It does 355fps and 240lbs to cock it.
Now these brilliant anti-hunting nitwits that sit on the NJ Fish & Game council have proposed no bows OVER 200 lbs.
It makes no sense to me or my hunting buddies how or why a maximum poundage needs to be a thing.
Though this harkens back to the 90s when the gov tried to ban everything over .50 caliber- that would have included 20ga,12ga,10ga and muzzleloaders- no rifles for deer.

[piller]

I can understand why your bow is cross.

[.45colt]

It's prolly just a way to limit the power of a x bow as there is seemingly no limit to what technology will bring on. a bolt at 1000fps? out local sport store had some last year I think north of 2k $$. The fish & game experts make you scratch You head all the time..... Ohio is a straight wall cartridge state . a 50-110 is legal to hunt deer with but because the 44-40 is a bottleneck it is not. .

[piller]

Seems to me that the state could more easily limit fps of the cartridge, or foot pounds of energy. There are always going to be people pushing it to the extreme. Still, with a bow of any kind, it seems sort of silly to hold the fps down. Is overpenetration and hitting other hunters really an issue with a crossbow?

[6pt-sika]

It's prolly just a way to limit the power of a x bow as there is seemingly no limit to what technology will bring on. a bolt at 1000fps? out local sport store had some last year I think north of 2k $$. The fish & game experts make you scratch You head all the time..... Ohio is a straight wall cartridge state . a 50-110 is legal to hunt deer with but because the 44-40 is a bottleneck it is not. .

If I’m not mistaken the Ravin 500 is over 3k and goes a touch over 500 FPS . I think Ten Point is making one they call I think a 525 and it’s in the 525 FPS area at a cost of I think 2.5k or over . I’ve only had one a Ravin R9 that I’ve clocked several times right at 390+ FPS that I bought used with a bunch of accessories for 1k . I don’t see the necessity of faster than what I have , BUT if I weren’t planning an out of the country move I’d have one of the Ravin 500’s already .

[FLINT]

Definitely makes no sense at all to limit crossbow poundage. I can't imagine what the possible rationale would be.

However, they do now make several crossbows that shoot faster than yours but have draw weights less than 200 lbs.

The excalibur bows are nice, but since they have just simple recurve limbs, they achieve respectable velocities by having super heavy draw weights. Compound limbs and modern fancy limb geometries can produce very fast speed with dramatically lower draw weights.

but again, the law you mention is beyond moronic.

[KWK]

Ohio is a straight wall cartridge state . a 50-110 is legal to hunt deer with but because the 44-40 is a bottleneck it is not.

It's similar here in Illinois. The regulations say a 450 Nitro Express is fine but my 38-40 is right out.

[GunnyMack]

Fish &game sent out a survey regarding the proposed law changes with a comment section.
I told them this law is going to stop people from hunting due to this kind of stupidity, me for one as I refuse to go buy another setup.
But then again that is probably what they want - no more hunting.

Are the game wardens going to go out of their way to check poundage? Will someone take the time to research every bow on the market and give a cheat sheet to the wardens?

Our archery law says a minimum of 35 lbs draw weight, I'd be more concerned about that not 200+ lbs as far as wounding animals.

[mickbr]

I had one of the first Excalibure exomags about 27 years ago, when 225lbs and 350fps was the world record. Then a Matrix 380 about 15 years later. I got out of the game when they started bringing in compound crossbows and were pushing velocity over design quality. I remember owners having to use hair driers to heat up and adjust parts of the bows parts as soon as they got them lol. Crossbows going 500fps now, wow. Do they really do that speed as advertised? I remember destroying and losing bolts even at 380fps..

[wvfarrier]

My wife has an excaliber that does 455fps with a 450gr arrow. Its a beast and uses a built in crank. The deer will actuallt make an "oof" sound when it hits

[piller]

My wife has an excaliber that does 455fps with a 450gr arrow. Its a beast and uses a built in crank. The deer will actuallt make an "oof" sound when it hits

Does it keep them from running far? With my balance issues, I do not like following a blood trail very far. One good thing is that a decent walking stick can also work as a shooting stick for a rifle.

[JB]

My wife has an excaliber that does 455fps with a 450gr arrow. Its a beast and uses a built in crank. The deer will actuallt make an "oof" sound when it hits

Does it keep them from running far? With my balance issues, I do not like following a blood trail very far. One good thing is that a decent walking stick can also work as a shooting stick for a rifle.

I've shot deer with crossbows and bows of various speed. Speed doesn't make them kill any quicker. What is does is flatten your trajectory and enable you to shoot a heavier arrow for more penetration on larger game, but in whitetail it's not going to matter with decent shot placement.

[piller]

My wife has an excaliber that does 455fps with a 450gr arrow. Its a beast and uses a built in crank. The deer will actuallt make an "oof" sound when it hits

Does it keep them from running far? With my balance issues, I do not like following a blood trail very far. One good thing is that a decent walking stick can also work as a shooting stick for a rifle.

I've shot deer with crossbows and bows of various speed. Speed doesn't make them kill any quicker. What is does is flatten your trajectory and enable you to shoot a heavier arrow for more penetration on larger game, but in whitetail it's not going to matter with decent shot placement.

Practice and decent shot placement is good in all types of hunting. A heavier arrow with more penetration sounds as if it would allow for a wider broadhead and more bleeding.

[wvfarrier]

My wife has an excaliber that does 455fps with a 450gr arrow. Its a beast and uses a built in crank. The deer will actuallt make an "oof" sound when it hits

Does it keep them from running far? With my balance issues, I do not like following a blood trail very far. One good thing is that a decent walking stick can also work as a shooting stick for a rifle.

We usually do not have to go more than 25-40 yards. She uses the Grizzlystik 200gr xxls which are a fixed blade with a 2" cut. Nasty business and extremely effective.

[piller]

That does look effective.