Welcome to the forum from another Michigander.Cat power wrote:Hi there, I'm new to forum and crossbows and need some advise from members.
I am looking to purchase a crossbow within the next 2 weeks and am really torn between a recurve and a compound bow.
My biggest concern with the Excal is the width, and noise. I hunt from pop up blinds and ladder stands mostly. My biggest concern with the Parker Tornado is quality, longevity and complexity.
I have visted over 10 bow shops in SE Michigan including Cabelas and Gander Mountain. They are all selling the Tornado far and away over the Excal (Some shops had not even sold an Excal yet). I'm not sure if that means anything, because most of the shops aren't really familar with the products yet.
I really want an Excal, that why I came to this forum. Please help me with some personal experiences with maintenance etc.
thanks Mark
I can certainly relate to what you are going through trying to select a crossbow. I went through that several years ago and found it was not easy. I also found that every dealer I went to wanted me to buy either a Ten Point or a Horton. Now they want to sell Ten Points or Parkers. No doubt they must make more dollars selling those, especially the expensive Ten Point. They are a good bow; actually an excellent bow, but certainly not worth the dollars they are asking.
The number one thing I ran into was the belief that a recurve bow just could not match up with a compound and was not even worth looking at.
In every dealership I visited that also carried Excalibur, I wanted to try them. The dealers usually just tried to steer me away. Truth is, they knew almost nothing about Excalibur bows!
It was really funny though when I finally made up my mind to buy. I asked them to get me a Ten Point, Horton, Excalibur and Barnett. The guy did take one of each into the shooting range. Another guy was there practicing and he was one of the top archers in the area. A real know-it-all.
I shot each and the only comments that were made was when I shot the Excalibur. Let's just say the comments were not positive. They even joked about the bow. Of course, anything that was not a compound had to be trash...
They about fell through the floor when I told the guy I'd buy the Excalibur.
That was many years ago and I have never been sorry I bought the bow. I found it is certainly different carrying the bow out to hunt and some stands have to be set up a little different but very little. That is, I had some stands with an extremely small shooting lane but I had to trim a few small limbs using the crossbow.
This brings up your number one concern. I've heard this comment from many about the Excalibur being wider so harder to handle. With the bow strung, I have measured the limbs tip to tip vs a Parker measured tip of the wheel to tip of the wheel. It came out somewhere around 2" difference. I was surprised. I don't recall the exact measurement but it seems to me it was just under 2". Is 2" really a concern?
And once again I will bring up Excalibur's warranty and their efforts to make happy customers. I recall something when I purchased that the dealer didn't have at the time; seems like it may have been the crank. Excalibur went out of their way to make sure I had what I wanted. I also recall part of the string looked like it might have been weak and I stated that. No more talk. They simply sent me a new string. Last year I foolishly dry fired my bow. I lost a tip from one of the limbs. In a matter of a couple days the new limbs were delivered to me via UPS.
If I can be of more help, please do not hesitate to send me an email or PM.
Also, I do believe Excalibur will be at the Woods & Waters Show in a couple of weeks. I am planning on going as I haven't been to that show for a long time and remember it as a good place. Its a pretty good drive from here but will be worth spending a day there.
