Vintage Crossbow

GonHuntin · Post by **GonHuntin** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:04 pm

My wife's aunt gave her this crossbow several years ago.....I guess the aunt used the crossbow when she was younger? I believe it is a Powermaster? I have shot it, and the accuracy is surprisingly good, but I have been told these aluminum prod bows are unsafe due to the possibility of catastrophic failure of the prod. Too bad, I'd sure like to shoot a deer with it!

Any guesses as to how old it is?

Anybody else have vintage crossbows?

dw · Post by dw » Fri Aug 20, 2004 4:17 pm

they were made in the 1970's
"dw"

Digger · Post by **Digger** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 5:17 pm

Looks like my old Whammo Powermaster. They were prone to metal fatigue. It will look great on your den wall, but thats all, you may get 3 more shots with it you may get a 1000. Just remember to get more life insurance if your going to use it. Your wife will thank you when it blows apart.

Digger

GaryL · Post by **GaryL** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 5:32 pm

Digger wrote:Looks like my old Whammo Powermaster. They were prone to metal fatigue. It will look great on your den wall, but thats all, you may get 3 more shots with it you may get a 1000. Just remember to get more life insurance if your going to use it. Your wife will thank you when it blows apart.

Digger

Thats what it is Digger I also have one.
GonHuntin you can check the prod for cracks/metal fatigue by soaking the prod in a kerosene bath for about 20 min. Take the prod and wipe it down really good with some old rags and then let air dry for around 10 min. Then take some baby powder or flour and lightly cover the prod with a light dusting, let sit for 10 min and shake off. check prod for any white lines showing. However as Digger stated get more life insurance

GonHuntin · Post by **GonHuntin** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 6:52 pm

I don't plan on shooting it.....it's just a wall hanger........

RJ not logged in · Post by **RJ not logged in** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 2:21 am

Still a cool conversation piece for the wall ....

GaryL · Post by **GaryL** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:11 am

Here's mine GonHuntin

GonHuntin · Post by **GonHuntin** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 3:30 pm

What other brands/kinds of vintage crossbows are out there? I think it would be interesting to know more about the history of commercial hunting crossbows...........

Digger · Post by **Digger** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 3:53 pm

As well as Whammo

Excalibur made the Relayer from '83-'86, the Wolverine from '87 - '92.

Daco made A coupleof different modelsof xbow till abouta dozen years ago.

Crisscross made crossbows

Barnett has made xbows for a number of years as well as Horton.

Digger

GaryL · Post by **GaryL** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 4:45 pm

A fine link from the forum just one of many GonHuntin.http://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/phpBB2 ... ht=relayer

Digger · Post by **Digger** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 9:15 pm

heres a Whammo for sale on ebay, buyit now for $35 US.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 36286&rd=1

Evan · Post by **Evan** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:35 pm

I have two of these old Powermaster crossbows. One is very old, it must date from the 1950's or 1960's, the other is newer and dates from the mid 1970's. The old one has a pretty good trigger and is reasonably accurate, the newer one has a terrible trigger and is hard to shoot accurately. There was a company, Alchemy I think is their name, somewhere in Ohio, that used to make steel replacement prods for Powermasters. I have one of these prods. It's okay but a Powermaster is just a cheap toy compared to an Excalibur.

Dave Benedict used to make crossbows in the 1980's, I've heard good things about them. I've bid on a couple on Ebay but the price went way above what I was willing to pay for one.

Evan

Evan · Post by **Evan** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 9:27 am

All of the Powermaster pictures above are the "newer" style with the terrible trigger. The trigger guard is shaped differently on the "older" style with the better trigger.

Evan

MAC · Post by **MAC** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 1:40 pm

I have one of those. I bought in the early 70's.

Glad to hear I shouldn't shoot

DEAN

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