Bolt weight for speed specs?

grndhntr · Post by **grndhntr** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:23 pm

What is the industry standard bolt weight when manufacturers give fps with their crossbows? It seems like it must be about 350 gr. I compared the listed speed of Excaliburs bows against the speed they listed for different arrows from their website. It looked like 350 would be about right for getting the fps right. I was wondering because I had a recent conversation with a hunters ed. instructor who was telling a student the normal misconceptions about crossbows and how they can shoot just like a rifle out to 100 yds. (He admitted that he had never shot a crossbow and was very open to my input) If the testing takes place with a 350 gr. bolt then it is very similar to AMO standard testing for compound bows. The speed (and therefore, arrow trajectory) seems to be very comparible with a 150# crossbow and a 60# bow or a 200# crossbow and a 70# bow. Does this sound about right to you guys? I just wanted to get my facts right when talking to people about this.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:39 pm

I do not know what the industry standard bolt weight is but Excalibur uses the weighted arrow that they recomend for their bows. I am not sure how other crossbow manufactures do it. I know that most compound (vertical) manufactures sorta mislead comsumers by inflating their speeds with arrows that are actually too lite for the bow. With Excalibur, the speed they list from their bow is the speed you can easily get with a hunting setup.

Others with better or more knowledge than me can better fill you in.

grndhntr · Post by **grndhntr** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 1:01 am

Yeah, I think that AMO standards for vert. bows are 9 gr. per # of draw weight and IBO standards are measured @ 5 gr. per #, so the high speeds they always advertise are IBO and I think that's for a 70# bow (70# x 5 = 350 grains) so if the crossbow standard is 350 gr. the IBO standards would be the same. Most new vert bows are advertised at about 300 fps and so are most crossbows. Does anyone know for sure if there is a set weight for crossbow speed testing?