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Sighting in frustrations

Hedgelj

Senior Member
Supporting Member
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Mohicanish
I bought a Stealth NXT crossbow by Tenpoint. It came with one of their multi-range reticle scopes. The scope has a zoom ring which also correlates to arrow speed and has markings for both. Basically, its a second focal plane scope and you are using the zoom ring to adjust the distances between the aiming points to adjust for the actual speed of your crossbow shooting some bolt/tip combination.

I was not aware that Tenpoint has a page for how to sight in these scopes. You can find it here.

The salesman said it is bore sighted at 20 yards, zero it there. Move back to 50 yards and zero it there. Then bring back to 20 yards and adjust the zoom ring/arrow speed dial to dial in your reticle.

So that's what I did, a few shots and it was zero'd at 20 yards. A few more shots and it was zero'd at 50 yards. Then I think it took 3 shots to adjust the speed/zoom ring to be zero'd again at 20 yards. Then because I'm OCD and have never bowhunted before I decided to test my broadheads. Initial thoughts....at 20 yards the break of the trigger and the impact are pretty much simultaneous, at 50 I could start to catch the arrow flight.

I pull out the broadhead safe target at put it at 40 yards with the assumption that I'd consider that my maximum range. If I was on at 40, everything else should be good to go. I grab an bolt with a lighted nock just to see how much more visible they were and put on a broadhead. NAP Spitfire 100 gr. I shoot once and its 3-4inches low. WTF? Hmm, try again even though I know I didn't pull the shot and low again. Low and I can catch the lighted nock during flight but not as accurate as I wanted. Well hmm I put a field point bolt in and dead on at 40 yards. Ok lets start removing variables. I grab one of the bolts with the lighted nocks and put a field point on it thinking maybe something is different. I almost hit my previous impact point, easily a 1/2" group at 40 yards.

At this point my scope is zero'd with field points with all my bolts and nocks but not with the broadheads. Ok maybe there is something goofy and I can just adjust the speed dial and know what my adjustment is and then know it'll be off but consistently off with field points but accurate with broadheads.

I knew how much I had to adjust the speed dial to cover that approximate distance at 20 yards and figure ok start with half of that. Put a bolt in the dirt almost 3 feet away from the target...$%*# Adjust it back with a new bolt and a new broadhead and the next arrow completely misses the target the other direction hits the ground, ricochets up a tree and is gone....completely and utterly gone....$(%*$*#(#(#(@$(#(!!!!!

I was pissed and knew it was better to call it a night rather than continue to spend money. My friends who own the place I was shooting found the bolt and everything once the sun went down and the lighted nock showed up in the darkness like a beacon.


WTF!!!
 
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Hedgelj

Senior Member
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Mohicanish
Last night I called Xbowguy and he and I talked about the speeds of modern crossbows and broadhead designs and I have some ideas and I hope they work but it might get pricey to figure out what combo my crossbow and bolts like.
 
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giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
Stop switching back and forth. Dial in your hunting set up and be done.

Sounds to me like you might have the wrong bolts for that crossbow. Wrong spine or weight or something gong on.

How much heavier are those lighted nocks? Are they the right size?
 

Hedgelj

Senior Member
Supporting Member
7,145
178
Mohicanish
Stop switching back and forth. Dial in your hunting set up and be done.

Sounds to me like you might have the wrong bolts for that crossbow. Wrong spine or weight or something gong on.

How much heavier are those lighted nocks? Are they the right size?


I'm trying to dial in my set up. The bow came with 3 bolts with one color of fletching and I bought a box (6) of the same type and weight with a different color of fletching. I wanted to keep the one color as practice bolts and the others as "hunting" bolts.

The nocks are the correct ones for the bolt. With a field point they shoot the same point of aim/impact as the other bolts without a lighted nock. My problem is the broadheads (NAP spitfires) aren't shooting to the same point of impact/aim.
 

giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
Switch heads. I understand you’re $40 invested, but faith in your equipment is priceless.

I shot the Montec G5 for years and they flew awesome. Changed the string out on the crossbow and had nothing but problems. Went to the Rage style and haven’t changed anything.
 

Hedgelj

Senior Member
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7,145
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Mohicanish
Maybe I missed something here but I have to ask... are the field points 100 grain and the broadhead 125 by any chance? A 3-4 inch difference would be about right with a 25 grain increase in weight.


I checked and there package says 100gr but that could be human error.
 
I found this to be the best way to zero in my Wicked Ridge Warrior. I shoot Muzzy 4 bladed 100 grain broadheads. I sight in first by shooting the broadhead minus the blades. Then I add some dull blades (not the Muzzy practice blades) and test to see if my POI changes. Usually there is very little difference. Lastly I remove the dull blades and replace them with new blades for hunting.

My TenPoint scope has three lines. I sight in at 15 yards, the second line is on at 26 yards and the third is on at 34. I find these yardages work well for my hunting stand situations.
 

Tipmoose

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
2,678
85
Grove City
Please keep posting updates on this. I'm thinking of getting the same bow next year and want to know what to expect.
 
In my experience with crossbows it is not uncommon for broadheads to shoot differently than field points as you can't "tune" a crossbow. Mine at 30 yards usually shoot a couple inches low.

A little tough from the description but it sounded like you had arrows going all over the place at the end? Sounds to me like you may have a scope mount, screw or something loose on the crossbow. Not uncommon after shooting a new crossbow for something to loosen up.
 

brock ratcliff

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I never trusted the spitfire heads. A buddy used them for years with no issues- he loved them. I don’t like how the deploy. I actually trust a simple rubber band more. Anyway, is there any chance they opened in flight when you completely missed?
I’m not all that familiar with your crossbow either. The trickiest thing with vertical bows is eliminating oscillating arrows. The nice thing with most crossbows today is that the string runs down a fixed, rigid rail which makes oscillations almost impossible and good broadhead flight a breeze. If I remember right with the spitfire heads, there is a tension screw on the ferrule. If that thing loosened, that could be an issue but it probably doesn’t explain why you hit low on the initial shot.
FWIW, I like Schwackers for mechanical heads. Any quality brand fixed head of moderate size should fly well.
 
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I never trusted the spitfire heads. A buddy used them for years with no issues- he loved them. I don’t like how the deploy. I actually trust a simple rubber band more. Anyway, is there any chance they opened in flight when you completely missed?
I’m not all that familiar with your crossbow either. The trickiest thing with vertical bows is eliminating oscillating arrows. The nice thing with most crossbows today is that the string runs down a fixed, rigid rail which makes oscillations almost impossible and good broadhead flight a breeze. If I remember right with the spitfire heads, there is a tension screw on the ferrule. If that thing loosened, that could be an issue but it probably doesn’t explain why you hit low on the initial shot.
FWIW, I like Schwackers for mechanical heads. Any quality brand fixed head of moderate size should fly well.

Good call on them maybe opening mid flight. Half the stuff you read on the new crossbows these days is speed, speed, speed and the need for a broadhead that is low profile like a mechanical. Have that mechanical open mid flight because of the speed and you've got a disaster waiting to happen.
 

Geezer II

Bountiful Hunting Grounds Beyond.
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portage county oh
Make sure the string is centered over the latch when cocking your crossbow. You can mark it with a permanent maker when it is uncocked at the outside of the rails as a reference
 
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Hedgelj

Senior Member
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Mohicanish
Sighting in part deux.

Target at 20 yards
Field point dead on
Rage hypodermic crossbow - wasn't impressed as it was super low.
NAP Spitfire crossbow - about 2" low and adjusted my scope for it. Then field points were about 2 inches high after the adjustment.

Target at 40 yards
Field point about 2 inches high.
NAP Spitfire crossbow - low, dialed in the bolt speed dial as per the Tenpoint webpage linked above.

Time to go sit in a tree.
 

Outside

Junior Member
295
41
I'm using that same crossbow, with 125gr G5. I sighted it in using the G5 practice heads. It shoots a decent group at 40 yards, and appears to fling arrows at about 375 ft/sec.

This past week it killed two deer with complete pass throughs.

Sent from my moto e6 using Tapatalk
 
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