The Phoenix is a good bow...

by pokynojoe, Thursday, November 05, 2015, 20:57 (3245 days ago) @ Warhawk

The Vixen is also more than adequate for deer and the like. I liked the Vixen because I could cock it without any mechanical assistance.

As for optics, there's been a plethora of crossbow scopes come to the market in recent years. I don't know what Excalibur offers now in there packages, but I had a Varizone that was quite good. The old Dropzone was pretty good. I think the all the major scope companies make one for crossbows now. Leupold has one and so does Nikon, they seem to get good reviews. Check your state regs, there's a few states out there that don't allow optics.

I used a Bushnell Banner scope on my Vixen and it worked great. A buddy of mine who lives in Italy shoots an Excalibur Exomax with a high dollar Meopta rifle scope and hasn't had any problems, but they say to use a "crossbow" specific scope because of how they react is different then a firearm.

The good thing about Excalibur's is if you need to change strings (and if you shoot a crossbow any,they can chew through strings) you don't need a press to change it. There's even guys who do trigger jobs on them, although, I never felt the need for that. They're about as simple as you can get. Excalibur is a Canadian company, and crossbows have been legal in Canada for years. They have website with a forum, much like this one. Check it out, there's a bunch of really knowledgeable crossbow people that participate.

Like I said, I haven't fooled with these things in five or six years, I'm sure a lot has changed.