By Glen Wunderlich Outdoor Columnist Member Professional Outdoor Media Association
When my new Horton Vision crossbow arrived at the doorstep, I knew there would be plenty to learn about its function. Little did I know, however, how little I knew.
Before any testing could take place, a bit of assembly had to be performed. The stirrup had to be mounted to the front of the barrel and the scope had to be secured to the mounting rail. Check.
I then placed one of the three provided arrows in the flight groove and let it fly toward the target. Bull’s eye at 20 paces! Let’s go hunting. Oh, that’s right, the season doesn’t begin for a few months. That’ll give me more time to discover what I don’t know.
For starters, rule #1 is to keep your front hand in the proper position on the forearm. To do otherwise could lead to a race downrange between your fingertips and the arrow. Even if your fingertips win, you lose.
The manual safety must be purposely pushed forward much like any firearm but this particular one makes substantial noise – much more than is practical in a hunting situation. There is simply no way this safety could be disengaged with a whitetail nearby without sending it to parts unknown. To me, this condition is problematic: some hunters will defeat the safety by disengaging it while on stand to avoid spooking game. I am by no means advocating this practice but it’s going to happen.
The trigger is stiff enough, that Horton could have supplied a mini string cocker to operate it. When I hooked a trigger scale to it, I couldn’t get it to come close to firing within the 72-ounce scale. Considering the condition noted above with the noisy safety, maybe the heavy trigger was built in by design. I have fired many guns over the years and have never found one that took the force to operate it as this crossbow trigger does. It certainly won’t fire by accident!
As a student of ballistics, I had to find out just how much less than the advertised speed of “up to 325 feet-per-second” (fps) this crossgun (excuse me, crossbow) will fling an arrow. (By the way, in Michigan crossbows cannot exceed 350 fps for legal hunting and advertised speed is how they are judged.) When I released an arrow through the speed meter, it clocked in at 290 fps – far below advertised speed. Then I read in the manual, that with a lighter-than-supplied arrow, such speed could be attained. Whaddayaknow!
According to the manual, my arrow with tip weighs 438 grains and coupled with the actual velocity, a whopping 82 foot-pounds of kinetic energy is developed. Compared to firearms, it doesn’t stack up, but arrows aren’t bullets and do their damage with shear penetration and cutting ability. For reference, only 25-41 foot-pounds are required to take medium-sized game such as deer. Black bears and elk need 42-65 pounds of force, while dangerous game such as cape buffalo or grizzly bears need 65 foot pounds to get the job done. Therefore, penetration will not be a problem.
As with any other hunting tool, crossbows will only be effective if shots are placed on target. The Vision comes with a lighted-reticle Mult-A-Range scope, which has 5 crosshairs for varying yardage designed for increments of 10-12 yards each. It is interesting to note that typical firearm scopes may not be suitable for crossbows because there is a phenomenon called reverse recoil which could destroy them. (Airguns work the same way.) I just hope it is calibrated close enough with my less-than-advertised-up-to-325 fps rig to actually be worth retaining.
In any case, the learning curve has begun and I expect to have this contraption figured out and dialed in long before the archery opener October 1st.
