# Firearms and Shooting > Archery >  Crossbow

## Billbob

Well finally its here and apparently I am one of the first in NZ to receive one  :Have A Nice Day: 

Mangkung MK-XB65BK Chester Bullpup Crossbow, 200lb draw weight firing bolts at a blazing 425fps. Mungkung make this for CenterPoint which they call the Wraith which sell for 1K more (CenterPoint version comes with a silent crank for cocking) Gun city sell Centrepoint xbows... I was going to get the Wrath when I found out that Hunting and Fishing were getting these in. I upgraded the scope to a full ballistic reticle scope for 20yd out to 100yrd so will be great for big game. 

Firing so fast that it blew through two hay bales at 20yrd, through and just holding by the fletching at 50 and through by 6 inches at 80. Trigger is very crisp, and shot is surprisingly very quiet and virtually no vibration. Foot stirrup has 3 positions for cocking, using as a bipod when shooting prone and right back underneath.

----------


## gonetropo

impressive but remember x bows and spring air rifles kill scopes really fast as scopes are usually meant to tolerate rear recoil, with a bow you get forward recoil as the prods (leaf springs) go forewords then they whiplash and cause a secondary rear facing recoil

----------


## viper

Very impressive, a lot of x bow for the money. Be interesting to see what the accuracy is like.
Love the scope and the range markings .

----------


## Billbob

Will post some accuracy results once my target arrives.

----------


## Bushline

Wow haha, itll shoot deer two at a time if you can line them up right.

----------


## pope2506

glad you didn't get a crossbow with the inbuilt crank,  wet weather would play havoc with the internal workings and rust up ,rendering it useless ,are replacement limbs available in case of breakage

----------


## Rushy

That is a nice looking bit of kit.

----------


## Billbob

> glad you didn't get a crossbow with the inbuilt crank,  wet weather would play havoc with the internal workings and rust up ,rendering it useless ,are replacement limbs available in case of breakage


Yep I don't need a crank. They are great if you have a disability though so they have their place.

I understand that parts will be available. Hopefully I don't have any severe failures.

----------


## Billbob

20m, 40m and 60m it is hitting dead on. Wind got too gusty to stretch it further out on Thursday afternoon. Will post photos once I get my computer from work

----------


## Sauer

My son has a Ravin R29X with the crank arming mechanism. He regularly hunts in South Westland with it and has never had any issues with it getting wet. I would be very surprised if the mechanism had any parts made from an iron based alloy that were able to “rust up”.

In practice it is a simple method for silently cocking and un-cocking a very powerful crossbow.

----------


## Billbob

Those Ravin xbows are amazing. Just had a good look in mine, all is aluminium but there will be Steel bits in the trigger assembly. Keeping up with maintenance like any gun will keep it from rusting.

----------


## Sauer

Seeing my son shoot a deer with his crossbow was just spectacular - right up there with watching him shoot his first one with a rifle when he was 9.

I’m sure you will really enjoy hunting with your bow. They are amazingly accurate, but I think might lack enough energy past around 60m. The R29X will fire a 400 grain arrow at 450fps so similar performance to yours.

----------


## Billbob

> Seeing my son shoot a deer with his crossbow was just spectacular - right up there with watching him shoot his first one with a rifle when he was 9.
> 
> I’m sure you will really enjoy hunting with your bow. They are amazingly accurate, but I think might lack enough energy past around 60m. The R29X will fire a 400 grain arrow at 450fps so similar performance to yours.


Yes I've been very impressed with the accuracy. I think 60 is most likely the best comfortable distance.

----------


## pope2506

> My son has a Ravin R29X with the crank arming mechanism. He regularly hunts in South Westland with it and has never had any issues with it getting wet. I would be very surprised if the mechanism had any parts made from an iron based alloy that were able to “rust up”.
> 
> In practice it is a simple method for silently cocking and un-cocking a very powerful crossbow.


sauer I watched a American video last year where this chap had it happen with his crossbow, can't remember the brand now but he showed stripping it down and where the problem was, it was from memory something to do with the cranking system which had rusted and jammed it, not saying it happens with all crossbows, but I do wonder how much water gets into the internal workings especially with the ribbon type

----------


## pope2506

here is the video for those that are interested I remembered that I had saved it. cheers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVXZf3PDAyw

----------


## Billbob

20m


40m


60m after the wind got up

----------


## pope2506

nice accurate shooting shooting ,how loud would you say the sound is, some crossbow shooters say its similar to a 22 going off, hopefully it wont be long before we see some photos of the deer you shoot

----------


## Sauer

Not sure about the Mankung bows, but the Ravin is not as loud as a 22 as the arrow is subsonic and the noise is all bowstring related - more of a twang than a bang. What surprised me the most was how loud the sound of the arrow hitting a deer was, much louder than a bullet hitting.

Billbob, I’m a bit surprised at the lack of penetration into the target. We have a Morrell target that is meant to stop a 450fps plus arrow and most of ours are buried right up to the fletches. In a lot of cases the fletches are buried which is a bit of a bugger with a $60 arrow. Perhaps your target has a better stuffing than ours as we couldn’t have a tree behind our target, it would shatter the carbon fibre arrows.

----------


## Billbob

This was the third target I got. I destroyed the first set of bolts ripping the fletching off. This target is filled with 20kg of rags ($70 for the target bag from H&F) and yes it stops them dead. Looked at a lot of reviews and this target kept coming up as one of the best. I brought the rags from that truck repair place half way between Yaldhurst and west melton

----------


## Billbob

> nice accurate shooting shooting ,how loud would you say the sound is, some crossbow shooters say its similar to a 22 going off, hopefully it wont be long before we see some photos of the deer you shoot


Nope no way near the sound of a 22. It surprised me how quiet it is when I first started shooting it. As @Sauer says the noise of the bolt hitting the target makes more noise that the xbow shooting it. Will certainly be posting once an animal is on the ground.

----------


## Joe Schmo

Nice shooting and helpful thread for sure. Im wondering what your 40, 60,  80m groups would be. Plans to send multiple bolts downrange at those distances?

----------


## Billbob

> Nice shooting and helpful thread for sure. I’m wondering what your 40, 60,  80m groups would be. Plans to send multiple bolts downrange at those distances?


Yes will do that for you

----------

