Barnett Wildcat C5

My brother and I took the Barnett out and sighted it in. The speed was certainly there. Be interesting to shoot it across a chronograph.

I was very impressed with the trigger. Light and very little creep.

Accuracy seems very good. We were shooting it off sandbags, and the groups at 40 yards were about an inch and a half. Need more time to shoot enough to really establish the exact group size, but the shooting we did get in made it obvious that the equipment is very capable of excellent hunting accuracy. We shot the same bolt repeatedly, and haven't checked the others for consistency yet. They are carbon bolts, so straightness shouldn't be an issue.

Noise is certainly there aplenty. Seems to be par for the course. Might remove the quiver and see if that helps, but most of just seems to be the bow noise one would expect from a 175# bow with no silencers shooting a light arrow. Reading what I can, appears that stuff like the Bowjacks and such help a little, but not greatly.

Really like the crank cocking device.

The red dot scope that was on it was sighted in a bit right, and it took three shots to bring the R-L adjustment into correct alignment. Seems to hold zero well so far. Mine is the single dot, no magnification. I had seen a number of reviews on this model and scope problems seemed to be the number one complaint.

It's sighted in at about thirty-five yards right now. Twenty yard group center was about three inches high, thirty yard group about an inch and a half, and forty yard group was right at three inches low. Didn't have time to get any further today.

Shot one BH, and it hit about five inches high at thirty yards, so I suspect that mech heads will be on the menu. Don't see any tuning methods to bring BH flight into agreement with FP's as we do with bows. Am I missing something there?

Mech heads will not be a problem for me if I can't get the FB's to fly well. I have a few of them I was planning to use for turkeys and geese. I've seen your mention of using the NAP Spitfire, Woody. That's one I liked with the Mathews as well, but don't have any experience with it on critters, just tuning and shooting for practice.

Thought just occurred to me that maybe the bolt diameter might be the reason for the apparent mistuning for BH flight. Looks like that would be a critical dimension affecting BH tune, and the bolts I have are definitely large dia ones. May have to cut down a carbon arrow in my regular Beman ICS size and see how it flies.

I'll probably experiment with weighting the bolts, as well. If I can trade some of that speed for less noise, might be a good swap.

Now if it would just stop raining long enough for me to pick some mushrooms and scout up some turkeys.....

The previous owner had two slightly different bolts, two of each. They are both marked "made in usa", so I would assume both are really Eastons, although two are labeled Horton and the other two Barnett by Easton. Both are the 22/64ths diameter. They weigh almost exactly the same. The Hortons are fletched with 5" vanes and the Barnetts with 4", which appears to be the very slight difference I'm getting with my scales.

I got out again today for a while before getting rained out. The two Hortons are grouping together nicely. Didn't shoot the other two today, concentrated on finishing the sighting in process and starting to try to quiet the thing down a bit. Had a couple of split limb Limbsavers made for bows among my archery junk, and put them on to see what effect they would have.

They made a difference, although not as much as I was hoping for. I removed the quick-detach quiver for today's shooting, and that helped a little with the noise. Also removed the handle from the cocker and that made a slight difference. Got rid of the rattles that way, all that's left seems to be string noise. Looking into the string silencers that can be added without pressing the bow to put them on over the strings. My homemade portable bow press that has served me through several compounds won't even come close to working with the crossbow.

I'll probably rig up something in the garage to allow me to press it for string work soon, but don't have time right now.

I'm sure you're right about the arrow size not being the culprit in the BH flight. At the time I made that statement, I was assuming that the string path was above the rail by half the diameter of the recommended bolt, but on further inspection I see that the string runs right on the flight deck, so the bolt diameter shouldn't affect the attitude of the bolt as it launches in the way I had suspected.

The projectile weight is 288 grains minus the point. I was shooting 125 grains points, so the total weight was 413 grains.

I was just curious about weighting the projectiles a bit more to reduce the noise and probably prolong limb life and increase penetration as a bonus. There seems to be speed in abundance to trade for those other benefits.

Might have to get a different target if I gain any more penetration, though. I'm burying about 14 inches of the 20" bolts into fresh areas of my newest block-style target, and the "easy arrow removal" selling feature isn't working as well as expected. I haven't had to just walk away and leave any of them in the darned thing yet, but it's a pretty good wrestling match getting them out.

Haven't used any rail lube yet. What do you recommend in that area? I'm not familiar with the stuff, is it just WD-40 in a different wrapper, or is it something more like a spray teflon coating? Would cooking spray be a good substitute?

Thanks for the offer on the red dot. I'm pretty satisfied with the current one as far as red dots go. I've been splitting distances using my pin sights for nearly fifty years, so estimating the holdover or under isn't really a problem for me. Currently zeroed at thirty-five yards and POI is just about three inches high at twenty. That's a flat enough trajectory to put me real close just using "KY windage" I think. I may want to adjust that zero after the season, but for now I think I'm OK with this setup.

I do believe the sight is the limiting factor on determining the actual accuracy. Like to try it with a 4X scope and crosshairs sometime off the rest and see what it would do with a more precise sighting picture for paper punching, but the red dot is completely adequate for hunting accuracy.

Still haven't decided whether to take the new toy for turkey next week or go get some HeviShot for the old Mossberg.

Happy Easter.

Thanks, Woody, I'll give that stuff a try.

Got in another short session yesterday. The sight had lost its zero and needed some horizontal readjustment. Don't know if I may have bumped it or if I have a sight problem after all. I'll give it a few more sessions and see if it repeats. Tried some offhand shots as well, and the crossbow was easier to shoot that way than I had anticipated.

Took the nock out of one bolt and added a length of telephone cable inside it, cut to just fit with the nock replaced. Added right at 300 grains to the bolt weight.

That one shot noticably quieter, and I noticed that it penetrated consistently about an inch or a little more deeper than the unweighted identical bolt, both using field points.

Still could use some more noise abatement, but it's better than it was.

The FOC on the weighted bolt was shifted rearward about 3/4 inch by the weight addition, and it seemed to have hurt that shaft's consistency slightly.

The trajectory was hurt, too, but was still acceptable. Didn't have time to finish sighting in at both 20 and 30 to check the difference in drop exactly, but it was noticable. I'll probably try some heavier points and see if I can regain the consistency next with restored FOC.

Think I'll run down to the gun shop and see if they have some Hevi-Shot in and dust off the old Mossberg, as time and weather is apparently going to preclude using the new toy for turkey this year.

Total weight of the unweighted bolt was 413 grains. The weighted one came in at approximately 713, give or take a couple grains.

I may look into that 175 gr Spitfire. If the new toy ever learns to shoot FBBH's like FP's, I'll probably that way for larger game, but I keep hearing good stuff about the Spitfire's reliability, and I like their design. Always was a NAP fan when I shot Thunderheads for many years, too.

Thanks again for that sight offer. I'll get back to you on it if this sight does prove to be defective. I may have just unknowingly given it a good bump, and I haven't checked out the mounting base to make sure all is tight and proper. If it ever quits this incessant rain, maybe I can get in enough practice to figure it all out.

Sketching out preliminary design for a press that fits the crossbow, in the meantime. Shouldn't be too tricky. Just a slight limb movement should be enough to free up the string.