Dan Wright lives in suburban Maryland and like many hunters, never get as much time in the woods as he would like. Two years ago, he bought an inexpensive recurve crossbow to take advantage of Maryland’s five-month deer season, but he missed a buck and didn’t have the experience he expected. Earlier in 2016, I did a field test of the new CAMX crossbow and was immediately impressed. The bow had a solid feel, a very sturdy cocking stirrup, cocked easily with a unique roller system, came with a quality scope, and shot very accurately, so well that I dared not try a group at 20 yards.
I offered the bow to Wright for a weekend hunt and he was anxious to try the bow and a new spark seemed to ignite in his hunting passion. “I took the crossbow home and shot it a dozen times or so over two evenings and quickly became confident with the bow. I was really surprised how well it shot,” he said.
Saturday morning, Wright and a friend headed for a suburban woodlot that was small, but often held deer. Wright headed toward a tree stand, but settled against a pair of twin trees that were surrounded on three sides by brambles. He sat patiently in the dark, covered his legs with leaves and hope for the best. Shortly after daylight a doe appeared and began to feed toward Wright position and he could barely believe his good fortune when a buck began to follow. “I first saw the buck clearly at 50 yards and it meandered for about 10 minutes when it stepped into one of my shooting lanes. I estimated the range at 30 yards, raised the bow and squeezed. I heard the arrow hit and the buck seemed to circle, disappear and thrash in the leaves. Not taking any chances, I sat perfectly still until a second buck came along and spooked at the buck’s last position. I called my buddy and he joined me to retrieve the buck that went less than 40 yards.”
The eight point fell to a perfect double-lung shot from the CAMX and a Slick Trick 4-blade broadhead. Despite searching intensely for the arrow, it was never found, an indication of the bow’s power. When practicing in the back yard, Wright needed two foam targets and a sheet of plywood to stop the kinetic energy launched by the CAMX.
CAMX bows don’t get the press they deserve, (which is why I’m writing this post) and if you shoot one, you’ll quickly feel the quality of this mid-price crossbow. It’s guaranteed to shoot between 330-332 fps and delivers 100 foot pounds of kinetic energy with a 410-grain arrow. The four-arrow quiver allows for three broadheads and one bolt tipped with a target point for unloading or quick practice. For all the details, check out … [continued]
