With deer season beginning across America, many hunters will be looking for a new crossbow and may wonder if new gear can bag that big buck or mule deer. Don Wilson just took the above monster eland with his Horton Ultra-Lite crossbow, using Easton FMJ arrows and NAP Spitfire broadheads. Africa is a harsh environment for equipment, but the Horton performed perfectly.
Horton Legend Ultra-Lite Crossbow
This brand had a loyal following when TenPoint purchased the name and discontinued it for a year. In my humble opinion, TenPoint preserved the shooting performance of the brand and incorporated several of TenPoint’s strongest attributes. First, the bow is easily assembled right out of the box by following a few steps. Additionally, the DVD supplied is very informative and offers a number of shooting and safety tips for any bow, not just Horton. Additionally, the bow has excellent customer service should a person have a problem or question.
I specifically requested the ACCUdraw50 cocking system, which keeps the cocking rope magnetically nested in the stock of the scope. The bow cocks easily and the safety engages automatically. My buddy Don “often leaves things behind,” to use his words, and I can envision him crawling into a blind with game all around, only to realize that he left his cocking rope back in camp. For this reason, Don ended up with the Horton since he couldn’t lose the cocking rope and the safety engaged automatically. Horton arrows come standard with Omni-nocks, a proprietary brand, and I had his Easton FMJs re-nocked with the Omnis to maintain the warranty and assure proper launch every time.
Aside from shooting the bows for familiarity and sight-in, I wanted to analyze the true speed and kinetic energy. It’s important to note that the speed ratings of crossbows have no standard convention. When a manufacturer says its bow shoots at 350 fps, that rating isn’t with a standard arrow length or weight, but must be taken as an advertised value.
As an outdoor writer, I have used, experimented with, and written about the mass-vs.-speed debate for decades. In other words, is a fast, light arrow better than a slower, heavier shaft? Ironically, I made up my mind by watching my nine-year-old grandson shoot his recurve bow. Using the standard light arrows that came with the small recurve, the arrows barely stuck in the bag target while using heavier arrows (weighing twice as much), each shaft struck and penetrated.
For this reason, I opted for as much mass as I could get from the bow specifications and used either 125-grain or 150-grain broadheads for better FOC and increased mass.
Arrow performance
The Horton Legend Ultra-Lite features a draw weight of 175 pounds, an advertised speed of 330 fps, and a kinetic energy of 97 ft-lbs. from a power stroke of 12.9 inches. For this set-up I opted for Easton FMJ, their premium hunting arrow, which weighed in at 366 grains for the 20.25-inch shaft. Tipped with a Spitfire or KillZone 125-grain head, the total weight approached 500 grains (491), much heavier than most shafts. This extra mass slowed the arrow to an average of 272 fps. with a kinetic energy of 80.7 ft-lbs. As a comparison, the minimum kinetic energy needed for a Cape buffalo hunt is 90 ft-lbs., so this set-up should handle all the game animals we would hunt.
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