Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Silencing a crossbow.

Nice pics! Is that a TenPoint xbow? Which model? You may need to change your name to 2muchbow!

It is a Turbo XLTII with a Leupold crossbow scope. 100 grain Spitfires. I am very happy with the setup. I recently changed the picatinny rail, rings, and arrow retainer spring to a brush style retainer. It is even better now, and quieter.

It also now has an AR-15 style 5 slot rail tapped into the bottom. Can mount a bipod, flashlight, etc.....

Thanks for everyone's input here guys. I'm learning a lot. I kind of figured 20 yards was about max for this bow.

OK. Pay attention!

Fill the rail with great stuff foam.

Wrap the stirrup with black friction tape double thick.

Forget about the arrow holder, it's not going to make noise if it's properly down on the rail.

Get heavy arrows like FMJs.

My compound is a Matthews HTR. It's as quiet as compound bows come. Bambi is going to hear that bow at fifty yards. There's nothing I can do about that.

Set up so that you're shooting about twenty yards and pay no attention to people telling you Bambi will jump the string at that range. If you're shooting at a relaxed deer it takes time for the sound to get there. It takes time for the sound to be processed. It takes time for Bambi to react, even if it's reflexively. It takes time to send the signal to the muscles to load them. It takes time to trip the trigger and move Bambi. By the time all that happens Bambi has an arrow exiting his body. Take that to the bank. And tell them I'll back the check.

Just the trigger noise on your crossbow is a lot louder than my HTR, and you're not going to mitigate that.

There are 3 main things on a crossbow that cause noise, assuming everything is properly tightened.

1----string----Use string silencers and/or a string stop system

2----retention spring ---There is no such thing as a quiet one. Properly installed or not. It makes noise. Use Bowjax silencers on it, or shrink tubing. Better yet, replace with a brush style holder.

3-----stirrup.----I don't do anything to mine other than make sure it is tight. Have thought about friction tape but it holds water. Electrical tape would probably come off after a short while

Most use some sort of silencers on limbs also........

GG, One final note. Make sure all the screws, etc. are TIGHT! I check mine at the start of every month and there is normally one or more that is slightly loose. Lots of energy let loose each time you shoot and things do loosen up. Tightening will help keep the noise down to the point you do not have to wear ear plugs! :-)

Another final note. Pay attention when raising the xbow to shoot. With a compound, you can do it when a deers head goes behind a tree, etc.. Limbs on your xbow stick out to the side and I got busted a lot raising the bow, before I learned this. You need more cover to get the xbow up. JMHO YMMV

Ray

Here is a pic of new brush style arrow holder. And you can see one of the string silencers:

my tenpoint titan has the crank cocker so i removed the stirrip completely. it was making my bow noisier and adding weight that i didn't need.

That is not a bad idea. I just have the Accudraw 50 where it is magnetized and hides in the stock. But am happy with it as is. If the Accudraw ever fails, maybe I will do that...

"an arrow will NEVER reach an animal before the sound does. NEVER."

I've been rifle hunting deer for over 50 years but am really a novice when it comes to bow hunting. I bought a crossbow a few years ago so I could hunt with my bow hunting friends during bow season. They always wound a lot of deer and hogs that they sometimes find the next day. I figured a crossbow would be better for me. I've only killed a big sow and one doe so far with this crossbow that shoots 300fps. I shot both at a feeder from 20yds while sitting in a folding chair backed into a cedar bush with the wind in my face. The sow didn't react until until the arrow hit. The sow ran about 20 yards, laid down and bled out. The doe didn't react either until the arrow hit and then ran about 40 yards before it laid down. I think that a lot of animals that jump the string are reacting to the shooters movement more often than to the sound of the bow. I made sure that both the sow and doe had their heads turned away from me before I pulled the trigger. I don't know about hogs but I know that deer have fantastic peripheral vision. I read about string jumping on a bowhunting website and the professional writer posted a video to prove that it's impossible for an arrow to reach a deer before it reacts to the noise of the bow from 30yds and that may be true. The problem I saw with the video is that the deer was standing broadside with it's head up when he shot and it's whole left eye was clearly visible. I'm pretty sure the deer reacted to the shooters movement instead of the bow noise or to the bright Luminox nock he was shooting that is really visible in the video. He was shooting a 300fps Matthews bow.