Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Rifle scope on a crossbow?

Has anybody used a low power rifle scope on a crossbow? Any reason not to.

I'm not a fan of scopes on crossbows, because I have done it, and it cost me a deer. Regular scopes work and fit fine. Never bought an actual "crossbow scope". (Of course, someone will be by shortly to tell me I'm an idiot, because this is the Fire.)

I haven't, but just recently aquiring a cross bow for the first time, I could see some issues that would arise with a regular firearm scope compared to a scope designed specificly for a crossbow.
Trajectory is the biggest issue (fps). Even on my crossbow scope there is quite a bit of difference in the distance between the yardage indicators overall.

On my crossbow scope, I done the initial set up with the horizontal line of the scopes crosshairs set for twenty yards (as per instructions). Then I adjust the field of view in or out with a numbered ring according to the foot per second of my individual bow (trajectory). This puts all of my yardage indicators out to sixty yards Dead Nuts on... I was impressed.

I am pretty new to the crossbow thing having just bought my first crossbow this fall after missing two bow seasons with an injury. My hand feels better after 2-3 months of not shooting the bow, but I seem to re-injure it practicing with the bow preseason and then I am done for the year.


I got the crossbow after the gun season started so didn't hunt it this year, but did do the basic set up. I get 4 weeks with the crossbow compared to 6 or 7 with the bow, but its better than nothing. Hopefully my injury won't pop up next year and I can get the full season using the bow and then the crossbow.

I have to say that the cross bow scope worked pretty well, a couple shots to zero, a couple to fine tune at longer range and I was right on from 20 to 50 yds with very little work. The horizontal lines for drop and the speed ring worked pretty dam well. confirming shots with a fixed broadhead were also pretty much on. My crossbow isn't anything amazing just a mid range excailber. Based upon my pretty limited experience I would recommend the crossbow scopes.

The x-bow scope and the low powered rifle scope are pretty much same in operation, glass-wise, and both will work.

With the plain reticle, your holdovers are harder to "eyeball" with a plain reticle scope - if you plan shoot any distance over 20 yards.

If your crossbow scope is close to "on" for your bolt speed and weight with a ranged reticle, it's a lot simpler to hold and shoot.

But, most low to mid-range scoped crossbows come with a cheap scope, and it usually gets swapped out. There are exceptions, but that is an accurate "rule of thumb".

If you are disciplined, or range limited, to only shoot a set distance, the rifle scope will probably serve you as well as anything else.

You can eyeball the drop and hold over if you want. Mine's so flat-shooting up to 30-35 yards, a center hold would work. Since a decent scope with range marks came with it, and works perfectly, I'm using it. Might futz around with scopeless or a red dot in the off-season. As long as you can hit what you need to make a clean kill, have at it.

Depends on what you want out of it. I have killed 20 odd deer with a 2-8x42 Zeiss Duralyt with a German #4 reticle in it. The scope that Came on my Excalibur Matrix was pathetic in low light. I went looking for better and found that pretty much all crossbow scopes were cheap POSs and sucked more or less equally in low light. I had the Duralyt in my safe for a project and tried it. Superb low light performance! With the crosshairs I am dead on at 15-20 yards. With the power set at just under 3x the top of the post is dead on at 50 yards. I can easily and accurately estimate the 1/3 up from the post or down from the crosshairs to be dead on at 40 and 30 yards respectively.

It is a Zeiss scope and the mild recoil of the crossbow has zero effect on it.

I have zero plans on shooting out to fifty yards much less beyond, the time of flight for an arrow is far to long for that to be in any way a reasonable thing to consider. In the years I have been using the crossbow I have had no trouble getting all the deer I need inside 25 yards. I pass on at least a dozen shots each year because I am shooting specific individual deer.

The Zeiss probably is a little more scope than I need sometimes. But... I am shooting under red oak canopy with an understory of buckthorn and some of the deer I want are in what amounts to basically midnight dark even inside 1/2 hour after sunset. This meets my needs well and it will stay on the crossbow permanently.

I picked up a fairly nice xbow scope for mine that has the reticle up to 100 yards (hash marks), as well as the speed setting. The last added bonus was the lighted reticle. In my instance, it was\is an improvement.

Ditto on the long range shots. My scope is marked to 60, and I've taken it to 50 and it was dead-on. The high trajectory and as you said, long flight-time make shots over 50 or even closer problematic (foolish), despite what one can do on targets in the open. Light xbow bolts don't retain much energy compared to heavier shafts from compounds either, I'll bet, and compounds are posting some pretty impressive speeds. Up close, the interval between the twang and the smack is pretty short; farther off not so much.

Then, there's the wind....

You're wrong there. Crossbow arrows are genreally as heavy as the full length arrows shot by compound users. My crossbow is putting a 425 grain arrow out the chute at a chronographed 356 fps.. Not many compounds even come close to that speed with an arrow that heavy.

You are correct, sir. Crossbows hit harder, and punch clear through every time for me, leaving two holes and a clear blood trail for the short walk to the deer. Compound bow will usually not, and often leaves the arrow plugging the hole. Same razor heads on both.

Well, not every time, but most times anyway. I have had 4 that did not go all the way through and exit completely using arrows close on 500 grains out of a Matrix 330 that was pushing them above 300. They were to be fair all generous cut heads and all did some respectable bone cutting. Two went down where they stood, one made it 50 yards and one made it 200 yards. These were all on FMJs which are both heavy and pretty rigid and tough.

A high speed compound bow generally need a lighter arrow and a long draw at 70 pounds to get near what a crossbow can do, but 45 lbs will go through and exit with a 28-29 inch draw which is about normal if you are using 3 blade heads or smaller 4 blade heads. The crossbow power is handy with the big mechanical 4 blade heads. Unlike a rifle where tissue destruction is much greater, the arrow kills by cutting and bleeding them out. An arrow not going all the way through has some merit to it. An arrow that exitsonly gets to make the cut once on the way through. One that the head stops inside the chest can really rip things up when Bambi runs off with the arrow sticking out. That used to be a lot more common pre-compound days when a 55 pound draw weight was a lot to pull andd produced a lot less speed for the same weight.

That may well be. My Matrix Bulldog 380, according to the dial on my scope, is pushing 330 with a 375gr bolt, which agrees with the YouTube report I watched. My compound "knowledge" is mostly from what I remember from discussions with my son, who favors heavier arrows of late. What I haven't seen is chrono data on downrange speeds, or penetration tests. I suspect that arrow length and stability in flight, plus certainly broadhead design are factors in penetration as well, not just energy. Just like with rifles, killing power can't be quantified with arrows, just guessed at, based on experience. Hard to say for certain until I have an opportunity, but my personal limit remains 50 yards for now. Again, just like with rifles, anyone who can pull off longer shots successfully will get no guff from me.

Power in a crossbow is simply the ability to move mass at velocity which produces the momentum for penetration. More momentum gives you more power to push a big cut through. The smallest legal bows are at about their max pushing a smallish 3 or 4 blade head through on the arrows that are not so heavy. I run my arrows over my shooting chrony and I have not done calibrations tests to see if maybe an arrow longer than the sky screen distance matters to the output. But... they do agree with the single other (Pact I think) chronograph that I compared it to.

Heavy arrows will outpenetrate faster arrows most always. There are caveats. the arrow itself can and will absorb a fair amount of the enegry it carries. Sometimes like with aluminum arrows or aluminum-graphite arrows like FMJs they will meet enough internal resistance to bend the arrow and/or the head, sometimes permanently. That energy to bend the arrow only can come from the energy the arrow carries. It is not all that hard to bend a head, an aluminum ferrule head will not reliably stand up to hitting hard bone like leg or joints. Bending blades is not at all uncommon. Cutting bone requires a lot more energy than cutting soft tissue Generally, my Matrix 330 with the FMJs will cut ribs on the way in and on the way out and still penetrate 10 inches minimum into dense packed sand with a 2 inch cut Rage or with the 4 blade NAP Spitfire. Given a choice in the matter, I would opt for a bigger 4 blade head with a little more weight to it in the blades. I am a long way from stopping up against the far side of the chest.

Be interesting to see what the speeds are downrange, though better done with someone else's chronograph🤔!

Penetration at long range would be easier. Might try that myself before next season. An ordinary broadhead target should suffice for a comparison test.

HHHA Speed dial mounted to the rail.

https://www.hhasports.com/optimizer-speed-dial/

Any scope you want to run. Shoot to check your yardage tape( I use ten yard intervals) or make your own. Can get to 100 yards with most crossbows and scary accurate.

May have to use a cheek riser for some scopes.

I have been using a Hawke 1.5-5x32 IR illuminated crossbow scope. Dead simple and accurate beyond my expectations on a Mission Dagger. However, I am used to much better optics and I admit to being spoiled, fortunately, by good glass. (Schmidt Bender, Zeiss, Leica, etc) I can relate to what Miles58 said and have the same concerns as he does.

Granted, the Hawke would might work just fine most all the time, and maybe all the time. But, I like to play and experiment and hopefully I will end up with something that will leave no doubt as to it being even better than what I have.

So, I have a Leupold Ultimateslam Illuminated 3-9x40 coming ( illuminated muzzleloader scope with parallax set at 75 yds). Between the circle, 2 other aiming dots, and the top of the bottom vertical post, I am hoping I can configure it to work as well as the dots on the Hawke. Plus,it will be quite a step up in optical quality. Not alpha glass, but it's a 50 yard setup at max, and sight alignment and definition in low light should be much improved.

If it doesn't work out, the Hawke goes back on and the Leupold goes on a suppressed 22 rimfire.

This last week I took one of my FMJ 20 inch crossbow arrows and cut it back to about the minimum length that my Matrix 330 will handle. I dropped it back 4 1/2 inches to 15 1/2 and then took it to the range. I ws getting 320 + FPS. I dropped ~ 60 grains by shortening the shaft. I numbered the vanes and shot a few times into the new part of a block bale to test accuracy from different rotation on the crossbow and found that it seemed to make more difference than when the FMJs are 20 inches long. That indicates spine issues with the shorter shaft. I did not try to wring out the question to define how much of the accuracy loss was a spine issue. In the past I tested accuracy at 20 yards with 20 inch FMJs and with the same rotation of the arrow on the bow I could hold 1/4 inch groups size easily with some arrows. Some arrows were not so accurate and 1/2 inch group size was not uncommon. Vanes must be numbered and oriented identically for each shot and with a good arrow I can put 3-5 shots into the same hole so that it still looks to be the same diameter as the shaft afterwards.

I did the experiment for a couple of reasons. I wanted to test to see if the stiffness of the arrow which increased when I shortened it would affect accuracy much. I also wanted to see if I was going to give up much penetration by removing 60 grains of shaft. Penetration was slightly lessened as would be expected, but because I was most interested in accuracy I was getting variable penetration because i was placing all the shots into a relatively small area.

The test was not intended as anything other than a coarse look at would there be a spine issue. All of the shots fired stayed inside an inch which is certainly adequate for killing deer. I did not test at different ranges to see whether the arrow was more or less stable at those ranges. I just made the assumption that like any arrow that would be the case. I did not attempt to further define the spine issue by adjusting arrow weight with different weight field points on the arrow since it is a pretty safe assumption that there will be a difference by doing so. Since I did not find unacceptable accuracy in this test I will take a couple more of my FMJs and cut them back to 15 1/2 inches andr do a little more refined testing to more tightly define what it accomplishes.

I like the penetration of the FMJs when I shoot deer with them. They are heavy arrows and they are pretty rigid so they punch bone quite well. I always shoot at an internal target and knowing that I have an arrow/head combination that will absolutely cut three or four ribs on the way in, pass through or over the heart and still cut through all the way to the other side even if I go through the off side leg bone(s) or shoulder joint is important to me. If I can visualize the path to the internal target and through the deer I will take shots that normally are ill advised with this crossbow because it has the requisite accuracy to make the shot and the power to get the job done. For instance, I like the shot with a deer facing me dead on. I put it in an inch above the sternum and the arrow goes right through the heart without touching bone and exits near the bottom end of the sternum. Deer are close and unaware are quite often at that angle where I am set up to shoot them. I get a like number of shots presented where they are going the opposite direction and all I need is an opportunity to put it in on a hard quartering away angle to hit the heart and exit just in front of the opposite shoulder. My favorite stand is one which they are either coming to me on their way to apple trees or going away from me when leaving the trees so they present very few classic broadside shots. One year I decided to shoot a least one deer dead broadside. I waited well over a month, and passed up a lot of shots to get that broadside shot.

I used to keep my No-Cam with me and I have put the sights on deer with it from this stand. I have never gotten to the point of shooting at a deer with it though because almost always these deer are inside the 1/2 hour before sunrise or after sunset period and the light is very bad. I cannot see well enough through the peep to be certain of the shot because you just cannot see the angle of the deer's body very well. I am hunting in a neighborhood where it is important to minimize what happens after the shot. The crossbow with a very, very good low light scope on it is the perfect tool for this work.

I put one of the SWFA 1-4 Illuminated scopes on my daughters last year. Works like a champ........

Zeroed at 15 yards, dail and shoot past that.

This big time.

my question is 'WHY WOULD YOU NOT USE A CROSSBOW SCOPE' there are many good crossbow scope on the market. I shoot a 10 point and the scope that came on it very accurate and clear out to 50-60 yards . it doesn't take much scope scope no father than you are shooting. 2 years ago I changed to a hawke/parker scope only because I bought a bunch of them really cheap that have light reticle. either scope shoots 2" groups at 50 yards on the bench. as long as I know the range i'm good.

I agree. I have the Excalibur twilight DLX crossbow scope on my set up. After using it there is no way I would even consider using a firearm scope on my crossbow. The quality of the lenses and features are spot on.

I have a stock scope that came with my Excalibur. I had a rifle scope on another crossbow and it shot pretty good with it. Bigger objective gave more light when it was darker

The quality of the lenses and features are the first two reason I use a rifle scope on my crossbow.
Bigger objective gives me more light to see the target when it gets darker.
And as with my compound bows and rifles, I practice at longer ranges than I will ever shoot at an animal.

The twilight DLX crossbow scope has a 44mm objective lens, most of my rifles are just 40mm. The glass is just as good of quality as any leupold glass that I own. But the field of view that adjusts to the yardage markers for your specific arrow speed is the real benefit of the scope. Once set, It's effortless, with no adjustment needed in the field at all. Every yardage marker is dead nuts on out to 60 yards (farther than I will attempt to shoot at an animal). The illuminated reticles are also a big plus in low light.
If you have never checked them out you should.

Thanks for the information and indeed the DLC looks like a feature rich scope, perfect for a crossbow.

My Strikezone with a Nikon 3-9 on top of an HHA dial is amazingly accurate at 100 yards. Off a bench.
I can swap scopes, zero at 20 yards and then keep using the dial.

We both get to the same point but by different routes and trading information makes this website fun.

Good Luck.