Very quick season...But not for good reasons.
- Thread starter yoderjac
- Start date
Deadeye
Well-Known Member
Parker makes or did make excellent Bows and Crossbows. I think they now have closed.
Anyway my Brother was shooting his as practice when he smelt "something like smoke" and the next shot one of the limbs exploded. Shattered.
Took it to his archery guy and he told him Parker was closing and he didn't think he could get a limb replacement.
It happens sometimes.
Anyway my Brother was shooting his as practice when he smelt "something like smoke" and the next shot one of the limbs exploded. Shattered.
Took it to his archery guy and he told him Parker was closing and he didn't think he could get a limb replacement.
It happens sometimes.
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
My first couple crossbows were from Parker. They were a local VA company. They were one of the crossbow companies that came to our Hunter Education Instructor Training when crossbows were first legalized for all hunters in VA. One of the other companies that came in was Excalibur. I'm not sure if Mission was around back then as a company.
At any rate, Parker was by far, the quietest crossbow of the companies that showed up to train us Hunter Ed instructors on crossbow safety. We shot all the crossbows at the range. The Excalibur sounded like a .22 when it was fired. One of the students asked about the noise and string-jumping. The Excalibur rep spouted the company line "Our crossbows are so fast a deer doesn't have time to jump the string". The class of hunter ed instructors broke out in laughter. He was kind of sheepish after that realizing that this crowd wasn't buying the sales BS.
I was happy with the several Parker bows I owned over the years. The Mission Sub One light was the first crossbow I found quieter than the Parker.
I bought one of the Parker crossbows for my nephew for a graduation present. The limb cracked on it during his first few shots at a target. I physically took it into the Parker factory. They replaced it for free of course, but also replaced the string and cables on my crossbow and my friends crossbow for free while I was there.
It was sad to see them go out of business.
At any rate, Parker was by far, the quietest crossbow of the companies that showed up to train us Hunter Ed instructors on crossbow safety. We shot all the crossbows at the range. The Excalibur sounded like a .22 when it was fired. One of the students asked about the noise and string-jumping. The Excalibur rep spouted the company line "Our crossbows are so fast a deer doesn't have time to jump the string". The class of hunter ed instructors broke out in laughter. He was kind of sheepish after that realizing that this crowd wasn't buying the sales BS.
I was happy with the several Parker bows I owned over the years. The Mission Sub One light was the first crossbow I found quieter than the Parker.
I bought one of the Parker crossbows for my nephew for a graduation present. The limb cracked on it during his first few shots at a target. I physically took it into the Parker factory. They replaced it for free of course, but also replaced the string and cables on my crossbow and my friends crossbow for free while I was there.
It was sad to see them go out of business.
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
Yes, I had a friend with a Barnet t years ago and it was pretty loud but not as loud as the Excalibur. You are absolutely correct, you can quiet a crossbow to some extent. All of my Parker crossbows were quiet compared to others at the time and I always added other quieting devices like limb savers and such. However, crossbows have much shorter power strokes than vertical bows. Even with this quieting, I still had occasional string jumping issues with the Parker. My vertical Mathews Switchback eliminated string jumping from my compound bowhunting.
When I finally switched to the Mission Sub One Lite, I stopped seeing string jumping with my crossbow hunting. I haven't added any 3rd party quieting to it. It seems Mission has designed them with noise suppression from the get-go. It might not be quite as quiet as the Switchback, but it is close.
We are seeing more manufactures go with parallel limbs. I think this design also direct much of the noise to the sides rather than directly toward the targeted deer.
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear that!Joining the season over club, unless I can borrow my brother's crossbow.(Wasn't going to start until Friday)
I think I figured out what happened. I might have been a little too close to the Labradar, and hit the tripod with the crossbow cam when firing. (Labradar and tripod are LIGHT) You can see the damage to the bottom of the cam. It's odd that the damage is on the bottom, not the side. Let this be a lesson to all to make sure your shooting area is CLEAR of any possible obstruction.Joining the season over club, unless I can borrow my brother's crossbow.
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Managed to borrow my brother's crossbow, but didn't see any bucks while on stand. No turkey's either. Did see two nice ones on Sunday. (Very limited Sunday hunting in PA)
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
Well, my archery season is now over. First year in a while, I haven't harvested anything. Between the crossbow failure and the fact they are logging our pine farm, I never even had an opportunity. I had one young buck in range but we don't shoot them at the farm. One evening I had 2 does come into the field I was hunting. They stayed just out of my shooting range.
Our muzzleloader season started this morning. I harvested a young 8-point at my retirement property. It is only 16 acres so young bucks are fair game there. In fact, I prefer to shoot a young buck over a doe there. It helps keep our population up and I get more meat for the same effort. So, I'll now be using the smokeless muzzleloader for the next couple weeks. At least I've got some meat for the freezer.
Our muzzleloader season started this morning. I harvested a young 8-point at my retirement property. It is only 16 acres so young bucks are fair game there. In fact, I prefer to shoot a young buck over a doe there. It helps keep our population up and I get more meat for the same effort. So, I'll now be using the smokeless muzzleloader for the next couple weeks. At least I've got some meat for the freezer.
