Matrix 355

[robster]

The 350 grain is the weight wich the crossbow achieves the highest/safely reported speeds. Use of a heavier bolt/head combo seems to make things quieter although slower. Did a tech or a rep from excalibur tell you that it's not safe to shoot a heavier than 350gr setup? From what I understand and read the 350gr is a minimum weight recommendation.

[skeeter1]

The diablo bolt is 250 grains, not 200, so with a 150 grain boltcutter that takes you up to 400 grains. The 350 grain combo is the weight that yields the 355fps advertised (so they used a 100 grain head for this, I find 100 grain heads less accurate and more noisy). If a tech told you 350 max, he is wrong.

[Species8472]

I am going to try these this year out of my 355...

I called excalibur and they said the arrows are 200 grains and I could put on up to 150 grain broad head . The max the matrix could shoot safely is 350 grains arrow and broad head combined. Nothing bigger but I could go as low as 100 grains.

Not sure who you spoke to at excalibur but but as skeeter said the 350 grain limit is a minimum not a maximum. Also the excalibur diablo arrows are not 200 grains. I have weighed about a dozen of them and they averaged about 253 grains.

I am shooting 19 inch Zombie Slayers that weigh 317 grains with inserts and lumenock. I then add the 170 FOC head and I am at 487 grains. The ZS shafts are stiffer, stronger and straighter than the diablos. I have found that the diablos shatter about 50% of the time if they hit a rib - never mind a shoulder blade.

The 487 grain bolt significantly reduces sound and vibration. Kinetic energy is about the same but the extra weight slows my bolt speed to about 345 fps out my 405. A speed of 345 is still blazing as far as I am concerned and the heavier, stiffer and stronger bolt penetrates better and is more forgiving in the event of a shoulder blade hit.

[skeeter1]

Let us know how those FOCs work, look pretty devastating. Also how much quieter do you think those haevy bolts are (percentage wise?)

[Species8472]

Will find out this fall as I intend to try the FOCs on whitetail. Noise wise it is hard to put a % on it but I would say that the bow went from a bit louder than my old exomax to about as quiet as the axiom.

[myot]

350gns in a minimum not a max
I've built bolts as heavy as 725grns for guys but 550grns out of a 405 is insane the punch it hits with and makes way less noise you just have to sight them in properly to compensate for arrow drop

Dan