Claw .50 @ Air Bolts ***REVIEW***

[blackdiesel]

Speaking of arrow guns.  On Matt Dubber's latest hunt his friend shot a hog with an arrow from a FX Royal.  It's nowhere near the speed or weight of the Airbolts.  The hog was facing and a little broadside and the arrow disappeared into the hog. He used a broadhead arrow.  The video is slowed down at 10:42 to show the arrow completely disappeared into the hog and at 11:58 while butchering it shows the arrow went entirely through the entire body.

[Nomadic Pirate]

I found some 225gr points



and I'll be shooting the smaller Snuffers with a 125gr insert



for a total arrow weight of 545gr






I than got some scrap carpets and layed out my new backstopand put it together







Hung it in front of the bales




On strings so I can swing it out to remove arrows




Going to shim the scope now and than I'm gonna go test the set up,...wish me luck

[cosmic]

Luck to you ! Maybe a spray of silicone on the arrows might help with removal.

[Nomadic Pirate]

First test shot from 10 yards offhand,.....I can see the nock but it's still more penetration that I want




So, next step is to put an old sheet of plywood and an old Jacket filled with some clothing






Move back to 20 yards, little scope adjustments and,..... let it fly !!!!

Bingo !!!! it worked





Retrieved the arrow ( I know now not to try shoot groups with this set up )

Moved the jacked a bit further up and went back to the bench,.......good thing I took the 1st arrow out ...touching holes,    and the jacked worked well too



Back to the bench, 6 clicks down on the scope and I'm ready to shoot the same arrow for the 4th time



On a side note here, I noticed Tyler folding the vanes to the right on the video but I checked the rifling and it spins to the right so I chose to fold my vanes to the left ( hopefully Tyler chimes in with his input on this matter )




Anyway, where was I ? ....Ho yeah, 6 clicks down and ready to see where I'm on POI.

Left it fly and.......




DANG !!!!!!!! ..... I think I'm ready for hunting

Still quite an effort to get the arrows out

[aceflier]

So what is getting the first hog? The Warp or the .50 bolt? Lookin good either way.

[Nomadic Pirate]

So what is getting the first hog? The Warp or the .50 bolt? Lookin good either way.

Right ? ....out of PCPs for many months and now all of a sudden I have more I can deal with

[cosmic]

SWEET !!!

[degriz (AKA) Lou Hauburger]

Looks ready to take home the Bacon

 I watched the Video and am curious to see if the vanes are actually affected by the rifling, A Slow motion video would show how much spin is created.

Are the vanes straight on your arrows Manny? I wonder how an offset or helical fletched arrow would do.

With the size of my .58 cal barrel, I don't think it's causing much twist in my shots, I am getting good accuracy at 20 yards but shooting field tips using straight fletched vanes.

A broadhead usually flies better with some spin on it.

[Tpatner412]

Manny

I was told and have been turning the vanes clockwise.  Now, I have tried them CCW and found the accuracy did not change although POI did change a bit.  Nothing significant enough to miss a targets kill zone at 30 yards.  So long as you are consistent in doing it the same way, your results should be unchanged. 

On the topic of stopping the Air Bolts....this is the only target we have found that will do it.  And even at 30 yards, they still penetrate more than 3/4 of the length of the Bolt.
https://www.pyramydair.com/product/big-shot-extreme-500-series-target?a=7397

The vanes are straight.  My thoughts on the spin are this:  The rifling does produce a good spin on the arrows, we have taken some high speed footage of it but it's hard to compare to something with helical or offset vanes because the option for those is not there to be fired out of the Dragon Claw.  The real question is, what does more work...the vanes or the nock in terms of catching that rifling. 

Now I have tested broadheads as well, and found them to be almost as accurate at 30 yards as the field tips.  Group sizes opened up from sub 1" (field tips) to 1.5-2" with Rage 2 blade broadheads with the slip cam.  More than adequate in my opinion. 

Thanks

[JimQwerty123]

I would add something like the Allen arrow puller to aid in pulling the bolts from the target.

I don't know if PA carries the Allen arrow puller but it they don't I believe that they should add it to their inventory. I used to shoot 3D archery and it is a great assist in pulling arrows. Here is the Amazon link to the puller.



Manny, you might consider changing your back stop. From shooting archery, I believe you are going to damage your bolts trying to remove them from the surf board.

Jim

[Nomadic Pirate]

Manny

I was told and have been turning the vanes clockwise.  Now, I have tried them CCW and found the accuracy did not change although POI did change a bit.  Nothing significant enough to miss a targets kill zone at 30 yards.  So long as you are consistent in doing it the same way, your results should be unchanged. 

On the topic of stopping the Air Bolts....this is the only target we have found that will do it.  And even at 30 yards, they still penetrate more than 3/4 of the length of the Bolt.
https://www.pyramydair.com/product/big-shot-extreme-500-series-target?a=7397

The vanes are straight.  My thoughts on the spin are this:  The rifling does produce a good spin on the arrows, we have taken some high speed footage of it but it's hard to compare to something with helical or offset vanes because the option for those is not there to be fired out of the Dragon Claw.  The real question is, what does more work...the vanes or the nock in terms of catching that rifling. 

Now I have tested broadheads as well, and found them to be almost as accurate at 30 yards as the field tips.  Group sizes opened up from sub 1" (field tips) to 1.5-2" with Rage 2 blade broadheads with the slip cam.  More than adequate in my opinion. 

Thanks

Thanks Tyler, did they give you are reason for folding the vanes one way rather than the other ? ......I'm just always curious about details

[kbstingwing]

I've got that same scale, but branded in a different name.

[Nomadic Pirate]

Just put together 4 Hunting arrows

3 broadheads and one blunt



The quiver is ready too

[degriz (AKA) Lou Hauburger]

Manny, have you shot it with a broad head yet? your point of impact may change from the target tips.

Tyler said he was shooting a rage broad head, which is an expandable broad head. The expandable head will fly more like a field tip then the fixed broad head.  A fixed broad head usually requires more spin to keep it stable in flight.

I am only speaking from experience with a  bow, I don't know how the high speeds of the Dragon Claw will fly.

[Tpatner412]

Manny

I was told and have been turning the vanes clockwise.  Now, I have tried them CCW and found the accuracy did not change although POI did change a bit.  Nothing significant enough to miss a targets kill zone at 30 yards.  So long as you are consistent in doing it the same way, your results should be unchanged. 

On the topic of stopping the Air Bolts....this is the only target we have found that will do it.  And even at 30 yards, they still penetrate more than 3/4 of the length of the Bolt.
https://www.pyramydair.com/product/big-shot-extreme-500-series-target?a=7397

The vanes are straight.  My thoughts on the spin are this:  The rifling does produce a good spin on the arrows, we have taken some high speed footage of it but it's hard to compare to something with helical or offset vanes because the option for those is not there to be fired out of the Dragon Claw.  The real question is, what does more work...the vanes or the nock in terms of catching that rifling. 

Now I have tested broadheads as well, and found them to be almost as accurate at 30 yards as the field tips.  Group sizes opened up from sub 1" (field tips) to 1.5-2" with Rage 2 blade broadheads with the slip cam.  More than adequate in my opinion. 

Thanks

Thanks Tyler, did they give you are reason for folding the vanes one way rather than the other ? ......I'm just always curious about details

They really only tell me the need to know stuff before I start testing...I tested it both ways out of curiosity, I could not find any real reason that it cannot be used and folded CCW.  The more and more I think about it, I feel the nock is the biggest factor in creating spin.  The vanes do help as they are pushing against the rifling and may catch it a little bit, but I don't think that does much.  I do know that the reason they went with straight vanes was to preserve the speed of the Bolt.  That tells me that when they designed it, they knew they would be getting the appropriate spin from the barrel/nock contact. 

[Nomadic Pirate]

Manny, have you shot it with a broad head yet? your point of impact may change from the target tips.

Tyler said he was shooting a rage broad head, which is an expandable broad head. The expandable head will fly more like a field tip then the fixed broad head.  A fixed broad head usually requires more spin to keep it stable in flight.

I am only speaking from experience with a  bow, I don't know how the high speeds of the Dragon Claw will fly.

That's why I'm using the 3 blade Snuffers, there's no paradox so I'm not expecting much difference in POI and even if at my bowhunting ranges it's not gonna make a difference

There's no way I could get a broadhead out of my target set up

[Nomadic Pirate]

Got one of my Bowhunting buddies to shoot the Claw this morning, he couldn't stop smiling

I'm lining up a couple of hunts where I'll be filming my friends hunt with the AirBolts.

[MRT949]

Can't wait for the videos 

[munchie3409]

Man,  I haven't been on the forum for a while and I come back to see this awesome thread.

I cannot wait to see the hunting vids.

[Nomadic Pirate]

Thanks guys,

Well, I'm supposed to go and try film a friend of mine hunting the Claw tomorrow morning,...wish him luck