4 power rifle scope on crossbow, what do you think?

[nimrodtracy]

Got a Barnett crossbow for hunting pigs and the POS scope that came with it fell apart! I am thinking about using a 4 power rifle scope, or a rimfire scope or a air gun scope because there cheap.

What do you guys think?

Tracy

[froghunter]

I use a 3x9 that came off a 22. It does stay on the 3 setting though.

[SmTx]

I'd guess that out of those choices you'd want the airgun scope due to the type of recoil that scope is going to get.

[SaltwaterSlick]

Your biggest issue to shooting accurately and consistently with a powder burner scope on a crossbow is the parallax setting on the scope... A centerfire scope will have a neutral parallax at about 100-125 yards... At crossbow ranges, you will not get consistent accuracy with that type of scope... With a rimfire scope, you may have a recoil problem destroying the scope AND it will be parallax neutral at 50 yards... An airgun scope may be your best bet. You can get a 3-9X40 Hawke sport optics with an adjustable objective lens (so you can set the parallax to 30 yards or less) and it will hold up to the recoil of the crossbow... the recoil will be very similar to a spring piston air rifle... Those scopes are in the hunert dollar range... YOu can also for about the same money get a Hawke scope that is made for your crossbow... my Excallibur came with one and it is a very nice scope and not expensive... It even has multiple crosshairs with an adjustment that is in the location where a zoom would be on a conventional scope but this adjuster is where you set the crosshair spacing for 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 yards based on the speed of your crossbow projectile...

[kmon]

The last one Saltwaterslick listed is a very good one. I run one of the Excalibur scopes on my Parker. A Nikon Shotgun scope works pretty good as well.

[nimrodtracy]

Your biggest issue to shooting accurately and consistently with a powder burner scope on a crossbow is the parallax setting on the scope... A centerfire scope will have a neutral parallax at about 100-125 yards... At crossbow ranges, you will not get consistent accuracy with that type of scope... With a rimfire scope, you may have a recoil problem destroying the scope AND it will be parallax neutral at 50 yards... An airgun scope may be your best bet. You can get a 3-9X40 Hawke sport optics with an adjustable objective lens (so you can set the parallax to 30 yards or less) and it will hold up to the recoil of the crossbow... the recoil will be very similar to a spring piston air rifle... Those scopes are in the hunert dollar range... YOu can also for about the same money get a Hawke scope that is made for your crossbow... my Excallibur came with one and it is a very nice scope and not expensive... It even has multiple crosshairs with an adjustment that is in the location where a zoom would be on a conventional scope but this adjuster is where you set the crosshair spacing for 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 yards based on the speed of your crossbow projectile...

I have used rifle scopes on 22LR contender pistols at 25 yards and the parallax issue is not a problem if you center your eye the same each time but your right a 22LR scope or air gun scope would have better setting for the parallax. But I do wonder about scope durabilty given the type of recoil coming from a crossbow. But the scopes I am looking at are under $30 so if they fail its not that costly, also I will use the duplex for 20, 30 and 40 yards if they line up like that based on the speed of the arrow

[SaltwaterSlick]

OK... didn't realize how "cheap" you were talking... Seems the one that fell apart would require an upgrade for you... my bad...

[Bowhuntamistad]

Your biggest issue to shooting accurately and consistently with a powder burner scope on a crossbow is the parallax setting on the scope... A centerfire scope will have a neutral parallax at about 100-125 yards... At crossbow ranges, you will not get consistent accuracy with that type of scope... With a rimfire scope, you may have a recoil problem destroying the scope AND it will be parallax neutral at 50 yards... An airgun scope may be your best bet. You can get a 3-9X40 Hawke sport optics with an adjustable objective lens (so you can set the parallax to 30 yards or less) and it will hold up to the recoil of the crossbow... the recoil will be very similar to a spring piston air rifle... Those scopes are in the hunert dollar range... YOu can also for about the same money get a Hawke scope that is made for your crossbow... my Excallibur came with one and it is a very nice scope and not expensive... It even has multiple crosshairs with an adjustment that is in the location where a zoom would be on a conventional scope but this adjuster is where you set the crosshair spacing for 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 yards based on the speed of your crossbow projectile...

I have the Hawke XB 1X32 power scope on our crossbow. Its an awesome scope for the money and we haven't really noticed a need for magnification out to 20-30 yards.

[nimrodtracy]

I got the Hawke 3x32 MAP Crossbow scope from Cameraland for $59 and it looks great! We will see how it sights in.....