I'm new to this forum and crossbows—sort of—and I have a question, but I am not sure if I should ask it here or somewhere else (on this forum).
I bought an Excalibur Axiom almost a decade ago. I really wanted to take up deer hunting at the time and using a crossbow appealed to me since we were limited to shotguns in Ohio at the time. My first [and only] day on the range was very exciting especially after witnessing how accurate it was right out of the box, but then something happened. Life got in the way, in a big way, and in a way that changed the trajectory of my life forever. I don't know how a decade came and went so quickly, but after all these years I finally have the time to pick up where I left off, so I pulled my old "new" crossbow out of storage recently.
First and foremost, do you think it's safe? It has been strung and thus under tension the hole time (literally a decade), and though it looks like the day I bought it, I just read in the manual that "If your crossbow is not used for an extended period of time you may choose to unstring it. Unstringing your crossbow will relax the limbs and increase their life expectancy."
If it's safe, do I need to change the string and do anything other than make sure all the fasteners are tight and the bow is in working order? I've inspected the fasteners which are tight, and the bow generally, and the only rust I could find was on one of the field points still attached to a bolt. I buffed the rust out, coated it will some gun oil, and now I'm wondering what to do next.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
I bought an Excalibur Axiom almost a decade ago. I really wanted to take up deer hunting at the time and using a crossbow appealed to me since we were limited to shotguns in Ohio at the time. My first [and only] day on the range was very exciting especially after witnessing how accurate it was right out of the box, but then something happened. Life got in the way, in a big way, and in a way that changed the trajectory of my life forever. I don't know how a decade came and went so quickly, but after all these years I finally have the time to pick up where I left off, so I pulled my old "new" crossbow out of storage recently.
First and foremost, do you think it's safe? It has been strung and thus under tension the hole time (literally a decade), and though it looks like the day I bought it, I just read in the manual that "If your crossbow is not used for an extended period of time you may choose to unstring it. Unstringing your crossbow will relax the limbs and increase their life expectancy."
If it's safe, do I need to change the string and do anything other than make sure all the fasteners are tight and the bow is in working order? I've inspected the fasteners which are tight, and the bow generally, and the only rust I could find was on one of the field points still attached to a bolt. I buffed the rust out, coated it will some gun oil, and now I'm wondering what to do next.
Thanks in advance for any advice.