Some states have laws in place that will determine at what point in time your crossbow should be uncocked. It may be necessary to uncock your crossbow when legal shooting light has ended. In some states you may be able to uncock your crossbow once you get back to your vehicle. While in other states, it is legal to transport a cocked, unloaded crossbow back to camp or your home. The point is, you should check with your local Fish and Game Department so you will know, when to uncock your crossbow.
Let’s take a look at the three most common scenarios. Let’s say you’re in the woods and it’s time to uncock your crossbow. The best way is to shoot it into the ground using an old arrow with a practice point. Don’t shoot a good arrow into the ground and risk damaging it. Just carry an extra arrow in your quiver that has the fletching torn up or might be slightly bent. One manufacturer is actually making a biodegradable crossbow arrow that you can shoot into the ground and leave. While this seems like a good idea, depending on how much you hunt, the cost could add up quickly because they are a one-time use only. So I would recommend just using an old arrow.
With some of the cocking aids out today, both the rope style and crank style, you can “let down” the draw weight of a cocked crossbow. Before attempting to do so, it is a good idea to first check with your crossbow manufacturer to see if such method is recommended. Some discourage it while others don’t. If you can uncock your crossbow in this fashion, you decrease the risk of alerting game to your location because it is much quieter than shooting your crossbow to uncock it.
For the crossbow hunter that is allowed to bring their crossbow back to their vehicle before uncocking it, you can do one of the above mentioned methods to uncock your crossbow, or hopefully you will have room to bring along a target. Some target manufacturers are making targets specifically for discharging your crossbow after the hunt. They won’t be an everyday shooting target, but they are perfect for shooting your crossbow into, to uncock it. They are reasonably priced and usually fit easily behind the seat of your truck. Some are small enough that you could even pack them into the woods with you.
If your budget is tight, like most of us hunters, you can stuff a 5 gallon bucket full of old clothes or rags and have a pretty good target you can leave in your truck or at camp to use to discharge your crossbow into.
Obviously if you make it back to camp or your home, you can use any of the methods discussed in this article to uncock your crossbow. But before we close this topic, let’s take a look at one method, I do not recommend using to uncock your crossbow.
This is the method of having one guy hold the string while another guy pulls the trigger. With today’s high efficiency crossbows with longer power strokes, this method could lead to serious damage to the crossbow or worse, an injury to yourself. If the string should slip from your hands, you risk causing a dry fire of the crossbow. A dry fire can damage strings, limbs, cams, and axles. Even if you do manage to hold onto the string, with today’s crossbows having much longer stocks, you risk injuring your back or your stomach from not being able to lean over far enough to let your string all the way down.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding on how to uncock your crossbow. In the end, the best, and more importantly the safest way, is to shoot your crossbow into a safe backstop. Happy Hunting!!!
