Thanks for your honesty, and the guinea pig test, man! LOL. Doesn't sound like much of an improvement can be made to them either, from what I've heard.
I was look'n real serious at them also, but got a Swat on it's way to me after SEW's raving!!!! Which has a 2.5 lb trig, just as a comparison!!! Which is really, no comparison at all!!!

 

Man, that thing sounds TERRIBLE!!!! BUT....if bought cheap enough you can still get that trigger job done. It's what I would do anyway.

I know, I know. At full price I'd pass too.

 

I actually have a purpose in mind for it, it will fill a niche application, but will never get shot much. When I finish the modifications, I'm hoping to use it hunting from my Ameristep chair blinds.

 

Another "Darn Wheelie Bow", Cal? Are you feeling OK?

 

Jeff, ever so often I fergit how much I love the pure simplicity of my recurves. Somethin comes over me and when it passes, I find myself with yet another dang wheelie crossbow.
I'd say it's a lot like a young happily UNmarried guy who has the whole world before him until he meets a nice young girl, and goes soft in the head, thinkin maybe his life would be happier if he married her. After all, she told this poor innocent boy his life would be better if he was married, so he says "OK". Well it's not long before he finds out he can't go fishin, huntin, or hangin out with his friends any more, can't scratch himself in public without gittin criticized, and don't get to watch football. Top that off with the fact that he has to spend too much of his time over at his inlaw's place.
Well it's not long until both are unhappy, start fightin all the time, and end in divorce.
The guy's still young, and eventually gets back to his old life of doin things that make him happy, fergittin about all the stuff he didn't like about bein married. But did he learn anything? Heck no, it's not long until he finds himself married agin a short time later, having fergot how unpleasant life was back then. Just dumb and doomed to repeat his mistakes!
Well that's me Jeff, one bad relationship with a dang wheelie crossbow after another, fergittin how sweet life was with my simple recurves, determined to punish myself repeatedly for somethin bad I musta done, and end up with yet another dang wheelie crossbow, havin fergot everthang I shoulda larnt in the past!

 

Let's hope the Ravin team wins the discussion with the CenterPoint team regarding the trigger and they pay some attention to it for next years CP400.

JP nailed the break pressure and the creep (pull length at 5/8") is so long you might call it a "two breath" pull.

The stock internal spring that affects trigger pressure is well over 12 lb per inch spring. I've gone down to a 4 lb load spring and break pressure is just under 5 lbs. 4.8 lbs is routinely what my gauge reads. Going lighter make no difference and unloaded trigger pressure get ridiculously low when you are under 4 lbs. Pin length changes and rocker control will make the creep pretty short at 1/8". The xbow is now shootable anyway.

It's fast and narrow and with some trigger work it's a shooter.

 

Hey do you see this still!? How do I swap the spring? Is there a diagram or something online?

 

It's on my list , but with this post, and other reports with my conversation with CP it will be on the bottom of my list. Per CP they have no plans on fixing the trigger, it all falls under liability

 

Ya know, CP was put on the map with the Sniper 370 (atleast is what I think) and it did good here on the Nation because of the trigger fix for most of us. BUT....that said, I really wonder what their market share really is. If theyre unwilling to meet customer demands it's very likely they could loose enough sales to go under. In the meantime it looks like Barnett has a 370 fps bow (same as the Sniper) that has the trigger tech trigger added. IF Barnett can fix their CS reputation they could very well put a hurting on CenterPoint. JMO though...…..

 

Cal, maybe you should just consider "dating" bows instead of "marrying" them......lol

 

Sure would be great if you could rent one (crossbow) before you bought it, Randy. Oh, I guess some are doing that already

 

I really DO have plans and a purpose for this dang wheelie crossbow, Jeff. I plan to cut it down and make a RAV KUNG R27 out of it, LOL.

I wanted something real narrow to shoot out of an Ameristep single chair blind. Even my Micros are a little too wide and long, and a couple times I whacked 1 of the limbs against the steel support hoop. So I want a rig I can carry far into public land and pack up and carry out when I leave.

I'm pretty sure I can do something to make the trigger manageable, or, since it won't get used much, and then not til next season, I can afford to wait a while to see if CP does anything to improve it, and still maintain factory warranty. Maybe I could even get used to it enough to use it a little. In any case, CP really peed in their Wheaties releasing this thing for sale as it is. This thing isn't worth half its price as it is.

 

Can't wait to see it, Cal. I've thought, from the Sniper on, that ManKung needed more bullpup to shorten those bows up a good bit. You can show 'em how!

 

Gonna be a while Jeff, I have to gather some materials and I'm in no hurry. First though I want to press it and get the string/cable specs. Factory string has loose/separated center serving already.

 

And they look fat in the front end!

But, maybe still balanced? I wouldn't know, so don't take me serious!

 

The Barnets, I meant!

 

First centerpoint /ravin hybrid. I am thinking there is work to be done.

 

Is the step thru riser on the ts390 top heavy?

Ts390 is 1.5 lb heavier than the ts370.the weight difference has to go somewhere.

 

Now getting back to the subject, a discussion about how bad the cp400 trigger is;

Today, I took the scope and all other unnecessary hardware off, and found the naked bow to weigh 8 pounds, 2 ounces.
The trigger break pressure is over 8 pounds, 6 ounces.
So what?
This shows the trigger to be so bad, YOU COULD LITERALLY HANG THE COCKED CROSSBOW UP BY ITS TRIGGER WITHOUT FIRING IT!!!
Do yourself a huge favor; don't buy it until they fix it!

 

Now getting back to the subject, a discussion about how bad the cp400 trigger is;

Today, I took the scope and all other unnecessary hardware off, and found the naked bow to weigh 8 pounds, 2 ounces.
The trigger break pressure is over 8 pounds, 6 ounces.
So what?
This shows the trigger to be so bad, YOU COULD LITERALLY HANG THE COCKED CROSSBOW UP BY ITS TRIGGER WITHOUT FIRING IT!!!
Do yourself a huge favor; don't buy it until they fix it! View attachment 161704

Sorry bout that... And that trigger is twice the pull weight it should be.

 

I am not a fan of the step thru riser design. I shoot the ts370. It has a traditional front end. I also not a fan of bearings in Cams or composite rails. The ts370 has bushings and a machined aluminum rail with a trigger tech trigger. Rock solid xbow. 12.75 when cock and under 7 lb. If barnett would put their 430 fps limbs from their predator and longer rail into this xbows design I would add it to my arsenal.

Totally agree. Not going to hi-jack the thread but HT on point.

CP400 looks damn cool to me.

 

Sure would be great if you could rent one (crossbow) before you bought it, Randy. Oh, I guess some are doing that already

Crosshoe,s?

 

I'd send to Rich. My new BearX Constrictor trigger is not heavy but has spongy creep before it shoots.

 

Well the trigger is a non-issue now. 2nd shot into the session and had it almost fully cocked and it let loose with a dry fire. Scratching my head, wondering why when I noticed a little black piece lying on the packed down snow. Took me a minute to realize it was the left part of the cocking sled that broke! Hard to believe that the ALUMINUM cocking sled was so delicate that it broke. So now, if I want to keep this thing, going to need new limbs, string, cables, and a cocking sled. What these things cost is going to determine whether it gets put back together or parted out.

 

It should be covered by warranty if that was their sled that broke. Ahhh,, went back and saw it was used when you bought it. Maybe he did not register it and you will get lucky.

 

Sorry for your problems, Cal. I was enjoying following your DIY methods for this bow.

 

Over the years, I've had 2 different sets of hooks on 2 separate cocking ropes break while I was cocking them, and now #3 is this cocking sled. Guy could get gun shy!
Now that I have 1 crossbow that requires over 300 pounds to cock it, I have some of Munch's aluminum hooks on that cocking rope, but now not sure aluminum is all that safe either!
Sure is an instant thrill when this happens!

 

Jeff, I use velcro felt to pad the hooks, and keep it heavily waxed to prevent that.
Middleton hooks were one of the sets that broke on me. Both hooks ended up broken, but what probably happened was, one broke, then the other couldn't handle the load and then broke also.

 

Have you talked to Centerpoint yet Cal?

 

That happened Friday, took me a little time to decide what I wanted to do, then sent them a message Saturday. Figured I wouldn't hear anything until this week. I told them straight up I was second owner; not going to lie to them in hopes of saving a few dollars.

 

I did the same thing when I needed my 1st set of replacement limbs on an Excalibur years back. They just said no problem and sent me new limbs.

 

Ive always had excellent service with Crosman/Centerpoint. If they help me out, great, and if they don't, I'll make the decision whether I'll repair it or part it out.

 

Great news, I thought they would do right by you seeing how it was an equipment failure.

 

While I'm not a huge fan of this crossbow, their service is top notch. Being second owner, I didn't expect that, they far exceeded expectations!
After they replaced the cams, axles, limbs, string and cables, got the new cocking sled Friday, and took it out and put 10 shots through it this morning.

Good speed, and accurate. Would be great with a good trigger; I'll be working on that.
A few shots not too bad; offhand at 30 yards with a 2 moa red dot sight. Wish they were all that good but most weren't.

 

It is good to know CP SC is taking care of your 400.

Last November I took a terrific buy on a Spectre 375 which was going obsolete and being cleared out. It was CP that emailed me the offer. I am really glad they did. I took a look online at the specifications and the design and right away I thought that is a crazy good price.

I showed the sale to my son and he commented he needed a new crossbow. His crossbow was 20 plus years old Horton Legend. I took the hint and purchased the 375 for his birthday.

I assembled it and test fired it knowing he lacked the time. It turned out to be a really solid crossbow and all ways except two. The trigger was perfect. However the latch hooks had too sharp edges and right away the center serving was frayed. Notice in the photo below the cut serving.

CP replaced the string and returned bow without repairing the hooks.
I notified CP about the issues and suggested flipping the string to see if that helped. I had a local shop flip the string. It helped but fell short of improving the condition enough.

During the testing I noticed there was excessive down force due to the crook in the center serving at the cocked position. ( See photo above!) The down force I believed was causing the excessive arrow/nock wear. The crooked center serving went down in the latch cavity which forced arrow down. (see below photo)

I got their permission to apply a nice radius to the hooks which took care of the issue. This proved to be a fix for the serving damage and the excessive arrow nock down force. See the below photo.
Thankfully the added radius to near 3/32" took care of two issues.
I also added a shim at the joint of the riser to the rail to take some more string down force off the rail. Now the string runs almost straight across the rail top rather than having a 3/32" crown.

In my last testing for nock wear I shot the xbow at 40 yards using the same arrow 25 times to see also how well I shot as well as how well the bow performed.

First there was no detected wear on the new arrow nock.

The test showed also how accurate the crossbow performed as I missed the 1 1/4" black dot one in 25 times. That was my fault because a wind gusted from the rear and I aimed low to allow for it when it wasn't needed. The results amazed me! The crossbow was so easy to shoot with great balance. The adjustable butt stock made it adaptable to feel right.

I admit I have never tried that test before but I found lots of value it repeatedly shooting the same arrow at the same spot. While shooting I noticed many of the shots hit the same hole at before or overlapped.

My thoughts were now I wanted the Spectre 375 to be mine. But I couldn't do that to Jason.
Hopefully when my son, Jason, takes time to shoot it he will appreciate how well the crossbow shoots.

Hope you all find this useful.

 

Turn loose of the coin and get one for yourself!

 

My KI Ripper has it topped. But I wish I had purchased two at that time. They were $161.
I checked a couple of days later and the deal was off. They were selling them on the bay higher. The MSRP was $599.