Hello,

I had my bow out for two seasons, and didn't have any accuracy problems. Thing was a laser...I was making 40 yard shots no problem at all. I lent the bow to a friend of mine this season, and now the thing is pushing 4-6" groups at 20 yards. He claims he didn't drop it or anything, but the forensics say otherwise as there's a ding on the riser that wasn't there before.

All of the screws / bolts feel tight, and the scope feels tight as well. There is a small ding in the riser toward the shooter, but no real damage elsewhere.


The groups are the strangest thing...I'll have shots that are dead-on, and others that are off by 6", and they're always consistently high, and sometimes high to the left. I tested it from a rest, cocking with a cocking string, for about 20+ shots so I know it's not operator error.


Any idea what could produce this kind of erratic accuracy?

Guessing the silence from everybody means they don't know.

A ding in the riser *could* mean a fracture somewhere else. Risers are usually a strong point in crossbows, so a serious hit there would transfer the force to somewhere else.

Honestly, there's no real way to tell. Fractured limbs are not immediately obvious in many cases and they can cause this, especially if minor. I had a similar issue with mine - a fractured limb arising from a damaged cable slide - and it did similar things.

You can try disassembling and reassembling. If everything is tight and solid - cables and strings fray-free and waxed, no play, nothing broken - and it still shoots poorly, then call Wicked Ridge. There's a good chance something is broken. I have never dealt with them but heard good things about them. I imagine they will stand behind their product because something is wrong. And a small ding in the riser is less wear than expected for two seasons of hunting.

Perhaps try to have it restrung.  I have the same bow and the string was worn after two seasons.  It wasn't throwing shots like yours, but it was dropping shots lower than normal so I took it into Bass Pro and had them put on the same string.  

To me it sounds like something is loose on your bow.  If you have a renowned bowshop in your area I would take it there.  I've heard nightmare stories about Cabelas, Bass Pro, and Gander Mountain destroying bows.  A restring isn't too complicated though.

@BrandonP

Does your crossbow have a scope?  that's probably your issue. the scope got damaged when your friend dropped it, and is not holding the same point of aim each time. It could be something structural in the bow, but id bet the scope was damaged. A scope can be wrecked on the inside, and not have any damage at all on the outside.

Holy necro lol...well since the reply is recent...

I had it tuned up by a local archery place, problems persisted. Then I switched arrows to traditional half moon nocks (accuracy degradation coincided with a switch to omni nocks) and this solved the problem. The omni nocked arrows would shoot repeatably to the same POI, the problem was that none of them had the same POI, so arrow A would always hit POI A, arrow B would always hit POI B, etc.