Excalibur Crossbows introduced a neat little crossbow package this year aimed at people who wanted to get into crossbow hunting and still wanted to remain on a budget. From what I’ve seen, the Excalibur Axiom is a 175 lb crossbow and it’s basically the same bow as the Excalibur Phoenix. It just doesn’t have the dissipator bars up front and it has a different camo pattern.
The Excalibur Axiom is only sold as a kit. My kit came with a crossbow quiver and mounting brackets along with an Axiom Scope. This scope is designed for the speeds that the Axiom shoots, which according to Excalibur it will shoot 305 fps with a 350 grain arrow. That’s pretty good for any crossbow! The Excalibur Axiom also came with 4 Excalibur Firebolts and 4 – 150 grain field tips.
The Axiom scope has a crosshair and chevrons for aiming at 30, 40 and 50 yards. I found these to be right on whenever I sighted in the crosshairs to be right on at 20 yards. This was one thing that really amazed me about this crossbow.
It took me about 30 minutes or so to put together the bow and accessories. Within 45 minutes, I had the video’s watched and the bow strung and ready to shoot!
Since I had no idea where this crossbow might send the arrow, I started sighting in at 10 yards. My first arrow was high and to the left. I adjusted the scope and the next one was just a little far to the right. Another adjustment and another shot had me right on the money!
3 shots to sight this crossbow in! Amazing.
Over a period of a month or so, I continued to give the Excalibur Axiom a workout. I tried different crossbow arrows along with different weight field points and broadheads. Just like any other weapon, it had a preference for several different types of arrow/tip combinations. But what was more amazing is that this bow shot everything well enough to hunt with!
The arrow combination that it preferred the most was a Gold Tip Laser II arrow with the brass inserts with a 100 grain field point or broadhead. I could hit nocks out to 40 yards with this combination. It got expensive real quick!
Another thing that most everyone who I let shoot this crossbow stated was how light it is and how easy it was to carry. It weighs in at around 6 pounds or so. Certainly not the monster that many of the compound crossbows are. This bow will be a joy to carry and shoot when out hunting.
Shooting the Axiom
Shooting the Excalibur Axiom was a delight. For the price of the ready-to-go kit, I certainly did not expect the kind of accuracy that I received. I started shooting the Excalibur Firebolts that came with the crossbow. They shot extremely well with the included 150 grain field points.
But it wasn’t until I tried some Excalibur Aluminum Crossbow bolts in the 2216 size that the groups shrank considerably. In fact, it got to a point where I could not aim at the same dot on the target in fear of Robin Hooding an arrow! And this was at 30, 40 and 50 yards!
It goes without saying that if you do your part, the Axiom is more than capable of delivering very tight groups with the right arrow!
Here’s a few of the groups I’ve shot with the Axiom.
This is a 50 yard group with Slick Trick broadheads
Here's a typical 40 yard group. As you can see, the Axiom is one accurate crossbow!
Here's a typical group at 30 yards.
Things I did not like about the Axiom
There were a few things I did not care for about the Excalibur Axiom. First off, the stock itself was a little low. When you consider how accurate it was with me having to raise my head a little in order to shoot, this is probably not a concern for many people. But I did not like it.
I ordered a cheekpiece to fit the Axiom. Later I learned that you could cut a piece of black pipe insulation and slide it over the top part of the stock and get the same result!
I was not really crazy about the amount of gritty feel to the travel of the trigger. I’m very trigger sensitive. I feel nearly every millimeter of travel in a trigger. Even at a crisp 3 pound pull, I could feel quite a bit of grit in the travel of the trigger. This one was getting on my nerves! But as the days went on and I shot more, the amount of grit diminished considerably. I just think that a lot of this could be taken care of at the factory. But then again, this is suppose to be an “entry level” crossbow. I sure wish all “entry level” weapons shot as well as this one!
Final Thoughts
Overall, the Excalibur Axiom and the equipment that came with it shot extremely well. I was surprised to say the least. And from what I’m reading on the Internet, others are having the same experience.
Excalibur Crossbows have had a reputation for being some of the most reliable and accurate crossbows in the Industry. They put this reputation into the Axiom and it shows! If you’re looking for a easy-to-shoot, ready-to-go-hunting out of the box crossbow, then you need to look no further than the Excalibur Axiom!
