Silent Earth
A True Doomsday Prepper
Petron Recurve Crossbow Review
© Northern Raider 2012
A basic appraisal of the current recurve bow on offer from Petron UK.
Petron UK is a company that imports sporting archery equipment from the far-east but in this particular case it sources products well above the normal levels of quality found coming from Asia.
There does appear to be a trend for various companies across Asia to make similar if not almost identical products to each other often with only minor variations in specification and are clearly aimed at the budget end of the market. However in this case at least Petron appear to be sourcing affordable products of much higher quality from what I believe to be Taiwan rather than China. This is definitely the case with the Petron recurve Crossbow.
The bow arrives in a cardboard box containing a HD polystyrene foam insert that holds the components, the box shows the bow is available in 40lb, 95lb and 150lb draw weights.
On opening and inspection the first thing you notice is the weight and quality of the Crossbows body, it is of nicely machined and smooth finished black powder coated alloy (aluminium I believe) and fitted with a solid wood shoulder stock and fore grip.
Weight is around 7 pounds.It is also available in a woodland camouflage scheme.
It has an easily adjustable rear sight that will accept dovetailed scopes and optics, the front sight is adjustable for windage via a knurled lock nut.
An automatic safety switch is activated when the bow is cocked.
Trigger pull according to my spring gauge is 7 pounds and nicely smooth.
The Petron bow has one feature that will please and delighted many people and that is the body of the crossbow has a hinged limb (prod) fitting gate at the front of the bow which means the bow comes pre-strung and the bow can be assembled / disassembled without having to struggle fitting the string.
The limbs are glassfibre and reportedly very reliable and available in the three draw weights already mentioned.
I think the strings are polyester or Dacron, either way they are synthetic not sinue.
The hinged floor section is secured by 4 Allen bolts that also secure the pressed steel foot claw to the bow. It is just so simple and ingenious to be able to put your bow together without needing help to string the bow, a major plus for storage and transport or caching. (The Allen key is provided with the bow so keep it safe)
According to various shops who sell this bow depending on the size of prod fitted you can fire the 16 inch bolts up to 250 feet per second which is more than enough for hunting large game in places where bow hunting is legal.
The bow comes with 2 bolts so preppers will need to invest in extra bolts to build up a working system, my own objective is to assemble 1 x bow 3 x spare limbs, 12 x spare nock ends for the limbs, 6 x spare strings, 40 plus spare bolts.
I hope to fit a sling at some point and possible a bow mounted quiver, I have already fitted the bow with a 6 x 40 short AGS scope.
ing the bow.
This proved problematic for me at first as I tried to be a clever git and just tried to cock the 150 draw bow by hand….. I hurt my back badly and so I quickly obtained a rope cocking device, this is a fiendishly simple device that reduces the effort needed to cock the bow by 50 %. (I’m surprised no one has designed a bow with a rope cocking device built in)
However with the help of a neighbour who did the cocking for me whilst I rest my back I managed to fire some bolts down the field at a range of 30 meters (90 ft).
The first 3 shots went low but by simply turning the elevation nob on the bow I soon found the target and within 20 minutes and with very painful back distracting me I was getting 4 inch groups.
NOTE the bolts did not even slow down as they went through a 18 mm timber fence and they penetrated a 4x4 fence post nearly 47 mm, so you DO need a safe place to shoot and definitely not your garden, I also killed a full sized Turnip !! The bolt went in over 9 inches and turnips are pretty dense objects, a similar shot at a Galaia melon saw the bolt go straight through and disappear into the old quarry !!!!!
This “”Budget”” bow is anything but Budget, OK it’s not titanium and carbon fibre with pullys and cogs, but it is a very high quality basic bow that is truly fabulous value for money, It’s easy to assemble, maintain and repair. It’s very solid and uses good quality materials and components and does not exhibit the cheapness often found on such products sourced from the far east.
Bolts supplied with the bow are Armex B2 16 inch alloy bolts of 9 mm diameter with screw in steel target heads and fitted with three fletches the odd coloured one is the one that goes into the groove on the bow.
I can highly recommend both Ronnie Sunshines and Chiltern Archery for excellent customer service especially Colin at Chiltern Archery.
http://www.chilternonline.com/
http://www.ronniesunshines.com/inde...s/150lb-recurve-crossbow-with-wood-stock.html
Petron / Man Kung Sniper MK-200A1 Pro Model 6502
11.5 inch draw
95 LB draw weight
26 inch width
36 inch length
16 inch 9 mm alloy bolts (2219)
© Northern Raider 2012
A basic appraisal of the current recurve bow on offer from Petron UK.
Petron UK is a company that imports sporting archery equipment from the far-east but in this particular case it sources products well above the normal levels of quality found coming from Asia.
There does appear to be a trend for various companies across Asia to make similar if not almost identical products to each other often with only minor variations in specification and are clearly aimed at the budget end of the market. However in this case at least Petron appear to be sourcing affordable products of much higher quality from what I believe to be Taiwan rather than China. This is definitely the case with the Petron recurve Crossbow.
The bow arrives in a cardboard box containing a HD polystyrene foam insert that holds the components, the box shows the bow is available in 40lb, 95lb and 150lb draw weights.
On opening and inspection the first thing you notice is the weight and quality of the Crossbows body, it is of nicely machined and smooth finished black powder coated alloy (aluminium I believe) and fitted with a solid wood shoulder stock and fore grip.
Weight is around 7 pounds.It is also available in a woodland camouflage scheme.
It has an easily adjustable rear sight that will accept dovetailed scopes and optics, the front sight is adjustable for windage via a knurled lock nut.
An automatic safety switch is activated when the bow is cocked.
Trigger pull according to my spring gauge is 7 pounds and nicely smooth.
The Petron bow has one feature that will please and delighted many people and that is the body of the crossbow has a hinged limb (prod) fitting gate at the front of the bow which means the bow comes pre-strung and the bow can be assembled / disassembled without having to struggle fitting the string.
The limbs are glassfibre and reportedly very reliable and available in the three draw weights already mentioned.
I think the strings are polyester or Dacron, either way they are synthetic not sinue.
The hinged floor section is secured by 4 Allen bolts that also secure the pressed steel foot claw to the bow. It is just so simple and ingenious to be able to put your bow together without needing help to string the bow, a major plus for storage and transport or caching. (The Allen key is provided with the bow so keep it safe)
According to various shops who sell this bow depending on the size of prod fitted you can fire the 16 inch bolts up to 250 feet per second which is more than enough for hunting large game in places where bow hunting is legal.
The bow comes with 2 bolts so preppers will need to invest in extra bolts to build up a working system, my own objective is to assemble 1 x bow 3 x spare limbs, 12 x spare nock ends for the limbs, 6 x spare strings, 40 plus spare bolts.
I hope to fit a sling at some point and possible a bow mounted quiver, I have already fitted the bow with a 6 x 40 short AGS scope.
ing the bow.This proved problematic for me at first as I tried to be a clever git and just tried to cock the 150 draw bow by hand….. I hurt my back badly and so I quickly obtained a rope cocking device, this is a fiendishly simple device that reduces the effort needed to cock the bow by 50 %. (I’m surprised no one has designed a bow with a rope cocking device built in)
However with the help of a neighbour who did the cocking for me whilst I rest my back I managed to fire some bolts down the field at a range of 30 meters (90 ft).
The first 3 shots went low but by simply turning the elevation nob on the bow I soon found the target and within 20 minutes and with very painful back distracting me I was getting 4 inch groups.
NOTE the bolts did not even slow down as they went through a 18 mm timber fence and they penetrated a 4x4 fence post nearly 47 mm, so you DO need a safe place to shoot and definitely not your garden, I also killed a full sized Turnip !! The bolt went in over 9 inches and turnips are pretty dense objects, a similar shot at a Galaia melon saw the bolt go straight through and disappear into the old quarry !!!!!
This “”Budget”” bow is anything but Budget, OK it’s not titanium and carbon fibre with pullys and cogs, but it is a very high quality basic bow that is truly fabulous value for money, It’s easy to assemble, maintain and repair. It’s very solid and uses good quality materials and components and does not exhibit the cheapness often found on such products sourced from the far east.
Bolts supplied with the bow are Armex B2 16 inch alloy bolts of 9 mm diameter with screw in steel target heads and fitted with three fletches the odd coloured one is the one that goes into the groove on the bow.
I can highly recommend both Ronnie Sunshines and Chiltern Archery for excellent customer service especially Colin at Chiltern Archery.
http://www.chilternonline.com/
http://www.ronniesunshines.com/inde...s/150lb-recurve-crossbow-with-wood-stock.html
Petron / Man Kung Sniper MK-200A1 Pro Model 6502
11.5 inch draw
95 LB draw weight
26 inch width
36 inch length
16 inch 9 mm alloy bolts (2219)
