Horton Explorer 175 Crossbow Story
Name: J. Miller; age 41
Date: Mid-November, 2007
Place: Madison, Ohio
Horton Crossbow: Horton Explorer 175
We pick this story up after several years of taunting by “Grady”, the elusive buck that couldn’t be downed, until a Horton crossbow was involved....
“After several mishaps over the course of those few years, I finally decided to move to a crossbow. I had Grady and his twins within 30yds at different times throughout the year, but they were always on the wrong side or something, causing me to make a lot more movement than I wanted to, and low and behold I ended up spooking them several times. Several other shooter bucks lived on to new days as well.
"So, a Horton Team RealTree Explorer 175 crossbow with 3 dot scope found it's way into my arsenal. I opted for Spitfire 100's as my broad head. Being an avid shooter, both rifle & shotgun, adapting to the crossbow literally took minutes. What a dream?? The power of a Compound, the motion of a rifle. How can it get better, I thought? The goal was to put a limited amount of movement in my favor. The crossbow filled the bill.
"I bought this crossbow in 2005, and have tagged more deer with less mishaps than ever. On November 10th, 2007 I had an opportunity at the buck of a lifetime. In the stand @ 3:00 or so, on a very wet night from a previous rain early that afternoon, I was quietly sitting, waiting, in one of the newer stands. Around 4:00 I heard "CRACK", as a stick snapped directly behind me. It was so quiet out that it actually startled me and I flinched. When I did I heard a deer snort and as I turned to look behind me, at about 40yds, I saw a doe getting ready to bolt. I turned back around and waited, hearing her run off somewhere behind me. I remember thinking "that's just great, I might as well hang it up", but I just sat tight. It wasn't 2 minutes later and in the exact same location, "CRACK", another stick snapped. This time I eased my head left to look directly behind me, not believing the massive buck that was standing there. I knew he was big and I knew one side of his rack had something strange about it, but I just watched. During the course of the next 30 minutes this buck shook his hide like a dog shedding water, destroyed a 2" tree by rubbing on it, and just hung out. All the while I'm not understanding why he's still there. Something told me to look behind me to my right. There stood the doe about 50yds away. She didn't run far at all. About then the doe started on an angle southeast. Much to my liking, so did the buck, but about 15yds closer to me on the same angle.
"Here I am, with the buck of a lifetime headed toward an opening that was 32 yards away, but there was a problem. I'm right handed, and the deer is coming from behind me to the right so I need to be left-handed. I'm thinking I would let him pass because the tree-stand I was in was a little noisy and there was no way I could have stood without spooking both of them. So, pondering my predicament, I thought wait a minute, I'm using a crossbow. I don't need an anchor point. The dot in the scope is the point of impact if it's placed properly.
"I had decided to try to take the shot left-handed. I got the crossbow up, was ready and waiting when the monster stepped into that opening at 32yds. I squeezed the trigger and the bolt went flying. It looked like a good hit, but the bolt punched straight through so I wasn't sure. He buckled a little, reinforcing the fact that I hit him hard, then he took off. Now I got nervous, seeing a buck like this take off running. He then stopped running almost abruptly as he started, having only went 25 yds. He took a step or two, swayed left, swayed right, then collapsed on his left side. My trophy was down.
"I climbed down, not wanting to get too close just yet, peered over a bush and could count 14 points with him laying there. I went back to the house for a little while then went out to collect my prize. Much to my surprise, he had 23 points and rough green scored in the low 160's. I should be getting final numbers on him any day now."
All we can say is "impressive, very impressive". We're glad to hear we've converted you to a loyal crossbow hunter, and especially that your loyalty is to the Horton product.
