Crossbow Bolt Build & 60 Yard Test

Today's video we going to review and test my first complete crossbow bolt build. I started with Sirius Phoenix Shafts, cut to an unconventional length. Spine indexed (or that was the goal) and fletched with Fusion Q2i 3" vanes and 260 grains total up front (110 grain stainless steel Ethics Archery insert and 150 grain point). The result is a 490 grain, 20% FOC bolt that flies excellent! My 60 yard, 3 shot group is the best I've shot thus far and I'm confident these bolts can do even better! As always, special thanks to The Ranch Fairy for inspiring many of us to build and shoot more lethal arrows/bolts! Enjoy!
Products Used/Shown:
Killer Instinct SWAT X1: amzn.to/3bZ4G87
Sirius Archery Phoenix Bolts: siriusarchery....
Fusion Q2i Vanes: amzn.to/3yPSfVa
BOG Death Grip: amzn.to/3AzK6FI
Goat Tuff Fletching Jig: amzn.to/3uwTR3y
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[@elguapo1507]

Not too shabby!???...they're bloomin lovely! 🙂

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Thank you!

[@andyjones3934]

Glad to see crossbow arrows getting the attention they need!! High FOC with a quality fixed blade is the answer!!

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Couldn’t agree more! Thanks, Andy!

[@outdoors-fun]

@@draggindeeroutdoors whats the FOC on these bolts?

[@michaellee793]

Just bought a set from Sirius myself this week after watching you do the RF bolt tuning process. Can’t wait to shoot them. Thanks for helping a newbie to hunting figure this stuff out. I am exclusive to crossbows. Love your channel. Keep it up. God bless.

[@boomerrangerron]

I just placed my order with Sirius Archery for six Phoenix bolts! Can't wait to get them in and see how they shoot 125 fixed and mechanicals! Appreciate your recommendation!

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Awesome, Ron! Let me know what you think of them!

[@C.Fowler]

Thank you for the time you put into experimenting and giving us the results your experiencing with your crossbow…

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

You’re welcome! Glad ya liked the video!!

[@glennl9630]

Phoenix Bolts look outstanding thanks for the Video

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Thanks, Glenn. Glad you liked it 👍

[@savedwretch7296]

You’re really getting your setup dialed in. I’m shooting 19.5 inch Spynal Tapps & BEEs out of my Swat X1 and am thinking about building some 19 inchers. Always enjoy your videos. Now that you’re getting it all dialed in, how about stretching it out to 100 or so. Keep those Swat videos coming.

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Thanks SW! I’ll stretch these out soon 👍

[@joe3312s]

You passed along a lot of good information on this video, thank you for taking the time

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Thanks, Joe! Glad ya liked it 👍

[@livelaughlove20able]

Thanks for all the great information just ordered some of these arrows for my swat x1 can’t wait to shoot them too

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Excellent, Ramon! You won’t be disappointed 👍

[@billbennett7054]

I also take a micrometer and measure the outside shaft diameter in 3 different locations , looking for consistency. As much as 1 or 2 thousands of an inch difference from 1 bolt to the next can affect shot to shot consistency.

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Good to know!! Thanks, Bill 👍👍

[@Kwagga29]

Hahaha :-) it seems like you should watch your video from 5 March 2022 again :-) - "Stop shooting groups - shoot different dots" :-D Nice video as always. Really appreciate your knowledge and that you share it with us

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Hahaha I should listen to myself 🤦‍♂️ I was wondering if anyone would call me out on that, Thanks Danie!

[@stevenhicks815]

Great group

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Thanks, Steven!

[@Snailz5]

Hey man, you gotta just trust your shooting and accept the groups you get. If you felt great when you shot then you were good. The accuracy you see is the accuracy you can expect for you to shoot. The shooter will always introduce some error, but don’t take shots at deer from a bench or with all the time in the world to get as stable as possible. You should shoot enough groups that you feel you have a good handle on the accuracy, but don’t toss out “bad” shots by assuming you messed up if you felt right when the trigger broke. Your setup could average 1 inch at 60 setup over 50 groups and you’re still going to see so groups over 2 inches and likely a few pushing 3. That said, you could have a 2 in setup and some of those groups are going to be under 3/4 in. Just keep shooting and if you’re happy with your average after 5-10 groups and you’re not seeing too much variation then you’re good to go.

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

👍👍

[@tiredpatriot5205]

Can you tell me what jig you are using to fletch your bolts?

[@archery365]

Matt, what degree of helical on those Q vanes are you using with the X1?

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

1 degree. Any more on a 3” vane and they rub. Pay attention if a 3” vane @ 1 degree gets a little jacked up (i.e. buries in a target and has memory), if you start getting crazy flight it’s probably because of that. If you want to be a little safer, I’ve had good results with 0.5 degree as well.

[@outdoors-fun]

I spine indexed mine and saw similar results as you. Some shot good, others i had to knock tune. Didnt make any sense to me...

[@roynorman5179]

It's a dead deer looks good

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Thanks, Roy!

[@kevinmartin2096]

Do you have a video of you building them?

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

I do not of the whole build process

[@cray-z7404]

I shoot a Centerpoint sniper 370 crossbow , my first crossbow and I shoot PILEDRIVER BOLTS & 125GR BROADHEADS... PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO DO , I FEEL LIKE MY ARROW IS SLOW ENOUGH AS IT IS NOW ... I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO SHOOT OUT TO 60 YARDS IF NEED BE ! I JUST DON'T WANT SLOW MY ARROW/ BOLT DOWN TO THE POINT THAT THE DEER BE IN NEXT COUNTY BEFORE MY BOLT ARRIVES 😆 FYI: " RANCH FAIRY" REFERED YOU !

[@outdoors-fun]

Ive got the 20in Carbon Express Piledriver bolts with a 100grain fixed Exodus broadhead. Have you found heavier inserts for the piledriver bolts? Thie I.D. appears to be slightly larger than all other bolts.

[@weekender38]

What glue did you use for the vanes and inserts? Very nice group at 60. With the Goat Tuff, what degree vane nest did you use, 1,2 or 3 degree?

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Actually planning on a video on this exact topic! But since you asked, 1 degree offset, Sirius fletching glue and Sirius 2-part insert epoxy.

[@weekender38]

@@draggindeeroutdoors Thanks for the info, keep the videos rolling please.

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

@@weekender38 will do! And thank you for the support!

[@boomerrangerron]

Great job and nice video! So what’s the effect with regards to the FOC and flight when you add a lighted nock?

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Thanks, Boomer! Lighted nocks are heavier which does negatively impact FOC, not by much though. Usually I see the same flight with them, but always shoot them (combined w/ broadheads) to make sure.

[@patpollack1109]

How do the plastic nocks hold up and how about lighted nocks

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Sirius nocks are great, no issues. No issues either with lighted nocks from Amazon. Latest video has a link!

[@jeffverduin4572]

I just upgraded to these bolts from the ten point bolts that came with the bow. However, I can not get them to bullet hole like the ten point bolts. Only 2 out of the 6 ten points bullet hole and none of these sirius bolts. I nock tuned and tried many point weights. As result, broadheads don’t fly straight. Any suggestions?

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Hey, Jeff! Shoot me an email, [e-mail]. We can go through the details of your setup and see if we can get those tuned in for ya.

[@landonlagree6363]

I’m brand new to the crossbow world. When I do arrow builds for my compound bows, I nock tune bare shaft through paper until I get the bullet hole. Can I nock tune a bolt bare shaft through paper? If my arrows aren’t flying straight with fletching(if none of the 3 work), rather than change point weight, can I just take the fletchings off and nock tune that way? Thank for the video as well as the advice!

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

I’ve heard a few people have tried nock tuning bareshaft, I personally have always done fletched nock tune on a crossbow.

[@landonlagree6363]

@@draggindeeroutdoors and if you don’t get lucky on one of the 3 fletchings being a bullet hole, what happens?

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

@@landonlagree6363 from my experience, pick the fletching position that is a vertical tear. Then add/subtract weight up front to get to a bullet hole. If you still struggle, bolt quality could be the issue. Higher quality bolts with tighter tolerances are much easier to tune compared to cheaper bolts. hope that helps!

[@landonlagree6363]

@@draggindeeroutdoors thank you. I have gold tip nitro pro(cut down to 20 in) with .001 so hopefully they work for me.

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

@@landonlagree6363 those should be just fine, very good bolt. Play around with em, I'm confident you can find a nock position and weight up front that shoots great out of your bow. Good Luck!

[@ronlongwellphoto]

Great video. Regarding spine-indexing, Dave at Wyvern Creations told me a while back in an email that spine indexing is of limited value for crossbow arrows. Basically, he says that when you spine-index raw shafts and then add inserts and vanes, it changes the way the arrow flexes. He says the best thing to do is just shoot them, and if you get a flyer, rotate the nock to a different vane down, which is what you did when you paper tuned. QUESTION -- what fletching jig did you use to fletch those? Thanks for another great video, and keep up the good work!

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Great info, thank you Minkslide. I know Wyvern knows his stuff so I’ll remember that on the next build 👍 As for the fletching jig, I used the Goat Tuff Crossbow jig. Love it, very easy to use.

[@ronlongwellphoto]

@@draggindeeroutdoors I wonder how it would work if you added inserts and nocks first, then spine-indexed them, and then added fletching. You'd have to add fletching after indexing, of course, or what's the point. But maybe that'd get us closer. I'm gonna build a spine indexer like you did. I'm planning on building a full set of Sirius Phoenix arrows for my crossbow (I've got a set of Apollos for my vertical bow that I LOVE), but I'll probably have to wait till next year for that.

[@kfranklin308]

Do you fletch with helical or offset?

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Yes, 1 degree offset

[@kfranklin308]

@@draggindeeroutdoors have you ever experimented with a 1-2 degree helical? I saw it as an option when ordering custom bolts. I’m curious if it would rub in the rail and cause inconsistent flight or perform better than offset.

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

@@kfranklin308 I haven't. 1 degree is the max I can do with a 3" vane in my swat X1.

[@kfranklin308]

@@draggindeeroutdoors how did you figure out your maximum offset? Just try different ones and when it starts touching the rail it’s too much?

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

@@kfranklin308 I had a couple of the 1 degree offset vanes get just a little messed up going to far into a target and they started rubbing.

[@rickeyalbright8633]

Great video what was your foc

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Thanks Rickey. I put everything in to the Gold Tip FOC calculator, came out to 20%.

[@rickeyalbright8633]

@@draggindeeroutdoors I shoot Black eagle executioner with 92 grain brass 50 grain fact weight 125 grain point total weight 485 grain 23.8 foc,

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

@@rickeyalbright8633 nice!! 👍

[@caninphx]

they weren't bullet holes.because your not actually finding the dynamic spine. all you are doing with that setup is checking the spine which does not correlate to how the shaft bends. completely different things.

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

You are right, Im not finding dynamic spine. I was however trying to find my strong side / weak side and fletch my cock vane on the strong side. Which, from what I’ve gathered, should translate to the best flight. Jerry from South Shore Achery does this, his custom bolts are arguably the best in the business. Still a lot of learning for me! Thanks for insight!

[@caninphx]

it doesn't correspond to the best flight. what your doing is finding the max/least defection in the spine. which is a very old school way of doing this and depends on how a particular manufacture layers the carbon and why you'll find you need to nock tune the arrows after this. if you find the dynamic spine, you are essentially nock tuning the shaft. I still check them but if I do 12.arrows .I may have one off that doesn't bullet hole thru paper. firenock makes a.jig for this, but you can build your own for relatively cheap. basically your bending the arrow and rotating it to find the high/low points and these do not always correspond to the seam of the arrow (some manufactures spiral carbon onto the mandrel when making them, alternate layers, etc). it takes practice to find the dynamic spine and on crossbow bolts the more you can bend the shaft the easier it is to find that bend.

[@michaellee793]

Just bought a set from Sirius myself this week after watching you do the RF bolt tuning process. Can’t wait to shoot them. Thanks for helping a newbie to hunting figure this stuff out. I am exclusive to crossbows. Love your channel. Keep it up. God bless.

[@michaellee793]

Just bought a set from Sirius myself this week after watching you do the RF bolt tuning process. Can’t wait to shoot them. Thanks for helping a newbie to hunting figure this stuff out. I am exclusive to crossbows. Love your channel. Keep it up. God bless.

[@draggindeeroutdoors]

Thank you, Michael! You won’t be disappointed in the Phoenix 👍👍