A good strong knife may cut a stray arrow out of a tree, trim the thread on the serving in the field, skin or gralloch (opening the stomach cavity using ones fingers to prevent puncture to the intestines) the quarry. Folding knives have their own advantage. Their use is more discreet, sparing on the machismo. Worn in a secure belt-pouch, they are generally perceived as much safer than their rigid cousins when use aboard floating craft, in vehicles on rough terrain or on horseback. However, they can also have mechanisms which can fail, blades which close on fingers, and may be too slow to deploy when needed urgently. In such circumstance, it pays to get the best.

[Read the rest of this article...]

The GT Flex crossbow is made by U.S. Crossbowyer TenPoint, but they label it “SixPoint” a logo type reserved for bows marketed within the lower end of their price range. Interesting as that may seem, anyone who reads my reviews will know that I recognize and applaud high quality; what is less well known is that I warn companies to take care over what they send me. If they want a good review it had better be a good product. And there, on my doorstep, I see an inexpensive bow from a company famed as the marketer of the Cadillac of crossbows. Inexpensive is a relative term, but the GT Flex is around a third of the price of some.

The box felt light. In it was a crossbow in two main parts, a recurve prod and a mainframe with stock attached, and some bits and pieces...

[Read the rest of this article...]

One cold Winter’s afternoon a few years ago, I was over at Bow-Plus, the pro-shop that imports crossbows to Britain for my reviews, talking over a coffee with owner Dave Horder about crossbow that might be interesting to review, and he told me about the reverse-draw concept bow mad by Jim Kempf, whom he had met at one of the international shows. Essentially, the reverse-draw concept involved mounting the prod of what was a compound crossbow with the string on the target side of the riser, implying that the string was, as it were, pushed towards the riser instead of pulled away from it as one does when drawing a conventional bow. Dave reported that, on the prototype, the standard of engineering was high, the design radical and the performance seemed good. He also advised that Jim Kempf was a very pleasant man and I should get in touch with him.

[Read the rest of this article...]