This is my latest huntsman completed. I have used the stirrup and wedge system to hold the prod and foot stirrup in place. It allows for easy transportation and hold the prod firmly in position. The bow is 250 lb , with a rolling nut and tickler, the stock is made from Kiaat and African black wood.
Its new owner has chronographed it at +- 163fps with a 600 grain arrow. i found during my testing that it was very consistent and accurate
This is the new offering from Masai. A 250 lb draw at 8 in. I have redesigned the the prod to improve speed and power transfer to the bolt, its lighter than the 400 lb but now with similar power and speed. It is a dream to shoot and is accurate. A full independent review will be available soon.
Having the correct arrow or bolt is vital, weather it comes to compound bows or traditional one, crossbows, modern or not. Is seems to be accepted that a bolt with a weight of about 2 grams (30.8 grains) per pound of prod draw weight is a good place to start. Bolts which are to light can cause damage to the prod and the bow string, often breaking the string at the knocks, light bolts don’t absorb the energy from the prod efficiently ether, causing your crossbow to sound loud and not imparting the kinetic energy and momentum to the projectile which it is capable of. You can go the other way , with a bolt which is to heavy, giving slow flight and a massive trajectory, neither of which are good for hunting. A slow bolt speed gives the target time to move, causing a miss all together, or worse, wounding it.
The idea is to find the middle ground, good speed, but with the weight to quieten the crossbow, and to help keep the bolt on track in windy conditions.
The bolts which i build are made from Balu , a heavy wood, stable and strait.It take a very smooth Finnish and i am yet to break one, even shooting into a 50mm board of Meranti from 20m. If im looking for more weight, i insert one into the shaft before gluing on the point or broad head, this gives the added benefit of increasing the forward of center of the bolt.( distance from the back of the bolt to where it balances on a knife edge) My current hunting bolts are at 17% FOC, and i get great flight, even with my 160 grain ace broad-heads. 4 or 5in feathers are the only way to go when it comes to fetching.
When building bolts, i treat them the same as my crossbows, only accepting the finest strait shafts, and finishing them with the same quality’s, with either field points or broadheads as required.
Masai Traditional Crossbows, was born out of the love of archery, for a need to be different and for the challenge.
All Masai bows are hand crafted from the finest materials and to the highest tolerances, using only African wood for the tiller and high quality spring steel for the prod. Based on the medieval crossbow , and using the same trigger system, but with changes to the shape of the tiller to give it its unique design.
The Huntsman is the first style of crossbow that i build, it was designed primarily with hunting in mind. It can be shot from the shoulder, or the cheek , the more traditional way, and is easy to handle while out hunting. It is very stable and easy to point to target. If target shooting is your game, the huntsman is quite at home here to.
This Huntsman 400 shoot a 620 grain bolt at 230 fps, that’s more than 70 foot lb of kinetic energy and has a tiller of Kiaat and African Black wood.I am currently working on a Huntsman 250, with a Rhodesian Teak tiller. Photos and specs coming soon.
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Masai Traditional Crossbows 