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Reviews here:
Above top secret forum Very impressive
Factory sightThis really is a far better pistol than the 50# (some say it is really 45#) one made in China, but
there have been a few shortcuts taken. The front and rear sights, the
dovetail rear mount are plastic. In itself not exactly bad, but the
rear sight is in my opinion
crap. The slightest bump causes the rear sight to move right or left.
I removed both and replaced them with
a Center Point laser sight ($29 at Walmart). My laser sight was
supposed to come with self-sticking pads for the remote switch, but did
not.
Assembly
Check all screws for tightness. Some were loose from the factory.
When installing the prod, I used double sided carpet tape to hold the
rubber cushions in place. If you don't have the tape, use contact
cement or silicone sealant. Makes assembly much easier.
The
instructions recommend having a friend help when you string the prod.
Even with the frame mounted in the bench vise it was not easy with two
people doing it.
Be careful! There
are two white lines in the prod to help get it centered in the stock,
but I recommend using a rule to make sure the ends of the prod are the
same distance from the frame.
The next modification was to take a file to the corners of the dovetail. They were very sharp.
The right hand side gold colored guide had a sharp edge on it. 660 grit wet or dry was used to smooth it, then 1500 grit.
Low
on the priority list is the checkering on the pistol grips. A little
too sharp for my taste. Some fine sandpaper will correct that. I
believe the more comfortable a weapon is to hold and fire, the better
you will do with it.
Shoulder stockIt
is simply a piece of PVC
pipe slipped over the cocking lever with a butt plate made from pine.
There were several considerations before choosing the PVC pipe:
1. Drilling holes in the cocking lever would weaken it, so that was ruled out.
2. It has to be comfortable and not too much in the way when cocking the pistol.
3. A metal tube slipped over the cocking lever would gouge the plastic lever.
This is not the look I was hoping for, but it works great.
A couple of rubber bands on the PVC tube make a handy place to store spare bolts without interfering with cocking.
The
tube is 1" PVC pipe, the butt is soft pine with a hardwood dowel glued
in it so the screw has something to grab onto. The butt stock does not
interfere with cocking, which was my greatest concern. My 87 year old
father can now
hold it steady. Perhaps steadier than I can. The allen wrenches for the
sight and prod can be stored
in the tube along with a tube of Chapstick.
For
non-broadhead bolts, a couple of rubber bands were wrapped around the
PVC tube to store 8 or more bolts. Simply pull them out (forward) for
use. I had thought of a number of more complicated methods and may do
one of those for broadhead storage.
LubricantThe
bowstring came with substantial beeswax lubricant. Cleaning that and
the bolt groove with alcohol then lubricating it with Chapstick (lip
balm) raised the point of impact at 15 feet by 1.5 inches.
(Careful with the alcohol... it tries to remove the black paint.)
Raising the point of impact tells us the velocity is greater, and
penetration was a little deeper. Cocking is easier and smoother.
Sliding the bolt in the groove by hand will tell you there is
much
less drag than there was with beeswax. Chapstick was also applied to
the gold guide rails where the cocking arms slide. A tiny drop of
synthetic oil was applied to the pivots on the cocking mechanism to
prolong their life.
UPDATE
I am getting poor string life with the chapstick. While it works fine
with the 50# bow, it looks like beeswax is needed for the more powerful
80# bow.
I
have settled on Murray's 100% natural beeswax from Autralia as a lube.
It was found in the Dollar Store in the hair-care section at a super
bargain compared to commerciaL bowstring wax. It seems much thinner
than beeswax I remember from beehives. But that is fine because I don't
want a lot of bowstring drag. I think
it is far better than Chapstick lipbalm as a lube, so I pulled the
stick out of the Chapstick tube and packed it with beeswax. Much
handier since I can store it in the shoulderstock tube.
SafetyThe
safety works in reverse of the 50# bow. I.E., pushing it forward allows
it to fire. That is much handier for hunting. It operated smoothly from
the factory, so no modifications were made. However, it automatically
goes to the safe position every time it is cocked. I may disable that
on the repeating version. Also, there is a catch for the cocking lever
that has to be pressed when cocking. That would also slow down rapid
fire with a repeater. I will have to think on that some more.
BoltsThe
plastic bolts that are standard for the 50# bow are not recommended for
the 80#. Though I can't find any such recommendation now. They work
just fine and may be slightly more accurate than the ones that cam with
the 80# bow. The scale tells me they are almost twice as heavy as the
all aluminum ones that come with the Cobra. If you are interested in long range use these.
UPDATE
I now know a good reason why not to use the cheaper all plastic bolts.
The 80# bow is powerful enough to mushroom the back end of the bolt
after only a few shots. That caused a few misfeeds in the new
repeater when the rear of the bolts failed to drop down because
the stick
in the magazine follower after just 2 shots. A few bolts were destroyed
in testing.

Mushrooming shown (exaggerated)
Laser sightI used a Centerpoint Model CPO 427 sight from Walmart @ $29. The Crosman 0420 seems similar for slightly higher ($31.90)
here is oneShort Bolts

These
are standard aluminum bolts shortened to 3 1/2" long. They give better
accuracy, better penetration at a distance, but a little less
penetration close range.

I can put quite few in my shirt pocket. The down side is they are harder to find in the field.
Note in the above photo the short bolts made a tear to the left of the hole.
This is because of skew, shown below exaggerated.

The solution is to place a strips of paper (shown in
red)
behind the prod to make the string at 90° to the limb. You can tell
when it is correct when the bolts enter the target straight. This is
important if you want maximum power and accuracy. It would be worth
making a few short bolts just to make sure the string is correct.
I
have worn the serving off the center of the string several times while
getting the bugs and sharp corners on the pistol smoothed out. The
first re-serving was 20# Dacron. Did not last very long. The second and
third were of 60# braided Dacron use for fishing. So far it is great!
From the worn string serving I learned that these areas MUST be smooth.
The smoother, the better.

View looking down on the string slot.
A couple of excellent tutorials to bowstring making (and repairing the serving)Moorabbin Archery Club Making a Flemish twist bowstring
Ten shot 80# repeater shown with laser sight, shown without detachable shoulder stock.
More Cobra TweaksShoulder Stock Quiver