Buying crossbow bolts is fun because you don’t have many chances to buy gear that will touch a game animal while it’s still alive. The bolts you buy make a huge impact on how the hunt plays out and the quality of the practice sessions you get in. There many great options on the market these days so it's important that you equip yourself with the best crossbow bolts available.
The 4 Best Crossbow Bolts
Crossbow Bolts | Summary |
|---|---|
Hands down the best croosbow bolts | |
Best crossbow bolts for the money | |
Features the Blood Ring which is very useful | |
Best for decocking a crossbow, not for hunting |
Arrows vs Bolts
The differences between arrows and bolts may not seem like a big deal because when you first look at them, they look exactly the same. They are in fact very different. Confusing the two is very dangerous and could be a lethal mistake. Here are the biggest differences:
Diameter: The diameter of crossbow bolts is much larger than on arrows. They need extra strength to handle the velocity and power put out by modern crossbows.
Length: Crossbow bolts are much shorter, usually along the lines of 10-14” shorter than arrows.
Inserts: The inserts on crossbows are made larger to fit the larger diameter of the crossbow bolts.
Nocks: Nocks on crossbow bolts are either half-moon, or flat nocks. Neither clip onto the bow string like on a vertical bow arrow.
Spine: Bolt spine isn’t as critical as arrow spine, but you cannot use arrows in a crossbow. The spine is critical for accuracy and safety to get right.
Arrow Spine
Arrow spine represents the resistance to vibration an arrow has when it’s launched from a bow. The vibrations make the arrow shake violently and these vibrations can damage the arrow or bolts. Getting this spine wrong at best can lead to inconsistencies, damaged equipment and poor accuracy. At worst, it can lead to a catastrophic malfunction and an exploded carbon fiber arrow buried in your neck.
How Many Bolts Should You Buy?
Buying crossbow bolts is a fun time because you’re selecting the most important part of your archery set up. It’s tempting to buy extremely cheap bolts because you can buy a whole bunch to practice with. Getting up and down every 5 or 10 seconds is annoying and will prevent you from having decent practice.
The answer is to buy enough bolts. Buying at least 12 bolts will leave you with enough to practice with, and plenty to keep in reserve for hunting. Practicing enough to be competent with your crossbow will be hard on your bolts and you want to make sure the ones you use in the field will be up to the task of performing on game.
Crossbow Bolt Reviews
Now that you understand the difference between arrows and bolts, lets take a closer look at the top crossbow bolts on the market:
Carbon Express Maxima Hunter Fletched Buff Tuff + Carbon Crossbolt (and R2 Vanes)
Want the Ferrari of crossbow bolts? Need performance in spades with no time to spare? Order a box of the Carbon Express Maxima Hunter crossbow bolts. These are without a doubt some of the absolute best carbon fiber crossbow bolts on the market. They’re an intelligent, technology driven design that add features you never knew you wanted.
For starters, they feature a straightness tolerance of ± 0.0025". That is roughly half of what most crossbow bolts offer. That straightness and consistency is what powers these bolts from the get go. You can rely on the bolts to fly true out to extended ranges while still being accurate and consistent from shot to shot.
These bolts make for the most consistent arrows because of their BuffTuff construction. It is a proprietary process that controls how they laminate the carbon fiber that makes for a layered construction stiffer and heavier forward of center to make the bolts balance and fly more effectively.
That forward of center weight construction is paired with R2 vanes, an advanced fletching that has unique geometry that controls the arrow in flight and stabilizes it faster, and controls it better.
These bolts certainly aren’t cheap. They’re priced per the technology they bring to your setup but are a steal compared to pricing the individual components and combining them to make as good a package you can buy here. It even comes wrapped up in Mossy Oak Treestand camouflage.
They are available in 20” and 22” in length with half-moon nock inserted and universal flat nocks to make these sweet bolts work with every crossbow made. Take advantage of these bolts as they’ll take the performance of your crossbow to a new level without being too expensive and out of reach.
Carbon Express Pile Driver
The Carbon Express Pile Driver is a great value option for crossbow bolts. They’re the heaviest crossbow bolts that Carbon Express makes and weigh in at 440gr. Their weight, before adding a broadhead, will allow them to penetrate deeply and be tough enough to stay together after dozens of shots through practice sessions.
They offer respectable straightness tolerance of +/- 0.004 max. With their combined weight and straightness they make great short range thumpers for bows that shoot around 300fps. If they were straighter then they’d be more consistent, but easily double the cost. With that in mind, keep the shots short until you’ve proven your setup to ranges beyond 45 yards.
Their 4-fletching design comes with traditional 4” vanes to stabilize the bolts in flight and with standard arrow inserts upfront. They need the big vanes because their weight to length ratio is high and hard to stabilize in flight and be accurate.
The Pile Drivers are available in 22” and 20” bolts sized for crossbows of all sizes. They come in a six pack of arrows with half-moon nocks installed, as well as flat nocks to be compatible with all brands and crossbow designs.
These crossbow bolts are a great value option for general hunting of deer sized medium game. They’ve long been a favorite of serious crossbow hunters because they can be called upon for countless range sessions and when it counts still have enough muscle and be ready to take game.
Bloodsport Carbon Bolts
Bloodsport arrows have made a name for themselves by incorporating features that make them heads and tails above others. Instead of slightly tweaking their arrows to make them better, they’ve included entirely new features while putting out high quality arrows and keeping the cost reasonable
Their biggest feature they called the "Blood Ring" is a strip of white material that soaks up blood, stomach contents or other bodily fluids and displays them against the white background. The benefit of this is to tell you if you made a good hit. If you make a liver shot and dark blood and bile shows up on the blood ring, you know that you should wait before trailing, a possible hunt saving decision.
These bolts are sorted at the factory for straightness, weight and consistency and come with traditional vanes, glued in inserts and half-moon nocks. They’re a decent price and are a good choice for people wanting a great all around bolt with the special blood ring features found only on Bloodsport arrows.
The bolts are 100 carbon fiber and weigh 355gr without a broadhead or field point. You can depend on these for performance in just about every crossbow on the market. All you must do is choose between the 20” model and the 22” model.
Carbon Express 22-Inch Crossbow Release Bolt
Sooner or later you’ll have a hunt where you don’t fire a shot. This means you’ll have a crossbow that needs to be let off, but you can’t dry fire it, and you don’t want to lose an arrow and broadhead in the woods. The answer is to either lug around a heavy, bulky archery target or to carry a decking arrow in your quiver, or kept in your truck.
These bolts are made to be fired into the ground a few feet in front of you. They’re made for extra heavy duty construction and have a stopped where the broadhead or field point would go to stop the bolt from driving into the ground. When buying one of these durability is a major concern because it literally takes the brunt of all the energy the crossbow can dish out.
This model from Carbon Express is 22” long, has an extra heavy fiberglass body and hardened steel tip with rubber stopper. The vanes of the bolt are brightly colored to make sure you can find it and comes with a half-moon nock.
Only a few dollars will get you one of these to make sure you’re taking care of your equipment and being safe. These decocking bolts are still lethal and will kill a person but should never be used for hunting. They’re strictly made for decocking a crossbow in the field when no target is available and are a great resource to take advantage of.
Crossbow bolts are the only parts of your gear that will actually touch the animal before it’s dead. That is an extremely important job. You need use the best crossbow bolts you can get your hands on. This will make hunting much easier because you’ll have much more confidence in your gear leaving you to just relax, and enjoy your hunt.
