Recurve Crossbow - Wood penetration test 

I've coincidentally recently been testing crossbow penetration against wood too. I was using my 160lb Bobcat with 16" bolts with pointed field tip vs 12mm particle board. It went straight through & stuck out halfway down the bolt on the other side. I pulled them out to reveal several perfect 9mm diameter holes just like bullet holes but the exit wound was a different story. The force completely blew the back out half the depth of the particle board around 2" in diameter. I calculated the force to be approx. 58ft/lbs. I tried 2 layers of 12mm particle board & strangely double the depth cushioned the first layer resulting in the bolts not even going through the 1st board. My 200lb titan put the Bobcat to shame though. With approx. 140ft/lbs kinetic energy from a 21" pointed field tip bolt vs 3 layers of 12mm particle board it blew through all of them with energy to spare. Sad thing is I didn't have 4 layers to test. I suspect it wouldn't have made it through 4 as they seem to cushion each-other meaning that the added energy required to get though incremental layers is exponential, very scientific :-)

Wood is very tough stuff to get through - particularly when thicker than an inch. I generally avoid shooting with a wood backstop - a miss results in an arrow/bolt impossible to wiggle out without a chisel and hammer or drill bit. In regards to wood, I often have to facepalm when I read comments in forums like "my pistol crossbow will shoot through a 2" solid Oak door". Wood is very solid. I have shot all kinds of stuff at Lumber and it takes usually a firearm of some kind or a very strong compound bow/crossbow to plough through it.

Great tests, i might have to get the crossbow out for a vid soon as its nice weather now, great vid, nice seeing some new broad head tips too.

Enjoy you bow vids , I brought some matrix limbs and put them on a chance star bow (after cutting down the rail )that would go through...

You should make a shield with it now lol,good test liam

For a 170lbs compound crossbow as a wild bolt stop do you think 1 inch of timber wood / decking would stop the bolt should the bolt go wild and not hit the target

I am searching for a crossbow. I only have experience with the cobra pistol crossbow. I dont know if i should get a 120lbs or a 150lbs crossbow. My budget is 100 euro's. If i buy a crossbow i won't buy another in a couple of years. The budget crossbows in the netherlands are all mankung. Do you know a good crossbow for me?

The density of the wood play a big factor. You should of got a pork shoulder fer equal observation.

6 inch narrower than the standard, so about the as wide as the chance wind but over 100fps faster...

I took some of them corkscrew broadheads along onna hog hunting trip to france this summer i was using my centerpoint axiom with my gamo red dot that i re purposed from my gamo pt85 i took 5 sow and 4 boar all sold to a local game butcher anyway them heads are very effective on bodyshots i was getting full pass through with enough energy on the way out to stick into trees i took 4 headshots as i was sporadically walking and using the treestand as to cover a larger area the headshots were taken from the stand so the shot placement was spot on were the farmers boltgun them and they dropped like stones tjey are so bloody penatrative pigs skulls arent thin and at 29m mabey30 the xbow was lodging them pist the point another 6 inches and the impact noise sounded like a 22lr hitting rabbit on the body im defo bying more along with some decent shafts the bow deserves it and plus how cool do they look not only cool but effective aswell

lmao Liam, them bolts did the same thing to me on a test i had done before the head just pushed back into the bolt and i couldn't get the other one out good test good vid.

Do you know what the KE of each of those bows are? i would imagine if i tried that with my parker or carbon express it would go through

What bolts you using ?

93 93/93

1 more bult and you back out of it??? 175lb with the broadhead would have gone thro and would have been worth the loss... 👎