Unpacking a New Parker Tornado.

  Now is the time to be buying your new crossbow. Dealers with older stock now want to move it out and will often provide year-end sale prices. This enables the customer to get a good crossbow for less money.

  Another advantage in getting a crossbow in March, long before deer season, is to enable you to actually “learn” your crossbow before taking it on its first hunt. As a writer I am often handed a crossbow or gun, allowed to take two shots and then put out to kill something.  I have shot hundreds of muzzleloaders and scores of crossbows and can often kill an animal with an unfamilure hunting tool.

  However, this is not the recommended method; particularly, for those who have never used a crossbow. Get your crossbow now while you have  time to really learn to use it.

  The Tornado, around $700, is an impressive crossbow. It has narrow-profile limbs and a shortened over-all length due to its “bull-pup” design which moves the trigger towards the front of the crossbow. This trigger relocation enables the barrel to be shortened by 2-inches and the reversed cams effectively provide another 2- inches of barrel length. Another feature of this crossbow is that the string sits above the deck which reduces wear and the need to frequently wax the deck. The result is an easy-to-cock, light-weight crossbow with an excellent trigger pull and an arrow speed of over 320 fps. 

  The video sent with the crossbow reduced the some-assembly-required terrors. Two screws were missing from the package, but I had some  American Standard fine-threaded screws that worked. The crossbow was easy to sight in using the scope.  

  Turkey season is coming up, I have some of those new guillotine points, I was drawn for a turkey-hunting area with a good population of birds and  maybe I will get lucky. Stay tuned. This crossbow is going to get to take something interesting this year.

  This crossbow was furnished by the manufacturer.