Product ReviewsBarnett Predator AVI Crossbow

great crossbow for the money

great value for the money, crossbow came with everything you need to get started, easy to assemble and sight in. is accurate and very easy to use. it is a bit on the heavy side and had to shorten the rope on the cocking device. over all great product.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: unitedoutdoors

Needs modifications

The trigger has a lot of travel which I hate, so I made a shorter shaft between the trigger and cocking assembly and solved that problem, except that it made the trigger farther away, but well worth the trade. The bow is advertised as 9lbs, but when assembled it is a little over 11 lbs., and the scope rail is mounted on the cocking assembly which does not fit the stock tight, so it can easily be moved back and forth. There was already tape on each side of the coking assembly to shim it but it still wasn't tight enough, so I put some gorilla tape in there, fits much tighter now, and so far so good. I shot a doe through both shoulders at 30 yards and the arrow stuck well into the ground. The bow is fast and flat shooting, only about two inches low at 35 yards when zeroed at 20 ft., and the second line in the scope is 50 yards.
If you are not willing to work on those problems, or carry the extra weight, I would say don't buy it, but since I did work on it I am stuck with it.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: pine-mountain-a...

Outstandind value compared to others!

So far I have had a good experiance with Barnett's customer sevice! They are great! I had a problem, and they took great care of me! Now thats out of the way. I would recomend that they take a bit more effort with the owners manuals. Its a weak point. The O&M is not clear on some photos and explianations. The crossbow is unreal! I should have purchased the 350 ghost! more than enough crossboe for any north american game. the bow is loud, but scary fast and unbelievably accuate! I wish I knew what the body of the bow was made of. I did not see that in any description. I suspect its not aluminum. The carbon riser takes the weight off the front and makes the bow lighter and more of a rifle feel. very well balanced with the CRT riser. The price is good if the bow body is aluminum, but, if the body is plastic then the price is just fair. All said, the crossbow is a very nice unit, a bit too much power for the average deer hunter. The after market crank unit needs to be in the butt stock! not bolted on the buttend expised. the rubber saddle that hold the hook yoke stinks, its too narrow for the yole to stay put, it just falls off all the time. the rope cocker should be all thats needed for the average hunter. cocking crank device is too much trouble to use. ok for sighting in etc, but not for hunting.
So, good price, great accuracy! Too much speed and noise. But its a great crossbow compared to the others who's prices are idiotic!Read full review...

Fast,well made bow except for the cheap plastic bolt retainer.

I think im really gonna like this bow,it shoots faster than the eye can see and quieter than I expected.It is pretty heavy @ 9lbs and will take some practice shooting offhand but with a rest I believe it will be super acurate.I havent shot it alot though and the reason for that is my biggest complaint about the bow. I purchased it with only a couple weeks left in the season and was soo exited about taking a deer before it ended but while sighting it in one of the hooks on the cocking rope snagged on the plastic bolt retainer and snapped it like a twig.Every other crossbow Ive ever seen has a metal bolt retainer.Some pencil pusher @ Barnett probably thought it was a great idea to save a few pennies by using plastic on an otherwise very well made bow,--- that person is an idiot! I called customer service and learned that you cant even get a metal one for this bow and by the time I got the replacement part the season was over.Before next season I'll order a couple spares.Read full review...

good looking fast and well built piece of deer killing equipment.

I have hunted with a bow since 1974 with recurve,longbow, and multiple compounds and so I decided that I owed it to myself to try a crossbow, well first off this bow is amazingly fast sending my bolts with half showing out the back of my target at 40 yards ruining all my fletching's in 30 minutes.you must have a crossbow target!! don't even waste ur time shooting at some walmart special cube! you are only going to be buying new vanes.. compared to what I'm used to this bow is extremely heavy to tote around. make sure you are going to the stand and not planning on doing any stalking. if you are a speed freak then this bow is for you but if you like light weight easy to throw around types of bows then look on! it is bigger than it looks and bulky and I am 6ft tall and 205 lbs. I got it now but if I had it do over I would pay more attention to weight and size instead of speed..Man I killed a deer with my 45# recurve speed about 150-175 fps so you make the call. akin to carrying around a 50 caliber sniper rifle as opposed to a 7.5 lb Remmington 30.06 no matter what they say on features it weighs 9 lbs plus! enjoy! It's a killing machine! way to go Barnett!! you've done it again...Read full review...

Crossbow nice, reddot not so good

The Barnett predator crossbow is fast and accurate after replacing red dot with Nikon xrbolt scope. Red dot came to me with parts missing and quit working after 6 shots while trying to sight in. Barnett replaced the red dot, but that took 3 calls and 3 weeks of hunting season to do so. I became frustrated, and purchased the Nikon and I'm glad I did. Much better set up. The predator is on the heavy side at 9 pounds and after the problems with the red dot, and considering the weight, I believe another choice in crossbows would be better. I do not recommend this crossbow.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: poor_fish

Boo..should be called Barnet Ballista

Ordered online, came in mail with outside lens on scope already broken. Scope is somewhat useless in the darker hours, I would recommend getting one with lighted scope. My plastic arrow holder broke in box on shipment. The quiver attachment broke..made out of plastic. Im guessing it got ran over pre delivery, but....this thing is longer and heavier then I imagined. Took away holding the draw weight to holding the dead weight. It is fast for a ballista.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: pine-mountain-a...

Great bow for the price

I bought this crossbow to go deer hunting during archery season for the first time. I always wanted to go hunting during archery season but I wasn't able to use a compound bow because of a previous surgery. I really like this crossbow it is fast and accurate. Of course it took me a little time to get use to it, not having shot one before, but it didn't take me long to zero it in from 20 to 40 yards. The only thing about this product is it is a little heavy, (9 pounds) but all things considered, performance and price, you can't go wrong with this bow.Read full review...

powerful

bow is alittle heavy but using it in blind, I had trouble drawing compound this aloud me to still hunt.

Barnett Predator

Although an avid bow hunter this is my first crossbow. It was very easy to assemble. I under estimated the power of this bow and lost my first bolt after a pass through at 25yds of a cheaper foam block target. This crossbow is super fast and super flat shooting. It's quieter than other crossbows I've heard. My first day shooting it I grouped 3 bolts within 2" at 60 yds. The swivel screw on the stock pulled out the first time I attached a shoulder strap.
The limbs broke after about 35 shots just prior to opening day. Although Barnett replaced them I missed bow season. My hunting buddy bought a refurb predator from cabelas and his axels bent after 20 shots and it was returned. The crossbow has a lot of potential if they can re engineer the axels and limbs. I now shoot an Excalibur Equinox and am extremely pleased.Read full review...