I don’t know about you, but I never come off looking my best if I buy something branded as “one size fits all.” The reason is probably quite obvious: everyone is different. And that is the focus of this series of blogs, designed to help would-be buyers decide on the best Steambow set-up for their situation.
This is by no means set in stone. Ultimately, you, the buyer, can decide what to get, and your reasons are your own. With that said, given that Steambow has pretty much the only modular repeating crossbow platform on the market, you might be unsure where to start.
What to get based on where you live
So this blog series will come at the problem from a number of directions. The first and most crucial is legality. Quite simply, are crossbows legal to own and buy where you live? Are there power limitations? If the answer to all that is yes, you might be out of luck.
But for the purposes of argument, this blog will look at the situation from the point of view of an Austrian buyer, living according to Austrian law. You, the reader, should check if your own country of residence sees things differently from Steambow’s home country.
Austria: friend of shooting sports and disciplines
At the risk of sounding smug, Austria is a pretty great place to live by European standards on shooting disciplines. That’s not to say you can swan into any given shop and buy a “phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range” as once requested by a famous Austrian son. But it is fair to say that Austrian laws are infused with a healthy dose of common sense.
Don’t take these as legal text, but here is a rough overview of what is ok and what is not:
You can practice archery-based sports on public grounds provided no one is in danger. That’s not to say you can rock up to the middle of a park and set up your target because the general public also has the right to not feel ill at ease. But, if there is a more secluded part of a park, that does not have lots of “traffic” there’s a case for setting up there and shooting some bullseyes at a safe distance.
You can shoot on private property, as long as you have the landowner’s permission, so if there is a farm nearby with a nice fallow field, a kind word to the farmer can mean a nice day of twanging your bowstring. It also means that, if you and some friends want to set up a sort of competitive shooting course, you can do so. As with all the above, if you exercise common sense, you can enjoy the hobby. If you do it carelessly, you might get complaints or a fine if the police get involved.
With that in mind, the next topic and most relevant is location, location, location. If you don’t have an environment available to shoot in safely, the chances are a crossbow will be ornamental. Nothing wrong with having a crossbow purely for the aesthetic, but it does mean you don’t need to worry about design and performance considerations: just what you like to gaze at. Finally, we will talk about personal limitations.
In this blog, the location to contend with is apartment living. As with the EU average, around 50% of Austrians live in a flat. And a flat also usually means living in a built-up area. So, a smaller environment, indoors, and with limited, if any, private outdoor space, where a crossbow would be an option.
Make your living room your shooting range
Based on the above, and assuming that you don’t have someone's garden you can use whenever the mood takes you, we’re going to build a crossbow around the idea of indoor shooting. Just under a year ago, there was a blog about how to shoot indoors safely, and if this current blog applies to you, I strongly recommend having a look at that one, too.
As an apartment can be more confined and certainly won’t have great distances to shoot over, the choice of initial Steambow configurations should focus on the Compact or Tactical lowers. Certainly, the Survival, with its potential for mounting a scope, might be a redundant choice.
But with either the Compact or Tactical lower, you have a choice of the AR-6 integral magazine with its 6-shot capacity between reloads or the soon-to-be-released M10 detachable box magazine with its faster reload and 10-shot capacity. In terms of cost, the AR-6 Compact is the cheapest, with the AR-6 Tactical and M10 Tactical following on, respectively.
Indoor priorities differ
Next comes the question of power. Steambow offers a staggering six limbs to choose from at 35-lb, 55-lb, 75-lb, 90-lb, 120-lb, and 150-lb draw weights. Of those, the 35-lb limb is standard with the AR-6 Compact, 55 lbs for the AR-6 Tactical, and 75 lbs for the M10 Tactical.
At this point, it is worth pointing out that Steambow offers excellent targets that are just right for stopping the shorter-than-most AR-Series arrows, regardless of which limb power is used and all without the vanes reaching the material. So, if you never miss, you can pretty much use what you want in terms of power. But never missing is just not a reality for most of us. And if you miss your target in the indoor environment of your home, you’ll be making an unplanned visit to the home improvement store because something will be damaged.
In actual fact, as discussed in the indoor safety blog referenced earlier, this is a serious issue. If you miss your target and you are shooting more powerful limbs, you run the very real risk of over-penetration, where the projectile passes through something that you don’t want it to— passing through a drywall or bedroom door is entirely possible.
For that reason, for indoor-only shooting, we recommend the lower-power 35-lb or 55-lb limbs. And because all of Steambow’s limbs are interchangeable, it doesn’t matter if you decide to go for the Compact or Tactical lower, either limb will fit either frame. Going higher in draw weight only wears out the string faster, and increases the risk of arrow damage and the over-penetration described above. And there’s no way for you to enjoy the increased range such stronger limbs would offer outside. So what’s the point?
Other considerations
So, the Compact or Tactical, with the AR-6 or M10, but ideally with the 55 or 35-lb limbs. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have understood that if you opt for the M10 Tactical, with its standard 75-lb limb, it would mean buying a lower-power limb from Steambow to increase safety. That obviously means added expense. However, the M10 Tactical kit comes with something the others do not. At least not without upgrading.
This crossbow kit comes with Steambow’s Quick Detach frame. While you can swap the limbs of any frame, the quick detach frame lets you do in one minute what would take you five normally. So if you replace the limb it is super easy with the added bonus of having a crossbow that you can take down into two parts very easily, for storage or transport. In the case of the regular Compact or Tactical lowers, you can buy that same Quick Detach frame separately to enjoy the same benefits.
Beyond the bow
With the crossbow itself reviewed, what remains is to discuss the projectiles and any aiming devices. For indoors, the best choice of arrow is the target arrow. It doesn’t do excessive damage to the target and will penetrate any other surfaces the least possible, compared to high-penetration options like the bodkin arrows. On top of that, they come in packs of ten: the largest number of arrows in any Steambow pack. The premium target arrows come in light and heavy variants, and for even less chance of damage, should your arrow stray, the light version is recommended. For aiming, the standard sights are entirely suitable for short-range indoor use, but for extra fun, Steambow’s two laser sights are an option, too, if legal in your country.
Whatever you choose, just always remember that shooting when others are in the environment, especially kids or pets, is strongly discouraged unless you know exactly where they are at all times. Apply this logic and follow the tips in the linked post above, and you can have lots of fun in your own home. And for a clearer idea of Steambow’s range, visit the webshop.
