CenterPoint Crank Cocking Devices

If the string is drawn even slightly off-centre, it sits marginally differently in the latch, and the bolt leaves with a marginally different amount of energy on each side. At 20 yards you will not notice. At 40 yards it shows up as vertical spread that no amount of scope adjustment will fix, because the problem is not where the bow is pointed - it is what the bow is doing at release.

This is why hand-cocking a 185 pound crossbow is a bad idea even for people strong enough to do it. It is not the weight, it is that no two hand-pulls are identical. A rope cocker halves the felt weight and pulls both sides together. A crank does the same thing and removes the strength element entirely.

CenterPoint sells two cocking devices on Amazon under its own brand:

• Power Draw Crossbow Crank. The general-purpose CenterPoint crank and by a wide margin the most-reviewed CenterPoint accessory available. This is the default answer for most of the line.
• Wrath 430 Silent Cranking Device. Model-specific to the Wrath 430, and built around being quiet rather than merely mechanical. Worth the premium if you cock in a treestand with animals nearby, which is exactly the moment a ratcheting crank announces you.

Some CenterPoint packages ship with a crank already fitted - the AT400 crank-assist package is one - so check what your bow came with before buying. A second crank is not useful.

A rope cocker is a simple pulley: two hooks, a cord and two handles. It roughly halves the felt draw weight and, critically, pulls both sides of the string evenly. For a lot of owners that is genuinely all that is needed.

The case for staying with a rope:

• It weighs almost nothing and lives in a pocket
• There is nothing to break or jam
• It is a fraction of the price of a crank
• It is fast - a crank takes noticeably longer to wind

The case for upgrading to a crank: shoulder or back problems, a draw weight at the top of the range, cocking in a confined treestand where you cannot get the leverage a rope needs, or simply wanting the cocking stroke taken out of the equation entirely.

Cranks are not universal. They mount to the stock, so fit depends on your stock design rather than on the bow's speed rating, and a crank sold as compatible with one CenterPoint may not mount to another. Check the listing against your specific model, and check whether your stock has the mounting provision at all - some do not.

Also worth knowing before the first use: a crank has to be wound fully until the string latches, and then wound back out. Stopping partway and letting go is how people damage both the crank and themselves. Read the instructions once before you are standing in the dark with cold hands.

The part people forget. A cocked crossbow has to be un-cocked at the end of the day, and on most CenterPoint models the answer is to shoot a bolt into a target rather than to attempt to release the string by hand. Carry a de-cocking bolt for exactly that purpose and shoot it into something safe.

Some cranks support controlled de-cocking by winding backwards - check whether yours does before assuming it. Attempting to hand-release a latched 185 pound crossbow is one of the genuinely dangerous things you can do with one.