CenterPoint Crossbow Bolts

Plenty of bolts will physically chamber in a CenterPoint. Chambering is not the same as being correct.

• Length. 20 inches is the CenterPoint standard across the compound line. A bolt that is too short can fail to seat properly against the string, and that is the single most common route to a dry-fire.
• Total weight. Around 400 grains including the field point is what these bows are tuned around. Going heavier slows the bolt and drops your point of impact; going lighter speeds it up and raises it. Either way you are re-sighting the scope.
• Nock type. Half-moon nocks have to be indexed correctly against the string. Flat nocks do not. Mixing them up is a safety issue, not a preference.

Get those three right and brand genuinely does not matter much. Get the nock wrong and the brand will not save you.

CenterPoint sells arrows through its own site - 20-inch, 400-grain carbon arrows in 3-packs and 6-packs, plus CP400 Select carbon arrows and replacement nocks - but those listings do not currently appear on Amazon under the CenterPoint brand. What is available on Amazon in the right specification comes from Carbon Express, TenPoint and a number of smaller carbon-arrow makers.

This is worth stating plainly because it is easy to buy a bolt assuming it is the factory item when it is not. Carbon Express PileDriver crossbolts, for example, are a widely bought 20-inch option with universal nocks, and they are a Carbon Express product rather than a CenterPoint one. That is not a problem, but you should know what you are ordering.

Lighted nocks make a bolt easy to follow and easy to find after a shot, which matters more in low light than most people expect. Two things to check before buying:

• Inside diameter. Lighted nocks are sold to fit a shaft diameter, commonly around .300 inch / 7.62 mm on standard crossbow shafts. The wrong diameter either will not seat or will not stay.
• Added weight. A lighted nock adds grains at the back of the bolt. It is a small change, but it is at the wrong end of the shaft for stability, so re-check your zero after fitting.

If your bow has an anti-dry-fire mechanism, also confirm the lighted nock does not interfere with it - that is model-specific and the listing will usually say.

Bolts ship with field points, and field points are for the range. A broadhead has surface area that a field point does not, which means it will plane in flight and print somewhere other than where your field points print - sometimes by a lot at 40 yards.

The practical rule is to sight in with field points, then shoot at least a few broadhead-tipped bolts at your hunting distance before the season and adjust from there. Keep the total weight the same between the two: a 100-grain field point and a 100-grain broadhead keep the bolt behaving consistently.

CenterPoint does sell its own Deadpoint broadheads, which are listed on Amazon under the CenterPoint brand. See the parts page for the rest of the CenterPoint-branded accessories that are actually available.

More than you think. Bolts are consumable in a way that new crossbow owners consistently underestimate: they get lost in undergrowth, they bury in targets and split on extraction, and two bolts that hit each other in a tight group are two bolts you are throwing away. A 6-pack is a starting point, not a season's supply.

Inspect carbon shafts before every session by flexing them slightly and listening - a cracked carbon shaft makes a distinct crackling sound and must be binned rather than shot. A shaft that fails on release is a genuine injury risk.