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Since 2017, Ravin has been a crossbow brand synonymous with blistering speed, long-range accuracy, and radical new design. I’ve been testing their newest model, the LR, all winter. It isn’t as radical or as fast as some of Ravin’s more recent models, but it is a better crossbow. Here’s the scoop.
Ravin LR Crossbow Specs
Speed: 448.3 fps average (tested on Garmin Xero Chronograph)
Weight: 10 lbs, 10 oz (with accessories)
Trigger Weight: 1 lb, 15 oz.
Stock: Adjustable Composite
Cam System: HeliCoil
Cocking System: VersaDraw
Scope: 1-8x24 Adjustable Turret
Tested Accuracy: 3-inch average groups @ 75 yards
Price: $2,550, with accessories
Ravin LR Crossbow Overview
The LR incorporates key technologies that made Ravin so successful to begin with. That’s actually a departure from two of the brand’s more recent, and more radical, designs, the R500 and R18, both of which were interesting but neither of which was a home run.
The R500 was the first production 500 feet-per-second crossbow, and I was initially impressed with it after testing. But the cocking mechanism was delicate and prone to malfunctioning. My wife had a catastrophic failure with an R500 in the field that cost her a hell of a nice buck. She wasn’t injured, fortunately, but the crossbow was ruined. There was also a recall on more than 13,000 R500s last March.
The tiny R18 is a much different design from the R500 (and every other crossbow on the market). It has the signature “archway” limbs and VertiCoil cam system. I tested one extensively and had no problems whatsoever with it, but with a reflex sight and design that was almost too compact, it didn’t have the accuracy I’d want for a serious hunting crossbow.
The LR is unlike either of those. Instead, it’s most similar to the R29X in function and performance, which is a good thing. The R29X has been on the market for years; it won our 2020 crossbow test and is, as far as I’m concerned, one of the best crossbows ever made by any brand.
Like the R29X, the LR uses the HeliCoil cam and the VersaDraw cocking systems, which are the two technologies that put Ravin on the map. The HeliCoil cams rotate 340 degrees, allowing for high speed in a compact design. Extra cables keep the cams level at full draw for enhanced accuracy.
The VersaDraw makes cocking the LR easy, and with a familiar process to long-time Ravin shooters. Flip the tension switch in the stock, slide the cocking mechanism down the rail, click it to the string, and then wind it back up into the receiver with the cranking device, using the handle that you can then store in the LR’s stock. It’s smooth and silent, and if you stop winding during the cycle, the handle will not spin out of control.
Once the crossbow is cocked, you do not need to “back-wind” the handle to release tension. Just remove the handle, load a bolt, and proceed to shooting. The LR is easy to de-cock as well. You should hold on to the cranking handle while doing it, but there is a safety brake in the event that you let go. Simply flip the switch on the stock again to keep lowering.
The stock is the primary design difference between the LR and R29X. It’s longer (34 inches end to end), heavier (just under 11 pounds with accessories), and more rigid, with an easily adjustable length of pull and cheek comb. The LR also has a full-length picatinny optic rail on top, and a shorter one on bottom for mounting a bipod (or a spotlight for hunting hogs, gators, vampires, and such in the dark).
The LR package also includes Ravin’s new Adjustable Turret Scope. The 1-8x24 optic has a 30mm-diameter tube and illuminated reticle. It isn’t perfect—more on that in a bit—but it works, and it allows the scope’s magnification dial to be adjusted without affecting holdover points in the reticle. Unlike traditional second focal-plane crossbow scopes, the Adjustable Turret Scope has a clean Duplex-style reticle with a dot in the center.
The LR uses standard Ravin’s standard 20-inch, 400-grain (with field point) arrows, which have high-impact brass inserts and nock bushings, Blazer vanes, and rigid nocks that must be audibly clipped onto the string. The LR has the Frictionless Flight System arrow rest, which suspends the arrow above the crossbow’s barrel, contacting it by ball bearings just ahead of the nock and just behind the insert. This reduces arrow contact with the barrel and contributes to Ravin’s reputation for accuracy. A quiver and scope level are also included in the accessory package.
Ravin LR Test Results
Pros
Outstanding accuracy
Plenty of speed
Great trigger
High quality
Cons
Long and heavy
The scope isn’t my favorite
I tested the crossbow on my range in Kentucky, using a BOG DeathGrip tripod for a rest, with Morrell Yellow Jacket Kinetic and High Roller targets. I used a Lyman digital scale for measuring trigger pull weight and a Garmin Xero chronograph for recording velocities. Average speeds were just over 448 fps, and the trigger broke at 1 pound, 15 ounces.
This crossbow was a shooter, with one-hole groups at 30 yards being the norm and 75-yard groups only opening up to 3 inches. When you’re practicing, it’s best pick different spots on the target for every shot unless you like buying new arrows.
Extreme speeds can create issues with broadhead flight, which is why I think manufacturers are taking a step back from 500-fps models at the moment. Most crossbows will shoot OK with mechanical broadheads, but I like fixed-blades better. How a crossbow shoots with a fixed 3-blade is a pretty good litmus test for broadhead accuracy potential in general. With the LR, I screwed on a couple 100-grain Wasp Havalons, one of my favorite broadheads, and found virtually no difference in the point of impact between them and field points out to 40 yards. That’s a major plus.
The crossbow is heavy, but it’s supposed to be—and if you remember the crossbows of a decade ago, it’s tough to call this one “bulky” with a straight face. Do I want to carry an 11-pound package through the elk woods? Of course not—but then, I don’t want to carry any crossbow through the elk woods. For hunting from ground blinds, shooting houses, and treestands, the LR is perfectly manageable.
My only real critique of this crossbow is in the scope, which I want to clearly say is still a pretty damn good system. But if, when you read “adjustable turret,” you’re hoping for a smooth system like a CDS dial on a nice Leupold rifle scope, then this one is disappointing. The cap is simply a cover for the elevation adjustment dial, to which you can add a yardage tape, similar to a slider compound bow sight. Several tapes are supplied with the scope to match various velocities. I paired mine with the 448-fps tape, and the marks were good to 50 yards. By 70 yards, though, my arrows were hitting about 3 inches above the intended spot. To be fair, I was shooting on a blustery day, which isn’t ideal for long-range crossbow shooting, and the Ravin manual clearly says that individual fine tuning should be done to find the perfect tape for your bow. If I were setting this scope up for hunting, I’d start with a blank tape and make my own marks to precisely match my personal rangefinder out to the distance I’d be shooting.
The ability to adjust the magnification on this scope without affecting your zero at longer ranges is an advantage in the woods. Several times I’ve found myself in a treestand with a crossbow scope stuck on 6-power, because that’s what I needed to create the proper holdover gaps between the yardage marks. Six-power isn’t ideal when a whitetail surprises you at 15 yards.
Some folks—often western hunters—like yardage tapes on their bow sights while hunting. They should like this. Personally, I prefer a few fixed pins. It’s one thing to dial a riflescope turret on a 300-yard mule deer that’s standing in the open. It’s another to have to dial when a big whitetail is charging across a food plot toward a thicket after a doe. I think of crossbows mostly as whitetail tools and in that scenario, I suppose I’d rather have yardage marks in my scope. The good thing is, you could easily swap scopes on this crossbow if you wanted.
That is a minor criticism, however, and one largely based on a personal hunting preference. Your takeaway from this review should be this: The Ravin LR is a hell of a good crossbow, one of the best I’ve tested in a long time.
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