Barnett's most innovative crossbow models

Barnett Outdoors is the world's leading manufacturer of crossbows. As with many success stories, this one also started modestly. In 1958, a man named Bernard Barnett took up his hobby of crossbow work in his garage in the English town of Wolverton, where he constructed his first crossbow. A few years passed and Bernard Barnett began to gradually take orders from friends who were impressed by his work. They were amazed by the design that Bernard was coming up with and that's when it started. The reputation of his work grew and orders for crossbows came in from all over England, and in time from all over Europe.

In 1962, a crossbow manufacturing company was established under the name B&P BARNETT TRADING. From the UK, they expanded production facilities throughout Europe and eventually made their way to the United States where Bernard teamed up with his friend from Michigan as a partner and began distributing his high-quality crossbows in the United States. Americans immediately fell in love with his crossbows. Growth in the American market resulted in additional product lines, a more efficient manufacturing process, and cost reduction.

In 1980, the first American production was established. In the early 1980s, Bernard took a trip to Florida and fell in love with the sunny weather and the favorable business environment there. In 1983, he founded Barnett international Ltd. in Odessa, Florida. For the next two decades, both his factories in England and Florida operated simultaneously.

In 2003, Bernard closed the factory in England and moved all operations to the United States. Maintaining two production centers caused huge conflicts and tensions within the company, and production lines were frequently shut down. The shutdown of the factory in England gave the company a fresh start, and Barnett Crossbows hasn't looked back since. That's how the company's US operations finally settled down in 2003, until today.

Development and innovation of Barnett crossbow models

Some of the earliest models of recurve crossbows had metal limbs, sights and wooden stocks, such as the Barnett SilverShield crossbow. However, even then they had a timeless design with an ergonomically shaped wooden front grip. The big revolution in the first half of the 1970s was the Wildcat recurve crossbow model, which was the first to introduce a fiberglass limb to the market. This type of limbs made the weapon significantly lighter and increased the weapon's performance.

The current successors of these recurve models are the Wildcat and the Blackcat. These guns incorporate the latest in mechanical weapon technology and Barnett manufacturer patents such as TrigerTech - a redesigned trigger with safety, fiberglass limb, lightweight polymer stock, and much more.

Barnett has been the only one to come to market with unique patents first. In 1993, for example, he developed a unique and simple rope cocking system called the rope cocker which is used by all crossbow manufacturers today. You simply fold the rope in half on a precisely cut groove in the back of the crossbow stock and catch it with the claws on either side of the string along the rail. In this way, the draw weight is distributed using the physical phenomenon of a simple mechanical pulley, and the draw weight is reduced by about 50%.

Another innovation developed by this manufacturer was the crank cocking device. With this device, the draw weight when cocking today is reduced by a stunning 93%. He was the first to introduce a rubberized stirrup for lower noise, designed the stock and cheekpiece adjustments. In 2008, the first Predator crossbow model was released with an integrated stirrup in the crossbow riser, which minimized the length of the crossbow, and improved the efficiency of cocking and limb design. Today, these are the STR (step-through-riser) models with an integrated stirrup, such as the Whitetail hunter STR.

It was the first manufacturer to extend the draw length and trigger mechanism. In 2011, it was the first to construct a carbon riser that significantly lightened the weapon. The year 2017 brought the patent of the TriggerTech trigger mechanism, which significantly improves safety and performance.

In 2019, he introduced the Hyper Series crossbow models, which use the high-precision small-diameter carbon bolt Hyperflite (approx. .204" - 6.9 mm internal diameter).

Did you know that...

...Barnett was the first to patent a folding stirrup and a quick-clamping limb?

...as the first manufacturer it exceeded a crossbow velocity of 300 fps (91.44 m/s)?

Today it is one of the market leaders in the development and production of modern crossbows, which it innovates almost every year.

Barnett is the world's #1 crossbow manufacturer because it examines every aspect of every product. It carefully focuses on precision, safety, performance and all the details. And as they claim on their official website, “And, we're not done yet. We're sticking to the foundations of the heritage and brand tradition we've built, but we're moving towards innovation to continuously improve product performance and customer satisfaction."

We have a lot to look forward to!

Source: https://www.barnettcrossbows.com/legacy