Another wallet-friendly crossbow; the CenterPoint Mercenary 390. It’s a budget model from CenterPoint with an adjustable cheek piece and butt stock that shoots arrows at 390 feet per second!
We recently reviewed the Barnett Whitetail Hunter II, a budget crossbow for beginners. We were looking around for a similar priced crossbow with even better features and came across the CenterPoint Mercenary 390!
Table of Contents
CenterPoint Mercenary 390 Crossbow Features
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Package Contents
- CenterPoint Mercenary 390 Riser
- CenterPoint Mercenary 390 Stock
- 4x32mm scope
- Oversized foot-stirrup
- Whisper Silencing System™
- Three 20-inch 300-grains carbon arrows
- Three 100-grains field tips
- Quick detach parallel quiver
- Rope cocker
- Rail lube
First Impressions / Size and Weight
The CenterPoint Mercenary 390 comes in at a total length of 35.8 inches. It’s equipped with an adjustable cheek piece and an adjustable MIL-SPEC AR-style rear stock. You can adjust the slide from 0 to 5 to shorten or lengthen the stock by up to 5 inches!
It’s a pretty lightweight crossbow for such a powerful crossbow, the Mercenary 390 weighs 7.8 pounds with all accessories mounted. Uncocked this crossbow measures 18 inches wide and when fully cocked 14 inches wide.
CenterPoint built the rails from aluminum and installed a CNC-machined aluminum cam system on the Mercenary 390 to keep it as lightweight and as durable as possible.
For a comfortable grip, CenterPoint installed ergonomic grips. The pass-through foregrip on this crossbow is also rubberized for a comfortable hold. Because of the oversized finger guards, you’ll never get your fingers near the flight path or string and cables.
Arrows and Speed
With a kinetic energy of 135 fpe the Mercenary 390 can shoot arrows at up to 390 feet per second (duh).
CenterPoint offers three 20 inch 300-grains carbon arrows with 100-grains field points with the Mercenary 390. These arrows come with half-moon nocks.
If you’re looking for more arrows for the Mercenary 390, I highly recommend you to take a look at the Reegox 20-inch arrows, paired with Sinbadteck’s hunting broadheads you’ve got yourself a very cheap and effective hunting crossbow!
Reegox Arrows
Sinbadteck Hunting Broadheads
Of course, you’ll also get a quick detach parallel quiver with your crossbow. It’s a simple and lightweight quiver that holds 4 arrows securely in place.
Scope
The scope that comes with the Mercenary 390 is an illuminated 4×32 mm scope. You can choose between red or green illumination. Because of the multi-coated lens, the field of view is very clear.
This scope is rated to be water-, fog- and shockproof. Unfortunately, the scope does not come with lens covers. I ordered these separately.
Cocking
The CenterPoint Mercenary 390 has a draw-weight of about 185 pounds. Included with this crossbow package is a rope-cocker. By using the rope-cocker you’ll reduce the draw-weight by up to 50%!
CenterPoint also made this crossbow crank-cocking compatible. CenterPoint designed the “Power Draw Rope Cranking Device”. This cranking device reduces the effort to cock the Mercenary 390 by up to 70%!
You can get this crank-cocking device on Amazon for around $80.
Trigger and Safety Features
The trigger on the Mercenary 390 has an anti-dry fire and auto engaging safety switch. It’s a safe to use crossbow for youth, beginners and experienced hunters! Once you’ve fully cocked the crossbow, the safety switch auto engages.
The trigger on this crossbow has a pretty long trigger creep of about 0.5 to 0.75 inches. Once you’re used to the creep, the trigger is smooth and has a light break of only 3.5 pounds.
Assembly and Sighting-In
CenterPoint offers this crossbow as a single bolt assembly to keep the crossbow from being nose-heavy. This means that you have to assemble the crossbow yourself. Assembling this crossbow should not take you more than 15 minutes, even for beginners.
First install the riser to the stock, then install the foot-stirrup and quiver. Lastly mount the scope to the crossbow. Optionally you can adjust the butt-stock or cheek piece to your preference.
Sighting in the scope is pretty easy to do as well, just follow the instructions that come with the scope. It took me less than 5 shots to fully zero in the scope.
Range Test
I took the Mercenary 390 to the range for a thorough test. After sighting in and shooting the Mercenary 390 a couple times, I was happily surprised.
It’s a very well-balanced crossbow, not nose-heavy at all. With the “whisper silencing system” pre-installed, it’s also a very quiet crossbow. The whisper silencing system contains of limb dampeners and string silencers. Paired with the rail mounted string stops, they help to keep vibrations and noise at an absolute minimum!
Cocking this crossbow with the provided rope-cocking device is still fairly easy. CenterPoint’s rope-cocking device has t-handles for a good grip. It’s best to keep the rope as short as possible, this will greatly help your ability to cock this crossbow as smooth as possible. Especially shorter people will benefit from this trick!
As I do not own the CenterPoint Power Draw Crank, I couldn’t review the crank-cocking device for the Mercenary 390. If you do opt for the crank-cocking device, I recommend you to first take a look at the Amazon customer reviews.
If you already have experience with sighting scopes, then sighting in the scope of the Mercenary should be very easy to do. After sighting in the Mercenary 390, I managed to get groups of below 1.5 inches at 50-yards. It’s a very accurate and powerful crossbow!
Of course, I also did a speed-test with the Mercenary 390. I tested the speeds of the included 20-inch carbon arrows first. They weighed just over 400-grains and I saw speeds of 380 to 384 feet per second.
I also speed-tested the Mercenary 390 with the Reegox 20-inch arrows. They weighed a total of 425 grains with the carbon points and it came in at 375 to 378 feet per second. You should reach speeds of 380 to 385 feet per second with the Reegox arrows and Sinbadteck’s hunting broadheads. The standard field-tips with the Reegox arrows are ~125-grains and the hunting broadheads from Sinbadteck only weigh around 100-grains!
Storage
We always recommend to store your crossbow in a case specifically designed for your crossbow. If the manufacturer does not offer a case for your crossbow, make sure to find one that fits properly.
CenterPoint does offer a crossbow case for that fits the Mercenary 390. It’s a soft-padded bag with a detachable padded shoulder sling for easy carrying and best protection of your crossbow. You can store your accessories in a separate pocket and your arrows in a separate semi-rigid arrow compartment.
CenterPoint sells their Archery soft padded bag for $59.99 on their official website, but you can get it on Amazon for a much cheaper price!
Final Rating
CenterPoint Mercenary 390 Rating
Summary
CenterPoint’s Mercenary 390 is a powerful, accurate and well-made crossbow for under $400! Compared to the Barnett Whitetail hunter II, the Mercenary 390 is faster, has a better scope and is even more accurate! Out of the box the Mercenary 390 also comes with the whisper silencing system which reduces the noise greatly. All in all, the Mercenary 390 is an absolute beast!
What we like
- Cheap
- 390 FPS
- Accurate
- Quiet
- 5-Year Warranty
What we don’t like
- Trigger has a little creep
- Adjustable stock can rattle a bit
