Excalibur released the Bulldog 440 for the hunters that have the need for speed. The Excalibur Bulldog 440 is a high-performance recurve crossbow that offers insane speeds of 440 feet per second and doesn’t need the maintenance a compound crossbow needs.
Excalibur is a Canadian brand that has a highly respected name in the crossbow market and year after year they produce high quality crossbows. Their crossbows are known to be long lasting, highly accurate, very powerful and for their reliability. We’re always very excited to shoot an Excalibur crossbow, shooting a recurve crossbow with this much power should be fun!
Today we’re going to review the Excalibur Bulldog 440. We try to cover all the features of this crossbow, if you still have a question please use the comment section so that we can publicly answer your question and others can then see the answer as well.
Table of Contents
Excalibur Bulldog 440 Crossbow Features
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Size and Weight
Note: Recurve crossbows tend to be a lot bigger than compound crossbows.
The Excalibur Bulldog 440 has a total length of 35.75 inches. While this isn’t a big size at all for a recurve crossbow, compound crossbows like the Ravin R29X Sniper or the TenPoint Vapor RS470 only measure a total length of around 30 inches.
Cocked the Excalibur Bulldog 440 measures 23 inches and de-cocked it measures 30 inches. This is actually quite big for a crossbow. It’s a lot easier to maneuver in bushy areas or in a tree-stand with a compound crossbow. Still, the Bulldog 440 is one of the fastest and most powerful recurve crossbows out there.
One of the things that helps achieving that goal, is equipping the stock with bigger limbs. Bigger limbs = more power on a recurve crossbow. Therefor Excalibur couldn’t make the Bulldog 440 bow any smaller or more compact.
Even though the Excalibur Bulldog 440 is a pretty big crossbow, it only weighs 6.2 lbs. That’s really lightweight for these sizes. The Excalibur Bulldog 440 is equipped with a lightweight stock made of impact-resistant composite. The rails are of course made of extremely solid and hardened aluminum. Thanks to the open stock, even more weight is saved without sacrificing durability.
This crossbow is a bullpup design which means that the trigger is more forward so that everything is shorter. So, this is a very compact recurve crossbow with an insane speed and the durability of Excalibur!
It also allows the crossbow to be better balanced, resulting in higher accuracy when shooting.
Speed and Arrows
The name already gives it away, but the Excalibur Bulldog 440 can shoot arrows at up to 440 feet per second! Excalibur made one of the fastest shooting recurve crossbows currently available on the market.
While testing the speed of the Excalibur Bulldog 440, we saw that it actually shoots faster than the advertised speed. We managed to get 449 feet per second out of this crossbow.
The package includes 4 x 18-inch Proflight arrows, 3 x 18-inch Illuminated Proflight arrows with Orange lumenok and 6 Rocket Ultimate Steel 100gr. Crossbow Broadheads. Included is also a 4 Arrow Detachable Quiver.
Excalibur recommends to only shoot the Bulldog 440 with arrows that have a minimum weight of 350 grains. Due to the immense force that the Excalibur Bulldog 440 generates, we actually recommend shooting with a heavier bolt. You’ll be giving up some speed, but you’ll make up more in gain of kinetic energy.
Nolan from Borkholder Archery explains it really well in his video. He also shows how accurate the Bulldog 440 is:
Scope
Excalibur equipped the Bulldog 440 with a Hawke XB30 PRO Illuminated Crossbow Scope. This scope is really good to get out of the box. Some of the crossbows just get released with worthless scopes.
The Hawke XB30 PRO is a really good scope and perfect for crossbows that can shoot arrows at up to 450 feet per second. Once you’ve sighted the scope in at 20 yards, the variable power magnification system, functioning as a speed ring, can be used to calibrate the scope to the speed of the bow to provide even 10-yard aim points out to 100 yards.
Assembling and Disassembling
Assembling Excalibur crossbows has always been an easy task. The Excalibur Bulldog 440 is the same. Once you’ve taken it out of the box, putting it together only takes about 5mins.
Excalibur’s Bulldog 440 doesn’t come as a ready to hunt package, so you still have to assemble the crossbow yourself. You only need a few tools like an Allen wrench and a flat-head screwdriver.
Disassembling the Excalibur Bulldog 440 to easily take it with you takes only a couple minutes once you’re used to it. The Assassin line from Excalibur has a “take-down” feature. The Excalibur Assassin 400 TD is very easy to take apart using the clicking mechanisms. Most crossbow hunters don’t care that much about this feature, it’s a personal preference.
The Excalibur Bulldog 440 comes with the Excalibur Ex-Shield Crossbow Soft Case. You can easily store your Bulldog 440 in this case without taking the crossbow apart.
Cocking
Cocking the crossbow is actually really easy with the crank that Excalibur supplies with it. Excalibur delivered a Charger EXT Crank with the Bulldog 440. Using the Charger EXT Crank, you only need about 15 lbs. of power to cock the crossbow.
Crank-cocking the Excalibur Bulldog 440 is also dead silent! The Charger EXT Crank doesn’t make a sound when you cock it. It doesn’t even click when it’s fully cocked. You’ll have to check the string yourself.
Excalibur really delivered with the Charger EXT Crank. It’s much easier to crank the Bulldog 440 with the Charger EXT Crank than a rope cocker. 300 lbs. of draw weight isn’t nothing… You can spend more time out hunting, no more back aches!
Shooting and Trigger
Excalibur really impressed us with the Pro-shot ACP trigger on the Bulldog 440. This 2stage adjustable frictionless 3 lb. no creep trigger almost feels like shooting a gun!
Whether you want a clean breaking 1 stage trigger or a longer 2 stage hunting trigger that let’s you feel the break, this trigger is guaranteed to make you a better shooter.
When shooting the Excalibur Bulldog 440, be prepared for some recoil. The Bulldog 440 is a very powerful crossbow, it has a draw weight of 300 lbs.
Excalibur builds Guardian Anti-Dry-Fire Technology into the Bulldog 400 crossbows. The anti-dry fire mechanism makes sure you can’t shoot without an arrow.
Noise
Excalibur has done a great job in making the Bulldog 440 as quiet as possibly can. The Excalibur Bulldog 440 comes with a sound deadening system pre-installed. The Sound Deadening System is engineered to eliminate noise and shock throughout the string, limbs, and stirrup for silent shooting.
Pre-installed on the Bulldog 440 are also the Excalibur Air Brakes. These silencers reduce the sound of a shot up to 8 decibels and absorb part of the energy of the recoil. This gives a quieter and smoother shot. The Air Brakes are shipped pre-installed.
Cocking the Excalibur Bulldog 440 is also very silent. The EXT crank that Excalibur delivers with the Bulldog 440 is very easy to use and makes no sound at all. It doesn’t even “click” like other crossbows when you’ve fully cocked it…
Package Contents
- Stock: Bullpup
- Hawke XB30 PRO Illuminated Crossbow Scope
- 4 x 18″ Proflight Arrows
- 3 x 18″ Illuminated Proflight Arrows (Orange Lumenok)
- Six Rocket Ultimate Steel 100gr. Crossbow Broadheads
- 4 Arrow Detachable Quiver
- Replacement Stringer Tool
- Replacement Matrix String
- Excalibur Sound Deadening System (Installed)
- Excalibur Air Brakes (Installed)
- Charger EXT Crank
- Pro Shot ACP Trigger
- Excalibur Ex-Shield Crossbow Soft Case
- Ex-Slick Rail Oil
Note: This is for the Excalibur Bulldog 440 Crossbow PRO Package.
Conclusion
Final Rating of the Excalibur Bulldog 440
Summary
If you’re looking for a silent, powerful, accurate, durable recurve crossbow, then the Excalibur Bulldog 440 is a crossbow you’ll definitely have to check out! Excalibur’s Bulldog 440 is one of the most powerful recurve crossbows currently on the market, it’ll perform under any circumstance!
Pros
- Fast and Powerful Recurve Crossbow
- Silent Cocking
- Silent Shooting
- Lightweight
- Pro-Shot ACP Trigger
- Recurve Maintenance
- Pro Package Contains Everything You Need
Cons
- Pretty big compared to a compound crossbow
The Excalibur Bulldog 440 is also an excellent choice if you’re looking for a powerful crossbow without all the maintenance that a compound crossbow requires.
Excalibur also made sure this is a very safe crossbow. It has a built-in anti-dry fire mechanism. Preventing you from (accidentally) shooting the crossbow without an arrow loaded.
The Excalibur Bulldog 440 Crossbow PRO Package includes a lot of extras which is surely worth the money.
