Horton Legacy X-Bow Review

Model	Draw Weight	Stroke	Velocity	Suggested Arrow Length	Crossbow Length / Weight
Horton Legacy Check Best Price	225 lbs.	15-3/8"	317 FPS How to sight a crossbow?	20"	37 to 40.5" / 7.8 lbs.

Pros:

• Adjustable AR-style stock
• Fantastic scope included
• Powerful and accurate

Cons:

• Incompatible with many universal rope cocking devices
• Horton is defunct, so no warranty service
• Noisy

Package Contents

Hello, and welcome to another crossbow review. Today, we are taking a look at the Horton Legacy CS crossbow. Each package delivered by Horton includes the following items:

• Horton Legacy CS 225 Crossbnow
• 4x32mm Mult-A-Range Scope
• Hunter Elite 3-arrow quiver
• Rope Cocking Device
• 3 Arrows with field tips

Once you’ve unboxed your shiny new crossbow, it’s time to put it together and put it through its paces.

Assembling the Horton Legacy Crossbow

Assembly of the Horton Legacy CS 225 is relatively easy and straightforward, and Horton’s instruction manual makes quick work of the process. You attach the prod to the riser, then mount the scope and quiver. I had my Legacy ready for the range within 20 minutes, so you should be able to get your shooting fix pretty quickly after you unbox the crossbow.

Accuracy And Power

The Horton Legacy is very powerful, and very accurate. The scope was sighted in out of the box, and I didn’t have to make any adjustments to it at all. Right out of the box, this crossbow is a nail driver!

From 50 yards, I was able to maintain 2” groupings, which is pretty impressive for such a traditional crossbow. At closer ranges, the accuracy is even better, allowing for 1” groupings out to 30 yards.

Dishing out almost 95 ft. lbs. of kinetic energy, I was flinging my arrows clear through my target from 25 yards, and embedding them pretty deep into the target even out to 50 yards. This puppy has some serious, raw power to it.

Hunting With This Crossbow

The true test of any crossbow is how it does in the field as a hunting crossbow, and the Legacy CS does not disappoint. It is lightweight, so easy on the back as you are hiking from your truck to your stand or blind, and is even comfortable enough for stalking deer along the deer paths. Like most crossbows, unfortunately, you’ll be hard pressed to bring this crossbow to bear on target from a small popup blind with narrow windows, but other than that, the crossbow is perfectly suited for hunting.

The power this crossbow dishes out makes it more than adequate for almost any legal North American game. I’ve brought home at least a half dozen deer shot with this crossbow, including a 12-point buck. I’ve also used the Legacy CS to hunt bear and moose, with success at every turn.

Cocking The Horton Legacy

The Horton Legacy CS has a back-breaking 225 pounds of draw weight, so you won’t be cocking this crossbow by hand. The included rope cocking device helps tremendously, but Horton has designed this crossbow such that it won’t work with many universal rope cocking devices. I’ve yet to find a mechanical cocking device that will work with the Legacy CS, either.

The Scope

The scope included with the Legacy CS is the same 4x32mm Mult-A-Range scope that I’ve come to rely on with many of my other crossbows. Horton did a good job with this scope, designing it with flawless eye relief and very clear, crisp optics. The light gathering capability of the scope is like nothing I’ve ever seen in an included scope, making the scope almost as useful in lowlight conditions as in full daylight.

The Mult-A-Range scope was sighted in out of the box, requiring no adjustments at all to zero it in on target. If you do have to adjust it, the windage and elevation knobs are easy to access and adjust.

Arrows

The Horton Legacy CS ships with three 20” arrows, but these aren’t useful for more than a few practice shots. They were destroyed within two rounds of target shooting, and I quickly moved on to my Firebolt arrows. With a 425-gr setup, you’ll have speeds of around 317 fps with enough kinetic energy to drop a bear.

Safety and Design

The adjustable AR-style stock is very nice, letting you adjust the total length of the crossbow to the most comfortable size for your frame. The open trigger guard makes it easy to use this crossbow, even with gloves on, so this crossbow is great for cold weather hunting.

The foregrip could, in my opinion, be a bit larger and longer to help keep your fingers away from the string, but I didn’t run into any problems with it.

The two drawbacks to this crossbow’s design are noise and a heavy trigger pull. Sure, it’s a bit front heavy, but aren’t all crossbows? Unfortunately, this crossbow is really loud, and the included string noise dampeners don’t help much. In fact, I removed them to get a few extra FPS out of the crossbow, and did not notice any difference in the noise.

The trigger pull is heavy, but not enough so to hamper my accuracy with the crossbow. If you are new to crossbow archery, though, the heavy trigger pull might hinder your own accuracy until you get used to it. Just practice with it (a lot), and you’ll get accustomed to the weight of the trigger pull.

Warranty

Since Horton is no longer in business, you won’t be able to get any warranty support from them on the Legacy CS. Some sellers are offering a 30-day warranty, replace or refund only, but even those offers are becoming fewer and more far between. If you purchase a Legacy CS, assume you will purchase it as-is, but rest assured that it is a high quality crossbow that drives the nails to target accurately and effectively each and every time.

Horton Legacy Summary

Thanks for reading our crossbow review of the Horton Legacy CS. This is a fine, traditional recurve crossbow with some excellent modern performance in the way of the adjustable AR-style stock. While you won’t have any warranty support on the crossbow, you can rest assured that it is well-built and will provide years of service to you. Take a look at Amazon.com’s great price on the Horton Legacy if you’re interested.