Blog Entries tagged 'gadgets'

Setting your 2nd Axis - Making sure you bubble is level

amaro_jason@hotmail.com — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:32:32 +0100

I hope everybody had a great and safe Memorial Day. If you are a Veteran, thank you for your service.

You may have been hearing a lot of buzz around setting your 3rd axis. Well, that is great and we should set the 3rd axis but you might be asking yourself, “What is the 2nd axis and should I worry about it?” Well, yes you should worry about your 2nd axis. The 2nd axis is basically making sure that the bubble on your sight is level. It is really pretty easy to check. If you bubble is not giving you the correct reading, what could happen? It can lead you to induce bow torque into your grip, and it will lead to basic inaccuracy. There are two basic ways; one is more reliable and the other is kind of cheesy.

Okay the first and IMO best way to set you 2nd axis is to place your bow in a bow vise. Then use a 4 ft carpenter’s level and place it against the limb pockets or limbs of your bow. Gently press the level against the bow until the bubble on your carpenter’s level is indicating that your level and bow are perfectly vertical. Now look at the bubble on your sight. This will show you how canted your sight is. Now you can adjust your bubble and make it square. My Spot Hogg has 2nd axis adjustments but if you sight doesn’t you will need to shim it somehow.

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The other and kind of cheesy way is to place your bow in a door jam. Theoretically your door jam should be straight up and down… Now you can adjust your sight accordingly. I know, I know pretty cheesy and I don’t use this method but in a pinch it just might work.

Take Care….

Remember, “Long shots and Stiff Arrows”

J-

Oh... I almost forgot, why was I messing around with my 2nd axis. Well, I was setting up the Blackhawk. So far it has been shooting pretty well. I am still getting some string stretch and my peep is rotating but I am thinking that should come to a halt pretty soon. If it doesn't I will be replacing the sting. I also noticed that my riser is significantly thicker than my Hoyt's Riser. I don't think it causes any problems but it has to add weight to the bow, I going to call Parker and see what they say. Below are a picture of my Bear at 50 yards. Again, nothng too special but alot of fun.

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Product Review - BowPlane

amaro_jason@hotmail.com — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:14:59 +0100

As many of you know I have been in the process of setting up my Blackhawk Bow from Parker. Rather than stumbling thru the process I decided I would tune first then shoot. Always looking for the latest and greatest I setout to find some tools that would help me in thru the process. Other than the usual tools, I found a neat little product called the BowPlane2 by Double Take Archery.

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This tool is basically an arrow that has a laser in it that projects a laser beam 360 degrees. The idea is that your string, your cams, and your pins should all be in the same plane. It is a pretty simple concept.

So how does it work? Well, you nock the tool just like you would nock a traditional squaring tool, if you have a drop way you will need to prop it up if it doesn’t lock up. Then you rotate the laser so it aligns with the STRING first. Then you can move your arrow rest left or right to adjust for your centershot. Then you can lock your rest down. Then you can move your attention to the site. Look at your pins, if you site is adjusted correctly the laser should run up and down all the pins. If they are canted you will need to adjust the 2nd and 3rd Axis of your site.

As you can see it is pretty easy, overall I think it is a pretty good tool for setting up a bow and for quickly verifying that everything on you bow is straight. It is a little expensive but if you have issues with cam lean it will be worth its weight in gold. Would I buy one? Well, I did so I guess that is a yes.

NOW.. How would I improve it? At first, I thought maybe if they added a bubble to the tool somehow they could get the relationship between the rest and your nocking point perfect but after talking with Stu Minica, from Double Take, he mentioned that they have tried it but the issue is that a bubble working on the concept of the bow being absolutely square so they didn’t really think that you gained anything by adding it.

So how did my tuning efforts go with the Parker? They went pretty well, this is the quickest I have ever setup a bow. Once the string breaks in I will re-tune and see how much things have change. After the 2nd tuning I will open up the bow and see how it shoots at longer ranges with broadheads That will be the true test.

Once again thanks for everything and take care

J-

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Trail Cam Pics - Lion and Deer

amaro_jason@hotmail.com — Sat, 10 May 2008 23:29:40 +0100

Last year I drew a really good tag and I knew I had to the opportunity to take a really nice Coues deer. Knowing this I really pulled out all the stops on my yearly scouting.

Hello Little Lady

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The unit that I drew is pretty big; the big problem is that everybody pretty much hunts the area that I call the BIG THREE. It is a series of three mountains and if you know anything about hunting it is pretty obvious where to setup your stands and blinds. My goal was to find an area off of these mountains and hopefully find myself a little honey hole; I was planning on having at least two cameras in the field at all times. I would check each camera every other week. So I had a plan now I needed to execute.

So I purchased a few cameras and I hung them. To be honest my first camera sites were pretty weak. I had a ton cow ass pictures but that was it. I knew that deer were in the area, I just needed to find them. For me I found that my most productive spots were on trails leading to water. During mid-summer I found a spot that had everything I was looking for; there was a solid water source, it was away from the typical hunting areas and it was REMOTE. I will post more pictures later but these two are my favorite. Look at the times when the pictures were taken.

RUN SISTER, RUN!!!!!!

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PS... I think I called this lion in this spring... more on that later..

Take Care

J--

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