Blog Entries tagged 'setting up a new bow'

Shannon's First Deer

amaro_jason@hotmail.com — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:00:00 +0100

Hey Everybody....

If you guys have been keeping tabs on my blog you know that I love to post about first time hunters.� It doesn't matter if it is a kid or an adult, there is something awesome about a first bowkill.

Shannon killed her first doe this year and she is hooked.� She sent me the story and pictures below.

GREAT JOB Shannon!!!!

J-

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I did not grow up in a hunting household like most huntresses. I grew up in San Diego and spent my time showing horses and hanging out at the beach. I always wanted to learn how to hunt but I did not have anyone to show me or take me. I did express interest to my father, and he taught me how to shoot and take care of firearms, which drove my passion to learn more. I attended Oregon State University where I majored in Public Relations. For elective classes I took forest management, animal sciences and other agricultural classes. My passion to learn more about hunting and game management grew. After college I was blessed to land a job in the hunting industry. I was recently invited to hunt with Vicki Cinaciarulo and her Posse members for an episode of Archer�s Choice TV.

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I was so pumped when I received my Hoyt Kobalt for the hunt. I practiced every day for the hunt. I made sure everything was ready to go, and spent many hours at the local archery shop.

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When I arrived in St. Louis I was meeting up with three other Posse members from Archer's Choice Media. When I got to baggage claim they were already filming! I probably had the deer in headlights look, but they were very welcoming. We drove about 2 hours Eagle Lakes Outfitters in the legendary Pike County. When we arrived Vicki and her film crew was there. Ralph had been there a few days before and decorated the girl's bunkhouse with witches hats and broomsticks they also got scream masks and other goodies.

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Every huntress got her own cameraman. The huntress line-up included myself, Vicki, Dusty Perillo (Posse member), Meegan Turnbeaugh (Posse member) and Tina Sprague, the outfitter's wife. I was teamed up with cameraman Zendal. Zendal wanted to see me shoot before we got into the field. He totally turned my bow upside down from what I am used to. He upped my poundage, changed my release, added a D-loop and switched me to the 100 grain Hell Raiser broadheads. I thought he was nuts changing so much before a hunt, but my groups proved that he knew what he was doing. I went from 5-inch groups to nearly taking the fletching off my arrows they were so close! Throughout the week I learned from him how to identify scrapes, judge the size of buck's racks, judge the age of a deer and how to move about my stand in a stealth way.

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Tuesday it POURED rain on us! We had flash flood warnings. What was nice about the rain was that it brought a cold front and the deer really started moving. I saw a lot of 2 � year old bucks that would have scored around 115-120. The outfitter required that you can only shoot bucks 130 and over. I learned a lot about whitetail management. I am excited to go back to Eagle Lakes in the next few years. The 2-� year olds I saw were very healthy and I can only image what they will look like in a year!

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I went to this amazing spot on top of a mountain one night. I saw the biggest whitetail I have ever seen in person. He was at 130 yards, his back was to me, when he put his head down to feed all I saw were antlers on both sides...he was huge! I got pretty excited, but it was 45 minutes until camera light would be out and I knew he wouldn't feed that far. I was stoked to find a spot where shooters were hanging out (there were other nice looking shooters feeding with the monster). My master plan for bagging a big buck crashed when Dusty hunted that same spot and shot a buck, they searched for it that evening with no luck. They found it mid-morning the next day about 100 yards from where she shot it. However, the guides were ALL over that spot, guaranteeing that the big boys will stay in hiding for about a week.

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Still, I was so happy and excited for her because it was her first buck with her compound bow! It was a huge celebration for the entire group! If we could, we would probably do back flips for her! The camaraderie between us was unlike anything I have ever experienced.

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By the middle of the week, I saw plenty of deer, but they were either at the other end of a food plot, camera light ran out before legal shooting light or too small of a rack to shoot. Thursday morning I was sitting on the edge of a clover food plot. Zendal was looking into the woods while I looked into the food plot. A doe came in at about 7 yards, Zendal slowly creeped the camera around the tree and was like "Shannon get ready!" Once he was locked on the doe he goes "Shannon ready....Shannon?" I was asleep!! He woke me up and pointed at the doe. I was alarmed/shocked/tired so I quietly got up and drew my bow. The doe saw me draw and decided she needed to go to the other end of the food plot. AHH!!! We got a pretty good laugh about it!

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Thursday night a pack of wild dogs ran through where I was sitting, putting all the deer on edge. I was pretty bummed because at this point everyone but me has shot something.

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Friday morning was a bust, so I changed my flight since the outfitter offered me to stay longer. Friday afternoon I sat on a special food plot. Only Tina, the outfitter's wife hunts that spot. It was overlooking more clover and neighbored a cornfield. An hour before sundown a doe comes in eating the acorns at 14 yards. I didn�t need to use my Nikon Archer�s Choice rangefinder; I knew the deer was close! Zendal said, "That deer better have spikes or it is going down!" Sure enough it was an older doe. I drew back and waited for her to step in my shooting lane and let my arrow fly.

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I cannot describe the flood of emotions I had when I saw my arrow hit her. As I watched her sprint away into the field and across the street I was a shaking heavy breathing mess! I had to sit down my adrenalin was so intense! I think one of the first things I said was "That felt amazing!" I have never big game gun hunted, but I don't think I could get the same rush as I did with my bow! It was such an intimate experience!

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I glassed the field for my arrow, and Zendal was like, "look down." My arrow went right through her and rested where she once stood! So glad I switched to the Hell Raisers! We looked at my shot and saw that I was about two inches behind the lungs and that we will wait until morning to track her.

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Most people would be up pacing all night worrying about finding their deer. I was so emotionally drained I slept like a rock! I also had a lot of confidence in my guides and just knew we would find her in the morning. The next morning we found a good blood trail. She was about 125 yards from where I shot her. I was so happy!

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With TV, I learned that shooting isn't the hard part, but having to reenact the events was work. I had to reenact talking with the guide about waiting to track my deer (even though we found her and I was excited about it). I'm not good at acting, so we had to do a few takes.

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Archer's Choice came into this hunt planning for one show, but they decided it is going to be a 2-part episode because every girl got a kill on camera.

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I still have my buck tag and one more doe tag. Vicki and the Eagle Lakes Outfitters said I can come back sometime in November when the deer are moving to try my luck again. I am so pumped about going back!

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Eagle Lakes and Archer�s Choice will hold a special place in my heart. This was my first big game AND bow kill. I find myself wanting to chase that rush I got when I shot my doe. I�m hooked for life!

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For more information about Archer�s Choice go to www.archerschoicemedia.com

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For more information about Eagle Lakes Outfitters go to

www.eaglelakesoutfitters.com

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Parker Bow Review Part 3

amaro_jason@hotmail.com — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:00:00 +0100

As promissed here is the update...

Well, I got the new cam and mod in the mail in a very timely manner. They also sent a new string and cable. So I went down to my local bowshop called the Backwoodsman just to shoot the breeze and to replace everything. I must admit it wasn't too bad but it did take some work. I was not able to use the mod that they sent me because it just didn't fit. So on the bow I have the new cam with the old mod. Hopefully, this will cure the string biting issue.

I will let you know how things go as I start to break in the string and start the retuning process.

J-

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Contest - Are you Committed to Change?

amaro_jason@hotmail.com — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:49:20 +0100

It is often said that 10% of the people take 90% of the game. While I don't know if that statistic is correct, I do know that some hunters are consistently successful. So it leads us to the question, what are they doing differently than the rest of us? Do they go to church more often? Did they sell there soul to the devil? What do they have in common that leads them to be more successful ?

One of the things that I think these hunters do is that they are always self -evaluating and pushing themselves to be better hunters. Not only during the month leading up to there hunts but they are doing it all year. They are committed.

Bowhunters are like everybody else, we don't like change. We get stuck in ruts and we stay there. We go out and shoot our 25 arrows three times a week because that is what we have done for years. We sit in the same old non-productive tree stands year after year because we haven't done our homework and we haven't found a better spot.

I am guilty of it, this year I sat a spring that had a lot of deer activity during the summer but it shut down during the hunting season. Why did I sit so long? I am not sure, maybe I thought the deer would show up for me or maybe I felt that I had invested a ton of time in the area and I became too committed to the stand. I was having a rough hunt until I was "forced" to admit that I needed to make something happen and change stands. Once I changed locations I was covered up by deer and I was able to kill a nice buck.

Being Committed to Change:

Humans don't like change and we will often take the path of least resistance but this never leads to us overcoming our faults or inadequacies. People need to have a "Come to Jesus Moment"; that is the moment where you understand the problem and realize that you need to change your behaviors to make things better.

There is a saying, "The Hog and the Chicken both contribute to making breakfast; the chicken is just involved but the Hog is committed". i.e. the chicken donated an egg but the hog gave his ass.

Are you committed to change or are you just involved?

So where is all this leading? I know that we have talked about "Goals and Goals Setting" on the forums but we have never talked about our weaknesses and what we plan to do to strengthen them. We are going to solve that with a contest.

THE CONTEST

What I would like you to do is list your biggest weakness then come up with a plan on how you are going to improve it. It can be anything from being a poor shot, to not scouting enough, to not finding a quality area to hunt. All I ask is that we be honest with ourselves. I have started a thread in the forums called "Contest - Being Committed to Change". Post what you consider to be your biggest weakness, then in the same entry post a small plan to improve that weakness. Aneal and I will look at the responses and select a winner. The goal of this contest is get us to identify what we are doing wrong and to come up with a plan to strengthen our weakness.

THE PRIZE

We will be giving away a two FMP DVDs, 360 and the Ride, to the winner.... If you already have the videos don't worry I am sure that we can work something out. I can't find my DVDs and I have a ton of NIP crap in my home bowshop that we trade. :)

I know that this is going to be hard but change is NEVER easy.

Good Luck....

J-

An example of what we are looking for:

My weaknesses:

My biggest weakness is my fitness level, I often find areas either on a map or from glassing that I would love to check out but I am concerned that if I were to knock something down in that area I would have a very difficult time getting it out. My hunting buddy, Tommy says, "don't worry about it until you get something on the ground" but I guess it is just my nature to worry about things like that. I also think that when it comes to elk and turkey hunting half of the game is covering country and finding an animal to work.

My Solution:

Well, this is the hard part and it is okay to ask for help to bust thru your weakness. In my case, I reached out to several people to help me develop a plan to increase my overall fitness level. I will admit that it is really easy to do this on paper but it really takes commitment to follow thru with the plan. For me, my basic plan( I will get more detailed in later blogs) is to work on my core or functional strength on Tuesdays and Thursdays and work on my cardio on M-W-F.

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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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Parker Blackhawk - My 2008 Review Bow

amaro_jason@hotmail.com — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:18:05 +0100

This year I will be reviewing the Blackhawk bow from Parker, but before I get too much into the bow I want to give you some of my background. Traditionally, I have always shot some of the longer ATA Hoyts. Not because I have been sponsored or any of that stuff but because I know they make solid bows. I also think that it is the “Indian not the Arrow." If you ever doubt that just take a look at some of the Professional Hunters on T.V., those guys switch bows more often than I change the fuel filter on my Diesel. Also, other than the Drop-Away rests I personally don’t think that there have been any really HUGE advances in archery technology. Some people say that the Cam and a Half design was a big jump but it has been around since the 70’s when Darton came out with the Darton CPS design and the Single Cam was something that Mathews “borrowed” (from Jennings and Martin). It has been and always be about marketing.

So when I am reviewing this bow I come from the background of shooting a longer ATA bow, that doesn’t have parallel limbs, that has a pretty narrow grip and typically has a pretty forgiving brace height.

Okay, now that we have that on the table, "Why the Parker?". Well, I wanted to stay away from the big three and I wanted a bow that I I had always been interested but I had never really had a chance to shoot. I also like there “Grow-up with Parker” Program, it basically lets you upgrade your bow as your child grows. I think that is a great idea.

So what are the nitty gritty specs of my Blackhawk?

Draw Lengths 28" (adjusts to 27" or 26")

Draw Weights 60-70 lb

Let Off 75%

Bow Length 32" axle to axle

Mass Weight 3.85 pounds

Brace Height 7 3/8"

Arrow Speeds IBO 325 FPS

Camo – G-1

Retail Price $649.95

Personally, I think these specifications are pretty standard and there is nothing too sexy about the numbers. The magic will be how the bow shoots.

Last week UPS dropped the bow off and I started getting it setup. Below is a list of the accessories I will start with.

Sight – 5 Pin Spot Hogg Hunter .019 fibers

Rest – Original Trophy Taker Drop-away

Stabilizer – Fuse Axium 4 inch

Peep – RAD 3/16 - tubeless

You might have noticed that I didn’t list a bow sling that is because Parker has incorporated a bow sling into the design of the bow.

Currently I am going to use Easton FMJ 400’s cut to 27.5 inches with Blazer Vanes, with wraps and 100 grain points. I will be changing my fletching and wraps in a few weeks.

Before I went outside to shoot the bow I decided to tune it the best I could. I used the BowPlane and the Eze-Eye to get the center-shot as perfect as possible. I will be doing a blog entry on the BowPlane later.

OKAY, now that we have all preliminaries setup I guess you want to know HOW DID IT SHOOT? I still need to break the string in and get everything super tuned but I am pretty pleased with this little bow. I will admit that I am not used to shooting a bow that is only 32” ATA so I really need to make sure I don't torque the bow. This is my issue not the bows.

So how does it compare to other bows I have shot? The Draw Cycle is pretty smooth and it does have a solid valley, I like that. To me it feels and shoots exactly like the new Matthews bow but it has a much better grip and that my friends is a good thing.

Below is a picture of a group I shot at 40 yards, for me that is a pretty decent group. After the days shooting session I did notice that I was having some timing sessions with the rest so hopefully my groups will get a little tighter when I shoot again. I was also getting some string twist BUT THAT IS EXPECTED with a new string.

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So you are saying, “Great, this is like every other review, he is holding back and not giving us the dirt”, well don’t worry if I have issues with this bow I will let you know. Also, the fact that I will be shooting this bow all summer and fall is also something very different, most reviews happen over a one or two day period and they don’t review the bow over time. I will also stress that, in no way am not obligated in anyway to give a positive review of the Blackhawk. So stay tuned.

So as an overview, the bow is shooting pretty well, nothing too crazy and it is performing like it is expected.

Below is a link to the Parker website and the Parker Blackhawk.

Parker - Blackhawk

Take Care...

J-

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Pimpin My Ride(s) - Part 3

aroney@bowcast.com — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:12:17 +0100

...Back to the Quest 33.

I took some accurate measurements of my "peep to sight apeture" and "peep to arrow shaft" which is needed to estimate speed in Archery's Advantage (as well as setup sight tapes). I also updated my Archer's Advantage software so all the specs of the 2008 bows came in (i.e. Hoyt Katera). This is done by simply clicking the "update" button in Archer's Advantage which goes out to the internet and gets an executable file you can download to update the program's database.

In addition, I went out and shot again to get some accurate marks. I shot at 20 yards and 50 yards, and entered those new marks into the AA software. When all was calculated (Bow setup, sight setup, arrow shaft selection and weight), Archer's Advantage is telling me I am shooting 266 [[feet per second]] (fps) out of the Quest 33 with 80lb limbs. Sound a little low? Yeah, I thought so too.

But, no worries on this point. Right now my goal is to get comfortable shooting the bow and ensuring my form is golden with a new setup. Pin point accuracy is not my priority at this point....getting to know my new equipment (as well as how my arms are holding up with 80lb limbs) is what I have chosen as my priority. Over the next couple of weeks I will really start getting dialed in for some upcoming 3D shoots.

I'd love to hear what you all are doing with your bows this time of year. Any new accessories? New practice techniques? Add a comment to this blog entry and let me know what you are working on.

Shoot Straight!

Aneal

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Pimpin My Ride(s) - Part 2

aroney@bowcast.com — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:58:49 +0100

As I mentioned in my last entry, I was very happy with my initial setup of my Quest 33 bow and Sure-Loc Max ST sight. Now I was moving on to setting up my other bow - a Hoyt Katera.

I went down to visit my good buddy (and Archery Guru) Matt Hogue at my local Sportsman's Warehouse in Littleton, CO. We got to work completing the following tasks:

< ul>Took my NAP Quicktune 4000 rest off an old bow I had setup and transferred it to the Katera.Mounted a new G5 Optima XR sight onto the KateraLeft the factory Hoyt string on the Katera to test it out. Depending on the next couple of months of testing, I will either switch it out with a G5 Metrao string or a Winner's Choice.Set center shot and nock point
Paper tuned

All went pretty much according to plan with setup. We did notice that it looked like there was some internal wear on my NAP Quicktune 4000. I have hunted with that rest for 3 seasons, so that is to be expected. What was going on was while the rest was dropping away with good timing, it didn't seem to drop ALL the way down, and was stopping about 1/8 inch from the shelf. I kept it on to get comfortable with shooting the bow.

In addition, I have switched over from Gold Tip Arrows to Easton Full Metal Jackets which have a smaller diameter. So we played with the "forks" on the Quicktune to get them to hug the arrow a little better.

I shot 4 arrows through paper and all but 1 (which was probably my form) were perfect bullet holes (Good job eye-balling Matt!). So great news there. The other news is I will probably go through this all again when I decide to purchase a new rest. I have the G5 Expert II rest on my Quest bow, so I am looking for some ideas on what to use on the Katera (limited by those rests that actually work with a Hoyt). Does anyone shooting a Hoyt have a favorite rest to recommend? Add a comment to this post and let me know.

Next, I'll jump back to my Quest bow and see if I can dial in the speed and sight on that bow. More soon.....

Shoot Straight!

Aneal

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Pimpin My Ride(s)

aroney@bowcast.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:47:33 +0100

Hope everyone had a great spring weekend in your neck of the woods. I had a birthday party scheduled on Saturday for both of my daughters (Their b-days are on April 27 and April 28 - I guess I pretty much rut about the same time each year ;-) ) . The outdoor picnic plans got yanked do to high wind and eventually snow on Saturday. Weather is always a little tricky in April and in Colorado. We were able to move the venue back to the house, and the pinata was still operational.

Anyway, I did actually have some fun with my bow(s) this weekend. I finally took my new Quest to an outdoor range. Before heading out, I used Archer's Advantage to print off a very rough sight tape for my Sure-Loc Max ST. I say rough because I had not taken all my measurements, and hadn't run the bow through a chronograph. So essentially, I was printing off sight tapes without any idea of how fast I was shooting out of the bow (not recommended).

To my surprise, I got out to the range and it took me all of 30 minutes to have arrows tacking out to 50 yards. I had to slide my sight tape down about an 1/8 of an inch to get dead on at 20 yards. To my amazement (given the guesswork I had done in Archer's Advantage), I was dead on (elevation wise) out to 30, 40, and 50 yards. Not bad for a bow I have only shot about 25 arrows through. Windage was another issue as my arrows were about 3 inches left of target.....but I wasn't too concerned as I knew my rest needed some adjustment and I haven't even paper tuned that bow yet. Overall, I was impressed with how easy the combination of Archer's Advantage and the Sure-Loc sight got me "semi" dialed in.

So, I am off to paper tune as well as get my Hoyt Katera setup with a new sight as well as a swap out of a rest. More on that soon.

Shoot Straight!

Aneal

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