Well, I figure it’s high time to spill the beans on what has been an exciting opportunity brewing on the horizon. My buddy Clint and I were accepted into the Midwest Whitetail fold a couple weeks ago by Bill Winke and his hard working crew. We will be focused on providing video footage in 2 forms for the Southeast Show which will be an offshoot of his very successful Internet-based Midwest Whitetail product that I have advocated several times in the past on my blog. 2 forms of video in that we will be videoing our big game hunts this fall, but also recording research segments that focuses on the science side of things with our GPS data of mature bucks from several states in the eastern United States.

Through my blog and the many hunting forums of the Internet, I knew several of the guys on the Ohio show (actually North Carolina residents) and they were put in charge of contacting potential staff members when the Southeast Show application process opened this spring. After submitting an audition video and going through a little application process, we’re in!

All that to say, hence the reason for my parting with my bow that I otherwise love. Unfortunately, Elite is not a sponsor of the show and I’m currently awaiting a package from an Archery Talk member with my new archery rig – but you’ll have to wait to see what that entails in a later post. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about my Elite z28 and I think I’ve already got a couple potential buyers on ArcheryTalk. That smooth shooting bow will be missed though!

Here’s a valuable tool that my buddy Pete put me on to. Blades that I used to throw away because they were rolled over, now can be salvaged thanks to a bastard mill file.

These files only have serrations going one way so that it actually puts a preliminary edge on a badly damaged blade if you file in one direction only, it doesn’t just eat away the steel and keeps dulling things down.

Here is a close-up of a Slick Trick blade that I shot through a doe last year and into the dirt where it must have found a stone. You can see where the edge is rolled over and a normal sharpening stone is worthless when trying to do such rough edge work.

You can also see the striations of the file going in one direction only. Other files have a cross-hatch pattern which is what you don’t want to use for salvaging damaged broadhead blades.

Thought I’d share some of the things I keep handy during my pre-season tune-up and carry along with me when I go on out-of-state hunts (that was a lot of hyphenated words…).

Any deep-celled fishing tackle box works well and you can basically fit anything you need inside except a bow press. Sometimes I wish I knew my way around one, but then again I don’t claim to be any sort of archery gear expert so I don’t mind waiting in line at the local pro shop like anyone else. Besides, if I do have a major mechanical malfunction with my bow, Elite Archery’s guarantee will stand behind me and have me back and hunting in 24 hours.

Field points, spare broadheads that I’ve collected over the years (Spitfires, Thunderheads, Wasp, Muzzy 3-blades), Slick Trick Broadhead components including spare washers, ferrules, blades, spare launcher prongs for rests, and bolts for attaching rests and sights. You can even see a Whisker Biscuit that I got from a friend. I’ve never shot one, but know from watching him that they are incredibly simple to set-up and could bail me out in a jam.

On the other side of my tackle box is a spare string stopper bumper you can see hiding under my package of new Slick Trick blades, spare nocks, washers, and o-rings, a judo-point for small game opportunities, an Allen wrench set, string lubricant, some old Rage practice heads and a Rage broadhead (just in case I go delusional again!), and some gigantic ancient broadheads that might help if I end up having to take down a big beast (I’m thinking maybe cape buffalo or something with a sharpened up Zwickey-style broadhead).

Last but not least, I’ve got a sharpening system I keep handy for laying a slick edge on my broadhead blades (not pictured, but that will be the topic of my next post).

So, a bunch of stuff I need, a bunch of stuff I might need, and a bunch of stuff I probably will never use much less need. My archery tackle box might give you an idea or two about something you’ve been overlooking in your own gear repertoire and adding that item might save you a headache down the road.

Leave me some feedback and comments. Let me know what you didn’t see in my tackle box that you like to keep handy in yours.

I did a little tweaking to my Elite z28 for the upcoming season. I wasn’t real happy with the after-market string stopper I had on the bow and the adjustability wasn’t such that I could a good credit card’s width between my string bumper and the string at rest. So, I bought a String Tamer made by Norway Industries.

I also got a bunch of arrows re-fletched that had been damaged either by missing targets, shooting tight groups, or sending them through deer last season.

I had no complaints from my Spot Hogg sight last year and while I wasn’t completely thrilled with my LimbDriver rest, it is accurate and well-tuned and as long as that stays consistent I’ll be using that rest.

I’ve been shooting in the backyard for about the last 2 weeks and that gives me another 2 months to get in top form for archery opener here in Alabama in mid-October.

Time for a voluntary product review on an item I chose to use this fall because of my new interest in videotaping my hunts.

Retail Price: $24.99 (3 pack)

Good: The product is extremely easy to install and has such a large selection to fit such a wide array of manufactured arrows you can easily find one to match your arrow exactly and not have to tinker and make it fit with modifications.

I never once fired my bow and failed to have the Lumenok come on.

Bad: The light went out within 5 seconds of impact on 3 of my 5 archery shots this year in which I used a Lumenok.  In one case, the Lumenok was shattered by the movement of a doe’s shoulder going back and forth so I can understand why it blinked off.  In the other two cases, the arrow was carried off for 30-50 yards as the animal ran off and the Lumenok was off when the arrow fell to the ground.

The Lumenok works by creating a circuit with the arrow itself and any wiggling back of the Lumenok disconnects the circuit and Lumenok lighting.  Other lighted arrow nocks work by other mechanisms.  I know some work by passing by magnet activation and I would be very curious to see how consistently they work after impact is made.

Recommendation: I haven’t tried other lighted arrow nocks so I don’t know how their post-shot performance measures up to the Lumenok but I do plan on trying out another manufacturer when my last Lumenok is no more.

I hesitate to give the Lumenok a grade because I don’t have a reference to compare it to, but I will give it a B+.  I have a very hard time finding a product that I don’t have at least some complaint about, so that grade will allow me wiggle room on both sides to review another lighted arrow nock in the future and compare it relative to the Lumenok.

If you shoot lighted arrow nocks, please let me know what your experience has been with post-impact performance in the comments section of this post.  Be sure to specify which brand you are using.  Thanks.

Nikon sent me another product to test this fall and I feel that I did a much better job taking this item into real field situations and putting the product through the proverbial “ringer”.

Product Name: Archer’s Choice w/ APG Camo Case by Nikon

Retail Price: $279.95

Features:

*Angle compensator to 89 degrees vertical
*6X magnification
*Single button operation
*Meter or yards mode
*Up to 0.2 yard increment accuracy
*Battery source – 1 Lithium CR2 battery
*0-100 yard range

The Good:

*Before I even took the product into the field, I loved the camo protective case that the rangefinder came with.  The flap that is pictured above is a great feature that gives the optics lens full protection when not in use and easily tucks back over the bottom of the rangefinder to be securely out of the way when in use.  Throughout the course of the whole hunting season, I never had a single complaint about the case.  Nothing tore or discolored and I couldn’t even tell it had been in the field a single time by the end of January even though I had carried it upwards of 40 times afield.

*The next feature that grabbed me was the ultra long cord that attached to the bottom of the case.  If you pushed the adjustment all the way out, disconnected one of the grapples, and connected it back to the cord itself (that was a jumbled mess but you get the idea), it would easily stretch 4-5 feet long.  That was a great asset because I would loop it around a branch or my bow hanger arm and then it would be available for me to grab, get a quick range, and let go again without much movement at all.  I’ve never liked having a rangefinder around my neck because I can see it getting in the way of a moving bow string all too easily when I’m leaning forward for the shot.

*Great battery life – I never had to change the battery but i guarantee that I took hundreds if not a couple thousand distance ranges over the course of my experimenting in the backyard and in the hunting woods.  That’s pretty good battery life I would say.

*If you’ve followed me long, you know I like simple and efficient.  Check out this rangefinder’s readout.

Bingo!  Does it get any simpler.  I don’t think so.  I was impressed with the clarity of the optics and even more impressed that they transmitted a good amount of light that I could get ranges in very dark conditions right at the first and last shooting light of a hunt – a problem I have run into with other rangefinders in the past.

*The angle compensator also worked great.  The “Red Oak of Death” is a classic example of when this rangefinder was at its most valuable.  When you are talking about a 50 foot elevation change for a 25 yard shot, you better have a rangefinder that do some quick geometry for you.

The Bad:

*Nikon’s Archer’s Choice rangefinder had trouble getting a range with high humidity and any amount of moisture in the air.  It wasn’t until the middle of January that I ran into this problem, but no matter how many times I tried to get a range that morning the rangefinder kept spitting back readings of 3, 4, and 5 yards.  It was about 55 degrees at daybreak and it was misting so fine that you couldn’t really even tell it was raining.  By 9:00 a.m., the weather had changed and the rangefinder decided to work properly again, but those conditions wreaked havoc on this product.  So, if you find yourself hunting in similar conditions with any regularity, you might want to consider other options.

The (Downright Honest) Truth:

*Sponsors might quit sending me products to review if I keep on nitpicking, but I think this is a case in which I can’t ignore my own common sense.

If someone offers you a sirloin or a filet mignon for the same price, which are you going to choose?

The answer is so obvious that I won’t insult your intelligence by answering it for you.  In my own opinion, Nikon completely missed the boat on this one though.

My question to anyone who ever picks up a muzzleloader or rifle in addition to his/her archery equipment is this…

Why buy a rangefinder that maxes out at 100 yards (actually about 140 or 150 yards under the best conditions) when you can buy one that performs accurately at ranges 4-, 5-, or even 6-fold the distance for the same price?

Unfortunately, it is a glaring weakness of the rangefinder that leaves this product review on a very sour note.

Bottom Line:

Is this a great product?  Yes, minus the mid-January malfunction I give the rangefinder a A-.  It’s hard to explain how nice the case and optic quality (for the $$$) is without using the product for yourself.

Would I buy one for myself?  Absolutely not.  It doesn’t make economical sense!

I was trying to squeeze in as many hunts in the last 10 days of the season as I could and I went out a couple more times since the last post without seeing anything even remotely intriguing.

Warmer temperatures had kind of put a cramp in the rut, but on Thursday the 27th colder temperatures blew in and the weather was calling for a hard frost. With the right wind out of the NW, it was time to try the red oak tree again where I put down 2-Prong.

My hunting buddy Clint had long since tagged out and I convinced him to climb the tree with me to run the video camera that morning. Good decision!

Just after it was light enough to shoot, we smashed the antlers together and we saw a big 8 point staring at us 75 yards before we even stopped rattling. He had us pegged, but it was the rut and we had a decoy out that might save the day.

Not the case. I never could really tell if he saw the decoy, but our grunts kept him just barely out of range for a couple minutes before he saw a little buck down the hill and there is no competing with the real thing. As he decided to head down over, I decided there was nothing to lose and snort-wheezed in a last ditch effort for him to come in range and check out the decoy. Bad decision!

It was almost an hour later before we saw another deer. It looked to be a buck carrying a wide set of antlers but he was over 200 yards away crossing the field in a direction that would take him straight away from us. I told Clint to hit the antlers real quick, but it was so still out that we decided to try a couple loud, aggressive grunts instead. Great decision!

My view was blocked due to a large pine tree trunk being in direct line with the path that the buck took, but Clint was giving me second-by-second commentary and he was scrambling to get the video camera rolling. By the urgency of his actions and words, I could tell everything was going to come together fast and before I could reach around and grab my bow the buck was closing to within 50 yards.

I’ll let the video tell the rest of the story.

Wow, talk about coming in on a rope!

To fill in a couple of the parts you couldn’t see. When the buck crests the hill, you can see him make eye contact with the decoy and until it was too late, there was no doubt in his mind that the intruder had made those loud grunts.

He comes in downwind and when he hits the decoy’s scent stream I think he picked up our scent but it wasn’t enough to completely spook him. It probably didn’t help either that our “decoy” was actually a shot up 3-D archery target that looked like crap.  But that is the reason he kind of skittered off to the left at the last second before the shot.

I was right to be confident with my shot because it took him straight through both lungs right on the crease and angled just a hair back; however, following the blood trail was nothing what I expected.

First off, the arrow was almost completely bare. Yea it had blood on it, but not soaked like most shots that pass through the chest cavity. Next, the deer made it out of the field when he was standing up on top after the shot 100 yards away. When we walked up on top an hour later, you could literally see the blood trail go the whole way across the 75 yard wide field contrasting with the bright white frost.  It was another “blind man” blood trail.

At that point, I figured he would be just inside the other timber line and I would be able to spot him before even leaving the field. I was dead wrong, but fortunately not too wrong. The deer made it another 100 yards amazingly before coming to rest in the bottom of a creek ditch. With neither lung functioning, the deer had made it a legitimate 200 yards minimum. I can only assume that the extra adrenaline he had pulsing through his veins kept him running the extra 60-90 seconds he needed to travel so far. I counted that just on the video he was in sight for 60 seconds, let alone the time it took him to make the extra 100 yards out of the field.

The last surprise of the day came as I was approaching the deer.  I realized I had shot another midget buck.  He only weighed 138 pounds live weight! That is just bizarre considering some 3.5 year olds on the same property have pushed the scales barely over 200 pounds.

I’ll wrap up the post and the 2010-2011 Alabama deer hunting season with a couple photos we snapped before dragging him up the hill to the truck.

This was my favorite picture.

You can barely see the exit wound in this picture, but you can see it was a bit back of the crease and gives you an idea of the slight quartering angle on the shot.

Lastly, another picture showing off his impressive antler width – by far his most notable feature.  He had a 18 7/8″ inside spread with 20″ main beams, but his lack of tine length didn’t quite allow him to break the 115″ mark.

4 days left in the season there was no way I was passing him up.  Finally got a bow kill on the video camera.  Shared 2 of my buck moments with my dad and my hunting buddy.  What an end to another great Alabama hunting season!

With exactly a week to go in the Alabama deer season, I decided to switch up my strategy and hunt an evening trying to catch a buck following does onto a food plot.

After sitting in the tree for about an hour, I heard deer walking in the creek behind me and saw this yearling buck sneaking along. He was straight downwind of me but for some reason didn’t ever realize that there was danger lurking nearby.

About 45 minutes later, I saw a large set of antlers going up the hillside on the other side of the creek. He was moving at a good clip so I grabbed my grunt call as fast as possible and tried to get his attention. I thought he never heard me, but 10 minutes later he came circling in to my position about 45 yards away.

As hard as I tried, I never could coax him those critical 15 yards closer to my tree. I just didn’t have any cover underneath my tree and there wasn’t any fooling him when he could plainly see there was no buck there to be making the grunts.

He walked off through the food plot and that was basically the end of my evening. I did have another couple deer enter the field, but it was at last light and I couldn’t even tell if they were bucks or does it was so late.