Hey guys

This bow is the 2008 Model of a Martin Bengal. 

As you can see the bow comes in Camo color and is currently set to a 28.5 inch draw length.  The bow weight can be set anywhere form 40 – 70 lbs and has a draw length capability of 25 – 30 inches.

The sight and rest that you see on the bow do not come with it.  It would come with a Cobra Boomslang LT 3 pin fibre optic sight as well as a standard whisker biscuit rest.

The bow is in excellent condition and shoots straight X’s, I’m simply interested in trying something new. 

I am located in Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada, and I am looking for around $600 for the bow.  Please contact me for more details or to discuss priceing.

Wayne

I just want to say A big THANK YOU to everyone who braved the cold and snow for Crossroads Archery first shoot of the year.  We couldn’t do it with out you!

Hi everyone!
My name is Andy and shoot medieval style archery at my local club, Companions of the Longbow, which is based near Swindon, Wiltshire UK. We like to have as much variety as possible in our shooting and over the years have devised loads of archery games and challenges. Its almost impossible to find them in the web since Googling key words such as “archery games” only brings up computer games. Over the weeks I hope to compile them in this blog for you to try out and hopefully, enjoy. They can be played by all styles of archery but may need tweaking to suit different types of bow. For those archers who shoot seriously, these games will give some light relief from pounding arrows into a butt and can be helpful in honing your skills.
Anyone who knows an enjoyable game are very welcome to contribute to this blog – the only proviso is that it has to be safe! (I once saw one for blind mans buff……).
Hitting anything with a longbow is pretty tricky, not surprising since it is basically a length of bent wood and a piece of string. So when you do hit the target, you really get a sense of achievement. At the other extreme we have the modern recurve and compound bows with their sights, stabilizers and release aids. In the hands of a decent archer, their accuracy is phenomenal. When it comes to playing archery games, their accuracy becomes a bit of a problem in that most games would be over very quickly. For games to be fun and competitive, a degree of randomness is required which these shooting aids take away. Now I’m not against modern archery, its just that it is geared towards one thing – accurately hitting a FITA target.

Removing all these aids – shooting barebow – means you have to shoot intuitively in order to hit the target. By intuitively, I mean that you look at the target, draw and shoot – the eye and brain guides the shooting arm without you thinking about it. It is similar to throwing a stone at a tin can. You don’t aim as such but simply focus on the can and throw the stone. With (lots of) practice, what you see is what you hit. Some of the games have targets at different distances which means you need to rely on binocular vision to judge the distances. Shooting indirect is also a common technique – shooting the arrow high into the air to that it lands near the target.
So, if you try out any of these games, I recommend you play them barebow style.
A team game that requires both speed and accuracy.

Game 1 – Colours

Equipment
1 One 80cm FITA style target face per team, mounted on a butt and stand.
Each archer has 6 arrows.

Game Details
1 Archers are divided into teams, each archer having 6 arrows. I advise no more than 6 archers in a team otherwise there is a strong possibility of arrow damage.
2 One archer from each team shoots up to three arrows at the white ring of their target. If they hit it, they then withdraw from the shooting line (even if they have not shot all three arrows) and the next member of the team steps up to the shooting line and aims for the black.
3 When the black is hit, the next archer steps to the line and aims for the blue.
4 The game continues until the team has hit all the colours in order from white to gold and then from gold to white.
5 f an archer misses the colour having shot three arrows, the next archer will continue to aim for that colour.
6 During the game, as soon as all the archers have shot twice each (6 arrows), then “Fast” is called and the game is paused so the archers can retrieve their arrows from the targets. The game then continues with the next archer to shoot.
7 The winning team is the first to go from white to gold and then gold back to white.
8 If a team member is unsure where their arrow has landed (e.g. very near the line between two rings), then they can alert the range captain who will shout “Fast”. All shooting stops immediately whilst the range captain checks the position of the arrow. If the arrow cuts the line, it is the higher scoring colour that counts. The range captain then resumes the game.

Variations
Speed Colours
1 When an archer in the team hits a colour, they continue to the next colour (assuming they have any arrows left). The team attempts to get from white to gold and back again as quickly as possible.
2 The first team to have all their archers shoot twice calls “Fast” and the game is immediately paused and all the other teams must stop shooting. Arrows are collected and the game resumes.
3 The winning team is the first to go from white to gold and then gold back to white.

Individual Colours
1 Although colours is a team game, there is no reason why it can’t be played individually.
2 Each archer shoots six arrows, beginning with the white, then black etc.
3 An archer can only go for the next colour once the previous one has been hit.
4 As soon as an archer has shot all 6 arrows, they shout “Fast” and everyone else must stop shooting even if they have not shot all their arrows.
5 Arrows are collected and the game resumes.
6 The first archer to go from white to gold and then gold back to white is the winner.

Coutesy of Blackcatarchery.com

Hi. In our medieval archery club, we devise and play loads of archery based games. If you fancy having a go, see my blog on www.archeryfunandgames.blogspot.com.
I’ll be adding to it every week and welcome anyone else to contribute.
Enjoy!

African Blind Date
Join this bowhunter on his first trip bound to Africa
as he goes face to face with the trophy of a lifetime.
By Paul Hantke

http://www.bowandarrowhunting.com/

 IT OCCURRED TO me as I pushed a cart overflowing with equipment cases and duffel bags through the Jan Smuts airport in Johannesburg that I was on the blind date of my life.

 I had accepted an invitation from Sangira Safaris to come to South Africa for a three-week hunting and photo safari, but I knew nothing about the company or its principals other than that it was a new venture by two relatively novice professional hunters.

 Not only was I sailing into personally uncharted territory on the other side of the globe, but also the adventure had been arranged, booked and inaugurated into action in about five weeks.  Normal planning for a trip like this should take months, but the wonders of e-mail and a need to get there quickly made it all happen.

 Haste was in order, because, as it was, I arrived in the first week of September, which is well at the end of winter for that half of the world, and almost too late for hunting.  The rainy season, or springtime, brings everything to a halt.

Summer in South Africa is the off-season for hunting because it is way too hot.  Not to mention, during the summer vegetation has grown lush from the rainy season and many game animals are virtually impossible to see or pursue.
 
 So there I was that morning with a cart full of gear. (As Staff Editor for the Y-Visionary Outdoor Group, I also had firearms and lots of other stuff for field testing in addition to my archery gear.)  Things got better immediately as I was greeted by my hosts, Tinus Van Heerden and Stoffel Botha, proprietors of Sangira Safaris, Tinus has a background in the military Special Forces, while Stoffel was a federal police investigator, but both grew up “in the bush.”

 Their professional skills in bush craft and hunting would show later, but I was immediately taken by how friendly and down-to-earth both fellows were, and their excellent English made it easy to quickly make friends.  We off-loaded the cart full of stuff into the back of a new 4×4 Crew Cab Toyota pick-up and we were on our way to “the bush,” which varies considerably as you move around South Africa.

 First stop was the bush veldt outside of Thabazimbi, which means “mountain of iron” in Tswana.  Mountain of Iron is the world’s largest deep-pit iron mine that is serviced by the most amazing (and scary) road you have ever seen.

 Our hunting grounds were on a private farm of immense proportions in the valley north of Thabazimbi, which flattens out and looks much like south Texas, with thorn bushes instead of mesquite.  The ground there is level with a couple of inches of soft silt over hard earth, and the thorn bushes grow so thick it is often impossible to find a path through them.

 Arriving about midday, we had lunch and then headed out in the old Land Rover hunting buggy.  Our drive took us along the first fence line for several kilometers, and then we turned into the middle of the property.

 I had been warned by a couple of old Africa hands that the animals there were especially hard to see due to their superior camouflage.  “All your North American skills and instincts will need to be re-programmed,” I was assured.

 They did not lie, and I found myself frustrated because Stoffel or Tinus would point out game that I simply could not see.  I could see and agree with the specific tree they were supposed to be standing beside, but I couldn’t make out the animals themselves.  It was interesting but not fun.

 In spite of my handicap, the fellows managed to show me gemsbok, impala, red hartebeest, dukier, kudu, and blue wildebeest, all in a two-hour drive.  We were, in fact, looking for a specific old bull in one of the blue wildebeest herds that the landowner wanted to cull.

 We managed to find the old bull and I grabbed my bow and set out on a stalk with Tinus.  You don’t get to be the old bull by being stupid, and that cagey wildebeest played hide and seek with us for awhile from abut 150 yards out before he darted for parts unknown.

 In the truck, on the way back to the farmhouse, Stoffel suddenly grabbed my shoulder and pointed into the bush.  “Look at the size of that kudu!” he exclaimed.  Everyone else looked and had the same reaction.  “What a monster!”  I, of course, saw only movement in the brush.  After several attempts, the big kudu was ruled impossible to stalk for the day.

 Dinner that night was a South African “Braai,”their version of a good old charcoal grill, and was well received after the long day.  It had been decided over steaks and libations that Stoffel and I would head out to a “hide” next to a waterhole the following morning where I might get a chance to stick a warthog.

 We were dropped off early the next day, and I literally had to look around carefully to find the hide, which only protruded about three feet above ground level.  The interior of the hide is dug out some three feet deep, and a rough wooden bench is you only seat.  The brush walls are lined inside with a tarp to prevent the detection of movement inside, and there are a few tiny viewing holes punched in the tarp.  A “shooting slit” that was about three inches wide and extended about two feet up from ground level was positioned well over to the side.

We began our vigil, hoping to get a chance at a warthog once the sun heated up the bush veldt and the animals made their way to water.

 I had along my High Country Ultra Force bow and was shooting Game Tracker’s Carbon Express 300 arrows tipped with the company’s new First Cut broadheads.  A sight check the afternoon before showed the bow was dead on.

 Stoffel and I spent a long and unproductive morning in the hide, eventually drawing pictures of animal tracks and playing tic-tac-toe in the sand at our feet.  We were a scant 25 yards away from the waterhole, so all this was done in virtual silence.
 Our only visitors were Lourie birds and two female kudos, who came in and drank, then laid down just a few feet from us, testament to the camouflage and proper upwind positioning of the hide.

 It was some seven hours before we heard the old Land Rover grinding its way to our position for our pre-scheduled midday pick up.   Once aboard, we weren’t more than a few hundred yards from the hide o our way out when trackers and professional hunters alike all pointed in the same direction.  “Kudu!” they exclaimed,  “and warthogs too!”

 Once again I saw only gray shadows in the brush that I presumed to be kudu, but I could make out a couple of dozen warthogs moving with the shadows.  We stopped the truck and two female with piglets ran across in front of us and disappeared into the thickest on the other side of the trail.  I don’t know if it’s the Disney influence, but I find the sight of warthogs on the move quite humorous.  The pigs and their babies drew a smile as they passed.

 Next came a moment of pandemonium wherein our trackers, Joseph and September, exchanged lots of information in several different languages with Tinus and Stoffel, the gist being that the kudu and the warthog were apparently moving together, and more than that, it was thought they would circle back and resume their trek to the waterhole we had just left.

 “Do you want to go back, or do you want to go have lunch and try again this afternoon?” was Stoffel’s question to me.  “I came to hunt,” was my reply, and September turned toe Rover around, dropping us off short of the hide so we could stalk in while they left by a different route.

 It was another two hours before we began to get any action, and then it was all from female kudu coming quickly into the water and then moving aside into the shade from the taller trees near the waterhole.

 Stoffel kept watch at the peephole, occasionally updating me on the scene while I fiddled with my equipment and thought about what I was doing.

 I eventually decided that my many months of work and practice made me feel comfortable with a shot out to about 30 yards, any further that that and I’d have to pass.

 I was at the peephole when the bull walked in, and I’m sure my jaw dropped just a little bit when I first saw him.  He stood nearly six feet tall at the head and was sporting a set of spiral horns that had to be over 40 inches tall.

 “There he is!” I said excitedly, but quietly, as I got out of the way of the peephole so Stoffel could see.  I was jut making the decision to reach for my bow when Stoffel stopped me, “Take it easy,” he said, “all the vitals are right behind that spot.”

We watched the young bull come warily to the waterhole, testing the air with nose high.  Stoffel pointed out a place bhind the animal’s shoulder where the markings made an oval.  “Shoot for the center of that oval,” he said, “all the vitals are right behind that spot.”

 For a second all I could think of was the Gary Larson cartoon of the deer with a target on his chest and his deer buddy saying, “Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.” It was an interesting mental juxtaposition, but I quickly regained my focus.

 “The young one!”  I whispered.  “How much bigger can those things get?”  His answer came back in the same hushed tones as he pulled me back to the peephole, “How about this one?” Stoffel asked.

 Almost seven feet tall at the head, I quickly saw the big kudu Stoffel was referring to.  The trophy was walking right into the water.

 He sauntered to the waterhole and gave the young buck a shoulder to signal him to back off, then he turned broadside to me and began to drink.

 I stepped back from the peephole, eyes and mouth wide and heart hammering already.  I don’t remember what I said, but it was probably not printable anyway.  I picked up my bow, nocked an arrow, set my string release, took a deep breath, and moved forward to fire.

 That was when I discovered that the slit was too close to the wall for a proper elbow-out posture when firing.  So I folded my arm down, concentrated on my bow-hand hold, my cheek weld and the fiber-optic 20-yard pin that I had placed just at the top of the oval in the markings.

 I ever so gently touched the trigger on my release and was very happy to see the yellow-fletched arrow center my target.  Right about then I realized that I had just heard Stoffel saying, “Are you going to shoot?”

 The big kudu hunched up, spun around once, and took off.  A few minutes later and about 100 yards away we found the big guy.  The broadhead had cut a path through heart and lungs and stopped on the inside at the offside shoulder.

 We measured the horns with a steel tape right after I took the kudu, and they ran out to 54 ¼ inches.  A more professional measurement was taken with a steel cable after the head and cape had spent three days in the cold room, and the set still measured 52 ¼ inches.

 As I understand it, the kudu will qualify for both the Rowland Ward and the Safari Club International world record books.

Gobble Up!
Four experts offer their tips and advice on how
to successfully arrow trophy gobblers.
By John E. Phillips

http://www.bowandarrowhunting.com/

 You need nerves of steel , the shooting confidence of the legendary Robin Hood, the woodsmanship of Daniel Boone and the positive attitude of Dale Carnegie to bag a gobbler with a bow.  Most bowhunters agree that going after gobblers with a bow usually means you’ll have 10 to one odds against you.  For every 10 times you encounter a tom within bow range, you only may take that bird home on one of those attempts.  Some of the best turkey hunters and bowmen in the nation will tell us why.

 Beginners don’t need to try bowhunting for turkeys.  Primarily two kinds of people take up their bows to pursue long beards—bowmen who have shot tournament archery or who have successfully bagged a dear with their bows, and turkey hunters who have taken numbers of turkeys with a gun and who want to bag a gobbler the old way.

Tricky Kill Zone
 A problem with bowhunting turkeys is the bird’s small vital area, protected by a profusion of feathers and meat.  Actually a tom turkey presents an illusion.  Although he appears as a large target, underneath all those feathers he has only a small body.  You can approach the turkey’s vital region, an area about the size of your fist, in three ways—straight through the butt of the wing, through the back or through the anus.  A turkey’s head provides too small a target and moves too quickly for the bowhunter to have a reasonable chance of placing an arrow there although a select few of bowhunters do attempt headshots.

Sound Secrets
 Most turkey hunters agree you must call up 10 times as many gobblers to get a shot with a bow as you do with a gun.  Although manufacturers have designed plenty of equipment specifically for taking turkeys with a bow, most archers name shooting accuracy the most critical key to bagging a bird.  The bowhunters I know who consistently harvest toms every spring change their equipment very little from when they bowhunt for deer to bowhunt for turkeys.  Because the turkey provides such a small target, you need every advantage you can have that aids you in shooting accurately.  Using the same equipment you have utilized during deer season will increase your comfort level with your tackle.  However, since turkeys respond quicker to sound than even deer seem to, you should take additional cautions to quiet your bow even more.

 “I take my bow apart, separate the limbs from the risers and put pool table felt between the risers and the limbs to quiet my bow for turkey season,” said Ronnie Strickland of West Point, Mississippi, one of the nation’s best-known bowmen and master turkey hunters.

 Strickland also uses large puffs on his string to quiet the thud of his bowstring even more.  He places felt on his arrow rests and waxes his arrows with furniture polish to keep them from making sounds as they pass across the felt.

 “One of the best ways to find out just how noisy your bow is…is to go into a closed room and draw your bow,”  Strickland suggests, “Probably you’ll be surprised at how much noise it makes.  If you can hear the bow being drawn, the turkey can too.”
 Most hunters advocate one of two philosophies on the best bow wight for bagging turkeys.  Some believe a heavier bow that produces faster arrow flight decreases the chances of a turkey moving during the arrow’s flight.  Reason dictates that the quicker the hunter delivers the arrow from the bow to the turkey, the less likely that the bird will get out of the way of the arrow.  However, if you pull a heavy bow and have to hold the bow at full draw for some time, waiting for the turkey to get into the position for you to shoot may cause you to miss.  Many turkey hunters consider a 50 to 60-pound bow more than adequate for downing a longbeard.

However, if you’ve shot a 70-pound bow while hunting all year and can hold this bow back for a long time, then this is probably the right poundage for you.

Decoys are Magic
 Dale Faust of Brewton, Alabama, who has won several 3-D silhouette shoots and field-archery competitions, said that, “The best shot to take at a turkey is the spine shot.  Because turkeys will not leave a blood trail like deer or other big game animals, you may have a difficult time retrieving the turkey, unless you break the bird down.”

Faust believes a bowhunter should shoot as heavy a poundage bow as he can draw smoothly and hold comfortably for an extended time.  “If you have to strain to draw the bow back, you’ll move more than if you draw smoothly,” Faust suggested.  “Then the turkey will spot you.  If you’re trying to hold a bow that’s too heavy, you may have to let down on the bow just a second before you’re ready to shoot.  Get comfortable and relax through the draw.

 “I shoot a 72-pound bow and a Land Shark broadhead made by Simmons, a broadhead that weighs 160 grains and has a 1 9/16-inch cutting radius.  Although I put a star-type stopper behind the broadhead I don’t use the stopper with the intention of stopping the arrow in the bird.  I use the stopper for extra drag and knocking power.  I’ve found that you must use bigger broadheads that inflict more damage on impact to successfully hunt turkeys.  The large broadhead will go through more parts of the turkey and will more likely cut vital areas than a small broadhead will.”

 Faust believes that many archers make a key mistake by chasing the bird if they get a good hit on a turkey—you’re more likely to recover the gobbler if you wait 10 to 15 minutes after you take the shot.  Faust also has learned the value of using decoys in the states where they are legal.

 “A turkey decoy will keep the turkey’s attention focused on the decoy instead of the hunter,” Faust mentioned.  “Also sometimes a gobbler will come in to that decoy and walk around it.  When a longbeard has his attention focused on that decoy and starts to circle it, he’ll often present that back shot I hope to see.”

With or Without a  Blind
 I have hunted turkeys from blinds and without the aid of a blind.  Both methods work.  Where and how you hunt and your knowledge of the turkeys often dictate whether or not you should use a blind for turkey hunting with a bow. 

 In many areas, having the ability to move quickly and efficiently to get into a better position to take a shot at a turkey will help you bag a bird.  Some bowhunters feel they can move quicker and set up faster without a blind.  However, without a blind, you don’t have a place to hid your movement from turkeys when you hunt them with a bow.

 “Often when bowhunters setup to take turkeys with their bows, whey don’t think about back cover,” Ronnie Strickland explained.  “If you’re silhouetted without back cover, the gobbler is more likely to see you when you draw.  I also prefer to have plenty of cover on either side of me.  Then the tom can’t watch me draw, and I can wait for the bird to step in front of me.  Side cover often is jut as critical as back cover when you’re hunting without a blind.”

When hunting in many areas of the eastern United States, you can find this much cover without much difficulty.  But you may have trouble locating enough turkeys to increase your odds for taking one.  However, in the West, when you hunt Rio Grandes, you may have plenty of birds to call in a day but not discover sufficient cover to hide your movements when you draw your bow.

 According to Strickland, having a blind is more critical to your success in the West than in the East.

 John Demp Grace of York, Alabama, both a master archer and a fine turkey hunter, has wrestled with the problem of bagging eastern birds with a bow for many years.  Finally, Grace has developed a blind that totally covers the hunter but has several shooting ports on all sides.  This blind allows the hunter to quickly and easily assemble it, get inside and wait for the right shot.  This blind provides front, back and side cover, as well as cover from above.  The bowman can move around the blind without detection, draw when he needs to and have several different holes in the blind through which he can shoot.  For some years now, Grace has harvested his limit of six turkeys per season with a bow using this type of blind.

 “I’ve used this blind in the West,” Grace reported, “in places with very little cover, where a blind is an absolute must.”

 Because blinds have a distinctive shape, and the wind can blow the blind’s material around, most hunters prefer to hand or lean brush against the blind.  This brush helps to break up the silhouette of the blind, keeps the material from moving in the wind and makes that site less conspicuous to shoot from than a blind that doesn’t have brush around it.

Twenty Years of Gobbler Hunting
 Brad Harris, public relations director for Lohman Calls of Outland Sports, has hunted turkeys with a bow for more than 20 years.  Harris shoots a 75-pound bow.  Some archers consider this bow too much wight for hunting turkeys.  “I’m more comfortable shooting off my knees, the position I use then hunting turkeys.  “I’m more comfortable shooting off my knees, the position I use when hunting turkeys with this bow at this wight.  So, I don’t change the weight of the bow or use another bow.

 “Because turkey hunting can be very intense by its very nature, I feel I have to be as comfortable as possible in my stand and with the equipment I’m shooting to shoot accurately.  But I do believe that because turkeys aren’t dense animals, a hunter can be just as effective with a 50 or 55-pound bow as he can be shooting one as heavy as mine.”

 For a broadhead, Harris prefers the Satellite Titan because, “This larger broadhead will give me an extra cutting edge.  Also the Titan is four-bladed and cuts a good-sized hole.  However, which broadhead you shoot is not as critical as correct arrow placement when you’re trying to take a turkey with a bow.”

 Harris, who has mixed emotions about string trackers, allows the terrain and the distance of the shot he must take to dictate whether or not he’ll utilize one.

 “For shots less than 20 yards in open areas, the string tracker works well,” Harris observed. “However, I’ve found that on shots more than 20 yards away, I lose some accuracy with a string tracker.  I also feel the arrow is inhibited if you’re hunting in brushy terrain and using a string tracker, because the string often will become entangled in the brush which you’re attempting to shoot through.  I shoot without a string tracker most of the time.  However, I have bagged many gobblers when using a string tracker.”

 Harris doesn’t advocate the use of arrow stoppers to stop the shaft in the bird and possibly inflict more damage because the arrow stays in the bird and continues to cut as the turkey moves.

 “Shot placement is the most critical part of the hunt,” Harris reported.  “If you put the broadhead into the turkey where it should go, you won’t have the need for a string tracker of any type of arrow stopping device.”

 Harris doesn’t advocate using a blind either but rather prefers to move unencumbered to the gobbler he’s calling.

 “I try to call numbers of turkeys in a day and work with several turkeys to get them into position so I can take a shot,” Harris said.  “Because I cover a vast expanse of ground to work numbers of turkeys, I don’t want to carry gear like a portable blind around with me.  I run and work as many turkeys as I possibly can in a day.

 “Turkey hunting with a bow is a numbers game.  The more turkeys you can call to you, the better your odds are for bagging one of them with a bow.  The only time I do use a blind is when I’m trying to make a video of bowhunting a bird.  Then I’ll find where a gobbler is strutting, feeding and watering, set up a blind, and sit there until the turkey shows up.  But I feel that using a blind is much less efficient when you’re bowhunting for turkeys.”

 Harris also uses turkey decoys at times but only in certain hunting situations.  “If I’m hunting around a field or in open timber where the turkey can see a long distance, I’ll set up a Feather Flex turkey will not be able to see for more than 30 yards, I don’t use a decoy.  When I can see the turkey, I should be at full draw and waiting for the turkey to present the shot.”

 If Harris hunts alone, he uses a diaphragm mouth call exclusively.  However, when he’s calling for another bowhunter, and they’re team-hunting toms, he may utilize a wide variety of calls, including boxes and slates.

 “I’ve been involved in effectively bagging a turkey with a bow by putting the archer 30 to 40 yards in front of the caller,” Harris said. “Then as the turkey comes in, the caller changes positions to manipulate the turkey to the spot where the archer can take a shot.

 “For instance, if the gobbler comes in to the bowman’s right, the caller will move to the bowman’s left and begin to call to tun the turkey and make him walk in front of the archer.  The caller always keeps the shooter between himself and the turkey and tries to pull that gobbler right over the shooter.  Using this tactic, the archer concentrates only on the shot and the turkey.  When the turkey gets close to the bowman, the caller should call very aggressively to get the turkey to double-gobble and triple-gobble.  Then the bird will be so excited the archer will have an opportunity to draw his bow and make the shot.”

 Harris prefers aiming at the point of the wing forward to the top of the tom’s head.  “Although I miss quite a few birds shooting this high, when I do connect with a gobbler, I generally break the turkey’s neck or spine and I don’t have to run through the woods chasing after him.”

 Like Faust, Harris thinks the best shot occurs when the turkey quarters you and looks away from you.  Then you can get a shot at his back.

 These four master turkey callers, hunters and bowmen have given tips to simplify the task of trying to take a tom with a broadhead.  However, always remember you’ll miss more gobblers than you’ll bag when hunting turkeys with a bow.  But with each miss and every mistake, you’ll inch closer to success.

Narrow Your Zone

Knowing Every Square Inch of Your Hunting Turf

Is the Key to Setting Up On Big Bucks

By Greg Miller

http://www.bowandarrowhunting.com/

I’ve managed to arrow a mature buck during each of my home state’s past three archery seasons. Now I’m sure some of you reading this would just naturally assume that I spend all my time bowhunting on huge chunks of exclusively private ground. No doubt some of you also harbor the illusion that my home state of Wisconsin is literally overrun with large racked, hog-bodied whitetails. In your opinion then, knocking over three big bucks in three consecutive years is no big deal.

But the simple truth of the matter is that I don’t have exclusive access to huge chunks of prime big buck habitat. And with the exception of a handful of countries in the southwestern part of the state (where very strict trophy deer management policies have been in place for more than a decade), Wisconsin definitely isn’t “overrun” with big bucks. In fact, when compared to the bordering bordering states of Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota, my home state of Wisconsin actually runs a distant fourth in big buck production.

The truth be known, the single biggest key to my string of successful seasons has to do with my intimate familiarity of the ground I’m hunting. As my brother Jeff told me recently, “You’ve been bowhunting that area since you were just a kid. You know what the resident bucks are going to be doing and exactly where they like to walk at all times during the season. You must admit, that is a big plus!”

Familiarity Spawns Success

I can’t argue with Jeff’s assessment of my run of successful seasons. He’s right. I am extremely familiar with the area where I’m currently bowhunting. And as my brother stated, I’m also very familiar with exactly how the deer in my hunting area relate to their home range during all parts of the season. It’s a situation that has paid huge dividends the past three seasons for me.

If I see prospective trophy whitetail bowhunters making one mistake more often than any other it’s that they spread themselves way too thin. In other words, rather than becoming intimately familiar with a few areas, they gain only a slight understanding of a bunch of areas. Sure, they might have dozens of stand sites at their disposal. But it’s highly doubtful any of them will be in the right spots. Trust me, this type of approach is not conducive to a high success rate on mature bucks.

My personal success rate on big deer rose considerably the day that I quit making uneducated and irrational guesses about the animals I was pursuing. More specifically, I quit guessing as to where the bucks I was hunting were bedding down. I also quit making assumptions as to where those deer most preferred to walk when traveling about their ranges. (For those bowhunters who don’t already know, being in possession of these two bits of information can dramatically increase your chances of filling your tag.)

Downsizing is the Key

I learned years ago that it’s much easier to gain an intimate familiarity with your hunting spots if you concentrate all your attentions on only a few areas at the most. As I noted previously, many bowhunters fail to achieve consistent success rates on mature bucks simply because they spread themselves too thin. Instead of limiting their scouting and hunting efforts to just two or three spots, they attempt to expand their horizons to include five, six or seven (or maybe even more) different areas.

Of course, I always hear the same argument in support of such an approach. A bowhunter I chatted with recently expressed this argument perfectly. “A person can never have too many good hunting spots,” the guy stated. Well excuse me for saying so, but yes you can! In truth, having too many good hunting spots can actually be detrimental to your chances for success. (I’ll explain later.)

Okay, so now that I’ve made my point about less being better, it’s time to talk about how you decide which two or three of your precious hunting spots you should keep. In most instances it’s merely a matter of applying a bit of logic to the situation. You’re surely going to limit your attentions to those two or three areas that you feel harbor the most big buck potential. Rock-solid evidence, like an abundance of big buck sign and /or consistent sightings of mature animals, does help considerably when attempting to narrow down your options.

But I’ve found that another factor sometimes play a huge role in my final decision as to which areas I’m going to hunt. That factor is the location of the areas in relationship to my home base. Personally, I’ll shy away from hunting a great area that’s a long way from home in exchange for hunting a fairly good area that’s just a few miles from my driveway. Why? Because I’m able to spend a lot more time walking, scouting, observing and hunting those spots that are closer to home. Remember, the more time you spend in an area, the more familiar you’re going to become with that area. And that’s exactly what we’re talking about here!

A couple years back I arrowed a 140-class nine-pointer during my home state’s archery season. That buck is a perfect testament to the positives of hunting close to home. Due to a pressing business commitment, I could stay on my stand only for an hour on that fateful morning. I shot the buck about 20 minutes after daylight and had just enough time to track and recover my trophy before having to head out for my appointment. Had my hunting area been any further from home I wouldn’t have had time to even hunt that morning, let alone track and recover a wounded deer.

There’s another interesting fact about my successful hunt that bears mentioning. I harvested the nine-pointer from an area that harbors very few trophy-sized whitetails. Along with intense pressure during gun season, the area sustains an over-abundance of antlereless dear. Neither factor is conducive to high numbers of mature bucks. However, it seems there’s always at least a couple large racked deer running around in my hunting spot. My intimate familiarity with the area keeps me supremely confident that I’ll eventually get a chance at one of those deer.

Starting Fresh

To this point the information I’ve put forth in this article pertains only to those bowhunters who already have secured a number of hunting spots. However, everything I’ve said also applies to those individuals who are in the process of searching for some prime hunting spots. If I could offer only a few words of advice to such people it would be, “Start small and stay small!” Depending upon the size of the areas you’re considering, I’d highly recommend selecting no more than three different spots on which to concentrate your attentions.

But selecting your “new” hunting areas is only the beginning of the process. Personally, I wouldn’t even consider walking into a prospective hunting area without first thoroughly studying topo maps and aerial photos of that area. In addition, before heading into the woods I slowly drive all the accessible roads that border my newfound area. An incident that happened to yours truly a number of years ago was an embarrassing reminder of the importance of doing this.

I was scouting a big woods area in northern Wisconsin when I came across what appeared to be a virtual big buck honey hole. The ground was littered with steaming fresh scrapes, and at least a half-dozen four to six-inch trees had recently been rubbed clean of bark. Amazingly, all this sign was concentrated within a relatively small area. I quickly picked out and prepared a spot for my portable tree stand, then headed out of the woods. I didn’t bother doing any further scouting of any kind. That proved to be a terrible mistake!

I returned to the spot the very next afternoon and quietly put up my portable stand. Two hours slipped by, and “primetime” was rapidly approaching when I heard a sound I couldn’t initially identify. Then I realized that someone was operating an ATV somewhere off in the distance. At first I couldn’t tell which direction the off-road machine was heading. But a minute later I’d pinpointed its exact line of travel. The damn thing was coming straight toward my position!

Initially, I was irate that someone would be irresponsible enough to drive an ATV through the woods on public forest land. But my anger disappeared almost as soon as the machine came into view. Unbeknown to me, and just far enough from my stand site so that I couldn’t see it, was a brand new logging road. In fact, as I discovered later, loggers had punched the road into the area just a couple days earlier. Had I done my normal thorough scouting job I would have noticed the new road. And I would have known that the buck responsible for all the fresh sign had already relocated to another part of the forest.

My experience with the ATV makes a very important point. Gaining an intimate familiarity with your hunting areas is important for a reason other than learning how the deer relate to those areas. You’ll also gain an understanding how other hunters are utilizing the areas. Of course, this may not be a concern to those who do all their bowhunting on private property. It’s a different story, however, for those of us who still do a fair amount of our hunting on public lands. In my opinion, figuring out what other hunters are doing is equally as important as figuring out what the resident deer are doing.

Hunt Smart!

While I am a strong proponent of downsizing for deer, I’m always quick to add that the approach can cause problems for some hunters. The most obvious of these problems has to do with keeping your hunting areas “fresh.” Having fewer hunting areas means you’ll have fewer stand site possibilities. But regardless of how much a person downsizes his hunting efforts, I remain convinced that they can still find enough stand sites to ensure that they won’t burn out a potentially good area(s). Or, they can come up with a system that allows them to continue to hunt their spots hard, yet keep the deer guessing.

My son Jake and I have what I consider the perfect system for hunting our two chosen spots. Several times during the week we hunt farmland area near our home, but on weekends we hunt a big woods area in the northern part of the state. This “system” ensures that we don’t put too much pressure on either of our areas. Just about the time the deer in one spot catch on that they’re being hunted, we pull up stakes and disappear for a few days.

More Isn’t Better

Earlier in this piece I mentioned that having too many good hunting spots can actually be detrimental to your chances for success. How is this possible? Simple. The more good spots you have, the greater the tendency to second-guess yourself. My observations would indicate that people who have dozens of great setups are always struggling to figure out which one they should hunt. And when they finally do make a decision, they invariably end up second-guessing themselves. I once bowhunted with a fellow who fit into this category. The guy just couldn’t shake the feeling that while he was sitting on one stand a monster buck was walking by one of his other stands.

Unbelievably, he would sometimes relocate three times during a three hour hunt. Talk about spreading yourself too thin!

As I mentioned earlier, trusting totally to guesswork won’t put you within range of many trophy whitetails. Without a doubt, this is the biggest perk of limiting your scouting and hunting efforts to just a few areas. You’ll eventually learn the everyday habits of the deer you’re hunting. Remember, mature whitetails are notorious for using only tiny slivers of all the available cover out there. What’s more, big bucks don’t always leave behind evidence (rubs, scraped, etc.) that they’re frequenting a particular spot. Often, the only way to pinpoint these places is by spending time observing deer activity in your hunting areas. The more you watch, the more you’ll learn.

Don’t Ever Stop Looking

Just prior to writing this article I did some post-season scouting on a 400-acre chunk of ground I’ve been bowhunting for better than 30 years. Now you’d think there wouldn’t be anything left to learn about a tract of land after all those years. You’d be wrong. In fact, I found that I fully believe is going to be a literal big buck hot spot. The spot is located a mere 75 yards from a logging road I walk when traveling to and from a distant stand site. I’d never bothered to check it out simply because I’d never actually seen any signs of big buck activity near that section of the logging road. Hey, even I still make some basic mistakes once in a while!

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when I believed that a person couldn’t have too many good hunting spots. I’ve since learned that there definitely is a danger to having access to a large number of quality hunting areas. Spreading your efforts over a bunch of different areas almost always means that you aren’t doing justice to any one of them.

The Does Looking for Food

The count down to the end of bow season was upon us and I still had tags to fill. With snow already on the ground and the temperature at 8 degrees it began to snow lightly. I had been sitting in the house all day and decided it might be a good idea to go bow hunting. So I opened a package of hand and toe warmers and started to get dressed, this will be a good time to try out my new winter hunting cloths I thought to myself, after getting all bundled up I jumped on the 4 wheeler and headed out. I could see all kinds of tracks in the snow around the field near the middle stand, ‘Davy’s stand’, so I decided to go there.
I hooked my crossbow onto the pull rope and climbed up the stand. After pulling my bow up to me I took off the quiver and hung it on the tree next to me. Birds were the only thing I saw for the first hour. I thought to myself, “I am getting down it is too cold for the deer to move, no I’ll stay a few more minutes”. Then I saw them, 5 deer just coming out of the woods across the field. The first three went straight across the field and the other two went to the left and worked their way around the field. They were heading towards ‘my stand’. Please come this way I thought, not happening, darkness began to sit in and it was time to go to the house.
On Thursday night the weather was about the same but the snow was coming down hard and the wind was blowing. Once again I bundled up and headed out to bow hunt. This time I went to ‘my stand’, it has a roof on it. However, on this day it didn’t help the snow was blowing directly into my face. The view from this stand was perfect. With the snow on ground I could see both hill sides and down the lane. While scouting the area I saw 2 deer at a distance, no wait 3, no 4, wow 5 deer. They were hanging out next to a fallen tree. I watched 2 deer, they were both does, head for the field but I lost the other 3. The 2 doe that went into the field were heading my way so I got my crossbow ready. I turned off the safety and pointed it towards the opening in the trees. Slowly they made their way down the tree line when out of the corner of my eye I saw another doe in the lane. I was trying not to move, my bow was in shooting position. One more step and she is mine when the deer in the lane snorted and they all jumped and ran. The doe I was getting ready to shoot only ran about 20 yards stopped but she was standing in some brush so I couldn’t shoot because the brush would throw my arrow off course. Then she finally made her move into the woods. The other 2 doe were circling behind me so I slowly repositioned my bow and was moving with them. I saw an opening in the brush where I could shoot so I was following the doe hoping she would get to that opening when bang, my bow hit the tree my stand was on and off they ran.
Time to go back to the house once again empty handed. There is nothing I hate worse than to get snorted out after sitting out in cold for so long. However, the thrill of bow hunting was still there. I was able to see the deer and almost had a shot.
On Thursday, January 14 about an hour before dark, I decided to go back to my tree stand. After sitting in my stand for 15 minutes I heard movement behind me. The snow was still on and I could see 2 deer coming off the hill. I lost them as they were coming up the hill and then there she was. She walked towards the back of my stand and stopped. Than the other doe came up, she was walking towards the lane directly beside my stand. I leaned forward to hide behind the blind that is around my stand. She stood beside me for about 5 minutes finally she went into the lane. However, I was afraid to move because I knew the other doe was some where behind me. The front doe finally made a move for the field and the second doe started moving up. As the front doe was working her way down the tree line I was trying not to move so she wouldn’t warn the second doe. Finally, the second doe came our and started heading for the field. Turn a little, I thought, so I could get a shot, that’s it, a little more, I have you. I pull the trigger on my crossbow and heard a thug. She jumped and ran into the field, with every step I could here a gushing sound, I said to myself “I hit her good” when down she went.
I was finally able to get a late season bow hunting kill now it was time to field dress her. When I came around the corner of the house my husband was just pulling in from work. I told him I finally killed a deer for your friend at work that is in need of the meat. He said, “I could tell you got one, you are gleaming”. No matter how many times I kill a deer with a bow I feel the sport just keeps getting better and better for me. Bow hunting is far better than gun hunting if you have never tried it you should give it a shot. To all you bow hunters out there, never give up, you will get your shot.

Look at this 15 Point BuckLook at the size of This Rack

It was a Sunday evening, two weeks into the Ohio bow season, and it was time for my husband and me to get into our stands. Bob went to one end of our land and I went to the other. While sitting in my stand, playing on my iphone,I heard deer moving in the woods. It was time to listen and be ready to shoot. My crossbow was sitting next to me so I got the binoculars out to try to see where they were. The bucks started grunting, what a neat sound. The grunts were getting closer and then there was a sound I had never heard before, kind of like a real deep grunt or roar. Then in the field across from me appeared some doe and two nice size bucks, an 8 point and a 10 point. They appeared to be playing when all of the sudden the two bucks started sizing each other up. They weren’t really fighting, just pushing each other around. This went on for about 45 minutes then they just stopped and went on to eating and walked away. They stayed 85 yards away from me so all I could do is watch.

When Bob came out of his stand he said he watched the big buck, a 15 point, and a smaller buck pushing each other around on one side of the field and on the other side of the field were two eight points doing the same thing. He was telling me about the noises they were making and said he had never heard some of these sounds before. The one noise was like a real deep grunt or roar and when the big buck made that noise he chased the smaller buck away from a doe. After the buck chased the other buck away Bob got to hear the wheeze, Bob said it was a neat sound. Needless to say, the deer stayed too far away for Bob and me to get a shot.

Since bow hunting is being in the right place at the right time and scouting your spots, Monday night I decided to go to his stand because he saw the big buck, but all I saw was some does about 100 yards away. I heard the bucks grunting but never got to see them. Then right before dark the coyotes started to howl so I figured the deer were going to leave. On my way out of the woods I saw a deer near my stand but I couldn’t tell if it was a buck or a doe. When I got home from teaching the next day I went back to get the pictures off my camera and low and behold standing right next to my stand was the big buck. It was about 7:15 p.m., well before dark, and there were 5 pictures of him.

I decided I was going to bow hunt out of ‘my stand’ for a while. Tuesday I had 4 small bucks come by my stand but I didn’t want to take a shot. On Wednesday night I heard something coming from behind my stand. It was getting close to dark so I really couldn’t see well in the woods due to the leaves but the fields still had plenty of light. The first deer comes out and walks toward the feeder, it was an 8 point with a high rack but not very wide. It eats a little bit and then looks back in the woods and starts to walk off. Then here he came, the big buck, 15 points. When I first saw him my heart started beating quickly. I said to myself, “Is that really him? Am I going to get a shot? Now calm down Christy”. As I watched him walk around and check out the territory I settled down. By the time he walked towards me it was getting dark. I put the scope of my crossbow on him, yep it was the big boy, but how far was he away from me. I looked back up at him, tried to figure out the yardage, I thought you don’t want to wound this one. He walked to his left and stood broad side to me, again just couldn’t figure out how far away. I decided it was too late to shoot and watched him walk away.

When I went bow hunting Thursday night I figured out he was 30 yards away and I had the perfect shot. Needless to say I have not seen that big buck since. Even though I could kick myself in the butt for not shooting I think I did the right thing.

The life of a bow hunter is hard at times but unlike a gun you must make sure they are in range before you release or pull the trigger on your bow. However, it is a great feeling being in the woods and seeing the deer and other wildlife just doing their thing. I would rather bow hunt than gun hunt any day.

I’m looking  for a 27″ mod. for a PSE Fire flite 33.  This bow is a little older and PSE no longer has a mod in stock. I appreciate it much if you can help me out. Just bought this bow from a guy at work. I was clueless about what my draw length was. Now i know, Happy hunting.