In this issue we look at and compare four rear - EZ

In this issue we look at and compare four
rear alignment sighting devices.
Also, the Buck Cage, the Wensel Videos, the
rugged and the strong Gator Grip bow carrier
Sneak peek at the Athens Testament and the Bear Domain Raven Broadheads and Predator Camo
The ACN Comparison Series
Rear sight alignment devices
All equipment sent to us for review by the manufacturers
Perry’s No Peep
Booth 179
Bowhunting Supershow
It’s a nice, sturdy, and well built unit.
The mount is sturdy, and the adjustments are precise
This was the first of the rear alignment sight assist units we looked at; and I can tell you we were quite
impressed. Perry Williams, the sight’s namesake and inventor, has done a great job producing not only a
well designed and quality built unit; but one that works beautifully in assisting the archer to achieve perfect
shooting form without the aid of a peep sight.
The concept is simple: a rear fiber optic pin is set up and aligned with the 20 yard pin of the front sight. It’s
incredible easy to do. Just take a bow that’s shooting well and leave the sight alone.
Then add the Perry’s No Peep to the back of the existing sight carriage. In this case, Perry supplied us with
a unit attached to an Axiom sight. Come to full draw, utilizing your normal anchor point and draw length.
It’s important to settle in right where you always want to be.
Here it’s at full draw, indicating hand torque
Back pin slightly out of focus, appearing larger
In this case, the archer is torquing and underdrawn
Then have someone adjust the back pin left or right, and up and down with the two very easy to use knob
adjusters. Do this while you’re at full draw. Or you can let down and make adjustments until you get it
right. Align the rear pin to be just where you want it to be: directly on the front sight’s 20 yard pin, or right
next to it, whichever you prefer. My preference was right on it, making them essentially one pin.
You are now locked in to the same draw length and same hand torque. Make sure it’s the position from
which you shoot best and most consistently. Here’s the magic of these rear alignment devices. Should you
be in an unusual position, high in a tree, or crouched on your knees peeking around a ragged bush, when
you come to full draw it will be extremely evident if you’re compromising your form! The rear pin will be
somewhere where it doesn’t belong! You won’t be able to miss it! It’s like having Bernie Pellerite or Randy
Ulmer there, slapping you “upside the head” shouting “Form! Watch your shooting form!”
No doubt many shots are missed because in the heat of the moment we draw hard against the wall, or underdraw, or torque the riser like we’re choking a chicken. A big buck, bull or tom does that to a person!
With a sight like this, you’ll have that virtual Randy Ulmer right on your shoulder, gently reminding you to
relax, settle your form, and now just make a smooth release. Oh yeah, might as well follow through too!
Right on, hand relaxed, perfect grip, drawn just right. Same for the next photo. You know the shot is going to be
great now because you’re receiving the visual signal that everything is perfect. Confidence is up, now just make a
perfect shot.
Visit Perrys No Peep at the Bowhunting Supershow and let them demonstrate how it works!
Their website is www.perrysnopeep.com
Brothers of the Bow
Two Wensels and one Mitten
(It just doesn’t get any better!)
Wensels named Mike Mitton. His book, pictured below,
embraces the lust for hunting wild places with a simple
stick and string in hand, getting the absolute most out of
the sport, or as some would say, the lifestyle called bowhunting.
The book is great, a respite from today’s oftentimes raucous
hunting videos. The videos, produced by all three of these
incredible woodsmen and hunting specialists, are simply
too refreshing for me to properly describe.
In this day of rock and roll music playing loudly while
that beautiful buck lollygags toward you in the still,
autumn woods, it’s refreshing to watch a video made
without doubt by a bunch of guys cut from a differnt
cloth.
The videos are about nature. Sure, they knock down a few
antlered prey, a few gobblers but for the most part both
videos are a slow, meandering wander through the essence
of days in the field with bow and arrow. Relaxing!
You’ll be so refreshed after watching them that it will
change the way you look at the woods the next time you’re
out there - and that alone is worth the price of admission!
These guys go way back. I mean way back. Gene and
Barry Wensel are some of the original whitetail gurus;
hailing out of Northwestern Montana, where antlered
kings grew just as large as today’s midwest giants only without the food plots and huge private lands.
These were very wild bucks, living on the edge of the
rugged pine infested mountain slopes of the Rockies,
and the river bottom alfalfa fields of places with names
like Whitefish and Flathead.
You half expect to see Jeremiah Johnson when you’re
hunting these iconic destinations. But out of this
wilderness came the Wensel brothers, two dedicated
recurve toting whitetail fanatics. They were always
known for their love of the game, nature and the dedication it takes to be a serious traditional bowhunter.
Somewhere in there came a younger version of the
What the?
OK, what is that? Glass beads in a plastic unit,
called the Buck Cage? So I assumed you just add
water and bingo, an instant deer farm!
I believe it was Penny I spoke with at Buck Cage,
who opened my eyes to this new concept in scent
dispersal. Surface area is a big thing when applying scent to a branch, leaf or directly to the ground.
The trouble is that the scent is left behind when you
vacate the woods, there to attract deer for a one time
check and that’s more or less it. The scent fades,
soaks into the medium and the next time you’re
in the stand you have to start the process all over
again.
But not with this little devil. You see, the beads soak
up the scent you apply. You keep the cage in the
plastic bottle and never touch it again with the human hand. It stays saturated, smelly, and ready for
action each time you enter the stand.
The huge surface ares of all the scent balls increase
the dispersal, and the cage itself allows the breeze
to constantly grab a fresh load of odor de jour to
keep those bucks coming! Neat idea, and odorless
to stash back in your pack when you head back to
civilization!
The next time you hunt, the scent cone is fresh,
new, and there to send that ever-so-important fresh
olfactory message to the buck of a lifetime!
Check these out at the show and take home a three pack,
and you’ll fill the woods with an aroma no buck can resist.
It almost seems like you should go find these gems in the
woods. But alas, this is 2013, you can find them at:
www.brothersofthebow.com How cool is that?
Booth 210 at the Show!
Contact Penny at www.buckcage.com
Booth 124 Bowhunting Supershow
Gator Grip!
Jaws of Life for your Bow
(or gun, or shovel, or spear gun, or...)
For your ATV, UTV, truck, boat, Super Cub???
Booth 128
We almost don’t need to say anything about
this product! Grips like a gator (go see it in
action on their website), gentle to the touch,
easy one-step deployment, and powered by a
simple bungee cord.
We tried this around the farm and couldn’t,
no matter what, shake anything even slightly
free from its powerful grip. Nuff said!
www.gator-gripp.com
Just go there!
Anchor Sight
ProMaster
Simplicity
defined...
A new concept in precise
alignment sights
Just draw, relax...
(let the Anchor do it’s job)
...and let the silver shaft fly!
It’s an incredibly light unit, compact and well built.
Nothing beats good old fashioned simple
designs. The Promaster is just that. While the
anchor sight amazingly precise, it does require the
shooter to take his eyes off the game just a little bit
to check conditions. A sight like the other three in
this write up, the Perry’s No Peep, the Hind Sight,
and this Promaster enable you to check matters
while you’re concentrating on the pin.
The importance of shooting form can’t be understated. So many things make us alter our form,
like uphill or downhill shots, being colder than
a mackerel, and the most wonderful of all, heavy
clothing. Once you’re accustomed to this bright
little device just outside your sight picture, you become very aware of whether you’re settled in and
Personal preference oftentimes comes into
ready for a good shot. Or not!
play with devices like this; but we can tell you we
liked the clean design of this unit. This one is super
simple. Just center the pins, all of them, between
Look at the photo above, that’s what you see the red lines and you’re good to go. Since red is one
a nice red circle. Now look at the photo to the right
of the first colors to fade in low light, we think it
and you see the reticle. The camera couldn’t be conmight be nice to have some spare bands in lighter
vinced to focus on both at the same time, but your
colors for low light situations.
eye handles the task with ease.
But quick, right to the point, the Promaster is.
This is a brilliant (literally) concept in torque
We tried getting off quick shots and this is as good
and draw control. Set off to the side slightly, you
as it gets. The shooter instantly knows he’s aligned
aren’t looking through it to aim, but merely “seeing”
and the arrow has permission to proceed with
it with your vision as you settle the pin on the target.
anger. Very nice.
If your form is off in any way, it tells you. Overdraw a
little, the crosshair won’t be centered in the red circle.
Torque the grip? You’ll see it like a cold slap in the A very nice feature is that you can turn the
face.
crosshairs to any position you want. It can be vertical, or at a 45 like in the photo above. The important
It’s simple to install, but the adjustment pro- thing to remember is you don’t need a peep anymore
cess may take a little while. We all have our perfect, with this sight, or any of the sights in this issue for
reliable shooting form. Once the Anchor sight is ad- taht matter. Of them all, the Anchor Sight offers the
justed to be perfectly centered while you’re at that clearest view of your pins, nothing to scoff at! Reach
sweet spot you’ll never worry about it again.
them at www.archeryinnovations.com
The ProMaster is made of durable plastic, and
available in camo or black. Adjustment is the easiest
of the bunch, with a simple lateral slide to achieve the
desired position relative to your pins at your most comfortable and effective shooting position.
Contact ProMaster at
www.promasteroutdoorproducts.com
Booth 143 at the Bowhunting Supershow
Hind Sight
is always better than...
The last in our series of rear alignment sights
(or devices) is the Hind Sight. It operates on the
same principle as the Perrys No Peep, but in a
different manner. You may ask where is the IQ
sight, but they didn’t have a unit to send to us.
Raven Broadheads
Quoth the raven...Nevermore!
Easy as pie to set up, the Hind Sight offers
the added feature of having various reticles for
the archer. We had the crosshair and the dual
arrows, which is what I guess you’d call them.
Uncluttered, simple, the dual pointers work well
The mounting bracket can be seen below. It
offers complete adjustability, while the simple knurled nut on the mounting shaft moves the unit in or out, and rotates it on it’s axis for
perfect alignment.
Contact them at: www.hindsightco.com
Raven is one of the newest broadheads to hit the market. It’s the brainchild of the brothers Salvino, hailing from
Villa Park, Illinois. What impressed us at first glance was the ferrule strength, with it’s mid section bulge. The tip
has a generous 11/16” cutting blade, assuring easy preliminary entry through tough hair and hide, a nice feature.
A problem with some expandables has been early deployment, or even accidental opening in the quiver. At Raven
they’ve solved this issue with a very strong ‘O’ ring which resist such foolishness, yet opens nicely on real-world
impact. The blades lock very securely and in ballistic gel tests cut even wider cuts than the blades’ 2.3+ inch cut.
And to make sure they’re legal anywhere expandables are legal, they’ve made the blades fold forward for easy
removal and to make sure they’ll fall out of a deer should that be the case.
We talked about their market plans for this
offers some great show specials in their They’ve even hinted at a program to get
a program to introduce Ravens to your
Although they didn’t say as much, I suspect the name ‘Raven’ might have roots in Edgar Allen Poe’s famous feathered
character line “Quoth the raven, nevermore...” Might it be they are talking about no more problems with this
particular type of expandable broadhead?? Stop by and ask them!
new broadhead and don’t be surprised if Raven
booth at this year’s Bowhunting Supershow.
even more product from them if you enroll in
local dealer.
Athens
Testament
Nothing but wicked...
the assault weapon of bows!
Too bad we couldn’t set up and shoot this
tactical looking animal. It’s going to be
raffled off as a door prize at the Athens
booth (SB5) during the show, so stop by
and shoot one for yourself, all set up and
ready to go!
Even at full draw it looks mean, with the
cam’s wings protruding like a menacing
predator. You gotta love it!
Nothing like being in the DOMAIN
of Bear Country...
Wow, what a nice suit. First of all, it’s
rare that a suit fits my frame, and this
one did as though it had been custom
made just for me. The quiet material
is a pleasure to wear and the pockets
are just what I’ve been wanting in the
treestand all my life.
Another great bow to stop by and shoot at the show,
visit Bear in booth SB 8 and shoot the Domain.
Once again, this Bear was destined for other things,
and our time was short anyway.
It looks and feels like a real winner, something old
Fred himself would have been proud of!
All of the pants and jacket pockets are
simply fantastic. It’s easy to get stuff
in and out while you’re sitting, a huge
bonus!
Stop by and visit them in booth 192
and try the Deception suit on for
yourself!
Predator Deception
These hallowed grounds lace my dreams
almost every night, haunting me...calling to
me a siren’s song. I cannot stay away from
your lair, you sneaky gray ghost.
Be well, my friend, be well. I will be back!
Places like these are what it’s all about, as they so often say nowadays. These are three views of places I sat
this fall waiting, oftentimes freezing, toughing it out patiently waiting, waiting, waiting for that big
bruiser to come along. He never did. Oh, he was there. I had the trail cam pics coming in almost every
evening; as I sat eating dinner with long-time friend and hunting buddy Jim Hebert. My Covert Special
Ops Code Black cell cam was sending pictures at 6 PM, 3 AM, midnight... I kept the phone next to my
pillow, so I could know the exact moment he was there. He only photographed himself twice, but it was
enough to draw my soul into his haunts like a man enslaved! And he still lives, how cool is that?
This great sport will live on forever I suspect, but only if we see to it. Come to our first general meeting
of the National Bowhunters Association 8 PM Saturday night at the show. Join us, we have good things
in store for the sport called bowhunting - and we need each and every one of you to be a part of it!
Or...join us today at www.nationalbowhuntersassociation.org
This is the first issue of many for ACN. It was rushed out during the last minute
preparations for the show. Once we hire a full time staff (very soon) expect it to
grow and expect bigger and better things to happen with the show, ACN and
the NBA. Let’s all do this together for the sake of our sport!
Stan Chiras