February 06, 2013
By Bowhunting Online Staff
Let's face it, bowhunting is a sport of precision, relentless practice and endless fine-tuning. That's the beauty of our pastime. It's also the reason bowhunters spend months painstakingly preparing for one fateful shot.
Because every fraction of a hair matters, it's imperative to have the right gear for every single challenge. Whether it's the ever-trustworthy ThermaCELL — which helps ensure you're not inadvertently waving off deer along with mosquitoes — or the Bionic Buck II 3D target for real world hunt simulation, we've got the new gear you need for a successful 2013 season.
Rac-Em-Bac's Bow Mag This is probably the most recent example of a controversial 'innovation ' in the bowhunting world. I'd say calling this an innovation might be a stretch, but the
Bow Mag by Rac-Em-Bac certainly started a fierce conversation when it was introduced this past January. The manufacturer says this product — which essentially allows you to secure your .38 or .357 Magnum round on the end of your arrow — is 'perfect for big game and varmits ' and that it's a 'revolutionary new product. ' I'd argue with both. Not only is this pseudo-broadhead illegal for hunting purposes in a lot of states, its Frankenstien-like combination of ammunition and archery creates a slippery slope for hunters everywhere. The Bowhunter editors scoffed at the Bow Mag when it first hit the scene, and we have a feeling readers will have the same reaction.
The Mechanical Broadhead Some hunters might think the mechanical broadhead is a recent development. Not so fast. The effort to create larger wound channels on game and a more versatile broadhead goes back quite a long way — the argument between fixed blade enthusiasts and new school mechanical users has been around just as long.
Traditional archers maintain that the reliability and precision of a fixed blade provides a truer flight and cut than the mechanicals, which have been known to malfunction or fail to open after deployment. But the wider wound channels and quicker recoveries experienced with modern slip cam broadheads, among others, is starting to turn the tides in recent years. No doubt the innovations will continue to progress with the debate, but we can say for sure that bowhunting has come a long way since Greg Johnson introduced the first Rocket Aeroheads in the late 1980s.
Bow-Mounted Rangefinders In a sport that's preeminently old school, a bow-mounted electronic rangefinder seems pretty futuristic. But in recent years,
major players like Leupold have introduced these mounts for a consumer market seemingly happy to accept them. Though the
Pope & Young club says that 'the use of electronic devices for attracting, locating or pursuing game or guiding the hunter to such game, or by the use of a bow or arrow to which any electronic device is attached ' is not fair chase hunting, many still use them where legal. As most would expect, traditional bowhunters remain opposed to using anything battery-powered in the deer woods.
Crossbows and Crossbow Hunting Crossbows and their use for hunting are by far the most controversial topic in today's bowhunting world.
When Arkansas made crossbows legal during bow seasons in 1973 (Wyoming had always allowed crossbows during archery season) the popularity and proliferation of the technology was nowhere near its peak.
But with companies like TenPoint, Barnett and PSE stepping to the forefront to mass-produce them and more states legalizing their use, crossbows slowly became more prevalent. Fast-forward nearly four decades and, according to the ATA, crossbows sales have risen 70 to 80 percent in five years.
The Compound Bow In the early years of the compound bow and its development--
Holless Wilber Allen's patent was approved in 1969 after three years of waiting--a quality recurve bow was probably faster than its new counterpart. Allen's initial design was basic, but the core idea was revolutionary: use the principles of kinetic energy to design a pully system for a bow that would increase arrow speed. Using mostly wood for his first model, the truss handle was made of pine boards and the limb cores of oak flooring, Allen was able to achieve a significant increase in arrow speed over a recurve bow of equal draw weight. By 1977, there were 100 different models of compound bows available, only 50 recurve models.
But even this revolutionary design had its detractors in the beginning. Traditionalists have always maintained that this complicated cam system has made archery more cumbersome, requiring a bow press to make adjustments to let-off and draw length or even to simply replace a string. While we wouldn't even recognize bowhunting today without Allen's invention, we can all be sure that the recurve loyalist will always have their say in this debate.
Poison Pod Arrows Again, this particular product probably doesn't fit that well as an innovation, but for some, it's a viable solution for taking down game. Even the legendary Fred Bear developed and held patents on drug-dispensing pods for hunting arrows. Bowhunters using liquid and powdered forms of powerful drugs such as anectine and succinylcholine chloride for deer hunting go back to the 1960s, and though they are illegal in many states, the science and ethics behind this practice continue to drum up debate. "Posion" loaded into "pods" at the tip of an arrow is meant to interact with the animal's muscle tissue and enter the blood stream, causing certain death from even a poorly placed shot. As of today, the
Pope & Young Club ,
National Field Archery Association ,
American Archery Council and
Professional Bowhunters Society are all opposed to pods and their use for hunting.
