Archery Talk

I have used slick tricks. Good but not tons of blood trail death juice. Lol! But they definitely do the job. Started using Range Trypans last year. Very large gashes.

You could start with whatever’s accurayeband cheap if you want. I may have a few extra slick tricks laying around if you wanna try em. They leave a square hole in the deer which is pretty crazy.

The biggest thing is finding something that flies just like field points which most expandables have a good chance of doing.

 

Bowfires right? Those are good arrows.

 

I’m a fan of Rage

 

Yeah Bowfire Carbon 330

 

Closing weekend. Glassed up at least 30+ does and fawns, 5-6 bucks (spikes and young forkies). No mature bucks, I'm assuming they're all still in bachelor herds, in full velvet and avoiding the groups of does. Hunted 10500ft-11k elevation. Saturday morning found a forkie and put him to bed in a wooded ridgeline opposite of where we were glassing. I ended up putting on a 3-4 hour stalk. Snuck over, took off my boots, stalked up to where we thought we put him to bed only to find it empty. I popped over the ridge and glassed and located him down the opposite side still feeding 10/11 in the morning. Put him to bed again in his permanant location but the final area was out of my field of view. Stalked down the mountain barefoot and ended up finding 2 potential bedding spots the I knew he would have to be. It came down to choice A (a boulder and a tree) and choice B also a boulder and a tree. I glassed up B a bit , could see no sign of him so figured he was bedded behind A. Stalked in peeked over to find it empty as well only to have him jump up 20 yards away where I had just looked and take off. If I had picked B would have smoked him, tagged out and gone home! Tag soup AKA bowhiking again this season. May dust off the rifle and pick up a leftover tag for a local area. All in all still a fun trip. Put in 10 days in this zone and learned a lot.

 

Yeah, I've heard Slicks leave weak trails as well.





With all due respect, the biggest thing isn't finding an expandable that flies with your field points. The biggest thing is making sure your bow is properly tuned. A well tuned bow will shoot fixed or expandables just fine. Far too many times expandables are used as a band aid for a poorly tuned bow. An arrow fying anything but a straight line to the target is going to suffer from penetration issues, whether its a fixed blade or mech. FWIW, I shoot Rage Hypodermics, Slick Tricks, and Magnus Stingers. They all shoot same POI.

 

I get what you are saying but there is also a difference between having your bow tuned and broadhead tuning a bow. That’s a different task by itself. I haven’t really had POI issues, but the issues with fixed heads isn’t always the bow it can be from the heads not being totally uniform that’s why they have the spin test etc. The biggest key task is to shoot with both and make sure that everything is the same. There are definitely plenty of broad heads that don’t shoot exactly like field points, I’ve seen enough videos and evidence of the comparisons to know it’s possible but that’s why you practice with both to make sure you are on the money.

 

Gonna disagree here. A tuned bow is a tuned bow. An arrow that is coming off the bow perfectly straight will shoot FP and fixed blade to same POI. That's why tuning is critical on the front end. If we are making adjustments to rests, nock points, etc....that's an indicator the arrow is not coming off "perfectly" and the broadhead is taking control. That doesn't negate spin testing broadheads or practicing with them prior. Not at all. My HyperForce shoots a relatively large fixed blade (Magnus Stinger), Slick Tricks, ViperTricks, Rage Hypodermics and Wasp JakHammers all same POI of impact to forty yards. As does my Mathews LX, FeatherMax and son's Mission Riot.

This isn't directed at you WA, just my general grumblings. There is SO much more to tuning than the typical pro shop "paper tuning" at three feet perfect bullet hole. Great, so we have "perfect" arrow flight at three feet. That's just the beginning. Shoot thru paper at 10 yards, 20 yards. Bare shaft. Make adjustments via yoke tuning, half twist at a time or swap spacers on the cams to shift cam lean. Far too many "pro" shops perform a rudimentary tuning (paper) and then recommend "Well if you have issues, just screw on a Rage (or other mech) and you're good to go." And then the guy complains that his arrow didn't penetrate much and lost an animal. A poor flying arrow is a poor flying arrow. And if it's not hitting straight on penetration is going to suffer, or it ends up being poor placement neither of which is desirable.

Anyhow, we are fast approaching opening day. Stands are set. Bows tuned and ready to go. Arrows tipped with Slick Trick Vipertricks. Clothing's been washed and airing out. Pack is ready to go. Honey-do list is all caught up. Fall is coming and so is bow season!!

 

I get what you are saying and honestly this is a never ending topic that’s been debated probably ever since the Native Americans were slinging flint heads at bison. Lol.

Definitely getting close to the season though for sure. Ours in VA doesn’t fully go full Deathmode until 10/6, so I’m counting down every single day which feels like it’s taking forever!

 

I hear ya. Love to discuss it. I guess the biggest thing that I would like folks to take away from it, is make sure your bow is tuned. Whether "my" way or "your" way, just make sure your broadheads are flying as true as can be. Don't let the pro shops talk you into using expandables because they can't (or won't) tune your bow.

Here is PA, the special regs areas open this Saturday. These are in areas closer to Philly and Pittsburgh. I keep telling myself, I really need to locate a few spots in the Philly area. Maryland opened last weekend. Just not enough time.... Would love to shoot a velvet buck....

 

It sure is nice to see disagreements turn in to conversations on this page. A rarity in todays world.

 

But of course. We're Tacoma drivin' bowhunters. Bestest people in the world!!

 

Yeah this is probably the most chill thread on here... Well maybe the 60 and over thread might be. Lol. Never checked on that one. Lol!

 

I really need to check my cameras again. Last time the spider webs in the woods were crazy. I don't mind "woods" spiders too much, but the webs wrapping around your head kinda suck. Good luck to everyone this year! I hope your Toyotas get you there and back safely with maybe a little something extra riding home in the bed.

 

Had a caterpillar make a cocoon over the sensor a few years back. Lil bastard tripped about 2000 pictures.

 

My buddy saw 4 elk this evening where I’m meeting him at. Only spikes til the 15th but at least there’s good movement in the area. Range was 20 yds!

 

Threw together some broadheads today and put some antlers out for motivation/ photo ops.

 

If you play the #s I should end up with a good season. Im in Loudoun.


Edit: loudoun is one of the 2 red counties all the way north, of the 2 that stick out farthest we are the eastern one.

 

Yea well we can get pretty rowdy in there.
The tv remote and cooler are always an issue on the porch..

 

I’m in Fauquier which isn’t too far behind ya. I’m surprised Rappahannock isn’t on there but it has to do with the amount of people that hunt and the number of deer taken. I’m think since Rappahannock has so few people and such large properties that there must not be as many deer being taken. Still a great place for seeing deer though.