Cool bow gizmos

Started by Optimist, October 01, 2021, 04:24:43 PM

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Optimist

I recently helped a bow hunter drag a deer out to the road, and he was showing off his compound bow. It had a flashlight, an LED sight and (coolest of all IMO) light up knocks on the arrows that made finding them in the dark super easy.

I always though if I got into archery I would much prefer traditional archery. My thinking (similar to how I think about muzzleloaders) is if I'm not taking advantage of a special season or regulation then there's not much point in using something that isn't historic. I have to say though, something about it tickled my inner mall ninja.

There's not much point to this thread other than me saying "gee whiz, that was cool" and thinking there might be something to more modern bows after all.

EBuff75

I've seen glow-in-the-dark fletching and nocks before, but I hadn't ever heard of actual illuminated nocks until now, so I had to look them up. They're a bit expensive though - $30-35 for a 3-pack.  I guess that it might be worth it if keeps you from losing your arrows, but that means you missed your short and probably need more practice! 

My problem is that there isn't enough room at my house to shoot a bow and I don't even get to the gun ranges enough, let alone adding an archery range to the mix!  I had a recurve back when I was a kid, but I haven't shot one in years now.  It is something which I'd like to get back into, if I ever move somewhere that has the room for it again.
Information - it's all a battle for information. You have to know what's happening if you're going to do anything about it. - Tom Clancy, Patriot Games

Optimist

I hadn't thought of lack of space being a problem with bows, but that does make sense. There is a lot of fun stuff you can do with airguns, lasers, etc. to practice with firearms if you're in a tight spot, but I can see how bows might be tricky.

That is expensive for the light up arrows. I can see how it would be worth it though. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to deal with pests*and. A lot of the time it's trying to shoot at a small, fast moving animal running through brush in low light. The area I'm in is pretty rural, but there's enough people that I don't feel safe firing rifles much of the time, plus I don't necessarily want to attract a lot of attention. A bow might be good, but if I shoot a normal arrow into the brush at twilight it's probably not getting found.

I haven't done any archery since I was a kid, but I imagine hitting a sprinting fox, rabbit or coyote is probably pretty difficult.

*There are a lot of potential solutions: air gun, suppressed .22, bows, slingshots, etc. I'm just trying not to spend a bunch of money on all of them at the same time.

One potential problem with archery is that my left arm is kind of messed up. One of the bones became permanently dislocated and fused, so I can't fully straighten my arm and if I put enough weight on it for long enough it starts to ache. I imagine a pretty light draw weight would be enough for coyote though, and that would probably not give my arm much trouble.

Crosscut

Tried bow hunting in my 20's (compound, deer) but never really got into it.  Still have the bow, and a smaller one (35# IIRC) I purchased for the wife although she never liked shooting it and has no interest in hunting anything.  Picked up a dozen carbon fiber arrows and new broadheads a couple years ago after I pulled the bow out of storage and realized the old aluminum shafts were pretty well bent from the old days and the broadheads were now rusty, haven't even practiced with the new ones yet.

One thing I've considered, strictly for survival hunting, is picking up a crossbow and moving my Gen 1 NV scope to it.  The scope is currently on a Rem 7400 in .30-06 for this very purpose, SHTF big game harvesting, but a bow would be a lot quieter and stealthy, and allow me to repurpose the rifle to other use(s).  Along the lines of a survival fishing gill net, this would be another (albeit much more expensive) item mostly collecting dust in the survival gear waiting for a time it might be needed.  On the other hand, if needed, it'd likely be very effective in that role so I don't dismiss the idea entirely.

flybynight

Think I posted elsewhere. During and after lockdown last year and the election/riot nonsense going on that resulted in the still scarce ammo supply. I realized the ammo I was most deficient in was hunting ammo. So with no ammo to be found ,every time I was in Academy or Walmart I picked up several arrows. I still have two stick bows and a  round wheel compound. 
"Hey idiot, you should feel your pulse, not see it."  Echo 83

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