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Bow Shooting – Stance & Grip
Disabled Archer – Heal Wounded Soldiers
Jeff Fabry is one of the world’s best archers. He’s a five-time Special Games world champion, a three-time Paralympic medalist and he’s aiming for gold at the 2012 Olympics in London this summer.
What makes his talent unique is that Fabry, who has only one arm, has mastered the art of firing arrows with his teeth. Your dentist might advise against it, but Fabry, who will compete on the U.S. Paralympics Team in London, says his chompers are holding up just fine.
“I’ve been doing this for 13 years and my teeth still look and feel the same the first day I started. Everything is going good, luckily,” Fabry said.
But the road to firing arrows with precision was not a straight one. At 15, Fabry lost his arm and a leg in a motorcycle accident.
“My buddies were out hitting the hills hunting and I was stuck at home and I was like, no, I don’t like this, so I figured out a way to shoot and it happened to be with my teeth,” he said.
Fabry pulls the arrow back by biting on a mouthpiece that he made from a nylon dog leash.
“It was trial and error to find what I considered to be the perfect mouthpiece, where I could be proficient,” he said.
Fabry is sharing his passion with our armed forces. He teaches the sport he loves to members of the Wounded Warriors Project, the nonprofit whose mission is to help injured service members cope in civilian society.
“What I’m really proud of is being able to work with our vets who are coming back from the sandbox with different disabilities,” he said.
Jim Castaneda, a member of the Wounded Warriors, said he is thankful that Fabry introduced him to the sport. While serving in the Navy and stationed in the Philippines, Castaneda suffered a traumatic brain injury and a stroke.
“It’s changed my life completely … I found something that I can do and I really enjoy it and love something now,” Castaneda said.
“I’m not just sitting there anymore, like watching my life go by and feeling sorry for myself. Now I’m actually getting up and doing something for myself and trying something else.”
That kind of feedback is a bull’s-eye for Fabry.
“That makes me feel good about myself,” Fabry said. “I got hurt before I could join the military, and this is kind of a way that I can give back to my country by helping our heroes.”
Will Wilson, who works for Navy Safe Harbor, the Navy’s Wounded Warrior Program, says Fabry is a coach and mentor for his team.
“Jeff is absolutely fantastic. He has a great demeanor and is able to communicate clear and concise direction,” Wilson said.
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Benefits of Practicing to Hold a Full Draw
If you practice shooting your bow all spring and summer by casually flinging arrows at a target from 30, 40, and 50 yards, you should be full prepared to shoot a tight group into a 3D target by the fall.
But if you want to get yourself hunt-ready, you have to practice for hunting scenarios: sitting, kneeling, shooting quickly, and holding at full draw. This video is all the proof you need.
This moose hunter was able to keep his cool and make a good shot … but just barely.
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How to Make Your Own Scent-Free Deodorant
Think organic deodorant isn’t for you? It’s actually perfect for deer hunters, because it battles sweat and odor, and gives off no unnatural scent of its own. Buy ingredients in bulk and make three 2.5-ounce sticks—a season’s worth—for only $2 each. Here’s how.
What You’ll Need
● 1⁄4 cup coconut oil
● 2 Tbsp. shea butter
● 2 Tbsp. cocoa butter
● 1⁄4 cup beeswax pellets
● 3 capsules 400-IU Vitamin E
● 21⁄4 tsp. baking soda
● 1⁄4 cup organic arrowroot powder
● 2 capsules Vitacost Probiotic 10-20
The Brew
Heat a small saucepan of water and remove just before boiling. Combine coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, and beeswax pellets in a mason jar, and place it in the hot water, double-boiler style, until melted. (Warning: If you’ve ever had a severe reaction to a bee sting, don’t handle beeswax.) Leave the jar in the bath and add the Vitamin E capsules, baking soda, arrowroot powder, and probiotics, which introduce good bacteria into the skin to battle the bad stuff that causes BO Stir gently until mixed well.
The Cure
Pour the warm mixture into empty, used stick-deodorant containers, new containers (sold online), or lined muffin tins, and let harden overnight. Then, perform your own sniff test: The only scent noticed is a trace of beeswax.
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4 Ladder Stands To Consider
Whether you hunt with a bow or a rifle, want to hide in the treetops or stay closer to the ground, one of these four ladder stands has you covered. A hunting buddy and I started with six models and after a full day of setting up, climbing, sitting, and tearing down chose these four favorites. Here are our picks for an all-around stand, a bow stand, a best bargain, and a gun stand.
All-Around
Ol Man 15′ Bowlite
Specs 15′ high • 25″ x 171⁄2″ platform • 45 lb.
What’s SpeciaL With its mesh seat and narrow ladder, my test partner, a veteran New York hunter, thought the streamlined Bowlite was the best of the test. Two points of contact to the tree made it the most secure by far, and it proved the fastest to assemble.
Bottom Line Easy to build, comfortable, and rock solid. We docked points only for the narrow ladder, which allowed just one foot per rung—not good for XL hunters ($150; olmanoutdoors.com).
Bow
Rivers Edge Bowman
Specs 19′ high • 24″ x 17″ platform • 64 lb.
What’s SpeciaL Tall, with a big 17 inches between rungs, the Bowman is a young person’s treestand. The large platform and skyscraper height is ideal for maneuvering and drawing on deer undetected. Yet we felt it needed a second (not included) ratchet strap to feel secure.
Bottom Line With almost 2 square feet of platform 19 feet up, this is a killer bow stand, but the pins were noisy ($170; huntriversedge.com).
Budget
Summit Crush Series Solo Performer
Specs 151⁄2′ high • 19″ x 121⁄2″ platform • 40 lb.
What’s SpeciaL For just one Benjamin you get this light, easy-to-set-up, comfortable, do-it-all option. The ladder assembles with bolts and lock nuts, so it’s deathly quiet compared with the others in the test, which use locking pins. But the platform feels small.
Bottom Line Lots of value, plus it’s the lightest and quietest system in the test. Another $30 gets you a backrest and shooting rail ($100; summitstands.com).
Gun
Big Game NextGen Stealth DX
Specs 15′ high • 25″ x 181⁄2″ platform • 55 lb.
What’s Special Big Game hit the sweet spot of price and performance with the Stealth DX. The ladder is wide, with short 13-inch spacing between the rungs for easy climbing, even in the heavy clothing typical of gun season. There’s a cushy backrest and an adjustable shooting rail.
Bottom Line A comfortable all-day sitter that can be found online for well below the list price. We would have liked the gun rest to elevate a little higher ($220; biggametreestands.com).
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Improve the Effectiveness of Trail Cams
The easiest way to enter the bow hunting season with false expectations about early season success is to use cameras wrong—or at least—lazily. Taking your camera out to the edge of a food plot or a soybean field, hanging it, and then checking it every week or two may feel like you’re scouting correctly, however you’re probably under-utilizing these new-age tools.
Instead, consider hanging your cameras to answer questions about deer movement. For example, it’s Whitetail 101 to know that deer are going to use prime food sources throughout the summer. How they get to and from those food sources, where they bed, where they water, and where they browse are all questions that are far more difficult to answer. And they are perfect for scouting cameras.
Aside from taking inventory and getting some sweet pics of velvet-racked bucks, setting cameras in easy spots doesn’t do you much good as a hunter. Cameras hung on places that aren’t easily observable will tell you things that can lead to quality fall hunting spots, which is the goal. They’ll also tell you whether the deer use those places at all, which is like pre-fishing for a bass tournament and eliminating dead water until a pattern or hotspot emerges.
If you plan to run cameras next summer, start thinking about where you’re going to place them now. Although a subtle trail in a wooded finger leading to an alfalfa field or clover plot might not be as exciting as hanging the camera directly on the field edge, it might just tell you when and where a mature buck likes to travel before and after he eats. That’s a good step toward getting an arrow into him, especially since he is likely to reduce daytime movement once he sheds his velvet.
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Hi Bear!
Nathan was unsure of what to expect when he arrived at Wawang Lake. He knew first hand that we produce nice bear as his father-in-law Randy had taken one the year before. Randy had planned his return visit as soon as he landed his bear and knew he just had to bring Nathan.
Nathan had a very eventful first night with plenty of action….from the wolves! As he returned to camp the first night, he was so excited to tell us that he was ‘almost eaten by a wolf!’. As he sat his stand, there was a full wolf symphony surrounding him and echoing in the trees. At the last minute, he caught a flash of white from the corner of his eye and caught the tail end of a wolf leaving his bait site.
On the second day of their hunt Nathan got his bear. A nice 175 lb black bear and very credible with beautiful black/blue cape and all.
While waiting for the others in his group to come by to pick him up Nathan amused himself by walking out to the road to see what he could see, when suddenly he saw a HUGE black bear walking right towards him. Quickly thinking, he made himself bigger by raising his arms above his head and yelled ‘Hi Bear!!”, however, his voice cracked from anxiety and came out in a high-pitched, girly, squeal instead . Just as the bear veered and went into the bush Nathan turned around and noticed a couple more bear walking out from the other side of the road towards his bait site but these ones paid him no mind.
It was beginning to get dark and Nathan started walking towards the junction where he was to meet up with his hunt party, he turned and shuddered – ANOTHER BEAR and this one was glaring right at him from out of the brush just behind where he stood. The hairs on the back of his neck stood right up as again Nathan said in a high pitched voice while waving his arms high above his head, ‘Hi bear!!’ hoping to scare it off. The bear disappeared back into the dark abyss of the shadowing timber.
After seeing numerous bear all around he abuptly went into a hunting stance, now alert as he pointed and aimed his bow, swinging in all directions – getting ready for the attack. It didn’t happen and at that very same moment the truck drove up as Nathan sighed in relief – it was a welcome sight.
It was a tense moment there for a while, one we’re sure Nathan will never forget and that he’ll repeat over and over for years to come of his encounter with multiple bear during his first black bear hunt at Wawang Lake.
The truth is the bear were only interested in the bait site and the alluring, delicious smells it was emitting. It goes to show just how active our baits really are, and, Nathan got to see first hand when we say our baits have multiple bear on the baits – we’re not stretching the truth – not one bit!
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Need a Stabilizer on Your Hunting Bow?
If you are a walkabout bow hunter who keeps shots inside 40 yards, you might not need a stabilizer, and certainly not a long or heavy one.
Study indicates that unless you shoot in a heavy crosswind, an ultra-light bow, or stretch your shots out beyond 40 yards, a stabilizer is an optional accessory.
Assessing Stability
Stabilizers add forward weight to a bow, balancing it in hand and, because of the additional mass, absorbing some of the vibration that is produced by the power stroke of the bow.
Some claim that a stabilizer will also reduce noise. However, after experimenting the measured noise output of bows both with and without a stabilizer, results indicates only a minimal reduction in noise.
The real value of stabilizers is the weight they add to a bow. In this way, they are like barrel weight in a rifle. The heavier the barrel, the more the gun stays on target. This is why bench rest shooters use bull-barreled rifles, and it’s why Olympic archers shoot bows with long, heavy stabilizers. But neither group has to hump their gear over steep or difficult terrain.
The Test
Shooting three bows of different weights and dimensions with three different stabilizers and with no stabilizer at all at 10-yard increments from 20 to 60 yards and measured the size of three 10-arrow groups at each distance, for a total of 120 groups.
Some noteworthy conclusions:
Many test sessions were in crosswinds blowing in excess of 30 mph. In stiff winds and always shot more accurately with a stabilizer, and accuracy in wind was directly proportional to distance.
Stabilizers had the most effect on accuracy and noise reduction on a 3.5-pound Mathews Heli-M and the least effect on a 4.5-pound Prime Impact. In between was the 4.3-pound Bowtech.
There was no statistically significant difference in accuracy between stabilized and unstabilized bows inside 40 yards. From 40 to 60 yards, stabilized bows shot 10 percent more accurately than unstabilized bows.
The final conclusion is important. Accuracy is improved by a stabilizer, and if you’re hunting from a tree stand or a ground blind, or in a situation where weight isn’t a consideration, you should use a stabilizer to maximize your accuracy. But in highly mobile hunting situations, where weight can mean the difference between getting on game or not, then a stabilizer can be considered elective.
Test Notes: Field tips on 29 ½-inch, 350-grain arrows. Bows pulled 58 pounds at 29 inches and were shot with and without attached quivers.
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Brave Bulldogs Chase off Black Bear (VIDEO)
This black bear turned into nothing more than a big scaredy-cat when two bulldogs confronted it in a New Hampshire backyard. The homeowner said the two fearless Bull Dogs sprinted towards the beast the moment it was spotted eating from a bird feeder.
“Our Bulldogs actually broke through the railings on our farmer’s porch to confront the beast,”
The two dogs circled around the bear, which was standing on its hind legs.
After a few seconds, the bear — which could have easily swatted the two dogs away — runs from the yard. One of the dogs even tries to pounce on the bear as it sprints away.
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A Timeline of Archery – Through the Ages
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ON TARGET in CANADA 