Bowhunting Groundhogs

Here is a little of what I've been up to this summer!

Archery Talk

I get lots of technical questions emailed to me. I have to be honest I'm not the most technical minded guy in the world but I'll help you if I can! I will give anyone this tip though if you don't already know it... there is a wealth of knowledge to be had at www.archerytalk.com. Search the forums for almost anything archery related and you will probably have pages of responses! Sure there are some nuts on there but it's definitely worth checking out if you're not already a regular reader! Happy hunting!

Abingdon, VA Hunting and Fishing Expo

It’s that time of year again! Deer hunting is almost upon us and the Hunting and Fishing Expo in Abingdon Virginia is next weekend. Several of us Mossy Oak ProStaffers worked at this event last year and we had an absolute blast! This years event looks to easily top last years so you should definitely come out and join us! I’ll be working at the archery range so be sure to come by and say hello!

Don’t forget to be out shooting and prepping your bows as archery season begins on October 3rd here in Virginia unless you’re in one of the early opening areas. Check out the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries for more information.

Archery Training

Try Something New Every Day – Day 10

Knowing that I needed to take it easy yesterday I did what’s a hard thing for me to do these days, I relaxed! I didn’t know what would I could try that was knew though as I’m low on cash flow this week and I just wasn’t up to trying some new athletic challenge. I had a good time relaxing with Jessica and then Harry but time was slowly fading on my challenge. That’s when it hit me that I could kill two birds with one stone. I needed to shoot my bow and I was wearing my glasses. Normally I would have put my contacts in to shoot as I always hunt wearing them but I decided then was as good a time as any to prepare for shooting while wearing glasses should I ever need to. I went out to the driveway and set my targets up and begin to shoot. Unfortunately I can only get up to 30 yards in my driveway but I figure practice is practice! After shooting standing up for a while I brought a chair out and practiced that way for a while. Unfortunately my shooting isn’t scaring too many deer right now. I wish I could blame the glasses but they presented zero issues to my shooting.

As always the more practice we can get, the better. I have a long ways to go to be ready for the season as so many changes in my life have gotten me off of my practice routine. The good news is I have plenty of time to prepare if I buckle down and do it, which I know I will.

Happy 4th of July to you all! It’s a great country that we live in that gives us the freedom to pursue all of our crazy dreams, we should never forget that!

PSE Bow Madness Review

I’ve been shooting my new PSE Bow Madness for a little bit now and I feel confident in it enough to start writing out my review. This review will probably be done over a period of a week or two just to allow me the time to think of all I need to write about and to give me sufficient time to get the bow and I used to each other. I’m doing this as what I feel is an unnecessary precaution but you never know. From the time I picked up the bow for the first time it just felt “right”! As a smaller guy 5’ 9” and 153lbs currently I really appreciate a lightweight bow and the 32” ATA is just right for me as well. I really considered getting the XS version of this bow with a 28” ATA but after tinkering with both the 32” just felt better all around.

The first thing I noticed about the bow is the grip and the weight. The grip is the new “Biomechanically Ergonomic Slim Throat (B.E.S.T.) Grip” from PSE. It is slim and has rubber inserts that make it easy to handle and provides a secure hold. The grip is very comfortable and when you combine it with the 3.5lb weight of the bow you have something that feels great in your hand!

The next thing I noticed about the bow occurred after I shot it the first time. I had to shoot it several times to make sure I wasn’t imagining it and I wasn’t. The bow is virtually dead in the hand when shooting. You don’t feel a thing and you don’t hear it either. The first shot I took I thought something had gone wrong because I didn’t even know I had shot the bow. It’s amazing how smooth this bow is on the release of the arrow.

PSE is known for putting out great shooting bows and the Bow Madness is not going to break that rule. To me the most important thing to have in a bow is accuracy. All of the speed in the world doesn’t make up for a poor shot. The 7” brace height on this bow makes it very forgiving. My groups instantly improved my first day with this bow. It’s very easy to shoot and very adjustable as well. You can get 6” of draw length adjustment without a bowpress; can adjust the poundage, and also the letoff. The bow was great out of the box but with just a little tinkering we got it setup perfectly for me. The bow is extremely smooth on pull-back and has a very solid back wall. It even has a little more room for creep-up built in to the cam than its big brother the X-Force.

While speed isn’t the most important thing to me, it certainly doesn’t hurt. This Bow is one of the fastest single cam bows on the market. One of the secrets to PSE achieving the speeds that they do on this single cam beauty is the use of pre-stressed limbs. The limbs on the Bow Madness are already stressed to a point, beyond parallel, that a lot of bows are when they are fully drawn. So when you pull the Bow Madness you are fully arming a dangerous weapon! It's hard to believe that a bow at this price can be so powerful and yet so smooth! I haven't had a chance to test my particular bow out on a chronograph yet but it sure is shooting much quicker than my old bow ever did. I have to use two targets now as my field tips are going through my first bag. I only have a 27" draw length so I know I'm not shooting the 332fps IBO speed, but I would imagine I'll be shooting somewhere between 280 and 300 by the time I get everything tweaked in my set up.

If you have any questions about this bow, or anything else for that matter please email me at tnunley@gmail.com.

Sorry it took so long to get this review up but our recent move really took over our lives. I’m happy to report though that things are starting to get caught up and life “should” return to normal soon!