Frozen Crossbow Vanes A Problem? UPDATE

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Todays arrow vanes are supposed to be soft and supple. Right?  Recently, I was setting up my 10 Point Turbo S1 crossbow and new Oracle X scope in below freezing snow and cold weather because I was tired of cabin fever. You too!

My crossbow arrows, set up with Swhacker 231 practice heads were not grouping as well as I’d like in this freezing weather.

 

What could be the problem, I thought? My new Oracle X  scope needs electronics to run but the stats say my scope should be fine down to minus 15F. Could limbs and cams be affected? Maybe. But, the very next few days, temperature’s were in the high 40’s and mid 50’s. Accordingly, my fears melted away as groups tightened to my expectations even out to 45 yards. Very nice indeed! 

I did not set up an experiment to prove my theory. However, I was shooting a 3.5 inch helical fletch, longer than usual thus it made sense that if the plastic helical fletch was rock hard from the freezing cold, it could have difficulty in the narrow launch ramp and bump during the spin. I switched arrows with a 1 degree offset and a shorter 3 inch vanes.  With temp’s in the 50’sF they flew great, almost identical to my longer warmer helical vanes with practice swhackers. Thus, I believe my frozen helical vane issue was temperature driven. Perhaps switching to the 1 degree offset and shorter vanes is the way to go? Time and many arrows will tell.

UPDATE

Today, March 9th Temperatures were a balmy 35 to 37ºF. I have field points which I have weighted to mimic my Swhacker 231 heads. In addition, I shot both 3 inch 1 degree offset vanes and 3.5 inch helical vanes at 20 yards and at 35 yards with my 10 Point Crossbow/w Oracle X Laser rangefinding scope. The results were that both vane types and offsets at this temperature shot exactly the same even at 35 yards in image below. 

The takeaway here is that really cold vanes below 32F can affect crossbow arrows during launch. 

Secondly, that the helical fletch is not necessary with Swhackers as there is very little blade to plane.  However may add steering value with traditional broadheads. 

Good Shooting!

                        

Hard Time Pulling Crossbow Arrows? UPDATE

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Many crossbow archers are experiencing a very tough time pulling arrows from some of today’s broadhead targets. I recently purchased  a Morrell Yellow Jacket yj-380 target and it stopped my arrows well but had a really hard time pulling my crossbow arrows.

Accordingly, I have purchased the 10 Point Arrow Puller below and it comes with different grip diameters. 

It works great for some layered foam targets but less so for the Yellow Jacket. I really struggled, even sitting on the target! The yellow jacket really grips your arrow.

UPDATE

The Magnum Grip on Amazon below is excellent but costs more. Works great on crossbow arrows and you can twist field point arrows to break the foam grip.

I have found several arrow lubricants that aid in pulling arrows. Most lubes cost around 15 bucks. You can find them on Amazon. But I’m using some recommended shoe shine polish at $6.70 dollars on Amazon. Others use Ivory soap on a few inches of the arrow tip to keep the cost down. I will try that too. 

I will update what I find works. The key is, don’t get arrow lube on your hands or you will find it almost impossible to pull your arrows. 

 

This polish has a brush you can use to apply to the first few inches of your arrow.

I have two 3D Targets coming, A bear and a deer. We will see how my crossbow bolts pull from them with some lubricant. 

Good Shooting and Easier Arrow Pulling!

Burris Oracle X Crossbow Scope Review

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I bought this Burris Oracle X scope hoping to extend the fun and accuracy I can have in my backyard and in big game hunting. Cost: $644 on Amazon. This is definitely not a toy.

 

 

The warranty includes lifetime fix or replacement, no questions asked whether new or used. Wow!

The video below is excellent!

I own a very accurate 10 Point Turbo S1 Crossbow below (before adding the new scope) .

 

The scope can be setup for 2 different arrow weights, aka target and broadhead hunting setups. When I am in summer mode, I can setup to target shoot out to 75 to 100 yards for fun. In fall, I can setup for max 50 yards in the deer woods with heavier broadhead tipped arrows.

Things I will need to setup the scope:

  • A very steady rest. I have a great adjustable clamp type Death Grip tripod. It works! You can use a bench rest too.
  • I needed to purchase a 10 Point raised cheek comb to have better eye alignment. 

  • Get a torque wrench for clamping the scope to the picatinny or weaver base, and torque to 40 to 70 in-lbs. I own a Wheeler Fat Wrench. Test for eye relief distance before torquing down screws.

 

  • A few Extra Lithium Batteries. CR123 or CR123A work. I like Duracell but the scope does come with a battery.

 

My practice priority is for the hunting setup with my 125g Swhacker 231 practice broadheads. I get close with field points at 20 yards then switch to the practice Swhacker heads and make minor adjustments. 

The most important thing, Oracle says,  is to shoot accurately at the get-go for 20 yards. I mean within 1/4 inch of center if possible.

Read the short Instruction Manual. Takes 10 minutes.

 

Next, I began the electronic truing at hunting yardages of 35 yards. The software allows for two arrow types and gives you a max of four truing points. Set Range (SR) 1 to SR 4. I began with just SR 1. It was dead on at the 35 yard target. It was for my first and only 35 yard shot today as I have a family gathering.  More soon for SR 2 at 50 yards. Then, go hunt!!

Wow! I like this laser rangefinding scope!!

Good Shooting!

 

 

 

 

Archery – A Way To Focus Your Mind

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Archery is great fun for young and old. Most backyards have enough room to shoot at targets or even balloons. We all need to get outside and away from cell phones, etc. 

Interestingly, archery is a way to focus and merge your inner thoughts and outer self. It is a mental game of focus. Your reward is hitting the bullseye.  Oriental’s used Zen archery to extend the arrow in one’s mind to become one with the bullseye at the moment of launching the arrow.

Some people shoot at a target, others shoot/focus at the bullseye on the target. In riflery, we aim small and miss small, a similar concept.

To accomplish this requires correct conscious awareness of breathing, body stance and form. A merged focus on the inner and outer self. 

Success, an inner positive feeling can be achieved by focusing your outer self. 

In the case of bow hunters, 3D Animal foam target archery is a way to walk an archery course with other like minded folks and focus on, distance to target, how to stand with bushes and branches around your feet, and recall breathing and focus to launch your arrow. I did this for many years with my son.

Today, I shoot my bows in my backyard achieving focus and success.

Perhaps you can have backyard success as well. 

Good Shooting!

 

Crossbow Hunting Arrow Vanes – Stock Vanes Or Your Own Mounted Vanes – Update

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Today crossbow arrow vanes usually come as stock with one degree offset. Sometimes it is hard to see the one degree offset. 

Offset fletching works fine with field points and mechanical broadheads that hide much of the blade. But as I have said before, not so well for fixed blade accuracy.

I was happy with the offset vanes and swhackers but I felt stuck in that nich with no flexibility. I pushed myself to break out of that nich and try some helical vanes.  I own a bitzenburger fletch tool that was set up for right hand helical fletch, and had some slightly longer green Bohning vanes in my cupboard. I tried them on a single arrow, and boy did they fly well! Same POI as the one degree offset. 

 

ACI Bitzenburger Jig W/Clamps Right Helical

 

 

I used a magic marker to denote the downside cock feather like a barred feather. I shot at 20 and 30 yards and they had the same point of impact as my one degree offset but spun faster. My fixed blades flew a bit better but I am a stickler for accuracy. 

UPDATE PHOTOS  20 and 30 yards 

20 yard 1 inch group with field point and Swhacker 231 practice head

30 yard 2 inch group with field point and Swhacker 231 practice head

 

I get a higher level of confidence with the helical fletch as they spin a bit faster and allow fixed blades more forgiveness. As I said in an earlier article, experiment, experiment, experiment. 

Good Hunting!!

For the Love of Self-Made Longbows and Recurve Bows

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The bow has been with mankind for tens of thousands of years both for hunting, as a weapon of war, starting a fire, and as a musical instrument.

For hunters, the use of the English longbow and recurve for hunting held a special place in hunting big game. Many called it hunting with “stick and string.”

Today, there are still many archers that enjoy arching an arrow with a simple stick and string. I still do, for target.

Yes, I love rifles too, hence my magazine. 

It was many years ago that I made several hunting weight self-longbow/flatbows and recurves from hickory staves that I freed from New Hampshire trees. To my chagrin, a house fire destroyed many of them. I gifted my twin brother one of my self-bow’s and he shoots it to this day.

I have made a few recurves from hickory staves as well. I backed one of them with deer sinew and diamondback rattlesnake skin. Disappointedly,  I traded it with cousins and it disappeared.

But eurika, I own a stave that I originally cut into a longbow, and a work in progress. It sat in my closet for 20 years begging for me to finish it.

In 2018, I decided to make a hunting recurve with it, by steaming the tips and bending them. A scary process that can destroy many hours of work.  Well, I was quite proud of my new self-bow recurve so I backed that recurve also with whitetail deer sinew to increase its strength and made a flemish string for it.

At full draw, it is around 50 pounds. See it below. It throws a fast arrow! It is a work of graceful art as it has literally no deflex to this day.

I still shoot target with these bows.

In the end, I owe it to wild game to hunt with the most lethal bow I can handle thus most of my hunting is with a compound bow, rifle, flintlock and scoped muzzleloader or crossbow.

Good Hunting!

 

 

 

 

 

“Freezer Aging” Vacuum Sealed Game Meat – Does it work?

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Wild Boar taken in Maine

Wild Boar taken in Maine

Many hunters like myself, who cook, understand that frozen vacuum sealed game meat improves in flavor and tenderness over time. I call it “freezer aging” under vacuum. 

Animal hormones and blood in the meat hold stronger wild tastes we know as gaminess. I have used buttermilk to aid in drawing hormone laden blood from meat and aid in tenderizing. It helped!

Enter Freezer Aged Meat.

Freezer aged meat (more than 3 months) loses much of this gamey flavor. Further, that vacuum sealed venison and moose meat become increasingly tender and flavorful past several months in the freezer.  My wife and I love the meat from my 2023 Newfoundland cow moose but we noticed that it got even better after months in the freezer.

So If you have game meat vacuum sealed in the freezer, take heart, you can say you are “freezer aging” your game meat. 

Soon, I will write more about my new found very pleasant experiences with my black bear meat.

Good Eating!

 

Crossbow: Field Point/Arrow Tuning Tip to Swhacker Broadheads

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I love my Swhacker 125g Broadheads and Practice Broadheads. 

However, now I use my 125g field points in my Big Shot target to replicate the broadhead impact at bear hunting distances. How?

My field points normally hit 2 to 3 inches higher than my Swhackers at 20 yards. Perhaps minor aerodynamics account for the impact shift up. 

Accordingly,  I have tuned the arrow/fieldpoint with 5 grain brass arrow washers added to the field point and now have identical impact at that distance.

I do this to relieve the constant use of my broadhead target and make pulling field points from my Big Shot target so much easier.

I shot both the 125g practice broadhead and extra weighted 135g field point at 30 yards and they both grouped within 2 inches of each other. Wow!

Three Rivers Archery sells the brass washers by arrow diameter. Give them a try…

 

Good Hunting!

Swhacker Broadhead Science

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I am interested in the science of Swhacker Broadheads for my Alberta Crossbow black bear hunt. I am hunting with my Ten Point Turbo S1 which shoots 350 fps with Swhacker 231 broadheads and whopping KE of 140 ft-lbs at 20 yards.

 

I recently shot the Swhacker 231 practice heads out to 50 yards like field points with supreme accuracy. Wow!

Note: A separate practice head used to come with the package of three hunting broadheads but practice heads are now sold separately. 

Remember, when shooting broadheads of any kind, “it is accuracy that kills” provided the blades are sharp.

There are several models of Swhackers but each follow the same concept of saving the rear deployed razor sharp blades for cutting internal organs and not the hide and bone on entry.

 

Made in USA.

Good Hunting

 

The Most Important Part of Broadheads – Accuracy

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An accurate, sharp, big game broadhead shot from your bow is essential. Years back, when I was shooting new arrows out of my compound, I would paper tune the shafts with and without fletching. Then tune with broadheads with the intended fletching.

I’ve always liked feathers on my arrows as they are more forgiving than vanes. The downside of feathers in the hunting woods is rain. They lay flat and no longer steer the broadhead well.

Today, many new bowhunters have bypassed paper tuning by going for mechanicals that fly like field points. It is a shortcut that can create a less informed archer about his/her equipment and more reliance on mechanicals to forgive poor bow tuning. 

In my crossbow, vanes make more sense. I advocate spin to all arrows. It’s like rifling in a rifle. The spin creates stability, and allows rotating broadhead blades from steering the short crossbow arrow.  I like offset vanes.  A slight helical may work too. Experiment! Experiment! Experiment!

When all your tweaking comes together you should have some understanding of your setup and limitations. As for me, my crossbow limitations with fixed blade heads end at 25 yards. I like muzzy 1 1/8 3 and 4 blade heads. 

Muzzy 225 Bowhunting 100 Grain, 3 Blade Broadhead, 1-3/16" Cutting Diameter, 6 Pack,MULTI

Big blades tend to plane, avoid them.

Accordingly, for me, a mechanical head like the Swhacker 125g 231 is a great choice for longer and accurate shots provided you have the delivered KE and lethality for the shot and shot angle.

 

One thing you may want in your bag of tuning tricks are brass arrow washers to add some weight to a broadhead or a field point. Three Rivers sells them. They are 5 grains each.

Good Hunting!