Vortxx Quivers

When I was younger I use to to go out hunting with a huge quiver that held 6 arrows and had the mindset of the more the merrier.  Later in my hunting life, I realized that it was too bulky to have on your bow when in the confined space of a tree stand.  There are too many opportunities for arrows to fall out or snag on something and not to mention that if you needed 6 arrows in one outing while hunting whitetails in Michigan you have serious issues and should probably give up on bow hunting altogether.  So when I was about 16 years old I switched to a 3 arrow quiver and have been largely content right up to last year.  

I had been fortunate enough to never need more than 3 arrows in all of my Michigan deer hunts.  It wasn't until last year while Javelina hunting in Arizona that I started to reconsider my quiver size.  During my hunt it didn’t take long before we were hot on some pigs.  When the first opportunity presented itself I took a 50 yard shot and missed.  I then grabbed another arrow and shot a second time at the pig 45 yards away and missed again.  I immediately knocked my last arrow and shot at a different pig at 35 yards away and missed it as well.  Out of arrows, my hunt was over for the day.  I couldn’t believe I missed on all 3 shots and to make matters worse 5 more pigs, sensing my failure,  walked right by me 15 yards away and I had to stand there still and just watch them taunt me.  Since that day, I have reconsidered my theory on quivers. 

Because I never bow hunted anything other than whitetails growing up, the thought of multiple shots on something never really crossed my mind.  After my Javelina experience, I understand that there are certain hunts that require you to carry along more arrows.  I have known people that take a dozen arrows with them when they go mule deer hunting out west.  This sounded absurd to me at first but after being on a few different hunts it now makes since.   Since I will be hunting Javelina again next year along with a Deer hunt in Montana I had to upgrade my setup.  

When searching for a quiver I wanted something that could hold a minimum of 5 arrows but I didn’t want something that spaced them out across my bow like guitar strings, as I said earlier it's too bulky and always hitting or getting caught up on things.  To my surprise I stumbled across a quiver on the Internet that was such a sweet concept I just had to order it.  It’s called the Vortxx Quiver and is made by New Dawn Outdoors.  It’s a 6 arrow quiver that holds all your arrows in a 360 degree rotating circle, similar to a 6-shooter pistol.  The circumference of the quiver is a little bit bigger than a soda can.  There is one opening on the circular ring located on the front of the quiver that allows you to either load or retrieve your arrows.  Loading the quiver is accomplished by placing an arrow in the opening and turning the head of the quiver which locks the arrow in place.  Once your arrows are secure, you retrieve them by turning the head of the quiver to bring the desired arrow towards the center opening.  The arrow is then easily plucked from the quiver, leaving your remaining arrows securely in place.  This quiver is very light and compact.  The hood of the quiver is covered with a soft padding that prevents any rattling while serving as a dampener.  In my opinion, this quiver provides everything you want in a quiver.  It allows for a good supply of arrows, with out the risk of losing them, all in a compact and lightweight package.   Fuzz

Long Range Shooting: Anti Can't Device

Over the last year some friends and I have gotten into long range shooting.  We have learned quite a bit about it through online forums and a lot of trial and error but still have a long way to go.  I pretty much have the basics down but I am not the guy reading wind and temperature and calculating precision shots.  There is one thing I have recently learned about and added to my setup that I can say has made a drastic difference in my long range shooting.  It’s called an Anti Cant Device.

Anti Can’t Device:

When you don’t have your gun level when shooting and it’s tilting to the right or left, that’s called CANTING.   Below is a diagram to help explain the results of a gun that is CANTING to the right at different degrees.

• Looking at the aim point which is the RED 1 center dot, if your gun is level, in theory, when shot the bullet will travel up to the RED 2 dot and on its way back down will hit your aim point (Center RED 1 dot).
• Looking at the aim point which is still the center RED 1 dot.  If your gun has lets say a 20 degree CANT to the right when shot will travel up to the GREEN 3 dot and fall straight down and impact low and to the right (Shown as GREEN 4 dot).

The same would go for the BLUE and BLACK dot pictured.  The larger the degree of CANT the further from the aim point your shots will end up.  This all has to do with gravity.  Gravity affects everything the same and is going to pull your bullet straight down from its peck no matter how its shot.  This is most notable in further distance shots.  If you’re only shooting 100 yards its not that noticeable, maybe a inch or two with a slight CANT.  But if you were shooting 1000 yards lets say with a 6 degree CANT you would be off more than 36 inches from your aim point.  Two weeks ago I shot at 600 yards and noticed a similar pattern to the diagram above.  After some research I learned about the Anti Cant Device which is a level made for rifle scopes.  This prevents you from CANTING to the left or right and your shots are truer.  I order one online and put one on my scope and the next time out I was shooting 5 inch groups at 600 yards.  Not bad for a beginner.  Below is picture of the device on my gun.   Fuzz

Buddies taking shots:

    

    Dialing in @ 600 yards

    

    Getting setup for 700 yards

Trophy Taker Micro Alpha V5 Sight

When I was thinking about putting a sight on my new bow this year two thoughts crossed my mind, do I take my G5 off my old bow, or look for something new.  After thinking about it for awhile I realized that there where a couple of things I didn’t like my current G5 sight.  With that said, I ended up looking for and purchasing a new sight.  After lots of research I went with the Micro Alpha V5 by Trophy Taker.

Here where my reason for the change:

The G5 Optix XR overall is not that bad of a sight, but there where two things that I didn’t really like about it.  First, the adjustment of the pins I found difficult.  You loosen pins on the side with a hex wrench to allow movement of the pin up or down.  It’s hard to note your adjustments.  The second reason is purely preference.  I used to shoot a single vertical pin before switching to this one and I realized that it was harder for me to identify the aim point with the multiple horizontal pins.  I feel that the sight just blocks too much of the animal and presents more risk of a poorly placed shot.  Below is a diagram that I made to try and explain my thought process with this theory. 

PICTURE 1: Horizontal Pins

PICTURE 2: Vertical Pins

 

Picture 1 shows the horizontal pin setup and picture 2 shows the vertical pin setup.  Granted these pictures aren’t to scale, but you get the idea.  To me, I believe that if using the horizontal pins you have a harder time of identifying the aim point.  With the Vertical pins, I feel you have greater sight picture which allows you to easily identify the aim point and tighten up your arrow placement.

When researching a new sight, I was looking for a good vertical pin sight.  The Micro Alpha V5 in my opinion was one of the best sights that offered this.  The sight has multiple mounting options in the arm for you to choose from.  I mounted mine as far away from the bow as I could to present a smaller sight picture (aim small, miss small).  The sight housing has micro adjustments that move with a turn of a dial.  It doesn’t take long to find your line.  Each pin is also adjustable with a hex wrench with either a right (to rise) or left (to lower) turn.  Another great feature about the pins is that they are each marked with hash marks that make it easy to note your exact adjustments.  This allows you to really zero your pins in.  This sight is very durable and easy to adjust, I couldn’t be happier with it.   Fuzz

Welcome to HEAD STRONG!

We would like to welcome you to our Blog and introduce you to what it is that we are looking to create. To get started, we are just two ordinary brothers with a passion for hunting. We would consider ourselves average hunters that are constantly looking for ways to enrich our outdoor knowledge. The views expressed in this Blog are the writer’s opinion, but feel free to comment. Our goal when creating this website was to attract and maintain followers that are interested in the hunting world, by providing useful information through experiences not only from us, but also our members. In order to achieve this goal we encourage others involvement. We are doing this by inviting members to create Posts such as stories about their hunts, writing product reviews, posting videos, adding pictures to the Trophy Room, etc., for other fellow members to review. We are excited about the idea of sharing experiences and learning from other fellow members!

2011 Bowtech Invasion CPX Review

This year I wasn’t thinking of getting a new bow since I have been very happy with my Mathews DXT, but after seeing the new line of 2011 bows I soon reconsidered.  I did a ton of research on-line looking at the specs all the new bows had to offer.  I researched many different bows such as Mathews, Hoyt, Elite, and Bowtech just to name a few.  The only bow I really didn’t look at was PSE.  The reason behind this is because the few people that I talked to that carry multiple lines of bows didn’t have great things to say about them.  After doing lots of research I went to the local archery shop and shot the bows that I narrowed my search down to.  I shot the Mathews Extreme, Elite, Hoyt Carbon Element, and Bowtech Invasion CPX.  All these bows felt and shot excellent, but overall, the Bowtech Invasion was the one that stood out to me.  Here is my review and why I chose this Bow.

           

The Bow Specs:

                        Mass Weight: 3.9 lbs

                        Let Off: 80%

                        Axle to Axle: 31 1/32”

                        IBO: 343

                        Brace Height: 7in

Bow itself:

The first thing I noticed when picking up the bow was how light and small it is.  It's very comparable to the DXT I used to shoot.  To me it’s all about keeping it light and versatile and this bow is just that.  The cams where the second thing I noticed as they look fierce.  They included the Overdrive Binary Cam system that was popular and proven on their 2010 Destroyer model.  This bow also has a nice thin wood grip that feels great in your hand and reduces the possibility for torque.  The other two great things featured on this bow are the Flex guard, which eliminates riser torque, and the string stop.

Shooting:

The draw cycle is pretty smooth with a little noticeable hump about 3/4 of the way the back.  I will say that my DXT was smoother, but it’s not that much different.  After shooting a few arrows here are my observations. 

• There is a little vibration in the handle and the bow actually resets back towards you on the follow through as oppose to forward.  This is caused by the Overdrive Cam.  It ended up being a simple fix with a 7in octane stabilizer.  It took out all vibration and leveled the bow out nicely. 
• The bow is very fast and accurate due to the OBC and Center Pivot Technology.  Just as Bowtech promised “Scary Accurate” and “Extremely Fast.”
• Very Quite

Overall:

As I stated early, there a lot of excellent bows out there to chose from.  After lots of research and field testing, this is the one that stood out to me.  I sighted this bow in 0 – 70 yards in less than an hour on my first day of shooting it.  Since then I have shot three more times without making any adjustments to my pins.