Back Again.. Update on the Bowtech Insanity.

Here we go with the usual intro..  "It's been a while since I've posted anything"...

A lot has happened since the last time I posted anything. I don't even know where to start so I will start where my last post left off. I have absolutely loved my Bowtech Insanity since we figured out the issue. It honestly is the most accurate bow I have ever shot. The only thing that I could say about it that isn't great is the pull over into the valley. It's a little odd to get used to, but that is pretty much it. For a bow that shoots as fast as it does, it's remarkably quiet and smooth to shoot. I have changed arrows and started shooting the FMJ's from Easton because this bow puts out so much energy that I can shoot heavier arrows and still get blazing speed along with the extra punch.

I had a chance to take it to Africa this Spring and it was amazing. I didn't even take a rifle with me and I heard all the " you're going to be eaten" comments.  I really wanted to do the safari with just archery gear and it was also much easier to deal with in transport and customs. When I stepped off the plane and was greeted by my PH, Nikki, we started talking about the bow. "So you're effective range is 20-30 yds?",  "Well", I said, " I practice at 80-90 regularly and have taken numerous animals out to 70".  "Really!" was his reaction and I could tell he was more than skeptical. They talked about archery hunting on the property, but I don't think they had anyone that was really serious and had the equipment that I had. Let me say before I continue, that my PH and the Outfitter (Johan Peiterse), were amazing and the property and staff were top notch. It was an amazing experience.

So I thought I better shoot a little before we went out to make sure my bow was good. There wasn't an archery target so my tracker, Sampson, gathered up some hay bales and we taped a little target to it. I shot out to about 40 and felt good with the set up and Nikki watched and also felt better. The second day we stalked a warthog to 53 yards and I let it rip. It was a great stalk and those animals are a blast to hunt. Well the blood trail was amazingly easy to follow and we found the warthog a very short distance away. The Insanity and the G5 broadheads had done the trick and it was very exciting. Nikki and Sampson couldn't get over how far that was and how much damage it had done to the warthog. It was a little eye opening for them.
In the following days, it got to be somewhat of a spectacle when I would shoot. I would move down next to a waterhole so I could get 85 yards and let them fly into the hay. Everyone was amazed at the accuracy and the lethality of the combination. I can honestly say that this bow and this arrow combination really are the best I've shot. Very easy to tune and fly very close to field tips for being fixed blades.
It was an amazing hunt and even better experience. I just can't wait to get back! In my week I was able to take a warthog, Impala, Blue Wildebeest and Waterbuck. An amazing trip.

I was also able to take my twins out this year. They turned 12 and were able to get out. They didn't get their archery education done so this would be a rifle year for them. We were able to find some nice mule deer for them and they both made great shots.  Very exciting stalks to get within their comfort zone and then great shots by both. I know when I was 14 (you had to be 14 to hunt big game when I grew up), I couldn't hardly stop shaking if I saw anything that even looked like it might have antlers! Both of my boys made great one shot kills and I was very proud. I'm really looking forward to next year when we can spend more time with the bows out chasing elk. That will be a great time and I am looking forward to it.

I am going to be taking more photos and video to add to this blog and a new website that I am starting with a good friend. Keep your eyes out and let me know what you think of the website and also the products we are going to be offering.

You know, Bowtech just came out with a couple of new bows!!  As much as I love my Insanity, I'm really interested in the RPM 360 and can't wait to shoot it. My local shop has some on order so I'll be writing a review as soon as I get my obsessed hands on one!

I hope you all had a great hunting and fishing season and a good Holiday. It's time to start dreaming about new gear and figuring out what hunts will be on the agenda for next year.  Let me know if any of you have some stories to share.

Bowtech Insanity limbs

After a lot of pushing from some friends that shoot competitors bows (you know who you are), I decided I needed to write about a problem that I had with my new Bowtech Insanity.
After a few weeks of shooting the bow I started hearing a "creak" when I drew the bow. I kept thinking that it was in the rest and it would work itself out. Well, I was wrong, it got worse. So I had another guy listen and it was actually coming from the limb and sounded like it was in the limb pocket. So I left my bow at my proshop and they got in touch with Bowtech. The support at Bowtech had them go through a few things that they thought would fix it and then they shot it a few times at the shop to check it. Everything seemed good. I picked the bow up and took it shooting the next day and after about 50 arrows, the noise came back. We took it apart and lubed up the limb pocket thinking that would take care of the problem, no luck. Well if a little lube didn't take care of the problem.. yes, we took the bow apart and used a lot of lube, no luck. My son told me that I should just keep the bow and use it for duck hunting because it started to sound like a quack! I was told that nobody else had the problem and it was the first they had seen, I mean heard, of the problem. I will say that my shop was great and tried everything that we could think of to fix the problem and then just replaced the bow. So now I'm shooting another Insanity and hoping the same problem doesn't creep up on me, especially when I'm hunting!
I don't know if this is a common thing with Bowtech (I haven't owned one in 10 years) or maybe just with the Insanity, or if this was a one of a kind problem. I do like the bow and the way it shoots for being so fast. Hopefully the next time I write anything about the bow is when it's about shooting some animals and not calling in ducks..

Bowtech Insanity Review..

Well I just jumped off the ledge and bought a new Bowtech Insanity. I guess I just killed the anticipation of whether or not I liked it.. Crap, oh well I'm going to tell you a little about it anyway.

First here is my set up:
Bowtech Instanity 70# 30" draw (paid $949 at my shop. They aren't giving them away!)
Rip Cord drop away rest
Spott Hogg hunter 7 pin sight
10" Fuse Carbon Blade Stabilizer
Shooting Easton Axis 340 arrows right now but may change to a slightly heavier arrow like a FMJ.

As anyone reading this knows, this bow had a lot of hype for it's release. To be perfectly honest (because I'm not a Bowtech employee I don't have to sugar coat this) that hype had a lot do to with my purchase. It felt like a cool thing to have the bow, great job on a marketing strategy! I was a little skeptical about the 6" brace height and the claim of a "smooth" shooting fast bow. I had my archery shop set up a hoyt carbon element and the insanity for me to shoot side by side. In all honesty the Hoyt had a much smoother draw cycle, felt lighter in my hand (because it is) and shot great. But.. the Insanity shot great and I loved the speed. For a 6" brace height bow that IBO's at 355fps, it really shoots nice. The one major downfall to this bow, in my opinion, is the draw cycle. Once you reach the end of your draw, it has a tough break over point. It almost feels like you're hitting your wall and then you give it a little more umph to break it over to full draw. It's not terrible, but it isn't a great draw cycle either. If that is important to you, you will not like this bow. I had one guy at the archery range ask if he could shoot it. I told him to go ahead but it was a little strange at the end of the draw cycle. As he pulled the bow back it hesitated before it broke over and right as he hit the wall, he said "Wow, I really don't like that". He never commented about the way the bow shot after he released, but he didn't like the bow because of that. Me on the other hand; I like the way it shot and the speed that I get out of it enough to not worry about that one point. At 20 yds on the first night I was wrecking arrows. It's a great shooter! I am really looking forward to getting outside with this bow and shooting at some distances. I am just trying to pick a good arrow right now that I will stick with. I don't like getting all my pins set and then changing arrow weight and having to start again. 
So, all I can say for this bow is the good outweighed the bad to me. I am really stoked to get outside and shoot it more but it's a good bow. You need to shoot it for yourself to determine what you like and what's important to you. Unfortunately there are always trade-offs and you will have to decide what you are willing to trade for the extra speed. Maybe next year there will be a bow that is butter smooth on the draw, dead silent on the release, and shoots 370fps...
Ya, probably not!

If you've shot one let me know what you think about my review. If you haven't shot one, go shoot one and tell me what you think. Hopefully this year there will be a lot of pictures posted on this blog of animals killed with my Invasion.

Good luck this year, Spring is almost here!!

Bowtech Insanity?? Here we go again...

OK, I know that I've posted about my gear addiction/problem in the past, but here we go again! I have to say that I'm not just a brand type of guy. I've had everything from Browning to Mathews to Hoyt when it comes to bows and I fish just about any brand of rod that catches my attention. With that being said, I tend to get caught up in the "latest and greatest" mentality every year. This year that attention seems to be focused on the new Bowtech Insanity. I've shot the Destroyer 340 and 350 and really like the invasion. In fact, if Bowtech didn't suck me in with all the hype on the Insanity, I probably would've bought an Invasion. But, here I am waiting for the local bow shop to get one in so I can decide just how great it is. Honestly the specs look like they took an Invasion and made it a little faster by changing the brace height and the ATA and then added a longer (Insanity CPXL) model to the lineup. I guess I'm going to have to shoot it to really decide but man it looks good! I also really like the optifade options for color that they offer (yes, I am a sitka fan) and it seems like they know just how to hook me. It isn't difficult to get me on the bandwagon because every winter I sit around dreaming of hunting and looking at new equpment. Yes, I have a problem, ok I have a lot of problems, but let's stay focused on my gear addiction for now because I don't think any of you can help me with my other problems...
If anyone has shot the Insanity, let me know how it was. Maybe someone can talk me off of the new bow ledge!  After I shoot one, I'll have to write my comments, eventhough I'm far from being an expert.
One more thing; I've been considering posting some hunting videos and pictures that I've taken while I'm out and about. Please let me know if that is something that you would like to see, or if it's something that you wouldn't like to see. I would really like to make this blog into something entertaining and beneficial for those of you that sit around and dream of hunting and fishing during the winter months.
Take care, and get out there!

2011 Hunting season

Wow, it really has been a long time since I posted anything here! I seem to start every post that way but this time it is really true. It's nice for me to put these together as it forces my memory to re-live the events and trips I took and that is all worth it.
I had a good season although not as successful as I would've liked. I started the year off with my annual archery elk hunt in Idaho. I went with two friends that I work with this year and one of them had never shot a bow until 2 weeks before the hunt! He and I had talked about hunting together for a few years. He came out West a couple of times a year and had been on a couple of guided hunts in Wyoming, so he knew he liked the area. He was booked for a mule deer hunt in the Dakotas and was unable to draw the tag so his hunt fell through. One evening we were talking on the phone and I mentioned that I was getting ready for my trip to Idaho. We talked about the availability of tags and before I knew it, he committed to going!  That night he made a trip to Bass Pro and bought a bow and began shooting. Not exactly the way most people prepare for an elk hunt for the first time, but hey, why not?  To be honest it concerned me a little but I knew he would do everything he could to prepare and wouldn't take a shot that he wasn't comfortable with if the opportunity presented itself. The other guy in our party is a good friend that I hunted with in Idaho last year and is an accomplished 3-d tournament shooter and whitetail hunter.
It was a little slower this year due to the weather and the wolf population. That is another (touchy) subject that I won't get into now but it is having an effect on the animals..
We did manage to get into elk and had a great time. The last night of our hunt, Paul got a shot at a bull and his arrow hit a "branch".. I looked down his shooting lane many times and didn't see the branch, but it was a clean miss so no harm done, other than some feelings!

The rest of the season was spent chasing elk close to home and mostly working! I didn't get a chance to get out anywhere near enough this year, but I'm thankful I have a job so I shouldn't be complaining.
The deer season got off to a slow start also. For some reason our deer herds were down this year. I'm sure it's a combination of the last 2 years of hard winter, predation issues and some diseases that have been going around. There were some deer but just not as many as usual. I had a good friend coming up to visit and hunt Thanksgiving week, so I took a lot of nights and weekends scouting some property. To say I was a little concerned would be an understatement!  When he arrived in town, we made plans for the next couple of days and decided that we were just happy to get out. That's what you usually tell each other when you don't want to get your hopes too high...

I was able to get in touch with some good friends that run a ranch that is a great deer area and they were kind enough to let us come out the day after he arrived. That was a great day and didn't disappoint. We glassed numerous deer and in the evening I decided to let this guy have it!

It was a great deer and I was lucky enough to have a great old friend, some good new friends and best of all, my son. He has been out with me many times and had never been with me when we were able to fill a tag. He's watched me blow a lot of stalks, but never seen it actually work out. It was a great moment, and I'm looking forward to the year when he can let the arrow or bullet fly. That is what it's all about and I'm sure he'll remember that day forever.
All in all it was a good season. I didn't get a lot of time to get out, but the time I did have was spent with great friends and family. Good stuff!!

Spring fishing in Montana

Wow, what a Spring we've had here in Montana. I think it's rained for 2 weeks straight and we are having a lot of flooding issues all over the state. It's too bad for a lot of people and is going to have a huge impact on the rivers and fishing this year.
I was able to get out on the Bighorn yesterday and it was quite an adventure! We drove out and about 20 miles from where we were going to put the boat in the road was closed. "OK, I have the day off and I'm determined to go fishing, what are my options?"
The guy watching the road and telling people it was closed told me about another route to the town, it was actually called "bad pass road". We decided to give it a try and see how bad it really was. Luckily the rain had stopped for a while and eventhough it was pretty muddy, we were able to make it without any incedent.

The sun was out and it was looking like a great day. The fishing was good and we were catching some good fish regularly. It never really got crazy good but it was solid and we were enjoying the day. Both of us were able to catch fish on streamers, dry's and nymphs and it was great. Then we looked out and the sky was turning black in a hurry. You could smell the rain coming and feel the temp drop and the moisture in the air. About the time I got my rain jacket on it just started coming down in buckets. That didn't concern me a lot until the skies started lighting up with some really bright, pretty and deadly lightning! We decided we better get off the water and try to take some cover. You can see by the picture that we looked like a couple of drowned rats. After it passed by us we were able to get out and stick a few more fish before it circled on us and started coming down again!  What a Spring day in Montana, I got sunburned and then drenched within a few hours. Luckily the road was open on our way out and we didnt' have to take our chanced on bad pass road after the downpour. It was a good day of fishing and I'm afraid the way this weather is right now that we are going to have rivers blown out until August this year!
So if you are going to come and fish up here this Spring, make sure you bring sunscreen and a good rainjacket and towels!

Spring is here!

So I think Spring is finally here. Hopefully that means we'll all be able to get out and enjoy the great outdoors more now.
I was fortunate enough to get out turkey hunting over the weekend and it was just nice to be out walking around the mountains looking for animals. We had a great day and I had a chance at a good tom but my arrow found a tree limb instead of the bird! I took one of my boys with me and he was a little upset at me for such a poor shot. I had him doing some of the calling and he really thought that was cool. It was pretty neat to see him getting so excited as the turkey's responded to his calls. If it wasn't for his dad, we may have taken a good tom home! Oh well, the experience was fantastic.

I also had a chance to get out and do a little saltwater fishing in Florida a few weeks ago. It was a good time and I really enjoyed getting out and seeing some new scenery and experiencing some new fishing.  We had dolphins swimming right next to the boat and we saw a lot of different fish. I was humbled with the wind and the long casts that I had to make. It's a lot different than fishing for trout and I learned that the hard way! I lined a few reds and missed a few good shots. It was a good time though and I will be back to have another try before too long. I'm sure I'm going to be getting out now that the weather is good to scout for deer and do some fishing. Stay tuned and I just may have something here that will help you out or at least have a good story!