Archery /By Will Elliott
Get it in gear with strings that sing
July might seem a bit early to start thinking about bow hunting season.
But for those dedicated, serious, main-vein archers, scouting and checking out new and recently improved gear items goes on all year long.
An arrow lacks the killing range of a shotgun or rifle and drawing a bow often spooks wary whitetails, but the challenge of getting close to deer, turkeys and legally hunted small game can be magnetic.
Much like all other sports requiring hand-eye coordination, bow shooting comes down to picking the right gear. Baseball hitters find just the right bat; hockey players hone sticks to their individual shooting needs. Same goes for archers choosing the right bow for hunting season.
“I know the second I grip the riser [handle] if it’s the bow for me,” said Roy Hyrckowian at Nick’s Sporting Goods, 1212 Kenmore Ave. Hyrckowian shoots both archery competitions and throughout hunting seasons. He deals in many brands of bows, but has an overall preference for Hoyt. “I really like Hoyt’s Katera, new for 2008. It’s the fastest bow Hoyt ever made,” he said, adding that it’s hard to buy a bad bow today.
That same sentiment comes from Jack Code, hunter education instructor and avid bowman.
“They’re all good, but I like Alpine bows and have been shooting them for the past 10 years,” Code said of this relatively small company. “Their [Alpine’s] customer service is second to none. They stand behind their products and put the highest quality into machined bows for a reasonable cost to the average consumer-shooter,” he noted.
For example, Alpine developed a three-piece modular riser after listening to hunter-customers. On input from hunters, they redesigned the Silverado Sabre in fewer than four months of turnaround time.
“Also, they donate a bow to the Archery Youth Camp each year,” he added.
Jeff Pippard at Niagara Outdoors in North Tonawanda stocks many bow brands and has a good handle on Hoyt models.
Pippard hunts all over the country, particularly out west, most of the time during open archery seasons. He stocks Mathews, PSE, BowTech, Ross by BowTech, Martin, and other bow brands, but he has developed a circle of shooters that goes with Hoyt equipment.
“My customers do a lot of competition shooting as well as field hunting, and Hoyt has a great line of target models,” he noted. An expert at setting up and fine-tuning all brands of bows, he echoes Hyrckowian’s take: It all comes down to the feel of the bow when you first put it in your hands. “All the bad [inefficient] bow makers have gone out of business long ago, and every make out there can be good for a new shooter or seasoned veteran hunter,” Pippard said.
Brian Bentson, manager at S&S Taxidermy Archery Pro Shop in Springville, is high on Mathews bows. His shop offers BowTech Diamond, PSE, Browning, Fred Bear, Parker and other models, but Bentson points to Mathews as a top seller with open options.
“Most companies sell package bows, which have sights and other gear items included. But with Mathews you can pick your own accessories to fit your needs,” he said.
Price is a factor and Mathews has not only the highest visible profile, it has also been tagged with being pricey. In fact, S&S and other Mathews dealers point out that Mathews has generally held the line or lowered its model prices while other bow companies have upgraded their models and, as a matter of cost needs, increased prices to match or come close to the Mathews total costs.
Bentson points to the Mathews Guardian and General as the smoothest bow to shoot. Hyrckowian and Pippard cite PSE’s E-Force as the fastest shooting commercially produced bow on the market. That model came out in 2007.
Cost can be a major factor in selecting a brand choice, but individual feel — and subsequent performance — ends up being the bottom line for bow shooters and hunters.
After a decade with a PSE Carrera, I decided to look around and see what’s new on the market. All bows mentioned above looked and felt good. I had the opportunity to shoot BowTechs, Mathews, and a newer PSE. In the end, I opted for a Hoyt for many reasons: weight, draw, accessory simplicity, balance. But the main factor was simply overall feel.
Within 20 yards, this Hoyt hits wherever I release — on or off target — each time I shoot. The impressive number of competitors and hunters in Western New York who use Hoyts also influenced my choice. Nonetheless, if this Hoyt wasn’t tuned up and hanging on the pole ready for target shooting and the archery opener, I would have not qualms about selecting any model currently offered by major bow manufacturers.
Visit archery shops early, then stretch as many strings as possible to determine your best bottom line for archery shooting.
