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Saturday, March 21, 2015

My new bow

Old bow on right and new bow to the left

Recently I bought a new bow.  My old bow was over 15 years old and had seemed adequate for late season, road system goats (click here and here for some recent bow-hunting for goats posts).  But I decided to upgrade after I drew a bow-only sheep hunting tag for the Eklutna Lake area just outside Anchorage.  At around a 1 in 20 draw rate the sheep tag is a very difficult one to draw, and with a new bow I hope to take full advantage modern bow technology - basically, I wanted to increase my odds of bringing home a sheep.

After trying out the new bows I was amazed at how far they've come in the last 15 years.  New bows are practically like rifles.  My old bow weighs 8 1/2 pounds and is only good out to about 30 yards.  My new bow weighs 4 pounds, is far more compact, and is good out to about 60 yards.  WOW!  It makes me wonder how I ever killed anything with my old bow.  I'm also far less in awe of bowhunters using the new gear. Today's bowhunters don't have to get within 30 yards of animal to make a kill. Believe it or not, but I can actually shoot better free hand at 60 yards with my new bow than I can with my rifle.

Now to bring home the bacon. ... ..

Patrick

2 comments:

Pete said...

Hi Patrick! Nice bow. I just rediscovered your blog in the craziest manner--my hunting buddy and I are planning a trip to Kodiak in the next few years, and he emailed me a link to your blog, telling me to "check out this interesting blog..." Ha, I told him I've known about this blog for years now. Nice to catch up with your activities again, and great job on the elk last fall!

Zoya, Patrick, Nora and Stuart said...

I'm glad you 're discovered' the blog. Drop by for a visit when you get here for the trip!

Patrick