Pine Ridge Archery

TIPS FOR BOWHUNTING LONGBEARDS

Spring is coming and now is the time to consider bowhunting gobblers this spring. Taking a turkey with a bow can be extremely challenging. The eyesight of a gobbler combined with the fact that they spook easily makes getting to full draw difficult. If you want to kill a turkey with a bow this spring, below are some tips to help you prepare for opening day.

• Practice from a blind if you intend to hunt from a blind. Shooting from a blind isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Set a blind up in your backyard and shoot at your target at a variety of different yardages. Shoot at the target at five and ten yards, not just at 20 and 30 yards. Turkeys often come in close and shooting high happens often in the turkey woods. Knowing exactly where to aim when a bird is in close is a necessity. Don’t guess because the vitals on a turkey are extremely small.
• Know where the vitals are located on a turkey. The vitals are only the size of a softball and knowing where to aim, especially if a bird is strutting, can be difficult. If you know where the vitals are located, you will know where to aim regardless if the bird is strutting, facing away from you, or standing broadside. Check out turkey vital diagrams online or look at a Master Target face target.
• Consider shooting a turkey in the head. A head shot can be difficult but the wonderful thing about a head shot is if you hit the head, the bird dies; if you miss, it lives to see another day. You don’t have to worry about wounding a bird. If you are considering shooting only at the head, purchase one of the broadheads designed especially for the headshot.
• Use a top notch decoy. Avian X and others make decoys that look life like. The closer you can get a longbeard to your decoy, the better chance you have of going home with a gobbler in your vest. Realistic decoys pull birds in close. The best turkey decoy is a real stuffed bird. If that is out of your price range, consider buying a Turkey Skinz. Turkey Skinz are a real turkey skin that wraps around any foam decoy to give the decoy a lifelike look. The skin has feathers and wings attached so it makes any decoy look great.
• Use bright fletching. Pine Ridge Nitro Vanes are available in many bright colors. You will always want to know where the arrow hits when shooting the bird. Bright fletching will help you determine where you hit the bird. I always aim right above the drumsticks and love watching the arrow disappear into the bird about three to six inches above where the legs attach to the body.

Turkey hunting with a bow is fun and challenging. Try it this spring.

JOIN A WINTER ARCHERY LEAGUE

The snow is practically knee deep in my backyard right now. The temperatures are in the single digits and shooting my bow outside is somewhat out of the question. If you live in the northern part of the United States, you are probably in the same boat. It is cold outside and going out to let a few arrows fly isn’t much fun. What should you do? One option is to join an archery league. John Schaffer from Schaffer Performance Archery in Burnsville, MN says joining a league can really help archers improve their skills and make them an all around better archer. “Many bowhunters take six months off from archery. This is not the case with bowhunters who shoot an indoor league. By shooting during the winter, a bowhunter can keep his muscles strong, his form in good shape, and even learn how to shoot better under pressure.”

Shooting indoors during the winter is a great time to experiment with new gear. If you want to try a new sight, rest or arrows, doing it during the winter will help you get dialed in long before hunting season. Maybe you want to try out the new Nitro Vanes from Pine Ridge Archery or a new Nitro Stabilizer. Trying them out during the winter is much better than late August!Shooting at deer can be very nerve racking. Shooting in a league can also be intimidating, which is one of the reasons Schaffer recommends shooting in a league. “Shooting when a lot of people are watching you can be very nerve racking, especially if you are trying to beat your buddy who is watching as you shoot. This little bit of pressure will force a person to concentrate on making the shot. If a person shoots in a league consistently, they get over the problem of shooting under pressure which will make them a better bowhunter.”

ANTELOPE ON A BUDGET

When most people think about going on a bowhunting trip, the first thing that they think of is going after whitetails. Whitetails are the most sought after game animal in the world so it isn’t a surprise that most bowhunters would want to pursue big bucks. What most people don’t realize is that the success rate when bowhunting with a whitetail outfitter is only about 30%. If you want to save up your money and go on an adventure, there are several game animals that offer a high success rate and a less expensive price.

One of my favorites is the antelope. Antelope hunting doesn’t cost much money and the odds of success are extremely high. Most bowhunters who hunt antelope out west with an outfitter have a shot opportunity. This fall I hunted with Trujillo Creek Outfitters in Southern Colorado. They offer a Trespass hunt where you are dropped off on private land each day to hunt. You hunt in a comfortable ground blind that sits on a waterhole. A waterhole hunt is fairly easy and the success rate is extremely high. The cost of a trip like this is often $2,000 or less.

On top of having a really good opportunity of tagging an animal, you get to experience a different part of the country. I brought my family on my Colorado antelope hunt. While I hunted, they got to experience all the west has to offer. From visiting tourist towns to swimming in the pool at the La Quinta hotel, my hunt was more than a hunt; it was a family vacation. It is hard to turn a guided whitetail hunt into a family vacation unless the entire family is hunting.

Going on a bucket list hunt that brings you to an area of the country you have never seen and being successful on top of it is hard to put a price tag on. The cool thing is the price tag on an antelope hunt is inexpensive.... and when ground into burger, antelope makes great table fare.

On a side note, shooting a bow at extreme ranges when getting ready for an antelope hunt is necessary. The vitals on an antelope are fairly small and if the waterhole hunting doesn’t work out, long shots are the norm. In preparation for my hunt, I regularly shot at 60 and 70 yards. When shooting at these distances, having a fine tuned setup is a necessity. I used a Pine Ridge Archery Nitro Peep and a Nitro Stabilizer.

Antelope are cool looking critters that inhabit an awesome landscape. Do yourself a favor and try antelope hunting next fall.

---

BY TRACY BREEN
About the author: Tracy Breen is a full time outdoor writer, consultant and game dinner speaker who often discuss how he overcomes cerebral palsy. Learn more about him at www.tracybreen.com

JUST RELAX

Whether you are new to archery or you are a veteran, one thing many of us struggle with is relaxing before, during, and after the shot. Many bowhunters love to have a death grip on the bow while they are shooting. Many believe if they want to keep their bow steady, they need to grip it tightly. The truth is the tighter the grip on the bow, the greater chance there is of making a bad shot. Why? Because when the bow is tightly gripped, we often move our bow arm upon the release of the arrow. The lack of follow through results in not hitting the mark. A relaxed grip often results in hitting the mark. When the bow arm is relaxed and you aim and shoot, the bow doesn’t jerk or move around much. It basically stays in about the same place as when you shot. Relaxed form and shooting is how the professionals shoot.

To shoot with a relaxed bow hand, you need a wrist sling. A wrist sling helps support the bow and keep your hand where it needs to be to make a good shot. Pine Ridge Archery offers a wide variety of wrist slings including the Nitro Wrist Sling and the Kwik Sling. When adjusting your sling, make sure it is snug around your wrist so it can help support the bow when you are shooting so a good shot is made. A simple wrist sling can really help shrink arrow groups at short distances and extreme distances.

When talking about shooting with a relaxed bow hand, it is also important to discuss your trigger hand. Many bowhunters, especially when in high pressure situations, tend to jerk the release and punch the trigger when shooting. This can result in a loss of accuracy. Any retired military sniper will tell you that if you want to hit the mark every time, you have to gently squeeze the trigger, not punch it. When choosing a release, make sure you buy one that has an adjustable trigger so it can be adjusted to be a smooth trigger that doesn’t take much pull to go off. Teach yourself to slowly squeeze the trigger. When the arrow gets released, it should be a surprise. In order for it to be a surprise, you need to learn to slowly pull the trigger.

Learning how to relax the trigger hand and the bow hand when shooting can greatly shrink your arrow groups.

---

BY TRACY BREEN
About the author: Tracy Breen is a full time outdoor writer, consultant and game dinner speaker who often discuss how he overcomes cerebral palsy. Learn more about him at www.tracybreen.com

BIG THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES

If you are into long range shooting one way to ensure you can split hairs at 60 yards and beyond is to shoot an arrow equipped with Nitro Vanes and a compact broadhead. A small broadhead coupled with a Nitro Vane is a deadly combination that can put more meat in the freezer and antlers on the wall. below are a few of the compact broadheads on the market that fly great and bring down bucks quickly.

FALL TURKEY HUNTING WITH STICK AND STRING

When people think about hunting turkeys, most people think about hunting them in the spring. If you are a hardcore bowhunter, you should also think about hunting them in the fall. There are a many reasons to hunt them in the fall. For starters, very few hunters hunt deer all day.

SUBURBIA MONSTERS - A BOWHUNTER'S DREAM

 When most bowhunters dream of big bucks, they think of hunting on some large track of land in Illinois, Kansas or Iowa. Those places produce monster bucks every year but they are not the only place to find a big buck. In fact, more and more large bucks are being found on small parcels of woods tucked in behind a subdivision or next to a shopping mall than ever before.

Finding big bucks on a small parcel of land isn’t rocket science but the truth is it requires a lot of hard work, just like killing big bucks on large parcels is a lot of work. Suburbia bucks beat to a different drum than big woods bucks. One guy who knows more about suburbia bucks than most is Steve Esker from Ohio. Esker has been featured in many magazines because he killed a 216-inch buck on a small parcel back in 2009. Since he killed that buck, he has tagged several big bucks... one with a higher score than the 2009 buck. Esker has killed over a dozen bucks that score more that 150 and most of them have been killed in suburbia, not on a large farm somewhere. “Killing big bucks on small parcels of land can be done, but it requires a lot of work,” Esker said. “What I have discovered over the years is just because a buck lived near a housing development does not mean that he is trapped. I have scouting camera pictures of a monster buck one night on a small parcel of land and a picture of the same buck a few days later several miles away. Suburbia bucks can cover a lot of ground just like big woods bucks.” One of the differences between the two bucks is many of the suburbia bucks live to a ripe old age so they sport large racks.

Killing suburbia bucks starts with having permission to hunt private land. “I recently killed a buck on 2-1/2 acres that scored over 170,” Esker said. “I get permission to hunt these small pieces of land by knocking on a lot of doors and asking for permission. Many people say no at first,but over time say yes. I always look professional when I ask for permission and am very polite. I have asked permission on the same piece of land three times before getting permission but eventually many people eventually say yes because I am always polite and never look like I just crawled out from under a car.”

Esker has dozens of small parcels that he hunts on; many of them are ten or twenty acres. Some are larger; some smaller. His key to finding the needle in the hay stack on those pieces of land is scouting cameras. “I hang many scouting cameras to try to pattern suburbia bucks. Most suburbia bucks spend the daylight hours bedded down and spend the few of daylight hours they are up and moving transitioning between feeding areas and bedding areas. I try to locate these transition areas where they travel. I try to find where bucks live and bed,” Esker explained. In 2010, Esker found a 217-7/8” buck living in a 30-acre tree nursery that had been abandoned. The buck would rarely leave the overgrown nursery during daylight hours. Esker had scouting camera pics that showed the buck repeatedly in the same area. “Because this buck never left the overgrown trees during daylight, I had to figure out a way to kill him in the nursery. It was really tough because there weren’t many big trees to hang a stand. The trees were all overgrown so I had to crawl in to hunt the area. I ended up putting my treestand in a young oak 15 feet off the ground. I eventually killed that buck.” The buck spent most of his life in the nursery that had housing developments around it.

Another thing Esker has noticed when hunting suburbia deer is that they can tell the difference between a person mowing the grass and a hunter. “These bucks are acclimated to hearing, seeing and smelling people but they get edgy, just like any other deer when they feel hunting pressure.” Esker said. “Deer will be bedded down and watch a person blowing leaves or mowing the lawn a short distance away and not have a problem with it but the moment a guy in camo comes walking into the woods, they leave. I have entered the woods with a leaf blower in my hand just to outsmart deer before. Suburbia bucks are smart; just like bucks that live in large sections of woods.”

You might think that suburbia bucks don’t care about human odor because they smell it all the time, but that is not the case at all. “I always hunt the wind. The deer really get spooky when they come in to a setup and smell human odor.” Just like when hunting big woods, Esker says the more hunting locations you have, the better so you have several backup plans. When looking for a new hunting location, Esker leaves no stone unturned and has learned over the years a monster buck can live almost anywhere. “There is one spot my brother and I hunt that the land owner has a gazebo that the deer are comfortable with. We actually put a popup blind right in the middle of the gazebo and hunt. We have killed a lot of deer out of that blind.”

The best time to kill a suburbia buck is between the middle of October to the first week of November. “I have the best of luck around the middle of October through the beginning of November because that is when the bucks are starting to move around during daylight.” Esker has also killed bucks early in the season. “Early in the season can be good as well because the bucks still have a pattern but many of these bucks only move first thing in the morning and just before dark in the evening. I like to hunt when the bucks start thinking about the does. To be successful, I must do everything right from worry about scent to hanging my stand in the right location. Every little detail must be thought out.”

One thing is certain: getting permission to hunt farms and large parcels of ground is getting extremely difficult. If you want to tag a big buck but don’t have deep pockets, consider hunting in suburbia. Like Esker says, it isn’t a cake walk but with a little hard work, you might kill a monster right behind the sand box.

---

BY TRACY BREEN
About the author: Tracy Breen is a full time outdoor writer, consultant and game dinner speaker who often discuss how he overcomes cerebral palsy. Learn more about him at www.tracybreen.com

BUILDING AN EDGE - FOOD PLOT SECRETS

 Food Plots are more popular than ever before. Almost every serious land owner in America who hunts deer plants food plots. There are a variety of reasons hunters love planting food plots. For starters, food plots provide deer with a quality food source. Providing a quality food source on a piece of property keeps the deer on a piece of property and gives them the nutrition they need in the spring and summer when bucks are growing antlers and the does are lactating. Some food plots provide food into the fall and winter. As fall turns to winter, it is especially important to give deer a quality food source like a food plot because during the winter, finding food can be difficult for deer. If built right, food plots can provide more than just food for wildlife like deer. They can also provide cover. I recently interviewed Jason Lupardus, the NWTF Field Supervisor for the Midwest. He says research shows that food plots that offer field borders are even more attractive to deer and other wildlife than fields that go from a food source to hardwoods. “Food plots that have a transition that goes from food to cover to hardwoods is extremely attractive to wildlife and easy to create,” said Lupardus. “Instead of planting a crop all the way to the edge of a field, you stop a few rows shy of the woods. When this small area around a field or food plot doesn’t get planted with crops, it will return to native grasses. These grasses will often grow fairly tall which will provide cover for wildlife including deer, turkeys and other upland birds.” This buffer zone around a food plot gives does a place to have their fawns that is close to a food source yet gives the doe enough cover to hide her newborn. It is also a place for turkeys to nest and raise their poults. “Turkeys love to nest in the high borders around the edges of fields because they can nest without being seen by predators. When the eggs hatch, the high grasses offer security cover for the small poults. As spring turns to summer, this cover will be full of grasshoppers and other insects which provide the small turkeys with a high protein meal,” Lupardus noted. According to Lupardus, the first year that a field border is allowed to grow, wildlife, will quickly find it and use it. The second and third year the edge is provided becomes extremely beneficial to wildlife. “The second year, the border is often taller and thicker, providing even more cover for deer, turkeys and other game animals, giving them more security and in some cases, more food. For instance, ragweed often takes root and provides turkeys and other birds with plenty of food in the late summer and early fall.” Best of all, building a field border is free. Most food plot projects require time and money. Creating a field border doesn’t take much of either. You lose a few rows of crops which is the only drawback. Leave an edge this year and see what happens this fall.

---

BY TRACY BREEN www.tracybreen.com

Practice Makes Perfect

Velocitip Proves NITRO Vanes are Better

The Velocitip by Full Flight Technology uses innovation to test actual arrow performance and provide data that is invaluable to learn more about your set up and it's performance. Recently we contacted the folks at Velocitip asking them to do perform an impartial 3rd party test on our NITRO Vane and other popular arrow vanes...