Every year companies in the archery
industry strive to develop new products that bowhunters (and hunters in general)
will enjoy. Most companies develop new products that will make hunting more
enjoyable and make hunters more successful in the field. At the 2009 Archery
Trade Association Show, I saw dozens of new products that I thought were great.
Below is a sampling of some of the new products that I thought you gear and
gadget junkies might find interesting.
Maybe out of this list you may find one or two products you can’t live
without.
HOOK AND
HOIST SYSTEM
A product doesn’t have to cost a lot
of money to be a great product. One fine example is the Pine Ridge Archery Hook
and Hoist System. If you hunt from a climber or any type of treestand that you
are constantly moving to different hunting locations, forgetting to hoist your
gun or bow into the tree with you can be a problem. The Hook and Hoist system
is a hoist that can be attached to your treestand and stays with your
treestand. When you move a stand, the hoist comes with it. It is made up of a
30 foot rope and has a small hook that you can clip onto your bow or gun to
lower or raise your weapon. The hooks can be used to hang a grunt tube,
rattling horns or a backpack from, thus solving two problems. The system can
help you get your weapon up the tree and can help keep your favorite
accessories at arms reach while you are hunting.
PEE WEE
DOINKER
Judging by the polls that are often
done on Hunting.net, there are many readers who shoot a Mathews. Last year, Mathews
introduced their own camo pattern called Lost Camo. This camo is popping up on
all kinds of products. Doinker Stabilizers is offering Lost Camo on all their
Chubby Series Stabilizers. If you have a Mathews, you can now have a Doinker
stabilizer that matches with your bow. Another new Doinker item is the Pee Wee
Doinker. There are a lot of tournament archers and many bowhunters who shoot
tournaments on the weekends. The Pee Wee Doinker was designed to be screwed
into high-end sights that are used for tournament shooting. Sights often twang
after the shot, causing vibration which can loosen parts of the sight, thus
reducing accuracy. The Pee Wee Doinker eliminates the vibration in the sight.
The 8/32 screw can easily be screwed onto several sights and other accessories.
The Pee Wee Doinker comes with Doinker ITP technology (Interrupted Transfer
Polymer) to eliminate noise and vibration.
The Pee Wee tips the scales at .5 ounces so you won’t even know it’s
there.
THE WARM BAG
The Warm Bag was designed for
hunters who are tired of getting cold while hunting. Whether it is the middle
of October or late December, the Warm Bag will keep you warm. With a waterproof, windproof outer shell and
a fleece inner liner, the Warm Bag keeps you warm and dry so when a shot
presents itself your muscles will be warm, relaxed and ready. The Warm Bag features large interior pockets
for your essentials as well as an outside chest pocket for your rangefinder.
The drawstring neck keeps the cold wind out and the body heat in. When that
moment arrives, simply unzip the arm holes in the front and make the shot. The
oversized stuff sack allows you to carry the Warm Bag with other necessary
items. The hood is included. How warm
does the Warm Bag keep you? In a recent test, a hunter stayed outside for a
long period of time in Wisconsin
during a cold snap. It was -6 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside the Warm Bag and
almost 69 degrees inside the bag. If they sold a pillow with this thing, I
would never see a deer again while hunting.
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BOW
HOOK
Athens Archery is a new company with
a variety of great products. One product they are offering is something I
wished I would’ve had many times over the last ten years - a bow hook that
attaches to the limb on your bow and stays there until you remove it. The bow hook has three positions - left hand,
right hand, and center position. It
mounts to any bow limb with the clamp screws.
There is a piece of plastic between the screws and limb so it doesn’t
mar the surface. It will hang from
virtually anything - a pocket, jacket, treestand arm, branch, limb, back of the
truck seat, top of a door, or window ledge.
With this hook, you don’t have to worry about bringing a screw-in hook
into the woods again.
SCENTOTE BOW CASE
Anyone who regularly reads my article knows I am fond of
ScenTote products. ScenTote is a Michigan-based company and the guys who own
the company are deer hunting nuts who know how important it is to stay odor
free. For 2009, they have a new soft shell bow case that comes with their activated
carbon web on the inside of the case. A bow gets hauled all over the place and
can get a variety of odors on it. Your release, your hat and other products can
also get human odor on them. The new bow case has enough room and pockets in it
to store your game calls and release aids.
There is enough room in the case to keep the quiver attached to your
bow. Now your bow and all of your
accessories can be stored in one place and be odor-free.
BIG CHIEF
TARGET
The Pro
Shop Series “Big Chief” target from Hips Targets is designed for bowhunters who
want a target that can stop field point tipped targets and broadheads but don’t
want to spend an arm and a leg on a new target. 
Given the economic downturn
across America,
this target should be a big hit. It is about half the price of most of the
other popular targets on the market. At the core of the Big Chief are heat-welded
vertical foam layers that are said to outlast horizontal foam layers that don’t
sliver apart like most foam targets. The foam layers are protected from the
elements by a weather-proof outer shell that has a removable front panel that
protects the target from the weather when it’s not being used, prolonging the
life of the target. The Big Chief only weighs 8 pounds so you don’t have to
break your back to move it around. It can be shot at on all 4 sides. Its
dimensions are also 17X17X14. The “Big Chief” sells for less than $60. Some of
the other Pro Shop Series targets cost even less than that!
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FUSION VANES
Duravanes is constantly striving to
make vanes that can take a beating, steer an arrow and are easy to apply to a
shaft. They hit a home run this year with the new Fusion vane. The Fusion vane
sports a 2” long, high-profile design based upon the increasingly popular
footprint of today’s short vane designs. With a profile similar to a
traditional shield cut, the modified silhouette increases the surface area of
the most critical point to the vanes’ anatomy. This unique design minimizes
crosswind interference while maximizing broadhead flight and arrow
stabilization.
Two distinctly different proprietary
polymers are used to separately create the clear base and colored blade of the
vane. They are then “fused” together during the manufacturing process. By
employing a soft suction fit base and a durable and responsive tapered blade, a
completely unique flexible, forgiving, and easy-to-fletch vane that has all the
positive characteristics modern archers look for is born. The Fusion will
surely guide an arrow to its intended target even when shooting large
broadheads out of today’s super fast bows. The Fusion vanes will look cool on
modern day carbon arrows as well as traditional arrows.
ASAT 3D LEAFY SNOWSUIT
If you hunt deer in the late season when there is snow on
the ground or enjoy predator hunting in the winter, ASAT Camo has a new 3D
leafy suit that is white, dark grey and light grey that will blend in perfectly
with the winter weather in Michigan. The 3D leaves found on the suit help break
up the human outline and gently blow in the breeze, helping you to disappear
into the woods instead of stand out. Simply slip the Vanish-Pro 3D leafy snow
suit over your warm clothes and you are ready to hunt.
PINK ALPEN OPTICS
There are more women hunting than ever before. As a result, many companies are starting to
produce products in pink to appeal to woman outdoorsmen. If you are a lady who
loves pink or have a friend or loved one that likes pink and enjoys the
outdoors, you may want to consider picking up a pair of pink binoculars. Alpen
Optics now has two models that come in pink - the compact 8x25 and a 10x42. The
neat thing is if you purchase a pair of the pink binoculars some of the money
goes to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF), which is fighting to find
a cure for breast cancer.
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RDT CROSSBOW
The number of people heading into
the woods to hunt with a crossbow is growing by leaps and bounds. There are several different crossbows
available on the market. A new crossbow
company in Iowa
called Scorpyd Crossbows is sure to turn some heads. Their flagship models are the RDT 100 and
125. RDT stands for Reverse Draw
Technology. The composite limbs on the
RDT are reversed, causing the crossbow to look different, but the benefits of
reversing the limbs are numerous. The
2-cam RDT crossbow has a 19” power stroke which is said to be the longest in
the industry. Having an extra long power
stroke allows the crossbow to shoot a 350-grain arrow 370 FPS, giving 106
pounds of kinetic energy while only having 125 pounds of pull weight. Increasing the power stroke and reducing the
draw weight produces a crossbow that has an easy trigger pull, is incredibly
quiet and amazingly shock-free.
Vibration and noise is further destroyed because the RDT limbs are
parallel to each other.
To ensure user safety, the RDT
crossbow has an anti-dry fire bolt sensor that eliminates the chance of dry
firing the crossbow.
The RDT crossbow is 39 inches long
when the stock is extended, 29 inches when folded, and 18 inches wide. It is available in 100- and 125- draw weight
and comes in Next G1 Camo.