In the middle of September, I finally took the plunge and ordered a new bow. My original one, A Mission Menace, had been a great starter bow, but I was ready to move on. My neighbor had purchased a new bow in July, and I definitely started having bow envy. I went to our local bow shop at the beginning of August, in hopes of finding the perfect bow for me. I quickly remembered, why I had went with the Mission Menace in the first place. This was a smaller bow that was created for junior sized shooters. As I started looking through the catalogs, it became clear that the number of bows that would fit me was next to nothing. I have a 23.5 in draw in addition to being left handed. In all of the pamphlets that I looked through, Mathews was the only company that provided bows within the specs I needed. I knew that the Passion had been the top of the line a year and a half ago, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted that particular bow to take out hunting. During the discussion of the Mathew’s products, I found out that they had just released the Jewel, which was similar to the Passion, but with some extra perks. I will be the first to admit, that the thought of getting to customize the colors was very appealing to me. They have a black onyx and teal color that immediately caught my eye. The earlier breaking point was a huge plus, making it easier to draw at heavier weights which is a huge perk with my draw length. The harmonic stabilizers and dampeners were also a nice perk, along with the monkey tails. The definite downfall was the price. I was looking at a large chunk of money and couldn’t quite convince myself it was worth it. I went home and debated and debated. Since the bow was new, it was hard to find one to see if it was worth all the hype. With archery season getting ready to hunt, I had to put everything aside for the time being and focus on this. With the great mess up that Wyoming had, the archery season turned out to be nonexistent for me. With all the extra free time we suddenly had, we made a trip to another bow shop in Cheyenne in mid-September. It was here that I got to see the Jewel in person for the first time. The four weeks of debating about the price immediately came to an end when I held it and pulled it for the first time. I knew then and there this was the bow I had to have. I would like to say that I got it right away, but being left handed put a definite kink in things. Apparently the Mathew’s factory waits until they have enough orders for left handed bows, then shuts the factory down for a day to do production just on these. Between that and the color customization, this bow took eight weeks to get to me. My patience was pretty thin by the time that I got here, but it was alleviated with the first arrow I shot in the store. This was like driving a Cadillac after having a Nova all your life. It seriously was that big of a difference between the new Jewel and my old Mission Menace. I had a new confidence when shooting that was born right there in the shop. In the practice sessions I have gotten in, my accuracy has been spot on, with minimal adjustments for the pull weight changes and sights. For the first time ever, I want to be out shooting this bow every weekend I can, not just during hunting. I am looking into 3D archery competitions as a way to keep my skills honed in. I can say, the thought of September 1, keeps running through my brain. I know that I have a piece of equipment that is definitely capable of helping me take another big game animal. Sometimes, the price tag really is worth the quality, and in this case, I would say it is very much worth all the hype.
I don’t know about all of you, but I received a couple of amazing Christmas presents from my husband this year. He got me an Ansai mobile warming vest. This has lithium ion batteries made to last all day on low, and four hours on high. The vest is designed to go on top of the base layer, then add hoodies, coats, and whatever else over the top. Apparently for those that don’t need fifty layers to stay warm and happy like me, it can be worn over just the base layer. I tried the vest out for about twenty minutes sitting in our house a couple of nights ago. I can’t explain how nice and warm I felt. I am excited to get outside and try it out. Wyoming definitely provides us with plenty of cold, windy days to make great use of this. We do a lot of UTVing in the spring and summer when it is still pretty chilly. The vest will be a nice little addition for our trips. Plus, there is a 12v adapter that can be plugged into our Prowler if the batteries were to die. Again, just another exciting reason to be out and about outdoors, while staying toasty warm.
The other great gift was a Bowfile by Lakewood Products bow case in pink Realtree camo. This case has a top zippered opening which is great to get the bow in and out of easily, while not having to take up a lot of space like you have to with the hard cases. There is room for my bow on one side, and arrows with a foam arrow block on the other. The commercials for this case show an ATV with its wheels on the top of the case. It is that tough. I don’t know about you all, but with as much money as we spent on that bow, plus that time and energy it took finding the perfect one to fit me, I didn’t want to take any chances with damaging it in transport or storage. The only drawback I have found with the case is that it is fairly heavy, so if you are on the more petite side, if pays to have a strapping husband to carry it around for you! If anyone has comments on these two products or experience with them, please let me know. It would be great to hear what others think of them.
I was recently invited to do a podcast on outdoorpodcast.com. As part of this interview, we talked about one of the biggest challenge for me when it came to preparing for hunting. One of the biggest issues I had then, and now, is woman’s hunting gear. I got into hunting about three years ago. At this time, there were just the glimmers of manufactures making camo and clothing for women. When we started looking for gear for me, it became clear that we had some major hurdles to cross. The largest problem I had by far, was the size of woman’s clothing. There were a few, rather expensive articles of clothing that started in a size 4, with the majority of it being in a size 6. To you men out there, you are probably wondering what in the heck I am complaining about. For those of you that have significant others or those that want to start hunting, this will be of interest to you because if you are a petite woman, these sizes and prices will not work out. This then leads to total frustration. To this day, I still have not found a good pair of hunting pants that fits me well and isn’t four sizes too big. I currently wear Cabelas silent suede pants, which are not insulated, and are held up with the elastic pulled as tight as it can possible go in a small. If it is cold out, I then add in my Under Armour and a pair of fleece lined pants as well. I look like the Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters when I get done. I am sorry, but this is not only awkward looking, but rather uncomfortable to spend the day chasing after game in. I have found similar problems with coats as well. On the bright side, there are heavy woman’s hunting coats that come in a size small and are reasonable priced. Unfortunately, I think they measured my daughter’s height when these were made. The average coat winds up riding up my waist all day. Again, not exactly what your mind should be focused on when you are out on a big hunt. To solve this, I wear the Cabelas silent suede lightweight jacket, a camo hoodie, a long sleeve shirt, and Under Armour, still resulting in the puffed up look. Most of the layering is not an issue during archery because it is still relatively warm, but during rifle season, this is a huge issue for me to pack all these clothes on and still get my rifle around. The other area that i have experienced a lot of frustration is in finding gloves that are insulated. Manzella makes an excellent archery glove that is second to none for fit and comfort. I love these gloves, even though I have tried to lose them many times. One of which was on my first morning of hunting ever, when I was more wrapped up with where my glove might have went to then my husband tellng me there were elk staring at me. On the bright side, there was a priceless moment he still teases me about. On the down side, an elk didn’t go down that morning! Once it is time to use the rifle, the Manzellas get put away, put the problem of a nice insulated glove that allows me to pull the trigger on a rife comes into play. For two years we have searched for a an insulated hunting glove, with a rifle finger built in to fit my hand. For two years, we have been unsuccessful. Early this fall we spent an entire day looking at Cabelas in Sydney, and all over Cheyenne, Wyoming. The only gloves we could find that would even remotely work were kids’ winter gloves. We went with what we could find, but they still weren’t what I was wanting. Needless to say, on the day I shot the elk, I threw the glove off and didn’t care about how cold my hand was. All I knew was I wasn’t going to risk missing the shot because my glove didn’t fit right. Fortunately, I made the right choice in the moment. I truly do not want to be left in that situation again, especially if it were much colder which is typical of our weather that time of year. About two weeks after the hunt, we did get lucky and find a pair of youth, insulated, hunting gloves at Wal-Mart. Who would have thought they would be the place to find what I needed? Not us, because we didn’t bother to look there. I will continue my hunt for better fitting, warmer, hunting clothing for next fall. I will also be trying on some of the different brands that have recently come out such as the She line and Cabelas Outift her and reporting on the fit, comfort, and price. So, with all this is mind, please know that there is a lot of work to be done on the end of woman’s clothing. Any time you are in a sporting goods store, please put in a plug for those of us that deserve the right to be out and about and don’t want to be stuck wearing the same hunting clothes as our kids. Plus, a happy woman leads to a happy hunting trip for all!
My current clothing set up without the numerous layers underneath
Kyler and I wearing the same type of camo from Cabelas silent suede line
About two years ago, my husband mentioned he wanted a game camera for Christmas. This was the point where the prices of the cameras had started to come down, but the technology wasn’t overly great yet. I got up early to check out the Cabelas sales. We had done some research and decided that at the time, Moultrie was the best and most cost efficient. They also had an SD card which was huge for getting a lot of pictures without making frequent trips back and forth to the camera. The pictures quality was and still is really good and they are in color, day or night. The downside was the battery life which only lasted about 4-6 weeks at a time. Keep in mind this was well before the days of remote email access. The initial thought was that we would use the camera to see what kind of wildlife we could catch on it at different locations throughout the year. We were putting the camera out on public land in the National Forest near our house. At this point, we were just hoping someone didn’t take off with it. It didn’t take long, before we had some great pictures of different animals. So far, we have gotten elk, moose, deer, foxes, rabbits, coyotes, birds, a lot of wind, and a lot of snow. Most of the time, we placed the camera near well used game and hiking trails. It made it that much more exciting to see all the animal activity mingled in the same place that so many people were hiking. Later that year, my husband drew an elk license in this same location near our house. He decided to put the camera out in late summer to see if he could try and get a feel for where the elk would be on opening day. The majority of the places he put the camera, he was seeing elk. It made us so much more optimist going into the season. He was able to peg where to start his hunt on September first of that year. His year ultimately ended up with a spike elk on the ground at the end of October, with much thanks to the camera and helping him to find the elk patterns. I drew this same license this year. We used the camera again for tracking the elk, and again the results were great. It sure helped to narrow down where to start in the vast acreage we had to deal with. The most interesting part to this process, was the for some reason, we found elk were especially drawn to his camera. We have quite a few pictures of the elk playing with his camera. There has been more than one time that we walked up to it only to find out that the camera was hanging onto a tree by just one strap because the elk had been butting it around. I am attaching a couple of great pictures that show the elk up close and personal with the cameras. After reading this, I would love to know what you all think of game cameras. I also intend to do a review on what people feel are the most important features on a game camera.
Wild Turkey caught on the game camera
My first bull elk
October 24, 2011 is a day I will never forget. This is the day that I shot and killed my first big game animal, a bull elk. Due to some unfortunate events with the Wyoming Game and Fish regulations, the archery season was pretty much a wash this year. Thus, we had to wait until it was time to use the rifle. This was the fifth time that we had been out hunting that weekend since the season opened. On the first night, we saw about forty elk cross the highway in front of us when we were headed to check out places for the morning hunt. This made my adrenaline start pumping. All weekend, we saw a lot of elk, more than we had in the past, but we never got close enough to shoot. On the morning of the 24th, things were pretty quiet. It was a crisp, fall morning, with a little wind. We were on a nice rock shelf that opened to prairie for about 400 yards straight in front of us. We had been in the same place the evening before, but didn’t see any elk. We did see a lot of rubs and tracks that were recent, so we decided to try this location again. My father-in-law started bugling just to see what would happen. Within about five minutes, a cow and calf started coming our way. They were coming diagonally, so a potential shot was going to be difficult. I got ready, but my husband said to wait, a bull was almost there. I knelt down and got into position. He ranged the elk for me and it was at 100 yards. This bull was standing completely broadside. I couldn’t have asked for a better layout or shot. The downfall….I was so excited, I had a heck of a time finding the elk in my scope. I finally got him spotted in, put the cross-hairs on him, and fired. I hit him in the heart the first time. He fumbled around, so I shot again, in the same general location. This time the bullet went through and broke his leg. I had to shoot one more time after about 20 minutes and he decided to start thrashing his head around. At that point, I was in awe. I couldn’t believe it…I had shot my first big game animal ever. What a way to do it! There were many girlie things I did along the way, but those will have to be for another day.
We are off on a christmas shopping trip today. While we are out, we are going to Sportsman’s Warehouse. I definitely need a case for my bow. Any thoughts or suggestions on brands? Hard case vs. soft case? I want one that protects well but is functional too.