Archery Gear of the Year

Nice cup. Is it bad if I was ripping donuts out in the parking lot? Today, no. First day is no. Is it bad if I got my truck stuck out there? As we get near the end of season here, I want to talk about some of my favorite gear. It's been a good year. Got to put a lot of this stuff through the paces, certainly more than I ever have. I've shot thousands of arrows. Just want to talk about some of the stuff that's made it through that. Want to talk a little bit with our friend Justin, who often is the one here hanging out late with me, shooting bows and stuff like that. One of the guys, right? Yeah. Let's dig in and talk about some of this stuff. Firstly, check out my Hoyt here for one second. See this arrow? I was able to connect with my late season deer. I didn't get it on film. I have mixed feelings about, I do like to film stuff, but I don't like to film everything, and it just happened fast. I was pumped to get a deer, but that one won't be coming to the tubes. Is that America? Well, the material more than. It did a couple things for me in the late season. One, it was insulation. I've learned to like shooting off the riser, but the riser in a late season situation just isn't good. I threw on some Lizard Skins, 0.5mm, wrapped it all the way around. I just like that stuff. It's basically tennis wrap material or hockey wrap material, but this one has held up well, feels good, and provided just that little bit of insulation that helped. I have learned to like shooting multiple releases, and I think they've all taught me something, so I think there's a little bit to that, but let's go through them. Stand, clicker, click to fire release, thumb button, but you come to a click, and then keep pulling, and it will break. So it just provides a step in the process. This Stand Solex Index, I shot both my deer with this, and this has quickly become my favorite index hunting release. Now, the reason I like this is it's got adjustable travel and adjustable tension. If a person wanted to shoot it with a light trigger, they can, and if they wanted to shoot it with a heavy trigger or a lot of travel, they can. I really come to find this to be my favorite. Now, the one thing I would say about it is the strap on it, it doesn't feel like a high-quality strap, and it probably has stretched a little bit, but it has at least held up, and if you wanted to, you could swap out the strap with something that's some higher-quality leather material. You ever shoot this little baby? Yeah, I've test-fired it in the shop. It's one of very few that I recommend for a number of reasons. It definitely allows somebody to engage that trigger without fear of it going off. So... A little rattlesnake? Yeah, exactly. So you can engage this, no fear of it going off, and start to work through your shot. There's a couple others that I would recommend that kind of have the same sort of feel and adjustment. Give one or two of those. B3 Hawk, and that's one that you've talked about before, I think. Yeah, the B3 Hawk I have talked about, and I like the B3 Hawk, it's similar. It's a good mechanism, but it's basically heavy, and it can't go down as light. Depending on how much you pull or how much you push and pull, you might need more or less trigger tension. I know that's a really good one as well. I would throw the Carter Quickie Plus in there that has adjustable springs for the tension against that trigger. And then the last one would probably be the Scott S2. Out of those four releases, my personal favorite's gonna be that S2. Someone mentioned the Scott S2 recently. Only downside that we've seen so far with it is it eats loops. Oh, loop eater. Oh yeah. Like, it's its job, so. So that gets you a couple different options. I have learned to really like this. I found it to be plenty accurate as well, especially downrange. And it's just practical for hunting, because you can just slap it on your string at any moment. Stays on your wrist all the time. I've foreseen myself continuing to hunt with an index for a while. Stand clicker, I've shot this off and on through the year. I think it's just a very practical button with a click. And that click just allows me to have a point in time where I can say, hey, for me it feels like the safety's off. Let's keep pulling, keep shooting, and then the shot will break. So it gives me a defined point in time that I really like to have. Now recently, I picked it up off the wall. It was exactly how I like to have a hinge set up. And the mechanism just felt super clean. And of course, when you pick up a new release, you shoot it good, like a honeymoon phase. But I've continued to shoot it really, really well. And this is what I've shot most of my indoors, all of my indoor arrows with this ball, which is the B3 Tangent. And I wanna go shoot a couple arrows with Justin and talk about how to shoot a hinge with you guys and kind of just go through some of the finer points, because a lot of people get scared to shoot a hinge, and I don't think you should be. Do you like a hinge for a training aim or just a additional resource? Yes, for the right person. They have to want to get better in their shooting. I'm not saying you can't do it with other releases, but I think for most people, this is gonna allow them to work through their shot and learn proper execution better than most others. The clicker might be a close second that you pointed out because it gives you feedback with where you're at within the release. I like it as an additional tool. I think it's valuable. And for me, part of the fun is just being able to pick up a different release and shoot it. Part of practicing often is to keep it fun and engaging and being able to pick up different releases, shoot different bows. That sort of thing, for me, keeps it fun. So it's part of the fun, but also it's got a lot of... It's also helped me a lot. So I wanna go shoot a couple and let's talk about it. Let's taco about it. I got beans, greens, tomatoes, chicken, lamb, rams. You name it. I got beans, greens, potatoes, chicken, lamb, rams. You name it. I've played that probably 40 times on Thanksgiving day. The thing that'll make a hinge go off is the rotation of it. So rotate, rotate, rotate. This has a click. It's a very soft click with that happen. And then as it continues to rotate, it will break off. I wanna talk about the way I've learned to shoot a hinge a little bit and then Justin to backfill because he's an actual G. Basically, I will acquire my target downrange. I will bring the hinge and settle into my anchor. I will let my thumb off the peg. I'll find my click. And then from here, I'm doing a combination of two things. I'm trying to push and pull because often the problem I would have in the past is I would lose pressure in the back wall. And that would create some inconsistency with my shots and my shot timing. So I'm actively trying to push and pull. That doesn't mean I'm increasing the pressure a ton, but for me, that's what it feels like. And I think there's something to that and the right way for you to shoot might not necessarily be that way. But for me, I would tend to lose a little bit of pressure. So it helps me to feel like I'm pushing and pulling. To get it to rotate, I am pushing and pulling, but I'm also trying to soften my index finger and pull at the top of my hand. And that's what I've learned to be the most consistent way to get my shots to break right now. So it looks something like this. Okay, and then I get on target. I bring my face to the peep. I find the click and then I'm pulling and also trying to relax. One little thing that definitely makes my shots more erratic is when I get super tight with my index finger because it just makes it harder for that release to rotate. So it's been very important for me to learn to feel relaxed and then that release will break over. Justin, do you have stuff to add to that? You want to backfill? Just kind of more from a, and you talked about, you know, for you type stuff. Yes. In the end, there's only one thing that's going to make this release fire and it's rotation. However that rotation occurs is up to you. If you're setting up a hinge initially and you want to be safe with it. Shot trainer. Yeah. It's just a very simple shot trainer. You can redneck one together with, is it loop material or serving material as well? Oh yeah, you can redneck something for sure. Basically it's just a piece of string attached here and then you can get hundreds or hundreds of reps and feel like you know what you're doing before you actually drop back with weight on it. Almost all of these releases, you'll be able to adjust when it gets to your fire. And that's why having something like this is a really great way to practice before you set it up with an actual bow. So if it's set up and it clicks early here, we would call that hot, right? If it fires early here, that would be called hot. If it fires later back here, that would be considered colder. That where it breaks off is adjustable in most hinges. It's important to find out where the sweet spot is for you. What we're doing is we're drawing back with pressure primarily here. And then I'm going to really try to exaggerate this and my release is cold, so you should be able to see it. The rotation of the release is what causes this thing to fire eventually. If you are, I guess, a hinge virgin, a couple of things to keep in mind. Trainer tool, for sure, so that you can get the release where you think it needs to be. Once you have that set, I would do the initial firing of the release at a very close distance so that if something breaks free early, that you're not missing the bail, scaring yourself off of using this because this is a really nice tool. And that's what happens a lot is a person shoots a hinge a couple of times, they have a bad experience, they never come back to it. I feel the same way Justin does. I feel like it can be a very valuable tool in your toolbox, whether you choose to use it or not, just to be able to shoot one confidently. You can consciously and subconsciously activate this release. There's a million different ways to do this. What you have to figure out is what works for your brain, best for you. Get down the rabbit hole and then figure out what is the best mechanism that allows you to be repeatable and robotic and consistent and consistent under pressure. I'll add one thing to that and we'll kind of wrap it is indoor 20 yards is kind of like the lab. Everything is steady, stationary, nothing's moving. The shot's always the same. If you can get really good in the lab, that applies to your outdoors. I felt more confident than ever this year in front of animals because of many, many reps right here. And shooting at 20 yards has helped my 80 yard, 100 yard, all the longer range stuff, more than practicing at 80 yards or 100 yards because this is steady, stationary, never changes. And I can take what I learned in here and apply it to those longer range shots. And this is where I can learn to be repeatable. 100%. And we've, speaking for myself and I'd say a number of the rest of us that are here at the shop, have noticed your shooting get better because of this. So you're definitely a prime example of what can happen there. Yeah, it's coming around the corner. Yep. Thank you. Look at this. Looks like a dang winter wonderland out here. I know Justin and I got on a little tangent about shooting a hinge. All I really want you to take from that is just some tools to be comfortable and confident and try one out. And if you want to put it in your toolbox, that's cool. Gear of the year. That is basically what this video is about. Gear of the year, gear that's been time tested and gear that I have come to depend upon and trust because of reps and time in the field. One of those pieces of gear is the RIPP TKO arrow. Now, the interesting thing about this arrow or what makes it interesting, one, it's got a slick coating on the outside. Tends to make it a little easier to pull out of a 3D target. But I would imagine on the way through something, it's also going to go through a little easier because of that slick coating. This is a higher end arrow, but there's a couple of things you could do to save money if you wanted to. And what I would do and what I shoot through most of the year is .06 tolerance, not the .01s. These are the V1s. These are their fanciest, most expensive ones. And I like to hunt with them. It gives me some confidence. I have not found the .06s to shoot any worse than the .01s. Take that for what it is. Spend your dollars how you like. And if you want to step down from that even, the standard RIP arrow is good and it comes with a reliable insert. This is what I hunted with for whitetails and it has the podium titanium insert on the front, the Grim Reaper Carnivore in front of that. First animal I shot was recently with it and I was very, very impressed. This is a candidate for future light-skinned animals. Very happy with how it performed on the deer I shot with it. And probably the secret sauce for these arrows is they're really low GPI, grain per inch. It's like 8.8 or nine grains per inch, which allows you a ton of flexibility for arrow weight. If you want to run your arrow light, me 29-inch draw, I could run my arrow as low as 410, 415 if I wanted a really flat shooting arrow. I have it set up right now, rate just a smidge under 450. I could run it up to 550 really easily if I wanted to put a heavier broadhead on the front because it's a 250 spine and because it's got a low GPI, I could slap a big old fat broadhead on the front and it keep a really high FOC. So it's been a really reliable arrow for me, a really clean shooter. It's been hard for me to get away from it for just that reason. Flexibility with FOC, low GPI, slit coating on the outside. It's definitely been hard to beat and hard to get away from. I made a whole review video on this UltraView slider. It's been on my bow for the season and it has held up well. It is higher cost, but I banged it around for a full season and it's still doing well. Spending money, saving money. Bars, stabilizers on your bow. And this might be a little controversial. I feel like hunting stabilizers are kind of generic, meaning that one stabilizer to another, it's not gonna significantly reduce your vibration or significantly hold better. Because the bars are relatively short, as long as they're made out of a quality material, they're gonna perform pretty dang well. In an area where if you wanna save some money, stabilizers are one area you could totally do that. I ran with the Podium stabilizers all year. There's not some secret sauce that makes them better than the others. It's just a quality material at a fair price. And for this stabilizer setup right here, 150 bucks, you could spend 250, 350, $450 on stabilizers. It's all what you want. But in the stabilizer category, if you wanna save some money, I think these are a great option. And they're still on my bow for that reason. It's well balanced, they've held up. I don't see any scratch marks, any of that ----. Save money, spend money, spend your money wisely. Make sure you have tags in your pocket first. Get that experience hunting and continue to figure out the gear that's gonna best support your hunting and hunting style. Guys, I hope this video helped you out today. I'm on the road to 100,000 subscribers. It would mean a lot to me if you would subscribe to the channel. It has been a fantastic 2023. Genuinely, from me to you, I wanna thank you all for making it a great year. I'm very appreciative. I appreciate you guys showing up every week. Appreciate you guys being awesome. I'm out here in the snow. We got a couple more videos left this year. If you're still hunting, good luck. Close out your year strong. Subscribe to the channel. Come back next week. And I will catch you guys back for the next one.