Upon our 7AM arrival, it was cold! Mr. Paulson and I decided to meet much closer to the convention center disregarding our previous coffee shop plans. Being cold while hunting is absolutely fine in my book, but when your itching to get to the show it’s a whole different story. All of the Camo trucks hit it off just right, I knew a parking lot full of trucks could only mean one thing, a good time, and a good time it was.
To start off the day we picked a side to start our travels, right off the bat we saw many big names, Lee and Tiffany, “The man” Mr. Will Primos, the Drury brothers, the Bone Collector crew, Byron Ferguson, Country music star Daniel Lee Martin, and many other big names throughout the day. Aside from people, every product you could ever imagine was present. Clothing, scents, calls, arrows, blinds, tree stands, anything and everything, and of course, bows. Unfortunately, I am recovering from shoulder surgery so I was unable to test any one of the thousands of bows that were present, this being about the equivalent of dangling candy in front of a kid with a sweet tooth.
All of the products were interesting, but some really jumped out at me. For example the new line of Sitka gear was incredible; this modern edge science of camouflage is phenomenal. The material is strong, durable, and there is a production line available for every scenario. I found a few blinds to be very impressive, one being the new scent blocker blind, which has a complex ozone pumping system to eliminate virtually all odors. A certain product that called my name in particular was a new bow trainer. With a simple design, and a detailed chart to improve draw strength, the system is fit for any person of any size, a great tool for rehab or to simply stay in shape. Leupold had a new range finder that I found very useful. The range finder mounted to your bow, and you site in the laser with your top pin, and there you have it, a hands free, full draw range finder that displays the yardage until you let it fly.
While all of the products at the show were impressive, what ultimately impressed me the most was the Athens Archery line of bows. During testing, instead of watching Kevin shoot, I tried listening for the shot, suddenly the arrow smacked the target, and much to my surprise Kevin looked back and said “did you hear that” my reply… “hear what?” Point proven. The bow is silent, it’s fast, and it is light with a sleek design, an overall very impressive bow. While reviewing video of Chris Telinda shooting the Athens bow, we could not hear the bow fire at all, only the smack of the blazing arrow.
At the end of the day we covered the entire show, we met a number of great people that share the same interests as we do. I could not have asked for a better way to spend my day. And wouldn’t you know discussion at dinner was 100% hunting oriented, you simply have to love living the Hunting Life.
Mitch Strobl
