Author Archives: Ed Hale

About Ed Hale

I am an avid hunter with rifle and Bow and have been hunting for more than 50 years. I have taken big game such as whitetail deer, red deer, elk, Moose and African Plains game such as Kudu, Gemsbok, Springbok, Blesbok, and Impala and wrote an ebook entitled African Safari -Rifle and Bow and Arrow on how to prepare for a first safari. Ed is a serious cartridge reloader and ballistics student. He has earned two degrees in science and has written hundreds of outdoor article on hunting with both bow and rifle.

Common Sense Crossbow Speed For Hunting

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Todays crossbows are capable of speeds of 500 feet per second and more. Yes, great for the trajectory and delivered energy. The limiting factors that arise from these ultrafast crossbows include arrows blowing through targets and backstops as well as arrows that lose the fletching from excessive penetration.

If you are a hunter, you will find 300fps to 360fps arrows are flat shooting enough at 30 to 40 yards and will often fully penetrate big game.  And arrows can be recovered and used again and again. Below, this wild boar was killed with a 300fps Excalibur crossbow. Full penetration at 25 yards dropped the 200 lb boar below quickly.

Loss of arrows are costly at $15 to $30 or more per arrow. Common Sense crossbow hunting rigs need to humanely kill and they do at speeds well under 250 fps. Speeds of 360 fps are fast enough for me with my other 10 Point Crossbow. Both crossbows deliver all the energy I need and foam targets can capture the arrow for reuse even with broadheads. 

For those who wish for more speed are welcome to these extremes but will pay a price for speed in the hunting woods. Equipment life will be diminished for sure as will arrow and broadhead life. 

Target shooting with super fast crossbows may be a different story with field points for fun and competition as long as backstops and targets can capture the arrow.

Be wise use and use common sense in the archery hunting woods.

Good Hunting! 

Burris Oracle X Crossbow Scope Review

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I bought this Burris Oracle X scope hoping to extend the fun and accuracy I can have in my backyard and in big game hunting. Cost: $644 on Amazon. This is definitely not a toy.

 

 

The warranty includes lifetime fix or replacement, no questions asked whether new or used. Wow!

The video below is excellent!

I own a very accurate 10 Point Turbo S1 Crossbow below (before adding the new scope) .

 

The scope can be setup for 2 different arrow weights, aka target and broadhead hunting setups. When I am in summer mode, I can setup to target shoot out to 75 to 100 yards for fun. In fall, I can setup for max 50 yards in the deer woods with heavier broadhead tipped arrows.

Things I will need to setup the scope:

  • A very steady rest. I have a great adjustable clamp type Death Grip tripod. It works! You can use a bench rest too.
  • I needed to purchase a 10 Point raised cheek comb to have better eye alignment. 

  • Get a torque wrench for clamping the scope to the picatinny or weaver base, and torque to 40 to 70 in-lbs. I own a Wheeler Fat Wrench. Test for eye relief distance before torquing down screws.

 

  • A few Extra Lithium Batteries. CR123 or CR123A work. I like Duracell but the scope does come with a battery.

 

My practice priority is for the hunting setup with my 125g Swhacker 231 practice broadheads. I get close with field points at 20 yards then switch to the practice Swhacker heads and make minor adjustments. 

The most important thing, Oracle says,  is to shoot accurately at the get-go for 20 yards. I mean within 1/4 inch of center if possible.

Read the short Instruction Manual. Takes 10 minutes.

Try a check shot at 5 to 10 yards to make sure your arrow hits the target. My scope was off by 8 inches vertically so the check was very valuable as arrow/bolts cost $14 each without a broadhead.  

 

Next, begin the electronic truing at hunting yardages of 35 and 50 yards, or for target, out to 100 yards. The software allows for two arrow types and gives you a max of four truing points.

The internal software likely has built-in curves to best fit your arrow flight. Besides the first 20 yard manual crosshair shots, you will need at least 2 electronic truing point shots say at 35 and 50 yards for hunting arrows.

Read the manual.

How long did it take time and number of arrows to zero at 20 yards? About 15 shots over 2 hours.

My 20 yard shots were very repeatable otherwise.

Once you set the 35 and 50 yards hunting truing points per the manual or video. Your done. Test your setup.

Hit the range button on the wireless remote and your target will have a red dot where to aim and provide distance.

 

I like this scope.

Good Shooting!

 

 

 

 

Archery – A Way To Focus Your Mind

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Archery is great fun for young and old. Most backyards have enough room to shoot at targets or even balloons. We all need to get outside and away from cell phones, etc. 

Interestingly, archery is a way to focus and merge your inner thoughts and outer self. It is a mental game of focus. Your reward is hitting the bullseye.  Oriental’s used Zen archery to extend the arrow in one’s mind to become one with the bullseye at the moment of launching the arrow.

Some people shoot at a target, others shoot/focus at the bullseye on the target. In riflery, we aim small and miss small, a similar concept.

To accomplish this requires correct conscious awareness of breathing, body stance and form. A merged focus on the inner and outer self. 

Success, an inner positive feeling can be achieved by focusing your outer self. 

In the case of bow hunters, 3D Animal foam target archery is a way to walk an archery course with other like minded folks and focus on, distance to target, how to stand with bushes and branches around your feet, and recall breathing and focus to launch your arrow. I did this for many years with my son.

Today, I shoot my bows in my backyard achieving focus and success.

Perhaps you can have backyard success as well. 

Good Shooting!

 

Crossbow Hunting Arrow Vanes – Stock Vanes Or Your Own Mounted Vanes – Update

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Today crossbow arrow vanes usually come as stock with one degree offset. Sometimes it is hard to see the one degree offset. 

Offset fletching works fine with field points and mechanical broadheads that hide much of the blade. But as I have said before, not so well for fixed blade accuracy.

I was happy with the offset vanes and swhackers but I felt stuck in that nich with no flexibility. I pushed myself to break out of that nich and try some helical vanes.  I own a bitzenburger fletch tool that was set up for right hand helical fletch, and had some slightly longer green Bohning vanes in my cupboard. I tried them on a single arrow, and boy did they fly well! Same POI as the one degree offset. 

 

ACI Bitzenburger Jig W/Clamps Right Helical

 

 

I used a magic marker to denote the downside cock feather like a barred feather. I shot at 20 and 30 yards and they had the same point of impact as my one degree offset but spun faster. My fixed blades flew a bit better but I am a stickler for accuracy. 

UPDATE PHOTOS  20 and 30 yards 

20 yard 1 inch group with field point and Swhacker 231 practice head

30 yard 2 inch group with field point and Swhacker 231 practice head

 

I get a higher level of confidence with the helical fletch as they spin a bit faster and allow fixed blades more forgiveness. As I said in an earlier article, experiment, experiment, experiment. 

Good Hunting!!

For the Love of Self-Made Longbows and Recurve Bows

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The bow has been with mankind for tens of thousands of years both for hunting, as a weapon of war, starting a fire, and as a musical instrument.

For hunters, the use of the English longbow and recurve for hunting held a special place in hunting big game. Many called it hunting with “stick and string.”

Today, there are still many archers that enjoy arching an arrow with a simple stick and string. I still do, for target.

Yes, I love rifles too, hence my magazine. 

It was many years ago that I made several hunting weight self-longbow/flatbows and recurves from hickory staves that I freed from New Hampshire trees. To my chagrin, a house fire destroyed many of them. I gifted my twin brother one of my self-bow’s and he shoots it to this day.

I have made a few recurves from hickory staves as well. I backed one of them with deer sinew and diamondback rattlesnake skin. Disappointedly,  I traded it with cousins and it disappeared.

But eurika, I own a stave that I originally cut into a longbow, and a work in progress. It sat in my closet for 20 years begging for me to finish it.

In 2018, I decided to make a hunting recurve with it, by steaming the tips and bending them. A scary process that can destroy many hours of work.  Well, I was quite proud of my new self-bow recurve so I backed that recurve also with whitetail deer sinew to increase its strength and made a flemish string for it.

At full draw, it is around 50 pounds. See it below. It throws a fast arrow! It is a work of graceful art as it has literally no deflex to this day.

I still shoot target with these bows.

In the end, I owe it to wild game to hunt with the most lethal bow I can handle thus most of my hunting is with a compound bow, rifle, flintlock and scoped muzzleloader or crossbow.

Good Hunting!

 

 

 

 

 

“Freezer Aging” Vacuum Sealed Game Meat – Does it work?

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Wild Boar taken in Maine

Wild Boar taken in Maine

Many hunters like myself, who cook, understand that frozen vacuum sealed game meat improves in flavor and tenderness over time. I call it “freezer aging” under vacuum. 

Animal hormones and blood in the meat hold stronger wild tastes we know as gaminess. I have used buttermilk to aid in drawing hormone laden blood from meat and aid in tenderizing. It helped!

Enter Freezer Aged Meat.

Freezer aged meat (more than 3 months) loses much of this gamey flavor. Further, that vacuum sealed venison and moose meat become increasingly tender and flavorful past several months in the freezer.  My wife and I love the meat from my 2023 Newfoundland cow moose but we noticed that it got even better after months in the freezer.

So If you have game meat vacuum sealed in the freezer, take heart, you can say you are “freezer aging” your game meat. 

Soon, I will write more about my new found very pleasant experiences with my black bear meat.

Good Eating!

 

Crossbow: Field Point/Arrow Tuning Tip to Swhacker Broadheads

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I love my Swhacker 125g Broadheads and Practice Broadheads. 

However, now I use my 125g field points in my Big Shot target to replicate the broadhead impact at bear hunting distances. How?

My field points normally hit 2 to 3 inches higher than my Swhackers at 20 yards. Perhaps minor aerodynamics account for the impact shift up. 

Accordingly,  I have tuned the arrow/fieldpoint with 5 grain brass arrow washers added to the field point and now have identical impact at that distance.

I do this to relieve the constant use of my broadhead target and make pulling field points from my Big Shot target so much easier.

I shot both the 125g practice broadhead and extra weighted 135g field point at 30 yards and they both grouped within 2 inches of each other. Wow!

Three Rivers Archery sells the brass washers by arrow diameter. Give them a try…

 

Good Hunting!

Swhacker Broadhead Science

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I am interested in the science of Swhacker Broadheads for my Alberta Crossbow black bear hunt. I am hunting with my Ten Point Turbo S1 which shoots 350 fps with Swhacker 231 broadheads and whopping KE of 140 ft-lbs at 20 yards.

 

I recently shot the Swhacker 231 practice heads out to 50 yards like field points with supreme accuracy. Wow!

Note: A separate practice head used to come with the package of three hunting broadheads but practice heads are now sold separately. 

Remember, when shooting broadheads of any kind, “it is accuracy that kills” provided the blades are sharp.

There are several models of Swhackers but each follow the same concept of saving the rear deployed razor sharp blades for cutting internal organs and not the hide and bone on entry.

 

Made in USA.

Good Hunting

 

The Most Important Part of Broadheads – Accuracy

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An accurate, sharp, big game broadhead shot from your bow is essential. Years back, when I was shooting new arrows out of my compound, I would paper tune the shafts with and without fletching. Then tune with broadheads with the intended fletching.

I’ve always liked feathers on my arrows as they are more forgiving than vanes. The downside of feathers in the hunting woods is rain. They lay flat and no longer steer the broadhead well.

Today, many new bowhunters have bypassed paper tuning by going for mechanicals that fly like field points. It is a shortcut that can create a less informed archer about his/her equipment and more reliance on mechanicals to forgive poor bow tuning. 

In my crossbow, vanes make more sense. I advocate spin to all arrows. It’s like rifling in a rifle. The spin creates stability, and allows rotating broadhead blades from steering the short crossbow arrow.  I like offset vanes.  A slight helical may work too. Experiment! Experiment! Experiment!

When all your tweaking comes together you should have some understanding of your setup and limitations. As for me, my crossbow limitations with fixed blade heads end at 25 yards. I like muzzy 1 1/8 3 and 4 blade heads. 

Muzzy 225 Bowhunting 100 Grain, 3 Blade Broadhead, 1-3/16" Cutting Diameter, 6 Pack,MULTI

Big blades tend to plane, avoid them.

Accordingly, for me, a mechanical head like the Swhacker 125g 231 is a great choice for longer and accurate shots provided you have the delivered KE and lethality for the shot and shot angle.

 

One thing you may want in your bag of tuning tricks are brass arrow washers to add some weight to a broadhead or a field point. Three Rivers sells them. They are 5 grains each.

Good Hunting!