Test Shooting the 2014 Prime Alloy and Impact.

Yesterday I took the day off from going to the gym as I wanted to head over to my local archery shop Archery Outpost. I had a few issues with my bow that I wanted to get looked at. I had thought my rest release cable was sliding up, causing my rest to not drop as quickly as it should. Once Conner watched a few shots he informed me that it was not my rest, but my nocking point was to low. He took it back and into the bow vice it went. Re-set the nocking point, dialed it in through paper and it was shooting bullet holes. (My next project is to make a DIY paper tuner.) Back out to the range I was shooting low. I had to turn my single pin to 36 yards to hit at 20 yards. Now I will have to re-set my sight tape, another project.

After I shot 100 arrows with my bow I wanted to try a few new bows. I am thinking about getting a new bow before my trip to Colorado this year. I shot 2 of Prime's new bows for 2014. The Impact and The Alloy.

 IMPACT

 

• IBO (FPS): 340
• AXLE TO AXLE (IN): 35"
• BRACE HEIGHT: 6.25"
• MASS WEIGHT (LBS): 4.5
• DRAW LENGTH: 26" - 30"
• DRAW WEIGHT (LBS): 50, 60, 70

Drew from Archery Outpost let me shoot his Impact. He was dialing it in for an upcoming competition. We have the same draw length and draw weight. His bow is not stock off the shelf let me tell you. He had all the stabilizers, magnified sight and vibration dampening. As I shot it there was zero after shot vibration. He had change his set up so there was no valley which was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was really impressed after shooting this bow. It is a little long at 35" ATA but shoots really fast at 60 pounds. I really want to see what it can do at 70 pounds.

ALLOY

• IBO (FPS): 335
• AXLE TO AXLE (IN): 33.25"
• BRACE HEIGHT: 6.75"
• MASS WEIGHT (LBS): 4.2
• DRAW LENGTH: 26" - 30"
• DRAW WEIGHT (LBS): 50, 60, 70

The Alloy was just off the shelf. No stabilizer or sight, just a rest. I really liked this bow. Even without all the bells and whistles, this bow was smooth. The draw was smooth and transitioned to the valley very easy.  The Alloy seemed to want to drive the arrows to the target. This bow was set as a shop demo so it was set at about 50 pounds. This bow felt great in my hands and was very well balanced with just the display hook. This is a big ranking contender for my 2014 hunting bow.

I went back to my bow for 5-6 more ends and it felt great. I am not sure what I want to do this year. I know I am going to venture to a few other shops to try out the Elite, Hoyt and a few other manufactures this year before I do anything.

Rain and wind in the forecast, Lets go hiking

My hunting partner Al and I talk all last week about getting out and scouting a new area on the opposite side of our hunting spot. The forecast for the end of the week was looking to be the hardest rain we had got in 3-5 years. This year has been extremely dry with hardly any rain. So we needed the rain, but Al and I needed to get out of the house and hit the trail. We emailed back and forth Thursday and Friday with weather maps, models and road closers for the surrounding area we would be hiking. I made the call to give its go and at least get to the trail head. Expecting the worst I was ready for a warm breakfast instead of a hike. When we arrived at the trail head there was a light sprinkle but it seemed to be letting up. As usual we were the only car parked at the trail. That was fine since I'm not out there to hike with the masses, we want to get away.

At the start of the trail we had a few stream crossings to get over to access the trail. With the rains the  streams were now mini rivers. On 2 of the crossings I had to jump from my last rock to other side of the bank, about 4' to clear the water. At this point I was trying to stay dry. I knew the rain was all around us, so it was only a matter of time.

    

                                                               View of the incoming rain

We hiked a total of 12 miles that day. We did glass a little, with the conditions we were faced with we both knew the deer would not be moving. It felt great to get out and enjoy the day on the trail.  We had to put the rain gear on a few times but it quickly passed. Then we would strip layers off and continue on. It rained on us the last 45 minutes. I figure it was getting myself ready for elk in Colorado this year. When we got back to the car Al had brought 2 Pats Backcountry Brew. Check out his review on http://socalbowhunter.blogspot.com. Mine will be following as I just picked up one.

                                                                      Crazy Manzanita 

I was glad we ended up going and not being a typical Californian. It was a great hike and lots of talk about our upcoming elk hunt.