By Dave Hurteau

Here is the final buck in our scoring contest and your big chance to win a new Bowtech Invasion CPX compound bow, the company’s flagship model for 2011 and a prize worth about $950.

If you are just joining us, all you have to do is guess the gross B&C score of this critter here, add it to your guesses for the first three bucks (links below) and post your grand total in the comments section below.

Remember, fractionals count.

Whoever's grand total is closest to the four bucks' actual gross score (which I will post next Wednesday) will win the bow.* If there is a tie, I will post another buck for the finalists to guess.
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By Dave Hurteau

And now for the next buck in our scoring contest…. Again, I’ll remind you that that you’re playing for brand new Bowtech Invasion CPX compound bow, the company’s flagship model for 2011 and a prize worth about $950.

If you are just joining us, I am in the midst of posting a total of four bucks photos, one per week, for one month. (Click here if you missed buck 1, and here for buck 2.) You must guess the gross B&C score of each and keep track of your guesses. Fractionals will count. When I post the final buck, I’ll ask you for your grand total. Whoever is closest wins the bow*. If there is a tie, we will have a tiebreaker buck.

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By Scott Bestul

We’ve been counting down the best bows of the 2011 season, and we’re down to the cream of the crop. In most years, whittling out the bottom half of 15 or 16 bows isn’t too difficult for my testing team. Deciding on the Top Ten involves a little quibbling, but is rarely a tough chore.

But the Five Best? We’ve never actually gotten testy with each other when picking the five elite bows of the year, but individual scores reflect how close the voting can get. No more than 20 points (out of a possible 160) separated the Number Five bow from our Champion (the Best of the Best winner), and this year even featured a tie for the runner-up bow. So without any more fuss, here are the five models that everyone in my test team shot over and over… Sometimes looking for that one little feature that made a big difference. And sometimes because a really, really good bow is just plain fun to shoot.

Bow Number Five
G5 “Prime Centroid” (g5prime.com)
(MSRP: $999)

Hits: Most top-flight bows have a design feature that’s both innovative and problem-solving. In the case of the Prime, it’s called “Parallel Cam Technology ™” which is designed to virtually eliminate cam-lean, as well as reduce nock travel and limb fatigue. Basically two cams sit side by side, and the design change is both innovative and eye-catching; one of those features that jumps out at a shooter and says “this could be really cool…or really bad.” In the case of the Prime, it’s really good.

Misses: The only deductions my team gave to the Prime were in the shock/vibration category. This was nit-picking for two testers, but one team member gave it a big enough demerit to drop the Prime a place or two.

Takeaway: Major kudos go to the G5 team for incorporating an innovative design into a bow that’s just a pleasure to shoot. The Prime had a great back wall, a nice draw cycle and at 282 fps, sent an arrow zipping along. And once we got used to looking at parallel cams, we gave high marks to the Prime for fit-and-finish.
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By Chad Love

Indiana has become the latest state to allow crossbows during the deer archery season.

From this story in the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel (via Outdoor Pressroom):
On its second go-round, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources implemented changes that will affect deer hunters statewide. During a meeting Tuesday in Indianapolis, Natural Resources Commission officials voted on and approved a new set of deer-hunting regulations that had been recommended and preliminarily approved by the NRC last January...

The biggest changes included extending the archery season and allowing crossbows throughout the archery season, creating a deer license bundle and implementing the so-called “earn-a-buck” rule in the urban zones, including the Fort Wayne urban zone.
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By Scott Bestul

With archery seasons fast-approaching (or already open) it’s time to finish up the results of our annual bow test. For details of how the test is conducted, see the original post. Early next week we’ll feature the Top Five bows—a “best of the class”—in a single roundup of the elite bows of 2011.

But this post is devoted to the 6th place winner…

Bear “Carnage”

Price: $849

Weight: 4 lbs. 12 oz.

Length: 32” axle-to-axle

Speed: 345 fps (IBO) 288 fps (our test: 29-1/4”, 437gr. Carbon Express Aramid arrow. 28.5 draw length, 70lbs)
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By Dave Hurteau

I think I smell an emerging trend in our fast-changing world of bowhunting for whitetails. But I’m not going to mention what it is just yet. Instead, I want to ask you a very simple question: Assuming you are hunting with a bow, are there any circumstances in which you would shoot at a quartering-to deer, like this one?

Now be honest. This is for posterity. 

Illustration courtesy of KalKomey Enterprises, Inc. Learn more. Take a hunter-safety course at www.Hunter-Ed.com. [ Read Full Post ]