A PM I received from a friend last night provoked this post, hopefully I'm not stealing his idea, but I don't think so...
Bow seasons will be upon us before you know it, and the pro shops are going to be getting very busy. If you wait until the last minute to do this, you may be disappointed. NOW is the time to be getting this done.
Take your bow to your trusted shop, and let them give it a pre-season tune up. They'll take it apart, clean and grease the limb pivots, cam bearings (if applicable, some are sealed and require no service). They'll check the cams for lean, limbs for twist and cracks, and ask them to ensure each and EVERY bolt on your bow is tight. Give them the actual arrow you will be hunting with, and ask them to double check centershot and level.
They will also check your strings and cables to make sure they aren't stretching and/or about to fail. If you need to have your center serving replaced, now is the time to do that as well. Make sure drop away rest cables are secured, and peep sights are tightly tied in.
When you get your bow back, it's time to do some paper tuning with your hunting set up. Well, close anyway.....Shoot field points through paper, not broadheads, but use hunting arrows, sights, releases.....Whatever you'll be using to hunt with. Once you've ensured the bow is in tune, head outside and shoot a few broadheads to make sure they are flying true.
Now really is the time of year to do this. Shops aren't particularly busy right now, but in about a month or so business will really start to pick up, and if you wait too long you may run into problems. I see it every year, somebody won't bother to do any of this and they will experience some sort of failure at just the wrong time. It really is worth the time to make sure your equipment is in top shelf condition. It won't take your shop long to do, it's inexpensive (we charge $10, minus any parts that need fixing) and it may very well ensure you put a clean kill on that monster buck this year instead of being disappointed.
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1995 Ford Ranger XL
Douglas Radial Tires
Super Blue headlights
Fiberglass front bumper
2400 pounds
After a terrible experience (that ended up really good, 2 yrs later) with a buck I hit in '06....I found out the hard way I was ill-prepared to deal with a night track. I went the next day and spent a few hundred dollars (you can spend way less) to make SURE I never had this situation occur, again.
I bough a plastic tool box, 2 lithium flashlights, 2 spotlights, 2 way radios, PLENTY of extra batteries, stuffed a roll of TP in there.....and I've never looked back. Whenever I don't see a deer go down in sight, now....I go home and get this box ready. Now....I KNOW I have everything I need to successfully do a good night tracking job.
Brknarrow (Frank) will attest to this. We had plenty of light to recover the beautiful, big doe he took here, last fall. I've also used this box and its contents on several more successful tracks.
Just a heads-up. Now's the time to get these things in order.
After a terrible experience (that ended up really good, 2 yrs later) with a buck I hit in '06....I found out the hard way I was ill-prepared to deal with a night track. I went the next day and spent a few hundred dollars (you can spend way less) to make SURE I never had this situation occur, again.
I bough a plastic tool box, 2 lithium flashlights, 2 spotlights, 2 way radios, PLENTY of extra batteries, stuffed a roll of TP in there.....and I've never looked back. Whenever I don't see a deer go down in sight, now....I go home and get this box ready. Now....I KNOW I have everything I need to successfully do a good night tracking job.
Brknarrow (Frank) will attest to this. We had plenty of light to recover the beautiful, big doe he took here, last fall. I've also used this box and its contents on several more successful tracks.
Just a heads-up. Now's the time to get these things in order.
Great post Don.
BTW, A coleman lantern(I use propane) works great for tracking at night
Don't forget to go over your treestands and tree climbing gear as well. Inspect all of your straps and cables BEFORE putting them up in the tree and jumping up and down on them. Now is agood time to replace those oldchewed-up seats as well. In the same line as Jeff's night-tracking kit I have a stang-hanging backpack that I use for all of my summer and pre-season scouting trips. It has extra tree steps, extra stand straps, a few ratchet straps just in case, two hand saws, two sets of hand pruners,some bright eyes, and my Treehopper belt.
I had my new gibblet string installed last week, ordered a dozen GT Pro Hunter 5575's this morning,andsoon I'll beready to shoot. Bring on the fall!
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I don't have a lot of experience with vampires, but I have hunted werewolves. I shot one once, but by the time I got to it, it had turned back into my neighbor's dog.
Pre-season tune up.....it's that time..
[8D]
j/k 
