60x
WKR
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2013
- Messages
- 366
A fun project bow I did.
As a lifelong hunter, previous Alaska professional hunter and all around archery geek I wanted to share a project I worked on. Ask any western or mountain hunter the importance of saving weight when everything you pack in is on your back. We spend thousands of dollars to save ounces. Visit any social media site and you will see countless threads on how to cut weight on everything from sleep systems to your favorite skinning knive. You will also see a tremendous amount of information on cutting weight on your rifle, but what about those of us that are archers that prefer to use compounds. You just don’t see that many posts about it. As I sit here making plans for my spring and fall hunting season I decided to build what I think is the ultimate lightweight mountain extreme and backcountry bow. Any serious bow hunter can tell you most hunting bows start out at about 5 pounds before accessories but what if I told you I can build a complete setup minus arrows that comes in under that 5 pound mark. Well you can!
This all started with an idea that Popped into my head and a call to my buddy Dave Stoddard from Full curl archery in Anchorage Alaska. When I started I had some self imposed stipulations. I wanted to use some brands I trust and all stock items with no modifications like cutting or drilling holes. This was important because I want anyone to come into Full Curl or go to their local dealer and have the ability to build this.
First up and most importantly the bow. This was an easy decision, one of the lightest bows on the market with the ability to crank it up to 80# is the PSE carbon stealth mach 1. Made right here in the USA and coming in at ridiculous advertised weight of 3.5 pounds. Besides the weight factor carbon has a secondary and more important factor to me, it’s stays warm to the touch on cold days. I am not a fan of wearing heavy gloves when shooting and metal risers are uncomfortably cold to me when the weather is bad. PSE has also made some serious strides with cam designs and just plain shoot ability. They are very forgiving and with a 90% letoff waiting for your prey to get into the right position has never been easier. The bow I’m using for this is 80# 29” draw Mach 1 and it came in at 3.4 pounds out of the box. Although on paper it’s not supposed to be a speed bow it cast my 496 grain arrow at 296 FPS. More then respectable.
Now this choice will surprise a few and it’s certainly not the lightest option but as I mentioned I want things I trust. I tested and weighed several rests. I found there are some great options on the market but I opted to go with my AAE Prophecy that comes is at 4.52 ounces. I chose this because I’ve tested this rest since it hit the market and what I like is it’s completely field repairable. In some of the areas I hunt the brush is thick and having your release cord ripped out is a real possibility. With the prophecy it doesn’t matter, replace it and your tune and point of impact remains the same. To me that’s worth an extra ounce or so over some of the others.
For a quiver we sat at the shop weighing all that we could find. We even considered a popular quiver/stabilizer combination but that actually came in fairly heavy. We eventually settled on a carbon alpha lite from fuse. It’s the 5 arrow version and came in at 7 ounces. You could go slightly lighter with some 3 arrow offerings but again I don’t want to sacrifice hunt ability for weight.
Stabilizer is one of those things that there are lots of choices. There are some titanium’s out there that are extremely lightweight as well. I ended up looking at my target bow and stripping my 10” AAE Advante-x. I’m a stabilizer fan. A slightly longer bar helps me with the longer shots and a lightweight bow is worthless if you can’t shoot it. My 10” came in at 2.35 ounces which gives me the ability to add some weights on the end as needed.
Last up was not of the most tedious challenges. There are some really lightweight sights on the market but a lot lack what I feel is the most important feature for the backcountry and mountains, a third axis. What this does is essentially ensures that your level and bow are true on uphill and downhill shots. Without it you risk really bad left or right point of impact hits. After the boys at the shop got down searching literature and tearing packages open we settled on Black Gold Ascent Mountain Lite sight. It came in at an astonishing 8. 51ounces. I was honestly surprised by the weight of this but it definitely helped achieve my goal.
So after installing everything and adding a few ounces to the stabilizer and such the final tally was an astonishing 4.96 pounds.
So this was a pretty fun project and as I find parts and pieces I will be updating. Keep in mind this is not the only way to achieve this weight. There are things you can swap out and switch around to achieve the same goal this was just my way not the only way.
As a lifelong hunter, previous Alaska professional hunter and all around archery geek I wanted to share a project I worked on. Ask any western or mountain hunter the importance of saving weight when everything you pack in is on your back. We spend thousands of dollars to save ounces. Visit any social media site and you will see countless threads on how to cut weight on everything from sleep systems to your favorite skinning knive. You will also see a tremendous amount of information on cutting weight on your rifle, but what about those of us that are archers that prefer to use compounds. You just don’t see that many posts about it. As I sit here making plans for my spring and fall hunting season I decided to build what I think is the ultimate lightweight mountain extreme and backcountry bow. Any serious bow hunter can tell you most hunting bows start out at about 5 pounds before accessories but what if I told you I can build a complete setup minus arrows that comes in under that 5 pound mark. Well you can!
This all started with an idea that Popped into my head and a call to my buddy Dave Stoddard from Full curl archery in Anchorage Alaska. When I started I had some self imposed stipulations. I wanted to use some brands I trust and all stock items with no modifications like cutting or drilling holes. This was important because I want anyone to come into Full Curl or go to their local dealer and have the ability to build this.
First up and most importantly the bow. This was an easy decision, one of the lightest bows on the market with the ability to crank it up to 80# is the PSE carbon stealth mach 1. Made right here in the USA and coming in at ridiculous advertised weight of 3.5 pounds. Besides the weight factor carbon has a secondary and more important factor to me, it’s stays warm to the touch on cold days. I am not a fan of wearing heavy gloves when shooting and metal risers are uncomfortably cold to me when the weather is bad. PSE has also made some serious strides with cam designs and just plain shoot ability. They are very forgiving and with a 90% letoff waiting for your prey to get into the right position has never been easier. The bow I’m using for this is 80# 29” draw Mach 1 and it came in at 3.4 pounds out of the box. Although on paper it’s not supposed to be a speed bow it cast my 496 grain arrow at 296 FPS. More then respectable.
Now this choice will surprise a few and it’s certainly not the lightest option but as I mentioned I want things I trust. I tested and weighed several rests. I found there are some great options on the market but I opted to go with my AAE Prophecy that comes is at 4.52 ounces. I chose this because I’ve tested this rest since it hit the market and what I like is it’s completely field repairable. In some of the areas I hunt the brush is thick and having your release cord ripped out is a real possibility. With the prophecy it doesn’t matter, replace it and your tune and point of impact remains the same. To me that’s worth an extra ounce or so over some of the others.
For a quiver we sat at the shop weighing all that we could find. We even considered a popular quiver/stabilizer combination but that actually came in fairly heavy. We eventually settled on a carbon alpha lite from fuse. It’s the 5 arrow version and came in at 7 ounces. You could go slightly lighter with some 3 arrow offerings but again I don’t want to sacrifice hunt ability for weight.
Stabilizer is one of those things that there are lots of choices. There are some titanium’s out there that are extremely lightweight as well. I ended up looking at my target bow and stripping my 10” AAE Advante-x. I’m a stabilizer fan. A slightly longer bar helps me with the longer shots and a lightweight bow is worthless if you can’t shoot it. My 10” came in at 2.35 ounces which gives me the ability to add some weights on the end as needed.
Last up was not of the most tedious challenges. There are some really lightweight sights on the market but a lot lack what I feel is the most important feature for the backcountry and mountains, a third axis. What this does is essentially ensures that your level and bow are true on uphill and downhill shots. Without it you risk really bad left or right point of impact hits. After the boys at the shop got down searching literature and tearing packages open we settled on Black Gold Ascent Mountain Lite sight. It came in at an astonishing 8. 51ounces. I was honestly surprised by the weight of this but it definitely helped achieve my goal.
So after installing everything and adding a few ounces to the stabilizer and such the final tally was an astonishing 4.96 pounds.
So this was a pretty fun project and as I find parts and pieces I will be updating. Keep in mind this is not the only way to achieve this weight. There are things you can swap out and switch around to achieve the same goal this was just my way not the only way.
