The Art of Bow Making: TEDTalk  – 15-year-old Seoul native Dong Woo Jang speaks of his passion for bow making and what drives him to archery. It just goes to show, we may be separated by oceans, continents, or languages, but across the world, there is a common denominator in us all that drives us to the archery industry.

Why you should listen

“His parents wouldn’t let him play video games, so Dong Woo Jang had to invent other ways to entertain himself in and around his Seoul apartment. First, he studied spider anatomy and hunting skills for three years, creating their habitat in his room. Next, Dong headed outside, where he picked up fallen tree branches and turned them into archery bows.

The Art of Bow Making: TEDTalk

Later, while researching the age-old craft, he discovered that his optimal design was strikingly similar to that of his ancestors. Though he concedes that, during his process of “fixing, breaking, redesigning, mending, bending, and amending” bows, he accidently set his building on fire. The 15-year-old says that working with wood — and traveling back and forth in time — makes him feel free.

What others say

“At 14, he already found what fascinates him in life.” — Julie Yi, on TED.com“

Credit: https://www.ted.com/speakers/dong_woo_jang

Take a look at Dong Woo’s TEDTalk in the video below.

Photo Credit: TEDBlog

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Bear Archery entered the compound-bow arena back in the 1970s, when many of us still clung to recurves because we failed to see the advantages in this new approach to bow building. Bear has become a leader in compound innovation and hunter-friendly designs. Bear bows offer speed that’s on par with the biggest names out there, but they’re also smooth-shooting and quiet systems that real bowhunters appreciate. The Kuma was Bear’s 2018 flagship, and it included all of the design elements and technologies that promise to make the 2019 Kuma 30 just as popular, but in a more compact and maneuverable 30-inch package that meets the demands of today’s bowhunter.

What Bear engineers have done is scale down the Kuma 30 riser from the original 28 inches to 25 inches. The difference was taken entirely from the sections between the dual string stops and limb pockets. Everything you loved about last year’s Kuma remains intact. You just receive a shorter axle-to-axle measurement that today’s customers seem to prefer, and with a weight reduction of about 3.2 ounces. The riser was made with cutting-edge milling technology to combine balance, light weight and a low profile with a structurally-sound platform that includes strategically-placed cross struts and frontal flutes.

The Kuma 30 sports the new H-19 Hybrid Cam. The system is smooth drawing and pushes arrows to impressive speeds. The H-19 Cam’s rear valley, established by consistent string stops, feels great and encourages proper back-tension shooting. The string comes back smoothly, with no surprising peaks or troughs in the draw cycle.

The Kuma 30 comes hunting silent right out of the box, and is sure to please a lot of bowhunters next year. Learn more at Bear Archery’s website.

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2019 Bear Archery Kuma 30

An all-new member of the trusted Kuma family, the Kuma 30 delivers the same incredible performance of the Kuma with a little less weight and smaller axle-to-axle. As this year’s flagship, the Kuma 30 brings both speed and comfort in a smaller and lighter package.

345FPS

• WEIGHT – 4.1 LBS.
• BRACE HEIGHT – 6″
• AXLE-TO-AXLE – 30″
• LET OFF – 75%
• DRAW WEIGHT – 45-60 LBS, 55-70 LBS
• DRAW LENGTH RANGE – 25.5″-30″
• BEARCAGE – Eliminates riser flex and reduces weight while maintaining structural integrity.

Learn more on Bear’s website

2019 Bear Archery Perception

You’ll never look at Bear Archery the same way again. We introduce the first bow of its kind, a shoot-through engineered with all the performance of a shoot-through in a small hunting bow package. This limited edition bow weighs only 4.3 lbs. and shoots 350 feet per second.

350 FPS

• WEIGHT – 4.3 LBS.
• BRACE HEIGHT – 6″
• AXLE-TO-AXLE – 33″
• LET OFF – 75%
• DRAW WEIGHT – 45-60 LBS, 55-70 LBS
• DRAW LENGTH RANGE – 25.5″-30″
• MAX PRELOAD QUAD LIMBS -Designed to evenly distribute load across the entire limb surface which optimizes the geometry for extremely efficient performance.

Learn more on Bear’s website

2019 Bear Archery Revival

At Bear Archery, we understand the sport of archery requires distinctive equipment to meet the needs of a hunter and a target shooter. Introducing the all-new Revival, a rebirth of the LST, in a high-performance target bow built for accuracy and comfort with an easy draw for consistency and repetition.

320 FPS

• WEIGHT – 4.4 LBS.
• BRACE HEIGHT – 7″
• AXLE-TO-AXLE – 37 1/2″
• LET OFF – 75%
• DRAW WEIGHT – 45-60 LBS, 55-70 LBS
• DRAW LENGTH RANGE -27″-30.5″
• CROSSLOCK LIMB POCKET – The CrossLock Limb Pocket incorporates a multi-facet system that provides maximum strength at key points of stress during and after the release.

Learn more on Bear’s Website

2019 Bear Archery Divergent

Designed with the whitetail bowhunter in mind, the Divergent offers amazing performance in a short 28” axle-to-axle bow without breaking your wallet. With speeds of 338 feet per second, the Divergent’s compact platform and hybrid cams give shootability a whole new meaning.

338 FPS

• WEIGHT – 3.9 LBS.
• BRACE HEIGHT – 6 1/2″
• AXLE-TO-AXLE – 28″
• LET OFF – 75%
• DRAW WEIGHT – 45-60 LBS, 55-70 LBS
• DRAW LENGTH RANGE – 25.5″-30″

2019 Limited Edition Take Down

• 60″ AMO
• MACASSAR EBONY A – RISER
• FIGURED AFRICAN BUBINGA VENEER LIMBS
• 2ND IN A SERIES OF 4 LIMITED EDITION BEAR BOWS

Learn more on Bear’s Website

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Watch as Editor Patrick Meitin puts Allen Company arrows through the Inside Archery DESTRUCTION TEST. Testing strength, durability and accuracy of these cost effective arrows.

Learn more at http://www.byallen.com

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Shur Kill Targets Bowhunting Target System. Shur Kill Targets offers many targets for those real life shots you come across in the woods!

Learn more at shurkilltargets.com

The post Bowhunting Target System – Angle Shooting and More! appeared first on Inside Archery Archery Newsfeed.

Peep Eliminator® is a compound bow rifle alignment sight that brings rifle-like accuracy to the archer. The Peep Eliminator® simplifies archery by making the archer maintain the same aiming form shot after shot. For the very first time ever shoot a right hand bow and aim with your left dominant eye or vise-versa.

The post Peep Eliminator appeared first on Inside Archery Archery Newsfeed.

Learn more at gearheadarchery.com

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Watch as Jeff Johnston reviews the 2018 Barnett Crossbows TS 390!

Learn more at barnettcrossbows.com

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By Jeff Johnston

Parker’s latest crossbow is called the Parker CenterFire XXTreme. It’s a 170-pound draw weight crossbow that’s 34.25-inches long, 7.6 pounds in overall weight (with the scope) and fires an arrow at 350 fps thanks to aggressive cams and a 14.125-inch powerstroke. It’s rather compact at 20.75-inches axle-to-axle un-cocked and 18.5-inches cocked with a 13½ inch length of pull. Parker is committed to building no-gimmick, solid crossbows that shoot supremely accurately, and are extremely quiet, safe, powerful and inexpensive. You’d be hard pressed to find a better crossbow for the money.

Parker is known for its beefy, machined risers that provide a solid foundation for the entire bow, including its limbs and limb pockets, barrel and eccentrics. Parker is willing to add a few ounces to its overall weight in exchange for such a riser. The XXTreme is no exception, and you can see that in its performance—namely its quietness and accuracy. 

That’s because the XXTreme’s riser, which is about 13/16th inches wide at its thickest, provides an anchor-like platform for attaching the CenterFire’s laminated split limbs. Its limb pockets are serious pieces of metal that anchor the limb ends and serve as a pivot point to provide a fulcrum for leverage. Behind the limbs, two sound dampeners accept the string’s excess energy and dissipate sound waves that would otherwise lead to excess noise. All told, it’s as solid as risers come these days, and no doubt a big reason why the bow is so quiet. The CenterFire XXTreme registered around a 93 on my informal sound meter while shooting outside, which is right up there with the best I’ve ever tested. This is a testament to the XXTreme’s overall solidness. 

Two giant “inverted” cams are oriented upside down so the string is further from the fire control system. This simple, yet ingenious way of mounting the cams on the bow elongates the powerstroke by about 4 inches—or the width of the cams—by merely flipping them over. As a result of the lengthened powerstroke, the bow’s speed is increased tremendously. All this comes without extra cost. It’s simply an advantage. 

Parker has one of the best-feeling finishes in all of the bow, crossbow or even rifle industries. Its polymer chassis is coated in a thin film of rubbery plastic that feels soft and slightly sticky to the touch. It’s warmer in cold weather, and much quieter when it brushes by sticks and treestand seats while in the woods.

The CenterFire XXTreme’s fire control system is solid. A molded polymer retention finger keeps the arrow on the barrel while Parker’s noted anti-dryfire device prevents the string from being released when an arrow is not loaded and the trigger is pulled with the safety on fire. This crossbow’s trigger is made of metal, and it’s lighter than most. It broke at 4 pounds, 6 ounces.

Perhaps my favorite thing about Parker crossbows, other than the machined aluminum riser and soft-touch stock, is the safety. It’s located on the rear of the receiver, so it’s naturally ambidextrous. I call it a “lightswitch-style” safety because that’s exactly what it looks and feels like. It’s also marked and labeled appropriately so there can be no mistake: Up (red) is fire, while down (green) is safe. It’s automatic, quiet, simple and one of the best. 

Another aspect I really like about Parker crossbows is their roller-style rope cocker that significantly decreases friction while using two pulleys to reduce the strength required to cock the bow. I consider Parker’s roller rope cocker the gold standard for rope cockers. Parker also includes it with the purchase of the CenterFire XXTreme, instead of charging extra for it.

Overall, the CenterFire XXTreme gets very high marks for all performance traits, including accuracy (it measured 1.2 inch groups at 30 yards) quietness and robustness. It’s built like a tank. A small sticker on the limb indicated that my test bow had been “Custom Built By B. Snyder.” It’s apparent that this fellow took pride in making, assembling then testing the bow, as the excellent illuminated reticle Hawke 1.5x-5x-32mm scope had been boresighted at the factory and was only 1-inch off zero right out of the box.

And then there is the feature that makes this crossbow very attractive: For the aforementioned type of premium-type of performance, consumers will pay two or three times less than top-end bows with all the bells and whistles—bells and whistles they don’t really need for hammering a deer or a bear. So, for around $800, consumers get the bow, the best-in-class roller rope cocker, four Parker Hunter arrows, a Hawke optic that’s legit and a bow-mounted quick detach quiver. Plus they get a lifetime warranty for a crossbow that should never need it.

The CenterPoint XXtreme follows Parker’s longstanding tradition of building high-performance, solid crossbows for hunters right here in America. 

Learn more at Parker Bows’ website

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