Gday all, hope is all is well, first time ive been able to log on for ions so ill post a few stories up while I can. Wish the powers to be could get this S#!T fixed, all in all it cant be to hard?
Just Imagine.
Imagine you’ve finally got some time off to go hunting and avoid the day to day grind of family and a working life. You’ve replaced the strings on your bow and tuned it up and have the sight dialed in sweet smacking nocks and cutting vanes when testing. You say good bye to the Mrs. and kids and head out to your favorite hunting block on a very long drive, all the way thinking of the big gnarly boars, bucks and huge billy goats you’re going to hunt.
Eager and keen you arrive and say hello to the owners and quickly set up camp and head down to the honey hole late in the afternoon where you know a big cagey boar resides. You gear up and get the wind in your face and start to put on your best sneak down the creek line to the dam where you know his going to be.
Weaving along a game pad to keep noise down you peer around a tree towards some tall reedy grass and spot some movement, the glass is instantly up to your face and you confirm it’s the big brute the cockys been telling you about with ripped ears from the doggers and a great big boof head, he turns side on and the lip curl is pushing his top lip up real high and instantaneously the heart rate quickens.
His in the soft mud in the tall grass so you have plenty of cover and close the gap substantially with the good conditions for a sneak. Each step the excitement is growing until you feel like you’ll explode with enthusiasm and exhilaration. Finally, you’re within range with the big fella feeding broadside, anticipating his movement as his head drops behind some reeds you draw back.
Your waiting for his front leg to step forward to open up the magic triangle for a classic heart shot low down in the chest of the big behemoth. Just like times standing still you cut the shot and watch in awe as the arrow darts out like a heat seeking missile on route to the intended target, you can already see his big pearly whites hanging high upon your wall at home.
In disbelief and incredulity, the boar takes a step back right at the vital moment for a morsel or crumb of whatever he was foraging for as your arrow smacks bang on into his humorous bone on his foreleg with minimal penetration. He lets out a grunt and turns looking for his tormentor while your arrow snaps at what is the most crucial and critical point where the broadhead meets the arrow. Imagine the disappointment and displeasure of such a sequence of events. Imagine that.
Now you have imagined that, it brings me the point of this story in saying that with any hunting setup the weakest point and maybe one of the most integral parts of your broadhead/arrow combination is where the broadhead meets the arrow. Its no use having the highest poundage bows and stiffest arrows on the planet if your broadhead/arrow components are not up the scratch and such scenarios as the one described will bring out any flaws and faults in your setup.
I was recently given a very unique chance at testing a new broadhead designed and made by Ray Prillaman of Razor-VPA Custom Shop called the CTR-punch line. It incorporates the design of the broadhead itself in conjunction with a footer that goes on the end of your arrow increasing the strength and giving you utmost confidence that your combination won’t let you down at the crucial point of the hunt.
The head itself is a 125-grain solid, yes solid cnc machined 2 bladed broadhead. Made from quality materials and to tolerances that only a cnc machine can give. The broadheads are a cut on contact design with a tanto tip for added strength. The blades are a 1 1/8th inch cut and are 1 3/16th long.
The ferrule has a larger diameter for two reasons giving it strength and to also coincide with the diameter of the CTR-punch footer giving you a streamlined plain from broadhead to footer down finally to the arrow.
I was also fortunate enough to test and get first blood in the 175-grain version of this on my first sambar, heres a few quick peeks at the photos of that hunt.
By having the ferrule run all the way to the front for unforgiving strength and with a larger diameter it increased the weight. So, Ray in wanting to make a 125gn solid which helps immensely in noise concealment added valleys to the blades and to the center line of the ferrule to get it down to 125 grains, the head is heat treated to 54 Rockwell making it robust with great strength and toughness. The material is second to none with a high-grade carbon steel for a strong, solid and durable broadhead that is easily sharpened and holds an edge.
The footers are also cnc machined and anodized and made to suit your arrow of choice. They simply slide over the end of your arrow before you screw in your broadhead. The tolerances are so great that I don’t even glue them on, slide on and screw in the head and your good to go. So, let’s get to some field testing as in testing I mean hunting.
I started out on a very early mornings drive out to one of my favorite hunting blocks for a quick 2-day cameo. It was a new moon so I was hoping to camp out under the stars instead of the shearers huts and get some nice photos in a far off paddock which I had ear marked as a nice location when doing some hunting reconnaissance on a previous trip.
It was a winters hunt so it was all spot and stalk and this far off location had some nice feeding flats near bye which are perfect for a few hogs to stay out feeding in the morning and come out on late in the afternoon. In the meantime, I went and checked some water holes to check for some sign. On my travels around the boundary I came across a rather large looking nanny that was either very heavily pregnant or had some type of tumor, either way it did not slow her down as she quickly vacated the area.
Continuing on I checked a water hole and found a few small pigs out feeding way out in the open. It was going to be very hard to get close so I just played the slowly moving statue trick and glacially moved into around 40 odd meters and waited. Just about to have a crack at one as they fed closer when a steaky beaked emu decided to come in and ruin the party spooking and taking the pigs away with it.
With that I progressed further and found a few goats having a midday stroll feeding as they went. Goats are off limits so with their current feeding direction which was along a wash out past me I decided to sit and wait and see how close they got to me. In the end they got to about 6 meters from me as I had a great wind and stayed in close to the shade of a small shrub.
They could count there selves very lucky that the new 125 grain solid did not find the vitals on one them as they fed past me undisturbed.
Not much was present at the water so I headed out to the back paddock as I had a ways to travel and wanted to find my camping spot and setup and wait for the afternoon that was slowly sneaking up on me. Where I setup I had a great vantage point to look over two big feeding flats so it suited just fine for the afternoon and would suit for the morning as well.
Nothing other then a few family mobs of pigs and some local fauna showed themselves so I headed back to camp to have cook a quick feed when needed and set up for some night shots of the stunning sunset and the stars.
The Hoyt primed and ready for the mornings hunt.
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