I look forward to the ATA almost as much as opening day of Archery season. Over the past few years I have made some very good friends through out the industry and enjoy meeting new people every year, not to mention the massive amount of archery gear you get to play with. I had the chance to play around with a few new accessories and check out some of the newest bows on the market. I think one of the hottest items I seen was the whole new line of add-on that Badlands Back Packs has to offer. They are offering pockets for range finders, cameras, and everything in between to add on to your current Badlands pack. They also unveiled a pack line built specificaly for women. But the one I am most excited about is a new pack called the Sacrifice, 3500 cubic inches of space internal pack frame, and all the other great features of Badlands but only weighing in at 3.9 pounds dry weight. I can’t wait to give her a try in North Dakota this fall. They will be offering the pack in Max-1 and AP, the picture I posted is a prototype pack.

One other product that I will be giving a try is the new Montana Black Gold Ascent sight. The Ascent is a slider style sight that you have the choice of a one,three, or four pin scope. Montana also offers any type of customizing on pin colors and sizes so you can virtually build your sight to your liking. The ascent is built super tough and with a very simple micro adjust system looks to be a very user friendly sight to work with. If you ever get a chance to make it to a ATA show I would highly suggest doing so. Stay tuned to Back 40 Outdoors for more reviews from the 2010 ATA show.

Born 5 years ago in Washington State, Elite began by designing bows mainly for women shooters, but soon became so popular the Strothers family decided to make a model or two for men. Fast forward to 2009, Elite is under new ownership, is based out of New York State, and offers 3 bows for the discriminating archer. The GT 500, Z28, and the XLR all represent top of class quality and design.

Elite bows feature the twin track binary system, with a choice of two different cam designs to choose from on the GT 500 and the XLR. The Cam designs feature a wide range of draw length and weight adjustment. All of the bows are built and designed with the hunter in mind first and foremost. I feel very confident shooting an Elite bow that was designed for the rigors of bow hunting rather than standing on the line. Elite cares so much about us hunters they have just came out with a ground breaking guarantee called the Elite Hunt Guarantee.

It goes like this; you are on a 10 day hunt that you have been looking forward to since last hunting season. You have sacrificed much to be here, from money, time, and work. On the second day, you accidentally drop your bow or cut your string and have no way of fixing it. Well, the great folks at Elite have you covered. Simply get in touch with someone in the warranty department and let them know where you want your loaner bow sent to. The bow will arrive set up to your specs, with the only job left to do is sighting in.

There is no other offer like this anywhere in the archery world. If I wasn’t already shooting an Elite, this would have definitely made up my mind. All you are responsible for is shipping it back in the original condition after the hunt. Along with the hunt guarantee they also have re upped their limited lifetime warranty. Elites warranty covers your basic stuff like riser, pockets, limbs and eccentrics. Here’s the kicker it doesn’t matter where you got your bow, whether you bought it in a shop or found one on the internet, as long as it says Elite on it they will fix it.

I love knowing that I am shooting one of the smoothest, most accurate, quiet and fastest bows on the market. An additional feather in the cap is that Elite cares enough that they will back up their product in the unlikely case something happens to it with a couple great guarantees. If you haven’t shot an Elite, or maybe you haven’t even heard a whole lot about them, feel free to check out there website www.elitearchery.com or check one out at your local archery shop.

Elite Z28 in Action

Dead Down Wind

Five years ago while working at Cabelas in Rogers, MN, a new product caught my eye. Maybe it was the shiny orange bottle? Maybe it was the catchy logo? I’m not really sure what attracted me to it initially, but after reading the science behind and using Dead Down Wind Scent elimination products, I was hooked.

After doing a bit more research on DDW some interesting facts came to light. At first glance, DDW may not seem any different than the myriad of scent prevention products littering your truck floor. But in reality, a key point sets them apart.

Unlike other scent prevention products, DDW doesn’t actually “cover” your scent. Its’ proprietary enzyme solution actually “eats” odor causing bacteria to get rid of human and other incidental odors you may have picked up on your body or clothing. These enzymes actually stay effective for some time, continually eating scent causing bacteria that try so hard to make us deer scaring machines!

After using all of DDW products over the last 5 years I have learned to believe in every one of them. Many times I’ve come straight from work to the tree stand with nothing but a wipe down and foam up with DDW products and had deer straight down wind without detection. My wife will attest that after a day of pouring concrete, taking a whiff of me is not a pleasant experience! However, such is the life of the hard working DIY hunter, and sometimes the two hours after work and before dark is all we get. It’s nice spending that extra half hour in the tree stand rather than in the shower! DDW products can give you this edge by getting rid of odors quickly and effectively.

Obviously we tout the effectiveness of DDW products in our hunting endeavors. However, they do not take the place of hunting the wind smart. However, I have witnessed the effectiveness of the products first hand so many times; it’s hard not to sing its praises. I and the rest of Team Back 40 will be using DDW this fall in hopes when that PY bucks steps into range dead down wind of us, we get that extra couple of seconds required to put him on the wall!

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The only components you have to mess with to set up the camera are a dial and an A button and B button. The camera is seemingly “dummy-proof” as it is very user friendly and self explanatory. I was worried with the price point of this particular Capture IR that the trigger speed would be slow or the image quality would be poor, but not so. The trigger speed and image quality are both excellent, and I am getting few, if any missed pictures.

I have 2 SD cards for every camera so I can just sneak in the woods and swap out the cards without creating too much of a disturbance. And during the summertime my battery life is roughly a month, depending on the amount of pictures I am taking. I am averaging 100-150 pictures a week right now, so this amounts to roughly 400-500 pictures per battery load.

The Capture IR takes colored photos during the day and Infrared at night, and runs off of four D cell batteries. One warning by Nontypical Industries (the maker of all Cuddebback Cameras) which should be followed is to not mix and match batteries. Utilizing only high quality non rechargeable batteries will result in the best performance from your Cuddeback. This bit of information, and everything else you need to be a successful game camera operator is laid out in plain speak with the manual that comes with every Cuddeback Capture IR.

Now get out there and get those cameras set up! Send Back 40 your pictures from your Cuddeback, and check out the Cuddeback Corner for regular trail camera picture updates!