September 13, 2018
By Lynn Burkhead
Like all hunting endeavors, having the right gear can help make your bowhunts more successful. As fall ushers in a season of change to the landscape, many of you have plans to take down a trophy buck and fill your freezer with venison. To do that, we have taken the guesswork out of choosing the right gear to help make your hunting experience the ultimate success. Here’s a list of 10 great bowhunting products to consider for whitetail season.
Killer Instinct Ripper 415 Crossbow — $379.99 Blistering fast is a good way to describe the 415-fps performance of the Killer Instinct Ripper 415 Crossbow, an affordable crossbow that delivers high-end performance.
With a ready-to-hunt package that includes an illuminated scope, string/limb suppressors, a rope cocker, three bolts, a quiver, and a container of rail lube, this is a sizzling shooter and then some.
Be forewarned; with affordable pricing, superb in-the-field performance including tight downrange accuracy, and a limited lifetime warranty, this Ripper 415 crossbow will force a hunter to reach a little deeper into their pocketbook. To pay the taxidermist’s deposit fee after a big buck comes calling, that is!
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Centerpoint Sniper Elite Whisper 370 — $299.99 As with the two crossbows listed above, the Centerpoint Sniper Elite Whisper 370 is big on performance without breaking the bank.
Shooting bolts at 370 fps, the Sniper Elite Whisper has quad limbs with a precision CNC-machined cam system that has a durable and lightweight aluminum riser. The crossbow’s adjustable AR-style stock has an adjustable foregrip, oversize finger guards and an Anti-Dry-Fire system along with an auto-safety trigger.
Featuring a 4X32 CenterPoint scope, a picatinny rail, a side-mount quiver that works from either side, limb dampeners and string silencers to make the crossbow as quiet as a mouse, the Sniper Elite Whisper package comes with three 20-inch carbon bolts, a rope cocker and a container of rail lube.
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Coming in GCC Late Season Camo, this crossbow features a draw weight of 185 pounds. Weighing in at 7.9 pounds, this crossbow gives hunters the ability to quickly point downrange, acquire the target and cut swift and quiet shots in the field. Big on performance, the Sniper Elite Whisper will help hunters put some venison in the freezer and a trophy buck on the wall.
Summit Viper Classic Treestand — $179.99 Bowhunting in many parts of whitetail country involves a treestand, often a lock-on style when private ground is being hunted where such stands can be hung prior to the season and left for weeks at a time.
But when you’re hunting in true DIY fashion on a trip to a patch of state ground, federal land, or some other sort of whitetail spot, you either can’t leave a lock on stand up for any length of time or you wouldn’t want to do so because of theft potential.
That’s where the portability of a climbing stand shines, none more so than the Summit Viper Classic Treestand . With rugged steel frame construction, this 20”W x 35” L platform is comfortable, safe and strong.
This well engineered stand features a nesting design for the stand’s two halves, backpack carrying straps to aid transportation into and out of the woods, and five self-adhesive traction strips and Rapid Climb stirrups that help hunters secure their feet and climb up a tree with ease.
Once a hunter has the stand perched high up in a tree, this rock-solid and stable platform becomes the perfect spot to wait on the buck of a lifetime to wander by in arrow range.
Game Winner Bushwhacker 5-Hub Blind — $99.99 It wasn’t that many years ago that ground blinds were something of a novelty in the deer woods. Not anymore, however.
If a ground blind is a part of your hunting techniques this fall, the Game Winner Bushwhacker 5-Hub Blind is a great choice to stay hidden until a big buck eases into bow range.
This blind keeps up to two hunters concealed by a durable 200-denier polyester exterior of Realtree Edge camouflage, not to mention an Ultradark black coating on the inside walls that keep hunters hidden in the dark as they wait on a big buck. When it comes time to shoot, the blind’s drop-down, blackout mesh windows are easily and silently operated using the one-handed open/close design.
Featuring removable camo mesh windows that bowhunters can shoot a fixed-blade broadhead through with no arrow flight alteration, this 68-inch deep, 68-inch wide, 65-inch tall blind is easily set up using its pop-up design.
Magellan Outdoors Brush Backpack — $39.99 To get your deer hunting gear into and out of the woods efficiently, a good backpack is worth its weight in gold.
Without any sort of shock-inducing sticker price, the Magellan Outdoors Brush Backpack delivers a voluminous main compartment, an accessory pocket on the front, and dual handgun concealment pockets on the back. Editor’s Note :be sure to check state and federal regulations where you hunt concerning the carrying of a firearm during archery season.
With a zippered rainfly storage compartment, there is also an insulated pocket designed to keep drinks and snacks at their preferred temperature, hydration reservoir compatibility (reservoirs not included), spacious dimensions of 25.6″H x 19.7″W x 7.1″D. Combine the rugged Mossy Oak Brush camouflage exterior, and this Magellan backpack is a big-time winner in the woods.
Wildgame Innovations Cloak Pro Realtree 14.0 MP IR HD LED Digital Scouting Camera — $69.99 It wasn’t that many years ago that game cameras carried steep prices while delivering low-end fuzzy images of deer that were wandering by.
That’s not the case anymore, certainly not with the Wildgame Innovations Cloak Pro Realtree 14.0 MP IR HD LED Digital Scouting Camera , a camera that silently grabs sharp 14 megapixel images and up to 15-seconds worth of HD video footage.
Powered by 8 AA batteries (which are included and have up to one-year of battery life), this camera accepts up to a 32-gigabyte SDHC card (sold separately).
Better yet, it reaches out to 75-feet with a high-intensity LED infrared flash. Add in rapid trigger speeds of less than one second, and the process of obtaining crisp images of target bucks is a breeze, all in an old school Realtree camouflage package that makes grabbing images for a deer hunter’s big buck inventory this fall as simple as can be.
Big & J BB2 20-lb. Attractant — $19.99 To help obtain crisp camera images of big bucks on your hunting ground, there are few better products to help lure in those whitetails than a bag of Big & J BB2 20-lb. Attractant .
Made with a nutrient-rich, protein-based blend, this highly digestible product is water-tolerant and promotes antler growth. Add in the strong, deer attracting aroma that the products from the Nebraska-based manufacturer are widely known for, and a bag of Big & J BB2 is a deer magnet.
Great for using at stand locations and camera sites, using this Big & J product can help establish pre-season travel patterns where you hunt, help spooky deer get comfortable in a certain area, and provide game camera scouting images that will help guide you through the upcoming season. Editor’s Note: As with all attractants, be sure and check state and federal regulations for your hunting ground before using.
Trophy Rock 12-lb. Rock Supplement — $14.99 To grow big bucks on your hunting ground this year — where the process is legal under state and/or federal regulations — the use of a mineral supplement like the Trophy Rock 12-lb. Rock Supplement can be a big help.
Mined in the Rocky Mountains, this Trophy Rock product contains more than 60 trace minerals, a list that includes sodium, calcium, and potassium among others, all able to help maximize the health of your deer and the development of bigger antlers.
And with the ability to attract deer to a specific spot — not to mention other big game animals like elk, moose, pronghorn antelope and more — grabbing a Trophy Rock or two at your local Academy store can help to deliver bigger taxidermy bills!
Wildlife Research Center Super Charged Scent Killer 24 fl. oz. Scent Eliminator - $7.99 It’s one thing to get good, sharp images of the top buck on your bowhunting season’s hitlist. It’s another thing to actually beat that whitetail’s nose, to get into arrow range and put a hard-earned tag around that buck’s antlers.
To aid archers in doing that during the upcoming season, the makers of Wildlife Research Center Super Charged Scent Killer 24 fl. oz. Scent Eliminator offer up one of the hunting industry’s gold-standard products, one that helps bowhunters get rid of human scent left behind on clothing, boots and accessories.
With an odorless formula, this Wildlife Research Centerproduct is both economical and effective — especially during the heat of early bow seasons when some hunters sweat by the gallon — along with being able to be dispensed quickly by hunters using the trigger spray bottle.
If you’re going to chase big and wary whitetails with a bow this fall, be sure you’ve got a bottle or two of this scent eliminating spray tucked away in your hunting pack.
Tink's 1 oz. #69 Doe-In-Rut Buck Lure — $5.99 As the whitetail rut approaches in your part of whitetail country, big bucks are prone to get just a little bit crazy as their necks swell for the breeding season and they catch the scent of that first whitetail doe coming into estrous.
To help lure one of those big antlered bucks your way as the breeze shifts to the north in early November, help him get a whiff of Tink’s 1 oz. #69 Doe-In-Rut Buck Lure . Easy to use, the one-ounce size of Tink’s 69 comes in a squirt-top bottle for hassle-free use and application to drag rags, boot pads, and scent bomb containers.
Formulated from white-tailed does during their estrous breeding cycles, a bottle of Tink’s 69 is 100 percent all-natural, the perfect way to lure big bucks into bow range during the pre-rut and rutting phases of the whitetail autumn. Editor’s Note: As with all types of deer attractants, be sure and check out all pertinent state and federal regulations before using.
While none of the products listed above offer a guarantee you’ll tag the buck of your dreams — or maybe a plump doe destined for the freezer — they certainly can help tip the odds in your favor.
See your local Academy Sports + Outdoors store location to find these items all designed to help you have a more enjoyable and effective archery deer season this fall!
