Archery season in North Carolina is less than two weeks away and seems like this year one obstacle after another has manifested itself.  Normally by now, I am in what I call a missile lock mode as far as having fine tuned my shooting equipment and shooting skills with the bow and arrow, however this year I got a late start which is not a total disaster since a month of regular practice or two weeks at the least will get the shoulder muscles back in shape with good form and technique returning. 

I knew it was going to be tough when I could hardly pull my 60 lb. bow back to full draw without having to muster ever ounce of strength I could and then it felt like my shoulder was coming unglued.  A few days earlier, I spent several hours with an industrial model weed eater trimming the back field that is too rough for a lawn tractor, bush hog, etc. and two days in a row with that tool apparently rendered my left shoulder with some strained aching muscles which did not take kindly to being torture tested by pulling the cam bow back and holding it at full draw long enough to get a good sight picture, sight alignment and effect a good clean release and of course follow through.  Thinking back several months I remember lifting several 5 gallon buckets full of spent .40 caliber brass from our Institution's firing range into the trunk of a car, unloading and "toting"  the heavy pay load about 40 feet of which I am sure that had something to do with the strained shoulder muscles along with the date on my birth certificate.

After a couple weeks of gritting my teeth and shooting about nine (9) practice broadhead arrows every other day the stiffness and pain finally got to a point where it was at least at the tolerable state and here comes Murphy's Law out of the wood work as I will try and explain.  Several days ago while getting ready for a practice session from my 20 feet elevated shooting platform at three deer 3D targets, I just happened to run my fingers across the upper limb tip section that houses the cam axle shaft and noticed it didn't feel just right.  Upon closer observation, I found there was a diagonal crack about 75 percent across the limb bearing tip surface that renders the limb unsafe since it could easily come apart from the heavy recoil of the antiquated 1994 PSE Mach6 Maxis bow and a metal cam, axle and cables flying backwards into your face and head at break neck speed is not a pretty thought or sight.  A practice 3D deer target pix below.  Don't laugh, I know I want win any tournament with that grouping.

Not a tournament group by a long shot but would be lethal on a deer.  The above pix after a week of practice every other day.  Grouping will get tighter within the next couple of weeks.  Used the back-up PSE Mach6 target bow recently "camo" painted.

This pix shows how uncompressed 17 yards looks like when you are 20 feet high.  It certainly looks further than it actually is.

I called one of PSE's authorized repair facilities and the person on the telephone told me that PSE did not start a lifetime warranty on their limbs until the year 2000 even though I told him I knew for sure that this bow was their top of the line or flagship bow in 1994 and did have a life time warranty on the limbs, etc.  I further told the person I would call PSE direct and PSE advised the bow limbs were under warranty and they did not have the serial number in their system due to the age of the bow but said it was not uncommon for someone to seek repairs on a bow of that age...go ahead and grin...the lady did make me feel a little better...frugal is the word for the day!  I got a return authorization number and she stated it would be several weeks once they got the bow before they could replace the limbs so plan B has to go into effect which is to get my back up bows out and get to work. 

I have two back up bows although not really back up bows in the true sense since one bow is identical to the Mach6 hunting bow but this bow has a bright blue anodized riser and silver in color cam wheels and bright grey colored limbs that shine like a new copper penny not conducive to take in the woods hunting.  The other bow is at a six (6) year old Mathews Conquest target bow which I painted the bright anodized red riser and limbs to a camouflage pattern for such emergency usage.  Mind you that I shoot left handed and it is extremely difficult to find an off the shelf left hand bow available on short notice without having to special order one since there is not that much demand for left hand bows in relationship to right handed archers.  The problem with this rig it was originally designed and made for the target shooter and the draw length was 1/2 inch shorter than my draw length and had a string loop requiring a different release aid attachment system since I have been shooting with a loop release aid system for decades.  When I purchased the bow second handed I also purchased a couple release aids that would work with the bow and my draw length and had it roughed in but not fine tuned and with less than two weeks before opening day, I have some serious shooting and bow set up to do and hopefully will be locked in enough to make clean and humane kill shots, otherwise I will set this season out.

Pix or two showing my back up bows, however I am going to hold off on using the target Mach6 bow since I don't want to repaint it this late before the season opens but will do so if necessary depending on which bow groups the best and most consistent.

The above bow has a much better sight system but not an easy thing to set up.

The above Mathews Conquest target bow has the Solo cam on it and doesn't have the arrow penetration of the heavy Maxis cams of the PSE Mach6 bow at the same draw weight but does have a little better let off approaching 70 percent and has a little more cable noise but the main thing will be how consistently I group either bow and running out of time.  Murphy's Law is never asleep!

Usually when something like this happens it turns out to be a very productive season in spite of all the things that go wrong and can go wrong.  I have experienced this at least twice since 1979; my main hunting bow coming "unglued"  right before the archery hunting season comes in and have recovered each time.

In addition to the mechanical troubles with the bow and the physical problems with yours truly let us not forget the surging price of shelled corn.  With all the increase in the crude oil price which has bled over into all the other markets and with the devastating floods out mid-west, it didn't take the price of corn futures to reach an all time high recently increasing our local markets of shelled deer corn from $ 5.50 per 60 lb. bag to the $9.00 dollar mark and higher in some places selling a 50 lb. sack for that price.  Most of the local corn being sold was still in the silos last year but guess they have to make what they can too! To add insult to injury, our local farmers this year have experienced an extremely dry spring and had to replant many fields and then the corn is looking good and then the torrential rains have been relentless making it just about impossible to get the corn dry and the fields dry enough to harvest the corn....problem is the corn will probably "mill-dew" before it can be harvested.  Let's not forget the Ethanol production that is running the corn futures up as well!  It wasn't too many years ago when most of us simply hunted natural food plots and white, red and willow oak groves waiting on Mr. deer to come along and munch on those acorns but times have changed with every four wheeler with a sack of corn on the front or back rack to help even the odds in the hunter's favor.

Hopefully there will be a rainbow in all this and will keep a good positive mental attitude and get fine tuned within the next two weeks doing everything I can to make it happen! 

Pix of a writing spider argiope aurantia and our grand son Travis Lee Huneycutt who got into this pix taken in 2003...has nothing to do with Murphy's Law but thought I would web publish pix the same.

Bill aka Mickey Porter 09-01-08

Take a look at the Mach6 Maxis target model bow after a coat of permanent paint rendering the bow ready for hunting:

Hopefully, this ole antiquated bow will allow me to harvest some deer for the freezer this season.  I shortened the draw length up about 1/2 inch and cranked the weight back up to make up for the difference.  These old bows loose some percentage of let-off when you do that but will have to live with it.

Bill aka Mickey Porter 09-08-08

Addendum to this story posted on 09-14-08.  Below is pix of opening day 3 point buck harvested yesterday 09-13-08.  Will add a short hunting 2008 Archery page later.

I earned this buck...not a dry thread on me.

PS:   I received my bow back from PSE of which the new limbs were ill fitting, cams way out of sync. and after sending them a "nasty gram" aka email, decided to switch over to Mathews totally and ordered a Drenalin LH 29"D @ 60 lbs.  I harvested 40 deer with the Mach6 and time to put them out to pasture.  My ole shoulder and elbow cannot take the shock and abuse from that Gorilla bow anymore.  Current bow technology has made that type of bow design obsolete. 

Pix below of the PSE Mach6 received back from PSE sans the string and cables ready for making a take down version...ooops, I think this voided their lifetime warranty!

Before the band saw and PortaBand saw operation and final pix an extreme modification of the PSE Mach6 before deposit in the land fill where it has been long overdue.  Man, I feel much better releasing all that anxiety and didn't use any profanity either.

The "floating" plastic rockers between the limbs and pivoting limb pockets were positioned wrong which was the main problem for improper limb fit allowing one limb to be longer than the other.  I am glad it was a shoddy repair otherwise I would probably kept that monster a few more years as frugal as I can be at times.

As soon as my Mathews Drenalin arrives and get it set up, the other PSE Mach6 will be lucky not to meet this same fate since I have a Mathews Conquest4 in reserve also.  I probably will,  since I will be shooting a caliber release instead of a rope release!

Additional Note:  Since I "vented" enough over the PSE repair, I gave my other PSE Mach6 to a friend at work to see if his son could use it since he is right handed but has a dominant left eye and has to utilize a very long sight pin to try and make the right hand bow work for him.  I told him if he couldn't use it to do what ever he wanted to with the bow.  Keeping that bow would be like keeping a Boro in the same stall with a Triple Crown Winner.  11-02-08.     

Bill aka Mickey Porter 10-15-08..

Pix below of Mathews Drenalin bow set up and ready to go.  The bow is a dream to shoot and slapping arrows at 17 yards; quiet and fast even with the heavy 2315 30.5 inch length arrows I am shooting with a 125 grain Thunderhead 3 blade broadhead.  The bow is extremely light as well even fully "dressed out."  I have a QAD pro series HD rest on there and a HHA XL5500 sight and a 1/4 inch diameter peep sight.  I have retired the ole scopes for now, the EOTech Holo archery version and the UltraDot scope with the Bracklyn mount.  I actually put a store bought bow (wrist) strap on there and my good friend Ed Terry will be totally surprised since he has ribbed me for years for using a fifty cent boot string for a bow strap on some top of the line bows when they were new.  Purchased this rig from S & S Graham Archery in China Grove, NC and Rick did a super job setting the bow up...he had it practically dialed in when my good friend John Gaddy of Polkton, NC arrived at their business and John purchased an identical set-up but his was right hand whereas mine was ole south paw  left hand.  I did reposition the sight on the bracket to give me a mid-range setting adjustment at my normal anchor.  I think this is the first time someone has actually installed accessories on a bow for me.

Below pix a close up of the rest and sight:  I will have to modify the above bow press for parallel limb design.

The HHA XL5500 with ten feet of .030 fiber optic is plenty bright and has a rheostat to control the brightness of the pin.   

There is way too much back ground clutter behind my bow press for picture taking but oh well....my ole school bow press had to be modified (shortened) to accept the shorter axle to axle bows.  We have a little over one week of our regular archery season left here in the Central Region of North Carolina and might hunt with the Mathews Drenalin after muzzle loading season is over if I don't get a chance to harvest anything before then.

The Mathews bows are ahead of the pack in my option and not to much more expensive than the top of the line bows of some of their competitors if not about the same price in most cases.  Bill aka Mickey Porter 10-29-08.

Below pix of 7 point buck taken with the above bow on 11-11-08.  I changed the HHA XL5500 sight and using an Impact Archery Cosmic sight instead.  Short story under the 2008 bowhunting page under Hunting Stories. 

Below is pix of a four shot group shot this morning with my practice broadheads after hunting. The Mathews Drenalin bow is a dream to shoot...quiet, fast, no shock or recoil and easy to draw even when damp and cold.  I could draw the bow back the other morning when it was 20 degrees F. and still hunting with it during our regular gun season.  Nothing, I have ever shot compares with the Mathews Drenalin 33 inch axle to axle bow.  One of the four arrows in the group is buried up to the nock in the target!

A big difference from the first pix on this page of arrows shot with the PSE Mach6.  Currently, I do not own a PSE bow, only a Mathews Conquest4 and the Drenalin with a couple ole wall hangers like an early Jennings Arrowstar and  Bear Alaskian.

LEAVING ON A SPIRITUAL NOTE