Hunting and Fishing News Blog Articles

Strings are essential for traditional bows, compound bows, and crossbows. Have you ever wondered what goes into the process of making strings? What materials are they made out of? What drives someone to become a string maker? I have always wanted to know, so I asked Randy Duren from Apollo Strings about the process.

Who is Randy Duren?

Randy lives in Glen Rose, Texas, about 45 miles south of Fort Worth. He works as a Maintenance Training Instructor at the nuclear power plant to pay for his archery career. He’s been bow hunting nearly all his life, but Randy didn’t get into 3D archery until about halfway through the 2016 season. His oldest son started shooting local ASA state qualifiers, and since Randy was taking him to the shoots, he started getting into the sport. It quickly became an addiction to make it into the pro ranks and be competitive there.

What Made Randy Become a String Maker?

Randy aspired to make a living in archery, but crafting strings was not his first choice. When he had the chance to learn how to make bowstrings, he eagerly accepted the opportunity. Since then, he has developed a passion for creating strings for all types of bows.

Materials

Randy primarily uses Bloodline Brave 99 materials to create Apollo Bowstrings. These materials are chosen for their exceptional qualities, which include abrasion resistance, minimal stretching, and a long lifespan. They significantly enhance the string’s performance and durability. Although Randy is open to using standard BCY materials upon request, he strongly recommends the Bloodline materials because of their superior quality and the benefits they provide to archers.

What Makes Apollo Strings Stand Out?

Randy believes that the feedback from bow shops and many of his customers highlights their admiration for the precise construction of Apollo Strings. Most of the time, immediately upon installation, the bow is in perfect time and specification. Randy points out, “Bow shops especially appreciate not having to press the bow multiple times to get the cables twisted just right. The precision, ease of installation, and high-quality materials make Apollo Strings stand out in the market.” He is committed to ensuring that each component is as close to the perfect length as possible, making the installation of their strings extremely easy, even for those who prefer a DIY approach.

Deer season is open 365 days a year… with a camera.  If you are like most archers, you enjoy the anticipation and preparation of the off-season ALMOST as much as a cold October morning on stand.  Perhaps you have mineral sites in operation and do your best to enhance deer nutrition, plant a food plot with pricy seeds that benefit wildlife year-round, or keep all of your trail cameras in place so that you know what’s happening in your favorite deer locations.

Monitoring Predators

A newly created mineral site is getting daily attention in front of my Stealth Cam Revolver 360.  Unfortunately, I have seen four bears and a bobcat in the same area during the past two weeks, which is a very concerning situation. Pennsylvania Game Commission research has shown black bears to be significant predators of fawns, and a mature bobcat can easily take down a fawn during its first few months of development.

Revolver 360

I posted this Stealth Cam camera for the first time last year and am very pleased with the results. Often, animals pass to the left or right of my main camera focus, and the lenses’ 360-degree nature ensures no animals are missed. Since I attached the camera to a tree, it captures a 180-degree area, yet this still triples the number of images of a standard camera. The following article lists six reasons to keep your camera clicking during the summer and is very well written.

Great Camera Tips from Stealthcam

For six reasons for running summer cameras, click here.

Dads are often frugal and don’t want to spend money on themselves.  Here is a group of products bound to excite any archery dad.  Most can be ordered online, or pick out your favorite and visit a local sporting goods store.  Happy Father’s Day!

Morrell High Roller-

Every archer needs a foam target to ensure their broadheads impact like target points, and this flashy target has a multitude of dots to increase accuracy.  Aim small, miss small is a common phrase, and the small white circles maximize this principle.  The High Roller is ultra-portable, and some instinctive archers like to pitch it and shoot where it lands.  In elk camp, it also makes a great camp stool. www.morrelltargets.com 

Grim Reaper Whitetail Specials

My West Virginia buck went less than 20 yards after a shoulder hit with this ultra-lethal broadhead with two-inch blades.  Whether you prefer expandable or fixed braodheads, the Grim Reaper brand has a full line for compounds and crossbows to “watch ’em drop.”  www.grimreaperbroadheads.com

Help Dad Get Lucky with Lucky Buck

Does and bucks need minerals at this time of year.  Female deer are nursing young and need all the minerals they can find, while bucks are growing antlers, and the better nourished their bodies, the healthier their racks.  Lucky Buck comes ready to use- just pour it on the ground.  www.Lucky-Buck.com

Bear Alaskan XT

Our Assistant Editor searched the 2025 ATA show for a new bow.  After shooting and examining quite a few, he chose the Bear Alaskan XT.  This mid-price bow launches arrows up to 335 fps and can be ordered as a complete package with rest, stabilizer, quiver, D-loop, and peep sight installed.  This bow is literally ready to hunt out of the box.  www.Beararchery.com 

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Zachary, an assistant editor, booked an African safari for the summer of 2025 and roamed the halls of the Archery Trade Association Show last January looking for the perfect bow. Price was a concern, yet sacrificing quality is a huge mistake, especially on an African safari. After considering and shooting various brands, he chose the Bear Alaskan XT, which arrived last week amid great anticipation.

Go for the Package

Whenever a person buys a new bow, the question is, “Should I go for the package or install the accessories from my old bow?”  On one hand, you get to use the sight, rest, etc, you are familiar with.  On the other hand, many bows come with gear designed to perform specifically for a bow.  The Alaskan XT is the latter, with an Integrated Picatinny sight and the Integrated Mounting  Rest System® machined into the riser. This compound bow package is also deadened by strategically placed in-riser dampeners and upgraded with a roller cable slide. All that packed into a forgiving 6.25” brace height and 33” axle-to-axle package.

Ultra Adjustable

The adjustability of the Alaskan XT is a considerable benefit.  Zachary has three target animals: a black wildebeest, a waterbuck, and a warthog.  The XT is adjustable from 45 to 60 pounds or 55-70 pounds.  Both are suitable for African plains game, yet he also has an Idaho elk hunt planned for fall, and cranking up the poundage to a full 70 pounds will be advantageous.  The bow can launch at 335 fps with a reduced draw weight let-off of 80 percent.

Out of the Box, Almost

Zachary sighted in the new bow the day before and was anxious to show his proficiency on my back deck.  His plan is to hunt by spot-and-stalk methods, yet if that doesn’t work out, he could end up in an elevated blind, which made the back-deck practice very realistic.  The sighting system of the Alaskan XT is a large peep sight attached to a cable by a rubber tube and sighted through a Trophy Ridge 4-pin sight with a round housing.  When I could shoot a compound bow, this was my go-to formula that put a circle within a circle and a pin in the target, a very accurate formula.

Containment Rest

The rest on the Alaskan XT is a containment, whisker-style rest, especially important for a mobile, spot-and-stalk hunter.  An archer in a tree stand will be stationary, and an arrow rarely falls from a rest.  However, the stalking hunter must move with the arrow nocked and in place, and it’s easy for an arrow to pop off the rest or not align properly.

Drawing a longbow on a wily gobbler may seem impossible, yet it can be done with the right gear.  You will need a pop-up hunting blind that is tall enough to allow you to draw and shoot without a limb striking material.  Next, you will want decoys, probably a jake and a hen in the breeding position.  Post the decoys no more than 10 yards from your blind so the shot is close.

Practice Realistically

Instinctive shooters draw, aim, and release in a single motion like winding up and throwing a baseball.  Even if you become nearly perfect on a foam target, instinctive shooters must decide exactly where they will aim.  A spring gobbler is nearly two-thirds feathers, and the kill zone is tiny when strutting.  An ideal practice situation is shooting from your blind at a 3-D gobbler target in various positions.

Maximum Patience Required

I’ve been hunting turkeys from blinds for about 10 years, and few situations in hunting require more patience than turkey hunting using this tactic.  You may have toms gobbling in all directions or hear gunshots at birds on your property, yet your odds are greatest for taking a tom by biding your time.  The same is true once a gobbler spots your decoys and casually approaches.  As you will see in this video, the archer exercised great patience before shooting, selected an exact impact spot, drew, and released.

Watch this Missouri Tom Go Down

Excalibur, the most trusted name in recurve-style crossbows, has gone hybrid by adding the increased power stroke of cams and compound technology.  I have had a Micro 360 Excalibur Crossbow for nearly 10 years, and it shoots as well as the day I received it.  It’s never been re-strung or relaxed and keeps launching accurate arrows from a simple recurve frame.  Now add compound features, and the speed goes from fast to supersonic.

Features

Seeing an adult doe with twin fawns used to be the rule but increasingly seems to be the exception. Most herds are still healthy but recruitment rates seem to be declining nationwide. Fortunately, there are ways to improve the situation.

Predator Control

As we discuss harvesting crops, let’s start with the low-hanging fruit. It seems almost intuitive that predator control will improve fawn production. It sounds good in theory, but often falls short in practice. For the most part, we’re talking about coyotes, and widespread efforts to eradicate them have failed time and time again. That doesn’t mean they can’t be controlled.

Concentrated trapping and eradication programs have had some success in small, localized areas. However, such efforts are only a short-term (annual) remedy,  and can be quite expensive – between $200 and $300 a day. And it has to be done right. Coyotes are resilient and adaptable, and some research suggests that when conducted casually or improperly, control programs can actually have an effect opposite of what was intended. In summary, we can reduce predator numbers over the short term, but we can’t really control them. Besides, there are better ways to boost fawn production.

Herd Management

One is to control the prey. The deer’s natural defense against predation is an adaptation called predator swamping. They produce a glut of potential prey by dropping fawns in a relatively short, synchronous time period. Predators can only take so many, leaving the others time to get their feet under them literally. Maintaining a healthy doe population ensures a sufficient number to do the job.

Most deer management is directed toward females as they represent the reproductive potential of the herd. The goal is to have enough does that they can withstand predation, but not so many that habitat and herd health suffer. Every situation is different, and it takes time and effort to determine the proper population level for any given property. For better or worse, it’s very hard to over-harvest deer. Removing some deer means there are fewer out there, and they wise up quickly. Even on intensively managed properties, results often fall short of objectives.

Saddle hunting or box blind?  Ironically, sometimes polar opposite approaches can reach the same result.  Here’s the case for an enclosed, elevated blind.  Once a tactic only popular in the South, the “shooting house” concept has become commonplace thanks to commercial offerings such as The Shadow Hunter shown in the image above.  Hunters post these enclosed blinds near food, water, or travel corridors and rely on the blinds’ “permanence” to have deer ignore their presence.  Several years ago, I had one built in a remote section of our hunt club, and it has served my family well.

Wake Up, Hunter!

My grandchildren live in Idaho, so when they visit, they must adjust a West Coast sleep schedule to a much earlier East Coast wake-up call.  As a result, they rarely stay in my enclosed blind for more than an hour until they doze off.  Last fall, I used a Primos Can caller as my youngest slept in his shooting chair.  Suddenly, I heard a noise outside the blind and spotted a buck just a few feet away.  Immediately, I rousted the 12-year-old from his nap and pointed to the deer.  Despite the quick wake-up, the lad made a perfect 30-yard shot with his Excalibur crossbow.

Ideal for Families

Another grandson has severe respiratory problems that are greatly compounded in cold weather.  Because the blind is contained, I can use a heater inside to keep temperatures in a moderate range.  Also, the whitetail rut can be cold and blustery, and having a weatherproof shelter to hunt from keeps us in the hunt longer.  The concealment of the blind is perfect for youngsters who have difficulty holding still, and in a box blind, they don’t have to.  Coaching is much easier because sound is suppressed, and family conversation keeps things light as long as it’s in a soft voice.

Inside and Out

The Shadow Hunter blind is an example of intelligent design.  The elevated platform allows a deer to see under the blind and helps avoid scent detection, especially in warm temperatures when thermals will rise.  Secondly, the “porch” enables the ability to hunt outside the enclosure, and I often choose to sit on my porch where I have increased hearing and enjoy the ambiance of a fall day.  Finally, blinds should be built to accommodate archers and firearm hunters with windows that open and shut quietly and allow shots in multiple directions.

For the Shadow Blind website and a brief product video, click here.

What if you built a ground blind that matched its surroundings perfectly and included images of live game animals?  Is that not the perfect hunting scenario? GhostBlind took this concept and developed two models that reflect what a deer, turkey, or coyote sees, a reflection of its environment, while you sit behind a screen at full draw of safety-off, ready for action.

Like “Fanning”

The best time to hunt turkeys or deer is during the mating season when males are motivated to breed and actively seek to confront rivals.  Turkey hunters often use a gobbler replica to entice dominant gobblers into point-blank range, and what could be more realistic than a turkey seeing an image of itself?  No decoy is needed, and the reflection shows all of the elements of an aggressive turkey.  Hens also become territorial during breeding, often approaching another hen’s image to assert dominance.

The Specs from the Manufacturer

GhostBlind Phantom offers a unique hunting experience, making you virtually invisible in any terrain and bringing the game closer than ever. With durable, shatterproof, and waterproof fluted polypropylene panels, it’s built to last season after season. Plus, lightning-fast setup and teardown means you’re always ready to adapt, ensuring every hunt is your best.

The 6-panel Phantom model is 35” tall and 102” wide. Optional height extenders can add 6” to the top of the blind.

CONSTRUCTION