Africa for many of us is still an unfulfilled dream that simmers in our mind overpowering our nostrils with the heavy aroma of mystery and adventure. It is my fondest hope to travel there someday before my stay on this magnificent earth is ended by that final punching of life’s daily time clock. I do not feel compelled to harvest a kaleidoscope of the unique and exotic animals that call that strange land home, but instead would rather capture their magnificence on camera. My chance may never come to visit the Dark Continent, but in the meantime, I sate my thirst for Africa through other people’s adventurers that have been captured by the movie camera and then chronicled on DVD.

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As the crossbow and crossbow hunting becomes more commonplace, we are seeing a surge of quality hunting videos appearing on the market featuring our favorite tool for procuring excellent table fare. Crossbow Compulsion, which is produced by Team Backwoods and stars Bill & Kath Troubridge from Excalibur Crossbows along with some of their many friends, is an excellent addition to your crossbow-hunting DVD collection. There are eighteen hunts with a ton of different species from all across the North American Continent. All of the hunts are entertaining and well filmed, documenting some great encounters with handsome animals, in beautiful places and along with some terribly excited hunters as well. We all participate in this sport for that one magic moment when the hunter is in the right place at the right time and suddenly it is “show time”. This production captures that “show time” moment over and over again allowing the viewer to share the adventure of our on-screen hunters. A dark room and a big screen television put you right there in the middle of it all. You can almost smell the action as you pulse speeds up and you feel your muscles tense in excitement.

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There is a new kid in town as far as crossbow scopes go and this young feller is really getting around. As a matter of fact, if you shoot a Parker, TenPoint or a Scorpyd, you have probably already been using one. The new crossbow scopes from Hawke feature a high performance optical system, designed to increase your success in the field. The wide angle image is bright and crisp, and the long eye relief eye bell design allows the scope to quickly ’come up’ to the eye. The entire range of scopes feature: Ballistic reticles compatible with the Hawke BRC software, fully multi coated optics, fast focus eye pieces and 1/2 M.O.A finger adjustable and resettable turrets. Be sure to always hit the target with Hawke's Ballistic Reticle Calculator (BRC). Simply put the crossbow power information into the BRC and it calculates the exact trajectory of your arrow. The aim points of the SR and MAP reticles are then calculated equating to precision in the field. It's simple to use and extremely accurate. Geoffrey Toye, our European Correspondent with do a in-depth review of this scope in the Winter 2010 Issue of HBM and I will comment on it from the hunter’s prespective. In the mean time they have a great website at http://hawkeoptics.com

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New for 2009 Parker Crossbows offers value and performance in the New “Spartan” Crossbow.

As many hunters get introduced to the joy of hunting with a crossbow, a lot of new enthusiasts want enough crossbow to get the job done with out having to skip a meal or two to pay for it. The designers at Parker Crossbows have introduced the New for 2009 Spartan crossbow. It isn’t Spartan in its features or performance in any way; rather it’s ready for battle in the woods like the “Spartans” of historic lore.

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New for 2009 RED HOT™ Introduces the HOT SHOT crossbow accessory Kit.

All crossbow enthusiasts are seeking more performance, more consistency and better accuracy from their equipment. This is especially true as the modern hunting crossbow continues to evolve and improve. The designers at Parker Crossbows have introduced the first complete accessory kit that will virtually turn the average crossbow into a sniper’s dream and a big buck’s nightmare.

The RED HOT™ brand of High Velocity Crossbow accessories have all been compiled into one ultimate performance kit called the “HOT SHOT” kit. Appropriately named, the Hot Shot kit is all about performance and accuracy shooting at extended distances and from High performance crossbows.

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Suffield, OH. TenPoint Crossbow Technologies®, a leader in the production of technologically advanced, high-performance crossbows known for balance and precision shooting, introduces the NEW and very affordable Titan HLX, a faster, enhanced performance version of its longstanding TenPoint Series workhorse.

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Bad River Outdoors is the first company that I am aware of to jump on the bandwagon, bringing crossbow hunters fine fixed, fiber optic peep-sights for their crossbows. These sights, appropriately names “Tagged Out”, are not only extremely tough, durable and serviceable, but they also have a built-in “Quick Range” rangefinder making it the most unique and practical crossbow sight on the market. The sight is designed for crossbows with speeds of 320 to 360 feet/second.

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This past year has been a banner year for the expansion of the crossbow hunting seasons. The first state to add the crossbow to their bowhunting season was North Carolina. For some unexplainable reason, the southern states have marched at the very front of the movement to include crossbows into the archery seasons. Wyoming has always (since the very first day of its archery season) considered the crossbow to be just another piece of archery equipment. The South answered back in 1973 when the second state to include the crossbow in its archery season was Arkansas. In 1976, Ohio was the next state to jump on the “bandwagon of common sense” making the crossbow just one more choice for its bowhunters.

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One cold Winter’s afternoon a few years ago, I was over at Bow-Plus, the pro-shop that imports crossbows to Britain for my reviews, talking over a coffee with owner Dave Horder about crossbow that might be interesting to review, and he told me about the reverse-draw concept bow mad by Jim Kempf, whom he had met at one of the international shows. Essentially, the reverse-draw concept involved mounting the prod of what was a compound crossbow with the string on the target side of the riser, implying that the string was, as it were, pushed towards the riser instead of pulled away from it as one does when drawing a conventional bow. Dave reported that, on the prototype, the standard of engineering was high, the design radical and the performance seemed good. He also advised that Jim Kempf was a very pleasant man and I should get in touch with him.

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If you are a subscriber to the Horizontal Bowhunter Magazine, and even if you are not, we invite you to join us on one or more of our upcoming hunts. We travel to some unique and terrific locals that are teeming with wild game and natural beauty. Our host outfitters are some of the very best that our industry has to offer and the food and accommodations are always great.

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