I was very excited to get some waterfowl archery action with the new Zebco 733/Spiderwire setup. My minimal tests at home showed very promising results and all I needed was a river and ducks to get the real work under way. After a long drive and very short night, I awoke to the gloomy scene of rain pooring down in the darkness. “So much for pictures or filming”, was my first thought that morning and unfortunately proved to be prophetic. The rain was persistant but failed to prevent me from settling into the trees on the banks of the Snake River. In the dim light of the morning, I froze as a couple mallards cupped their wings and glided towards a tiny spread of just over half a dozen decoys. As the birds got closer they drifted off their perfect course to land a little up river. After all my anticipation, I was not about to let them pass by with out get my shot off. The twenty five yard crossing shot was improbable but impossible if I never shot. So with little hesitation, the unfletched arrow sped from the bow and rapidly drew more and more line from the silver reel. I watched in amazement and was distracted from the birds by the arrows impressive trajectory. The arrow passed a couple feet behind the drake, but I was so thrilled by the arrow/line/reel combination I hardly noticed
My usual AMS Reel only had about 25 yards of line so the arrow never sailed very far before the arrow would lurch to stop and had always lost a significant of energy before hitting the end.
But that arrow maintained an impressive trajectory and had already pulled nearly 50 yards of line before I regained the presence of mind to put a stop to it’s flight. In the river’s swift current it took some effort to get the arrow and line reeled in before it all became entagled in the brush and low hanging branches.
Lesson #1 – It’s important to stop the arrow as soon as it has passed the bird to minimize arrow retrieval time and risk of loosing the arrow as a result of entanglement.
I was immediately convinced that this system was the solution I had been looking for to expand my bird bowhunting opportunites. Big water ducks and geese here I come. Can I really come to this conclusion after such little testing…we’ll see.
