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By
Jeff Johnston, Senior Editor
Over a decade ago the outdoor retail
chain Gander Mountain branded its own line of hunting, fishing and
outdoor gear called “Guide Series.” In 2006 Gander Mountain
delved into the archery world with its Guide Series TecHunter and
TecHunter Extreme bows. Both models are of single-cam design and
utilize machined-aluminum risers and aggressive, parallel-limb orientation.
Archers might notice the bows’ resemblance to models built
by archery manufacturer Bowtech, and for good reason: Bowtech produces
the bows for Gander Mountain. In subcontracting with Bowtech and
by incorporating recommendations from its pro-staff, Gander assured
itself of sending unique bows with proven designs to the market
on its very first try.
Intended for the treestand hunter, the 3.7-pound
(naked), 31-inch axle-to-axle TecHunter Extreme is shorter than
its name. It is fast, quiet and maneuverable and it has a few innovative
features that archers will appreciate, like its built-in wrist sling
and machined cutout in the arrow shelf that identifies centershot
at a glance.
After setting up the bow myself, I quickly became
proficient enough with it to hit an 8-inch target consistently at
60 yards. On several occasions, my shooting buddy commented that
the bow is quiet, a trait not easily surmised by the shooter himself.
A combination of seven proprietary string, limb and cable-guard
silencers play a role in reducing shot noise.
A pack-in elk hunt at 11,000 feet in Colorado
where it rained daily for a week proved to me that the bow is durable.
I was pleasantly surprised that the string showed no signs of stretching
after being thoroughly soaked (and then shot while wet to verify
point-of-impact had not changed). The Extreme utilizes string material
Gander touts as the best quality in the business—pre-stretched
BCY 452x.
In the mountains where every ounce of gear must
be considered, the advantages of having a bow under 5 pounds, fully
rigged, is obvious. A 7.75-inch brace height is a good compromise
between speed and accuracy, if anyone, under hunting conditions,
is skilled enough to tell it. The full Realtree camo dip treatment
added concealment and protection from the elements.
A deciding factor for me is a bow’s grip.
I prefer direct contact with the riser, and not much contact at
that. On the range I have proven to myself that the less contact
I have with the bow, the less torque I can place on it and therefore
impart on the arrow. The TecHunter’s grip is a thin strap
of riser sandwiched between two laminated wood panels. The panels
are mainly for show, and they do their job well.
Concerning the bow’s eccentrics, it’s
much like a racecar where suspension and smoothness is comfortable
but a detractor to performance; the TecHunter Extreme is not geared
for a cushy ride—it’s built for speed and handling.
A 4-inch idler wheel sits on a ball bearing at the top limb. The
large, aggressive lower cam has a backwall like a dodgeball arena—one
of the firmest I’ve tested—making each draw and shot
very consistent. It’s adjustable without a bowpress via a
rubber-coated draw-stop button. The draw length is adjustable by
exchanging modules on the cam. To adjust the draw length and then
fine-tune it with the draw stop requires an Allen wrench and about
two minutes.
The only negative that surfaced during use was
a plastic cable-guard slide that broke, ruining my accuracy. Gander
informs me it is aware of the problem and has already addressed
it. In itself the cable-guard slide has an integral eye to provide
an attachment point for a drop-away rest tension string.
After receiving another slide, I took the TecHunter
Extreme to family land in Oklahoma where I crawled into a makeshift,
tight-quartered stand in a knotted oak tree. With one knee up around
my chest, I remember thinking how glad I was to have such a short
bow. Without room for standing, I drew the bow twice from a sitting
position and killed two deer, a buck and a doe. Neither of them
knew they’d been shot at until my arrow made its fatal pass
through their vitals. Both deer went down within 40 yards, which
elevated the TecHunter Extreme to “extremely effective”
in my view. |
