I noticed an add for the Carbon Express F15 $50,000 broadhead giveaway on Facebook this morning and I thought I would share it with you. I have never used these broadheads so please don’t consider this an endorsement by me in any way. For a modest shipping fee, they’ll send you one free broadhead to try out. For a few bucks, I decided to put in my order and I’m anxious to get my hands on this interesting head.

I selected the fixed-blade head and I’ll be anxious to see how it flies. It would have been nice to get two heads for maybe a few more bucks because once you shoot it into your target you won’t be able to use it in a field situation. It would be nice to have one to sight in with and another to try in the field. That being said, I’m sure they want you to like what you see on the range, and then drop the $40 necessary for a three-pack.

Check out the video above and maybe take advantage of the offer. Who knows, you might just like them. My initial concern is that they would be tough to sharpen and reuse, making the $13+ a little much for a one-time use broadhead. I’ve always liked the performance of Muzzy’s 100 grain original broadheads, as well as the ability to reuse them either through sharpening or blade replacement. That being said, it never hurts to try something new.

Here is the link:  http://www.carbonexpressarrows.com/cms/content/f15dualblade.com

Wildgame Innovations IR-4 Trail Camera
Rating: 4 (1-5 Scale)

I first came across this little camera at Gander Mountain when I was trying to figure out how to spend some bonus points and gift certificates that I had saved up. After a lot of deliberation, I chose the Wildgame Innovations IR-4 camera. I was impressed right away with the ease of use. There are just a few simple buttons inside, the memory card is easily accessible, and the battery compartment is very easy to get to as well. I also liked the fact that the camera was pretty small and very light, unlike most models out there. Admittedly though, I was concerned that these units were only selling for around $100.

The camera worked so well in the field, I picked up a second one. My only complaint on the first one was how quickly it ate up batteries. Otherwise, the photos were good and the trigger speed was about 1.25 seconds, which is great for a camera in this price range. There could be better ways to attach them to a tree, but that’s nit-picking.

This is photo was taken by the Wildgame Innovations IR-4 Camera.

I started to have problems with the first camera I bought about a month in. The photos were getting progressively blurry, and the batteries were getting eaten like candy. When I called customer support, someone actually answered the phone and said simply send it back and we’ll send you a new one. It took almost a month, but they sent me a brand-new camera as well as batteries and two memory cards. I considered that to be very good customer service, especially for an outdoor products company. The second camera I purchased never had a problem, so I’m guessing I just ended up with a bad egg the first time around.

If you’re looking for a reasonably-priced trail camera that takes great photos with a trigger speed of about 1.25 seconds, this is the camera for you. I bought two of them for the same price as one Moultrie, and I feel strongly that these are better cameras.

On the way home from our vacation, my wife and I stopped by Cabela’s to…well…spend money. I spent enough to earn a $25 gift card so now the task was to find something else that I wanted to add to my hunting gear inventory. After a brief look through the store, I settled on a new high-quality blind. The blind I chose is the Eclipse by Primos. Originally a $200 model, it was on sale for $129 so once I added my gift card to the mix, I was walking out with a great blind at half the original price.

The Primos Eclipse blind comes with a handy carry bag that makes it easy to transport it to your hunting location.

I’m not going to pretend to know much about blinds, but I will say that I think what I ended up getting was the right blind for the best price. The featured model was the “Bone Collector” series with Micheal Waddell’s name embroidered on it. To be honest, there was nothing better about this blind in my opinion than the one I got for a lot less. Of course it’s going to cost more when a hunting celebritie’s name is on it, but I figured I could live without it. I like Micheal Waddell, but not enough to spend more for a blind because his name is on it. That left me deciding between another Primos model for $169 and the Eclipse. For the most part, the binds were the same, but the other model was just over six feet tall, allowing me to stand up if necessary. Although I was tempted, I figured there wouldn’t be a need for me to stand in the blind for hunting purposes so I opted for saving a few bucks.

Admittedly I’m not planning to hunt a lot from the blind, particularly for deer. I will use it for turkey though as they seem to be more easily fooled. If it wasn’t for a blind, I wouldn’t have tagged my gobbler this spring because the hunt was during a driving rainstorm, and we were trying to film it. Bottom line…no blind…no turkey…no film. My friend Mike Groman of Mike Groman’s Weekend Warrior Outdoor Productions brought his blind along that day, and I loved it. Now he can leave it at home as we’ll have one available here now.

Since the blind blended in pretty well for scouting puposes, I didn't bother to brush it in.

I plan to mostly use the blind for scouting where I can see for a distance while being concealed. I took it out today and set it up over a field that I can see for about 350 yards in any direction. I was immediately pleased with how easily the blind went up. Just pull a small rope at the center of the roof and each wall and it pops right up. Once inside, I tested the windows and shoot-through screens and again I was impressed. Of course, I won’t be able to give a good review of the product until I put some hours in it in various weather conditions, but generally, I think I’m going to be pretty happy. I plan to scout from the blind a night or two this week.

While I was setting up the blind, I did find a small scrape and two fresh rubs. It’s starting to get a little more interesting.

Moultrie I-40 Infrared Game Camera
Rating:  2.5

Early in 2007, a guy at work purchased his first game camera, the Moultrie I-40. Because I wanted to add another camera to my small collection, I was interested in his feedback as well as seeing his photos. He was very pleased with its performance, and when I saw the photos, it seemed to me that he was getting good results. The deer seemed to be in the center of the image indicating suitable trigger speed, and the infrared seem to work well with clear black and white images at night, and color photos during daylight hours.

The Moultrie I-40 Game Camera

Earlier this year, I was finally ready to purchase the camera. I was able to get it for just over $200, which I thought was reasonable IF it performed well. Guess what? It didn’t! It’s tough to figure out where to start here because there are a number of issues to choose from. For the purposes of this review, I’ll focus on trigger speed, infrared quality, and photo quality.

For a $200 camera, I would rate the trigger speed as deplorable. When I was getting “ghost” images or pictures of deer tails, I did some self testing and found the camera to have trigger speeds exceeding four seconds! As for the infrared, it seemed like 90% of the images were in black and white, and the infrared engaged despite it being broad daylight in many cases. That resulted in whiteout images and blurry black and white photos. That being said, when I got a true night photo in infrared, the quality was pretty good. The same could be said for the few daytime color photos I got.

Unfortunately this type of photo is far too common with the Moultrie I-40 camera. The slow trigger speed results in getting only the back half of the animal, or nothing at all unless it happens to stop in front of the camera.

I went to Moultrie’s website and found that the camera may need a couple of file updates. I executed the upgrade easily enough, and again tried the camera. Unfortunately, the results were the same. I was so angry with the camera’s performance, I did some research and found out that I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t satisfied. If you’re in the market for a camera, I recommend this site for excellent game camera reviews and testing results:  http://www.chasingame.com/ Be sure to click on scouting camera reviews at the top. The way I understand it, the I-40 was a great camera when it first came out and was being manufactured in the U.S., but that all changed when they started putting them together elsewhere. My bad luck resulted in me getting one of the ones made over seas. I don’t know all of the details about that situation, so I encourage you to do your own research and not rely on my interpretation.

To make a very long story shorter, I returned the camera to Moultrie and eventually got a new camera back from them. I though this was strange because in their letter they indicated that “there was nothing wrong with the camera I sent them.” I immediately got the new camera into the woods. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any noticeable improvement in performance. Again, I encourage you to check out the site above for detailed information.

It’s not a total disaster. The battery life on this unit is amazing. It runs on 6 size D batteries, and I can honestly say that you could probably get through at least four months of continual use without having to change the batteries. There are also some nice control features that are easy to use, as well as some nice extras, such as the temperature reading and the ability to add a custom title or location name to your image. Also, the video feature actually works pretty well. I would only rate their customer service as average because they wouldn’t admit to me that the cameras are flawed, or offer me a rebate of some type.

Despite the positives, the bottom line is I want the camera to have a reasonable trigger speed as well as good photo quality. Unfortunately, that’s where this camera falls short. My recommendation would be to stay clear of the Moultrie I-40 camera, especially with so many other good options out there in the $200 range.

GlenDel Full Rut Buck
Rating:  4

Now that my wife and I have a good place to shoot our bows, I decided that it was time to make an investment in a new target. I already had two lower end targets that were wearing out, so I made the decision to actually fork out a little more cash for something on the higher end of the quality scale. After doing a bit of research, I settled on the GlenDel Full Rut Buck.

I chose this target for two reasons. First, I’ve heard nothing but positive things about The Block targets. Second, I wanted a 3-D target as opposed to a simple square design to better simulate what I’ll be shooting at in the fall. The GlenDel Full Rut buck offers both of these options in one. The easy to remove and adjust insert is essentially a Block target covered with a light layer of foam, and the deer itself is fairly realistic.

The GlenDel Full Rut Buck is versatile and durible.

Arrow pulling is a dream with this target as I can easily remove my arrows with one hand. It seems durable, and I like that you can switch the insert around to shoot at four different vital locations based upon angles, tree stands, etc. It’s a little heavy, but that’s what you’d expect for a larger target. If you want a lighter one, you can go for the regular GlenDel Buck, which is basically the same but a bit smaller.

I would have given this target a five star rating, but I felt the retail price of $219.00 was a little high. Maybe if it was just $200 I would have rated it higher, but they always seem to squeeze that extra $20 out of you. I guess you have to pay for all of that advertising somehow. That being said, if you’re looking for a great target that will last you a few years, I feel confident recommending the GlenDel Full Rut Buck.