2009 ATA Show Highlights
This being my first trip to the ATA Show, I was really looking forward to seeing all of the new products and getting to hear about them from the factory reps. As we walked into the convention hall it was hard to decide where to go first. So we just started at one end and worked our way thru isle by isle. I’ll give you a brief rundown of some of the highlights in this blog entry, and get more in depth on individual products in the coming weeks.
The entrance to the main display area.
The highlight of the show for me was the BOWTECH Booth. Not only was it the largest booth there, but I have just been accepted on their Hunting Pro Staff. So I was very interested in all of the new bows and accessories. They did not disappoint me. You can view them all at the Bowtech website. http://www.bowtecharchery.com/
The archery range next to the Bowtech booth.
The new bow lineup includes the Admiral, Captain, and Sentinal in the center pivot Bowtech line-up. The Brigadier, S.W.A.T., Sniper, and the just released Air Raid in the traditional riser, Bowtech line.
New from Diamond is the Iceman, the only center pivot single cam out there. And in the traditional riser line from Diamond there is the Stud, Rock and the Razor Edge.
Bowtech also carries the Ross line of Bows now and The Carnivor is the newcomer to their line up. This bow has the unique feature “The Crank”.
The Octane Accessory line has some newcomers this year also. They include a new lighter quiver a sight and a drop away rest.
An old item making a return is the Swivellimb Treestand. You would be hard pressed to find a tree these stands will fit not on and remain level.
The Swivellimb Treestand remains level on extreme angle trees.
A product I plan on ordering soon is a Cottonwood Outdoors replacement seat for my API climber. This company makes a number of waterproof replacement seats for most brands of tree stands. They also make a weterproof tree stand cover to keep your stand out of the weather.
Cottonwood Outdoors replacement seats are waterproof.
Bohning Products also has number of new items this year. My favorite is a new fletching jig designed specifically for the Blazer Vanes. It has a built in 3* offset.
The new Bohning offset Blazer fletching jig.
A neat item we found from Mountain Mike’s Reproductions is Skull Masters a european mount system for shed antlers or antlers on a skull plate. The neat thing about this system is you can get the reproduction skull dipped in a variety of finishes, everything from wood grain to various camo patterns.
A reproduction skull dipped in Predator camo.
Viper Archery Products has come out with a new backstop design called The Barrel that makes a lot of sense. The layers are in a circular pattern like tree rings and you shoot thru them. If you wear a hole you simply turn the target slightly and start shooting again.
The new Barrel backstop from Viper.
The Prowler HD is the latest model from Stealth Cam. It records in HD making seamless transitions in editing when including a trail cam video in your recorded hunt videos. It also has an 8.0 mega pixel camera.
The Prowler HD takes High Defination video clips.
The Omega Rest from Athens Archery combines the whisker biscuit style and drop away style rests into one. It uses 3 bristle brushes to hold the arrow in place. But the unique thing about this rest is, at the shot the brushes retract to give you the total clearance just like a drop away.
The Omega Rest combines the whisker biscuit style with the drop away rest.
T.R.U. Ball has introduced a new style of release. The Sniper 2 is a Jaw and a Half model. Similar to a single jaw, but the straight arm that the single jaw closes on also moves slightly to add forgiveness to the release.
A sampling of T.R.U. Ball relaeses.
Extreme Archery has come out with 3 new sights in their Bone Collector line. One is a dovetail 8” bar model and the other 2 are fixed sights. All three have the option of .010, .019, or .029 fibers.
The new Bone Collector line of Extreme sights.
Apple Archery has added some new features to their line of bow presses this year that will make them more adaptable to use on a greater variety of bows. They have to stay on top of the changes in all of the bow lines to be able work on the new model bows.
The Apple Archery Bow Press.
Hunter Safety Systems has made a number of changes to their Safety Vest System for ’09. Many of these changes were ones that I pointed out in my review I did in an earlier blog on the Safety Vest. I guess sometimes they really do listen to what the consumers want. You can read my original review by clicking here.
The new and improved Hunter Safety System Vest.
So there are some of the highlights of my first ATA show, one interesting observation. Micheal Waddel should be a very rich man after this year. His Bone Collectors signature line, it seems is on every other item at this show. You could not walk down an isle without seeing something Bone Collector related. This guy has turned into the biggest marketing tool in the hunting industry.
