Hunting with a High Gloss-Finish Bow?

[Kurt in Memphis]

I'm wondering if any of you use a high gloss finish bow for deer hunting?  Right now my best shooter is an Ancient Spirits Sequoia.  It's a great bow and I am most accurate with it, but it does have a glossy finish.  Is this something you worry about?

Also, if you have pics of a gloss finished bow, feel free to post some!

Thanks

[Sixby]

NO I love the protection you get from rain and moisture with the high gloss. I just throw some super light snake skins on it and rub some paraphine on the rest. Works great.

[lpcjon2]

I use the self adhearing tape(no glue.It has a rubber like material and helps silence the bow as well.

[BEN]

I have an Ancient SPirits as well and the first 2 yrs with it I kept getting busted for no reason at all. Wind--check! no outline--check! Movement--check! Just couldn't figure it out....
Last year I put some of Onestringer's limb skins on it------couldn't believe the difference!! Same huntin areas, some of the same stands---but deer averywhere. Not once did I get busted for "no reason". Lots of close encounters!

High gloss is def. NOT hunter friendly..

[COMPOUNDLESS IN CONCRETE]

I put the onestringer limbsations as BEN aluded to on my recurve for the same reason.  One day while out shooting I was walking back to my bow from retrieving my arrows and I noticed how the sun was reflecting off the black glass, so I ordered the limbsations and no more glare in the sunlight.

[cacciatore]

The high gloss bows for sure look better and they were the standard in the 60s-70s.At the time it was use to put some camo socks on the limbs or some removable finish.They worked great.Today there are still a lot of sistems to hide the glare,limsansation is one of the very best.It also protect the finish from sratches and it is more dull than black or clear finishes.

[brinkwolf]

I luv high gloss finishes. Wether a bow or rifle stock they are just plain gorgeous but it does make hunting tough with them. Even a well done hand rubbed oil finish(several coats rubbed in) will be almost as glossey and then the same problem. All my hunting bows are fairly dull for this reason. Hate it but has to be unless you cover them.

[LAR43]

Limbskins. One of our new sponsors sells them

Larry

[Bill Carlsen]

I was hunting in Westchester Coiunty when I was a kid. One of those "Kodak moments" I will never forget was seeing what looked like a mirror walking thru the woods about 100 yards away. It was another bowhunter in camo and the sun was at my back. I can see it in my mind clearly now, almost 50 years later. I learned a lesson that day....never  hunt with a shiny bow. Find a way to cover the shine or you will get busted and never know that you did.

[Stone Knife]

I never worry about it I have taken several deer with a bow that has a full gloss finish. Look at the old bows most all of them are gloss, I'll bet there has been countless animals killed with them right out of the box.

[7 Lakes]

You can dull them down with 0000 steel wool.  The shine will come back if rubbed inside a bow sock for very long.  String wax will also dull it.

[Nate Steen .]

I hunt with a full gloss bow and wax and polish it regularly.  I've shot enough game that in my type of hunting, it's not an issue.  If the sun is to my back, the shine is away from the animal as I raise my bow.  Wind in the face and sun at the back is important in stillhunting which is what I do most.  Also, I like to show the 'max camo' set that it is possible to shoot animals without camo and with a shiny bow.

[Steve Clandinin]

Three things I use,1-limbsensations from Onestringer,2-A good auto paste wax,don't polish and 3-alaska bowhunters Snakeskin pullon covers.

[Traddicted]

Limbskins on my Martin Hunter.  Easy to install and remove if necessary.

[RocketDog]

Any kind of no gloss tape will work if you don't want to spend $.  Limbsations are great and are even interesting to look at.

[Dave Bulla]

I just rub on some string wax or even crayon.

[Eric S]

A guy at my club used Crayola crayon on a glossy bow with the most beautiful Kingwood riser I had ever seen.     I do not know how or if it ever came off. I wouldn't even think about it but the bow wasn't shiny any longer.

[deaddoc4444]

YOU can take   BUTCHERS wax  or JOHNSONS Paste wax  both used for Hard wood floors ETC  and rub it on with your fingers and jsut let it alone   I dries ( like waxing a car ) to a soft almost transparent light brown color.  It makes a nice cover over the gloss  AND its protecting the bow     WHen im done hunting I rub it off with on old bath towell      just like waxing a car and it comes right off , It iwll be harder to rub off the longer its on but it does come off nicely .
   It woll rub slightly in brush  but a little dab here and there will make it righ again  in seconds . A can of each lasts    well the cans I have I opened in the 80s and I still have a lot left.