Like most of you, I struggled for years with quiver styles. I never really liked bow quivers, from early on. This goes back to the seventies....I hated the rattle and the awkward weight (for me) on my bows. Back then it was recurves, but when I switched to shooting longbows in the eighties, it was especially true. Of course back then, there wasn't the options available today. Hunting here in MT, most of my outings were more like expeditions. Hunting in the mountains requires more gear, and means packs. I own several back quivers, and I like them for targets, small game, and plinking around and about, but they never worked well with packs. I began experimenting with a Kwikee type bow quiver with a strap....much like the side quivers many are using now, and I liked that as the "best" option I could find and still use packs.
Around about that time, selway came out with their version of a hip quiver using the kwikee bracket, that slipped onto a belt, and many of my friends began using that option. It had it's merits, and that idea intrigued me, but I did'nt like the fact that you had to remove your belt to take off the quiver. I also did not like the angle of the arrows, and the quiver still hung too low on the leg, increasing the "flagging" of your fletches while you walked or moved. Still, it removed one of my other irritations of the other options...that being another strap around my neck, which already held pack straps, binos, calls...a various assortment of potential strangles.
At that time, I was eyeballing a quiver made by the Idaho Leather company, or something like that. A real quality product, still made, that also fit on your belt, but rode high on your hip eliminating flagging issues, and your arrows and feathers trailed straight back behind you. The only issue was the belt thing again, and I wasn't crazy about the springy friction way it held your shafts together. I began to put my thoughts together using the selway idea, and the way the idaho quiver rode.....and incorporated a pistol holster idea I used when packing in the backcountry, and came up with my quiver caddy.
It "hangs" on your belt...no more straps! It is the easiest to remove in a hurry....works with any number of quiver designed to fit the AMO holes on a bow riser (like a kwikee, which we prefer). Being that it hangs, it is easily taken off and hung while in a treestand, or moved in the thickest, brushiest situations (that even a bow quiver won't survive) or when stalking close to critters.
The arrows and fletchings trail straight back and don't flag...when you squat with it on, they lay paralell to the ground....not flagging up, and if they are a problem take it off....easily.
It is still the only hanging quiver thing I've ever seen made other than a similar type that Marv Clynke uses that he designed himself for similar reasons. We have been using this for more than 20 years everywhere from Alaska to Texas, with big packs and fanny packs. It just works. Also, with the kwikee bracket, a guy can have several kwikees, one with target points or with carbons....another with woodies. One has my antelope arrows, another my elk arrows, etc.
It may not be the perfect solution, but it's well thought out, and works for us very well.
Topic: An honest assessment of quivers (Read 910 times)
