I shared camp with Jack Shanks on one of the same goat hunts he went on and I am a little younger and more nimble than Jack...or so I thought, and I carried my strung bow the whole time and carried my arrows strapped to my pack in a mini-Catquiver with no issues on that hunt. I never did like the way the broadheads were somewhat exposed in the Catquiver and was always afraid I would cut my bowstring because you are constantly switching hands with your bow as you are climbing and descending. I din't like a bow quiver for the same reasons. As a kind of self-fulfilling prophesy, I did in fact cut my bowstring on the edge of one of my broadheads on another goat hunt a couple years later. After that I swore off the Catquiver and switched to one of Rod Jenkins quivers which keeps the arrows much better protected, and strapped that to my pack. This past year I took about a 60' sphincter clenching fall on a sheep hunt and I can honestly say that it happened so fast it wouldn't have mattered if I had both hands free or not, or whether I was using trekking poles. The bow came out of my hand after about the third barrel roll and second somersault down the mountain and amazingly was still shootable even though it looked pretty rough (anyone want to buy a "lightly" used Bear TD?). Based on the damage to my backpack, I think the bow would have been destroyed if it was strapped on to it. Thankfully Rod's quiver kept all the arrows secure so I didn't get skewered. Once he saw I was still alive despite looking like the victim of a serious grizzly mauling, my guide told me how impressed he was with the degree of difficulty of some of the aerial acrobatics I had performed. Knowing what I know now, I would never consider anything but one of Rod's quivers for that kind of backpack hunt. I would still carry my bow in my hand, and I still wouldn't use trekking poles either, but everyone is different. As my Dad used to say, if you are going to be stupid, you gotta be tough.
Topic: Backpack Hunters (Read 557 times)
