A Review of a Crossbow/Gun Holder

[Mike P]

A Review of a Crossbow/Gun Holder


I have been looking for solutions for holding my crossbow when I use my climbing treestands. I hunt 95% of the time from a climbing treestand. I have tried all types of ways to have my crossbow at the ready and most have not satisfied my needs. Well, I think I may have found what I have been looking for and wanted to pass this info along to members of the forum.

Please forgive the poor pictures. I have always been a very poor photographer.

The crossbow/gun holder is from New Dawn Outdoors. I know some of you are familiar with the product. Anyway, it came yesterday. I ordered it from Ye Old Archery Shop as they seemed to be the cheapest. I put it on a new treestand I will be trying out this year called The Equalizer. I will do a review on this stand a little later when I have practiced with it more, but so far I really like it.

The crossbow/gun holder works like a charm and can be attached to round tubing or flat extrusions like what you see in the pictures. The holder allows the crossbow to be at the ready and not interfere with any portion of my body while I am in the treestand, even while cocked, loaded and ready to fire. Removal of the Phoenix from the holder is smooth and easy with very little movement. The crossbow is very secure in the holder and there is just no chance due to design that the crossbow would ever fall out. I also like that everything points away from me from a safety standpoint.

Here are the pictures with the holder mounted on The Equalizer and holding my Phoenix. The seat portion only of the treestand is shown, the foot section is not shown. Also, the holder did not affect the stacking nature of the treestand for transportation, the two pieces nestled together fine. I ordered another for my summit viper after seeing how this one worked out.

[fuzzy]

...

[OneShot]

I just use a simple hook type bow holder for both xbow and gun!

Works great for me!!!!!!!

oneshot..................

[Mike P]

When you stand to stretch your legs does the extra weight out on the right front corner cause the seat portion to tilt/raise up on the left rear close to the tree dipping the right front corner ?

The seat portion is connected to the foot section with two straps that are tight. When you stand and weight is placed on the foot section it pulls down on the seat section locking it hard against the tree, rock hard, you can't budge it. But that is just for this stand.

For stands that are not locked together (like the summit) that is a very viable question and I don't know the answer to that yet. When the next one arrives and I put it on my Summit Viper I will let you know.

I just use a simple hook type bow holder for both xbow and gun!

Works great for me!!!!!!!

oneshot..................

I also was using a hook type bow holder, the kind you screw into the tree. I also was using the long arm holders you screw into the tree, the ones that pivot in the middle. I just wanted something that I didn’t have to bother screwing into the tree and was ready to go as soon as I pulled up the crossbow.

[dutchhunter]

I seen the video for the equilizer tree stand like to hear your report on it

[TNhunterKMC]

Looks like it would take a LOT of movement to try to reach over - cock the crossbow up to about a 45 degree angle to get it out from underneath that hook at the rear. Am I wrong?

[saxman]

That looks neat Mike.
I have looked at those stands before.
Please review both after hunting with them

[groundpounder]

TNhunterKMC Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:40 pm Post subject:

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Looks like it would take a LOT of movement to try to reach over - cock the crossbow up to about a 45 degree angle to get it out from underneath that hook at the rear. Am I wrong?

Doesn't look like it would take much movement to pick it up over the front post and pull out to the side. Looks like a nice simple design. The hook coming over the stock might not need to be so long coming down but I am also curious to hear your review.

[Mike P]

Doesn't look like it would take much movement to pick it up over the front post and pull out to the side. Looks like a nice simple design. The hook coming over the stock might not need to be so long coming down but I am also curious to hear your review.

I have practiced with it several times now with both my Phoenix and my old carved tip Exocet and it really takes very little movement to take the crossbows out of the holder. It takes less movement then other methods I have tried, ie.. hook, swing arm holder, gun holder loops in front of the stand. Reducing the length of the hook as groundpounder suggest is a good thought and I might play around with that. Also, since the pounder showed up in this thread, I will include a picture of the new groundpounder crossbow stand. It also doubles as a quiver holder, but you already knew that didn’t you.

Here are some pictures with the holder (second one I purchased so you know I must like this system) on my Summit Viper. The holder does not interfere with the nesting of the Viper for carrying purposes. In addition, I have now tried both the Equalizer and the Viper without any hold down straps attaching the seat portion to the tree just to see if there would be any movement caused by the crossbow hanging forward and to one side of the stand. Neither stand moved or cantered when I stood up due to the forward weight of the crossbow. In fact, quite the opposite held true. It seemed like the weight forward actually kept the stand against the tree better then not having the crossbow in the holder. But let me be crystal clear here! I do not advocate anyone using a climber if they do not secure the seat section to the tree! I will cover this subject when I review the climbing treestands.

I will start the climbing treestand reviews this week and the first three will be the Equalizer, Timbertall and Summit Viper. I envision this to be a four part series with the first article covering climbing treestand procedures, safety considerations and pros and cons associated with climbers in general. It is my hope that others will chime in with their experiences with not only these three stands but any others they have intimate knowledge via usage in the woods under actual hunting conditions. I have used most all brands from Loggy Bayou to Treelounge and everything in between but I think a group effort here will be more advantageous then just me spouting off about my perceptions. If this works out perhaps we can morph this idea into hang on treestands and ladder stands.

Any way it goes, it should provide something for us to think about and talk about until September or October arrives and the season opens. Also, I know that several of us here have had accidents involving various forms of stands. Perhaps we can convince those that had these experiences to share them with us in a way that may help others not to make the same mistakes.

And last (talk about a fragmented post!) I just returned from Korea and Japan. My wife and I took my youngest brothers boy and girl (niece and nephew) with us. The purpose of the trip was to pay my respects to a very important man in my life that recently passed away. Anyway, I took some pictures, mostly in Japan, and if anyone wants to see them I will post them, just let me know.

[saxman]

I like the mount Mike.
Who makes it and where can I get one?
I would like to see the pictures of your trip.

[Mike P]

Sax,

I got mine at Ye old Archery Shoppe

http://www.yeoldearcheryshoppe.com/adva ... s=new+dawn

It was $17.99 and around seven or eight bucks shipping.

The service was excellent and I received both holders within two days after placing my orders on the web. They also sent me updated status reports regarding both my orders.