It started innocently enough. There was a “twang” coming from my bow on release. My only conclusion was it had to be the rest. Using a Ripcord drop-away, however, it didn’t make any sense. The rests are quiet, efficient and reliable. Why then, was I having such a hard time trusting it?

To get to the bottom of the problem, I took my bow to my bow guru (Mr. BG for short) and we did a complete tune up. We removed every piece from the bow – sight, stabilizer, string suppressor – everything except the rest.

Then I shot it. No noise.

We added the string suppressor. No noise.

Stabilizer? Nope.

Much to my dismay, the sight seemed to be the culprit. But, being hard headed as I am, I was determined it was the rest, even though Mr. BG – and all the evidence – suggested otherwise.

Being a good friend, Mr. BG took the rest apart, added a new launcher and put it back together. Still there.

I then decided I would change rests completely. I asked Mr. BG to put on a different drop away. After tediously affixing the rest to the riser and the cord to my cable, I shot the new rest.

The noise? Still there.

At this point I had a choice. I could be happy to have a good rest and deal with the noise or I could jeopardize my friendship and ask Mr. BG to put the original rest back on. Any logical person would count his losses and get the heck out. I decided to go the other route.

Once I got home, I decided I still wasn’t satisfied, so I went out and bought a Whisker Biscuit and decided to put it on myself. Yeah, that worked out great. Instead of having just a little “twang” on release, the materials on the “whiskers” of the rest were reacting negatively with my arrow material, causing noise when I drew my bow.

Now I’m really in a pickle. I can’t get the bow to tune, the noise from the Whisker Biscuit is literally driving me up a wall and I’m about to go insane trying to figure it out. There was only one solution: call Mr. BG … again.

Luckily he was in a good mood when I called. He even laughed when I asked him to put the original Ripcord – that he had now replaced three times – back on. Not wanting to make any more waves, I sent my bow to him through an intermediary. I really didn’t want to face his wrath, or the possibility of fire ants in my floorboards as he promised. He wouldn’t kill the messenger, right?

After a couple days my bow was ready. I took it home and shot it and the noise was much better. So, what, exactly, did Mr. BG do? No idea. I bugged him, I begged him, I even bribed him and still he wouldn’t tell me.

His only response was this: Bow guru’s gotta have their secrets, otherwise they wouldn’t be bow gurus.

Bottom line is I still don’t know what he did to fix the noise and to be honest, I really don’t care. Unless, of course, he offers to tell me…

Living in South Carolina, there are some things you just have to deal with. Summertime heat tops the list, while mosquitoes are a close second. One-hundred-degree days with 98 percent humidity and no breeze are not uncommon, giving the little buzzing, biting nuisances a chance to chew on any exposed piece of flesh.

Bottom line is when you’re trying to prepare for bow season in the Palmetto State during the summer, you sweat and you get bit. Deal with it, move or find a good repellent, those are the only choices. And while I don’t like getting bit any more than the next guy, I also don’t enjoy smelling like a walking bowl of potpourri. That’s why I use my ThermaCELL.

If you don’t know what one of these little beauties is, then you must not have to deal with mosquitoes and biting flies on a regular basis. And if you do have to deal with the insects and still don’t have one, then shame on you. In my opinion, they are the single-most important item in my summertime bow-shooting arsenal besides the obvious necessities.

All you do is screw in the butane cartridge, add a repellent pad, turn it on and push the button. A heating coil feeds off the butane, heats up the pad and keeps the biting insects away. ThermaCELL also offers replacement packs, so once you buy the unit, all you have to do is buy replacement butane and repellent pad cartridges.

They also have a couple different styles to choose from. For instance, the one I use on the back porch doubles as a lantern, while I take the personal unit (pictured) to the stand. And before you even ask, no, the smell doesn’t scare the deer. If you’re really concerned though, they make an earth scent wafer that smells like, well, earth scent.

For the month of August, ThermaCELL is running an Appliance-a-Day giveaway. Everyday in August, ThermaCELL will give one winner a unit in Realtree APG (that’s right, they come in camo). At the end of August, each of the 31 daily winners will be entered in a drawing to win a grand prize of $1,000.

So if you don’t have one, need a new one or would like a chance to win a grand to help outfit your fall repertoire, visit www.thermacell.com/giveaway and sign up. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did and your hunting buddies won’t accuse you of using your wife’s lotion anymore.

As most 4-year-old boys do, my son, Drew, loves to take things apart and put them back together. The GlenDel Full Rut target in the backyard is no exception and Drew never misses a chance to “take the deer’s head off.” The head comes off easily so shooters can raise the top of the deer’s body giving them access to the multi-sided insert in the middle.

The GlenDel Full Rut and Block targets in the backyard have also been known to harbor a host of wildlife including birds and insects of all shapes and sizes.

On many occasions when Drew has taken the deer’s head off and removed the insert, we’ve found spiders of all kinds. Normally we look at the spiders and I answer a host of questions about them from what they eat to whether or not they bite and if they can hurt you.

On Thursday last week, however, one of my answers to the normal questions changed. Under the insert this time sat a spider we know all-too-well out our house: a black widow.

A small specimen by the usual standards, I made a point of reminding Drew why we don’t touch spiders in the backyard and quickly went to the garage to get the bug spray. With the spider disposed of, we put the deer back together and went on about our evening ritual of walking in the “jungle” behind the house.

Now when I go to pull arrows from the target, I’m a little more careful about what might be lurking. Nobody ever told me target shooting could be so dangerous.

I was a little shocked when I pulled it out of the box, I’ll be the first to admit it. It also didn’t help that when I took it to my bow guru to get it set up, another hunting buddy was there. I took a lot of ribbing and heard such comments as: “I’m afraid I’ll break it,” and “you think you’ll grow into it?” and “did you steal that from your little brother?” And on it went the entire time it was being set up.

Then there was the moment of truth. With the bow rough tuned and my sight set about where I wanted it, I was challenged to shoot a 60-yard target. After putting three arrows in a pie-plate group at 60 yards not having shot the bow more than three times total, the ribbing stopped abruptly. Is this a nod to my shooting prowess? If you’re a follower of this blog, you know better than that. The only other explanation was I had a tack driver.

The bow I speak of is the PSE X-Force GX Super Short. And when they say super short, they mean it. It’s got an axle-to-axle length of just under 28 inches. To give a good comparison, at 4 years old, my son is taller than this bow. I’ve got it set at about 63 pounds, drawing a little over 29 inches and shooting Aramid KV 250s off a Ripcord rest.

When you look at it, you don’t think much of it. But once you shoot it, you wonder how something so small could be so powerful. It’s absolutely amazing. Not to mention my groups are tighter, my speed is faster and I’m not pulling that much more poundage than on my old bow. If you’re in the market for a new bow, check out the new GX cam systems on the 09 models of the PSE, they’re well worth it. You can find a complete list of their bows at www.pse-archery.com.