The Slick Shot Bear
by Mark Pouliot
It was a beautiful day in late August, 2012 the 29th to be exact and I was on my second bear hunt in Maine. My girlfriend Joanne and I had seen large black bear while hunting her blind but she wasn’t able to get a shot. So tonight I was sitting in my tree stand with a hot bait 15 yards away.
The warm afternoon was on its way to evening when a pine marten slinked by in front of me. Thinking he was gone, I was surprised when it showed up at eye level in the tree next to me, three feet away. While we stared at each other, trying to figure out what we were going to do, a bear ambled by directly behind me, mere feet away from the tree I was sitting in.
Instead of coming right into the bait, he decided to take a roundabout route that first took him out behind the bait, approaching from behind the trees where the bait was located. Once the trees screened his view, I was able to come to full draw undetected. Once there, all I had to do was wait for the perfect opportunity to release my arrow.
I didn’t have to wait too long, although holding my Alpine bow at full draw was quite easy due to its generous let off. As the bear moved his front leg forward towards the bait, it exposed the ribcage perfectly. The No Peep I use to guarantee consistent shot execution aligned perfectly due to my newly designed Slick Shot and the shot was on its way. The glow of my green pin was replaced by the streak of the green lighted noc on my arrow.
With a grunt and a quick scramble the bear was gone in a heartbeat. His hasty departure caused some commotion for a short period and then all was quiet. I waited for a death moan but nothing was heard, all was quiet. After a short wait, I climbed down to check my arrow. A great blood trail awaited me and I backed out to go get Joanne and wait for our friends to finish their hunts before tracking down my bear.
Once on the blood trail, the recovery was quick and easy. The Nitro Stinger arrow tipped with a Grim Reaper Whitetail broadhead had done the job. The lack of a death moan was evident. The bear was dead when he hit the ground maybe fifteen yards away. My Slick Shot had produced perfect arrow flight, allowing me to hit the exact spot I was aiming. The result was a short blood trail to my first black bear and the most exciting hunt I have ever had.
Years of design and tinkering had gone into the making of the Slick Shot. As an archery shop owner, I have seen the problems hand torque can cause. I decided to design a device that would reduce torque and enhance the shooter’s success. The Slick Shot does the trick by allowing the bow to pivot in your hand to where it needs to be….not where the shooter puts it. As a thin hand held device, the Slick Shot is all but forgotten after shooting with it for a short period. Bad arrow flight and errant left-right shots are greatly reduced while boosting the archer’s confidence.
