During my bowhunting tenure, I’ve emptied my five-arrow quiver once. No, it wasn’t from poor shooting. Rather, I was fortunate enough to have a seemingly never-ending parade of swine stroll into my King Ranch waterhole. It was awesome. Side of that, I’ve never fired more than three arrows during a single day of bowhunting.
I reminded myself of the aforementioned fact multiple times when I received my 3-Arrow Treestand Quiver from TightSpot, but my bowhunter psyche simply wouldn’t let me stick it on my bow. Why? I’m a five-arrow quiver guy — always have been — and I simply didn’t like the thought of having only three arrows while in the woods. Not to mention, I love my 5-Arrow All-Around TightSpot Quivers. I own four of them, and I saw very little reason to change.
Two weeks ago, for no other reason than doing a field test and having something to write about, I went against my quiver-established-norm and put the 3-Arrow TightSpot on my Hoyt Defiant Turbo. It was hard for me to look at only the three arrows dangling downward off the backside of sight.
Yes, just like the 5-Arrow, the 3-Arrow sports a quiet hood, fully-adjustable via an Allen wrench gripper slots and hugs up to the bow’s riser, but it was difficult to get over the three-arrow look.
I did notice my bow felt lighter, significantly lighter in fact. I looked up the specs of the 3-Arrow and found it be nearly 3.5 ounces lighter than my 5-Arrow. I also noticed the quiver appeared to be much more compact, and the specs confirmed my suspicions. The quiver is a full four-inches shorter than its 5-Arrow cousin. Exact specs for the 3-Arrow are: 6.86 ounces, 15 ¾ inches long and 14 inches from the hood to the gripper.
Typically, I don’t shoot with my quiver on, but with my 356 KO Sidebar Stabilizer one one side and the 3-Arrow on the other, the balance felt great. I wasn’t sold, but I decided to give the 3-Arrow an in-the-woods test run. My goal was to slip into my spring-established Heartland Wildlife clover plot and fill my Colorado whitetail doe tag. I knew this would be a difficult chore, as a few does are often feeding in the plot as the sun crawls over the western horizon. I wanted to limit my movement, and the plan was to simply sit with my bow in my lap with my quiver on. Typically, when I reach the platform I remove my quiver, hang it up and then hang up my bow. Too much movement for this spot. I wanted a one-sit, one-kill experience.
And it worked! At 7:30 a.m,. a lone doe wandered into the food plot to grab a few bites of clover. I drew, anchored and released a perfect arrow. It had been a while since I’d shot a deer with my quiver on, but it didn’t affect me in the slightest. I hunt a lot of tight, small, lone trees in the in the middle of the Colorado plains — trees that require zero movement. I really like being able to climb in, put my bow in my lap and not move a muscle.
As for only having three arrows … how many do we as bowhunters need? Unless your plan is to skewer a pile of does, three arrows should be more than enough to get the job done. In fact, this new 3-Arrow is going to serve as my pack-in, spot-and-stalk quiver for 2017. I love its compactness, and the weight reduction will be an added bonus when pursuing mule deer and elk in the backcountry. Give it a go, and let me know if you agree. Drop me a line at jbauserman@grandviewmedia.com.
