I suppose you would call this a reverse testimonial, more of a reason why I need this product vs. how good it worked for me. Recently I spent a weekend at a hog hunting ranch in Texas with a few of my friends hunting for hogs. We experienced many many hogs  and great weather for hunting. The first evening each of us took a hog but only 2 of us returned with our hogs. Oh sure we all made good shots and I have video, and bloody arrows to prove it but the underbrush was so thick they would just borough down under some foliage and bleed out. Obviously if we had the Bow bug we would have had 4 hogs that night! The next night we encountered the same thing. Some might say we just didn’t look long enough, but I think 4 hunters looking for 3 hours over 10 acres roughly is long enough. I absolutely hate to leave animals in the field and really feel that the bow bug would have brought home the bacon! Occasionally I do make a bad shot and will admit it. I shot one pig in the rear and he was hurt bad but not dead. We found him only with the help of a dog hiding under some thick brush and once again I wished I had the Bow Bug. Even with the dog it took several hours to find him because there are so many hogs the scent is everywhere and the dog has trouble telling which animal to follow, but not with the BOW BUG it only follows the Bug! Hope you enjoy! Rod Triplett

 

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After shooting the buck I waited for about an hour. When Larry and I returned we fired up the BOWBUG, I was about 150 yards away when I picked up the heart beat of the Bug as I thought to myself this is too cool. However the blood trail went into a tangle of vines and rose bushes mixed with knee deep water. I didn't want to wait until morning for fear of the coyotes would eat my buck. So instead of following the blood trail we circled around the heavy rose bushes and water, the grass in there was as tall as us. The signal now was very strong and from practicing with the unit I new we were close all at once I stepped on the dead buck. Without the BOWBUG I would have had to wait until morning and run the risk of the coyotes not to mention having to rip my way through the rose bushes. I have shot 27 record book bucks with my bow and speaking from experience, BOWBUG can really help the serious hunter.

 

                                                                                    Bill Vale

 

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The thermo cell was working over time trying to keep the swarms of mosquitoes at bay. Not a breath of wind only the sound of a single Whippoorwill broke the stillness of the dark east Texas swamp. Hearing the leaves crunching to the south I slowly stood and picked up my bow. Having spent the afternoon rigging up a new Hawglite to a strap on bow fishing mount I felt sure I had a trick for the approaching hogs.

  The two 100 pounders stood for a long minute straight under the stand some 20 feet below me. When they felt the coast was clear they moved under the feeder and began to crunch corn. Waiting for the closest to turn broadside I leaned out bringing the 66# Blackwidow to half draw and pressed the button to activate the Hawglite. The bright red light blasted the darkness and much to my disappointment not only did it blind me for a second the pigs busted out like they had been shot at. After a tense minute or two the hogs moved back in and began to feed again. Having learned from my first attempt I brought the recurve to full draw and triggered the light over the top of the hogs to give my eyes a chance to adjust but once again they busted out as soon as the light touched them.

 I told you that part of the story so that you could understand my desperation when five minutes later a group of ten eating sized pigs came boiling up out of the swamp in a dead run. The moon was not out yet but the last hogs had proved to not tolerate a light at all.

Reaching down I turned the switch from a spot to flood hoping not to spook this new group. The instant the light touched them pigs went every direction. Thirty seconds later one of the group growled to my right, turning as I brought the bow to full draw the light picked him up as he slowly eased away through the brush. Trying to pick a spot behind his shoulder blades in the SiFi glow of the red light, I let the string slip away.

 With the recoil of the shot the light danced to my left leaving me with no idea where I had hit the hog or even if I had hit him at all.

 I will confess a secret, I’m color blind. As luck would have it 90% of the animals I stick fall within sight but for the others a blood trail is a terrifying nightmare. After loosing a super nice boar last summer I purchased a space age piece of gadgetry called a Bow Bug.

In theory this setup should be the answer to my biggest fear, not finding an animal after the shot. The Unit consists of a tiny radio transmitter and a directional antenna.

For nearly a year I had been attaching the two pronged transmitters to my arrows but as luck would have it everything I shot fell within sight. Thanks mostly to heavy arrows and super sized broadheads. My latest Hog setup is a 190 grain Sasquash broadhead attached to a Grizzly stick Safari arrow for a combined weight of 778 grains.

 Climbing down and finding no sign of my arrow I had to assume it was in the hog but if there was any blood I couldn’t find it. As it already 10:00pm and not knowing where I had hit the pig leaving it until morning seemed to be the thing to do.

 The next morning found me standing with the new fangled antenna over my head hoping for a beep. It was like someone had let all the air out of me as I slowly turned the unit only to hear nothing but static. Starting down the hill on a well used trail I was suddenly surprise to pick up a faint ping. It was too good to be true gadgets like this never work in the real world but the ping was there what else could it be but my pig. With every step the signal grew stronger until it was banging all eight bars. Kneeling down to peer under the brush I knew I had to be right on top of him. Sure enough the hog was not 10 steps from me buried up in the leaves.

He had only travel 200 yards but I do not believe I would have ever found him without the Bow Bug as the blood trail was poor and even if I had searched the area around him I would have had to almost step on him to find him in the brush.

                                                                                        Marty Thomas

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It was a cool December morning as myself and my partner Ricky sat in the stand hoping for a six year old 9 point that I had decided to hunt for during the later part of the season. As the morning sun spread just enough light out across the land there he was like clock work, as shooting light was there the camera light just wasn't as he usually stuck around long enough and it shouldn't be a issue but as luck would have it this morning would bring favor to his efforts of staying alive as he fell in love or something like that with a doe in the area, as I watch him disappear into the early winter morning. As the later part of the morning came and I was dieing to use my arrow with the BOWBUG attached to see how well this new tracking device would really work I decided to take a doe that had hung around a little to long so I took aim and let the arrow go, as a complete pass through double lung is what it looked like. So as we waited it wasn't more than 15 minutes had past when some wild hogs had decided to move into the area as well so with another bug attached to one of my arrows I slung another arrow not a pass through this time but it looked like a good hit. After a hour of waiting we went to the truck were the receiver was and assembled the antenna and returned to the area. I was sure both animals were less than 200 yards so I was excited about firing up the antenna to see how this unit would work. Sure enough I turned it on and I was getting two different beeps one louder than the other. I followed the loudest one first to the doe who was about 85 yards away, Shutting the transmitter off with the magnet to listen for the second beep I had when I started looking for the doe and noticed at this point I had lost the signal to the second transmitter I had shot into the hog. As I was returning to the area I first picked up the signal I began to faintly hear it again. As it was I found the 230lb hog 110 yards away laying on top of the transmitter. I like to believe I am a above average hunter with all the precautions  and preparation I take and with all the time I spend in the woods, I wont enter the woods without the BOWBUG attached to my arrows again.

                                                                                    Rusty Cottar

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Another story, click here.

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Saturday evening found my twin 7-year-old boys and me in a blind at our lease. I had recently obtained a Bowbug and was anxious to try it out. I had several opportunities to shoot a doe with it earlier but they were always at the feeder with some excellent low to mid 130 inch bucks that were only 2.5 –3.5 years old. They are gong to be good ones in a few years and I did not want to educate them. This night however the first deer in were two does one which an older big doe. I had attached the Bowbug behind the broadhead, removed the tiny magnet to activate it like instructed and when the doe quartered away from me I drew and took the shot. The shot was a little far back but I knew it was angled forward hopefully in the vitals. She kicked and ran out about 50 yards out, stopped looked back, dropped her head and slowly walked away. I lost sight of her about 100 yds out. Even though you are supposed to wait we usually have to get on our deer pretty quick because the coyotes will be on them in about 45 minutes. I eased out of the blind and went to look at my arrow. It had decent blood on it so I walked out to where she stopped but could not find any blood.  I decided to go meet my partner and give her just a few more minutes. I met up with him on the road where he also had shot a doe. He knew he had double lunged her so he knew she did not go far. We radioed my older son and told him to bring the Bowbug antenna that was in my truck. He arrived and we went back to the stand. It was now completely dark.  He turned on the antennae and immediately got a signal. I knew the direction she had run but I did not tell him because I wanted to see if he could figure it out from the signal. He swept the antennae back and forth and headed out in the direction she had gone. So far so good. He would stop every so often and sweep and get a direction if travel. I listened through one of the earphones and could hear the beep of the signal. All the time he was using the antennae I was looking for blood but had not found any. We traveled about another 50 yards and he swept the antennae and said the signal had gotten very strong. About that time I saw movement in my flashlight and saw a coyote about 25 yards away. We headed in that direction and my son suddenly stopped and said do you have your bow. She was lying in some bushes about 10 feet in front of him but was unable to get up. I eased up and put her down for good. I felt really good about my Bowbug experience. We backtracked from were she was and we only found blood out about 20 feet from where she had laid down.

My initial shot had indeed angled forward but I guess when she dropped and turned it was just enough to miss the rear part of the lungs. I had made a fatal liver hit but she had not gone down immediately and had just needed time to expire. I really believe the Bowbug was instrumental in helping find this deer. She had been fatally hit but had left an insignificant if not non-existent blood trail.  I like the honesty of the guy I talked to before I got the Bowbug. He told me it was not meant to replace good old fashion tracking and was not meant to encourage marginal shots. If a marginal shot was made the deer was either going to live or run far enough that the Bowbug was not going to help anyway. It was very emphatic when he said it was designed to be a tracking aid when all other methods had failed and a blood trail disappeared or was washed away. I respected that honesty and that is why I got a Bowbug. The thing that kept running through my mind was what if that had been a huge buck???? I know for a fact that every arrow I shoot from now on will have a Bowbug on it. Hopefully I can follow buckets of blood to each deer but but if not its nice to have a little insurance. Also just to note by the time we got to my buddies deer it had only traveled 75 yards and had already been gutted and half eaten by coyotes.

Keith