ATA 2015: Day Two Notes and Quotes

On Friday’s second day of business at the 2015 ATA (Archery Trade Association) Trade Show in Indianapolis, the weather remained chilly as business remained brisk.

With more industry announcements, product unveilings and personalities making autograph-signing appearances at the voluminous amount of vendor booths, the show floor was very crowded from start to finish.

And that gave the OutdoorChannel.com editorial crew plenty of opportunities to gather content and photos along with seeing the latest and greatest goodies in the bow hunting industry. With that backdrop, here are a few more sights, sounds and comments that grabbed our attention.

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Click image to see photos of day two at ATA Show 2015

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Indy Remains Popular Choice for ATA

While the cold weather outside the Indiana Convention Center remained a topic of conversation – especially as the week’s second big arctic cold front arrived and threatened to send overnight lows back below zero – few people seemed bothered by it all.

Especially in light of the numerous hotels and restaurants in downtown Indianapolis, most connected to the convention center by way of heated skywalks that enable visitors to freely move about without ever needing to go outside.

Chilly weather or not, Jay McAninch, the CEO and president of the sponsoring Archery Trade Association, indicated in the show’s ShowGuide that the Midwestern city remains firmly in the bowhunting trade show’s sights in coming years.

“We’re happy to be back here in Indy, so much so that we signed an agreement to hold the Show here seven of the next nine years, beginning with this year’s visit,” writes McAninch in the 2015 ShowGuide. “We’ll return here in 2017, 2018 and 2020 through 2023.”

Despite a visit to Louisville next year, Indy remains a favored location according to McAninch.

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“We made this commitment to Indy because it’s the venue that overwhelming numbers of our ATA members prefer.”

Major League Fishing Pro Visits ATA

Attendees of this year’s ATA Show at the Indiana Convention Center might expect to see such Outdoor Channel hunting personalities as Mathew’s Dominant Bucks’ Stan Potts, Uncharted’s Jim Shockey and his daughter Eva, Lee and Tiffany Lakosky of Crush, Pat and Nicole Reeve of Driven, the talented crews of Bone Collector and Heartland Bowhunter, Raised Hunting’s David and Karin Holder, and the THIRTEEN series duo of Mark and Terry Drury.

But they might not have expected to see Major League Fishing GEICO Select pro Brent Chapman roaming the aisles along with his wife Bobbi.

“Fishing is my passion and what I do most of the year,” said Chapman. “But when the bass fishing is done for the year, you can bet that I’m in the woods with my bow to get some deer hunting done. And we’re always looking to expand our business options and I’d have to admit that I would love to someday get more involved with the hunting industry.”

Chapman, whose daughter Makayla was featured in the Ram Trucks Deer Camp Live Hunt on OutdoorChannel.com last month, is a serious bowhunter with a number of big whitetails to his credit that have been taken near his eastern Kansas home.

As a Major League Fishing pro – along with being the 2012 B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year - he indicated on Friday that there have been a few people who have recognized him this week as a famous fisherman.

But he also laughed and said that he had suffered from at least one case of mistaken identity.

“Someone apparently thought I was Jacob Landry (the Swamp People reality television star),” said Chapman. “I tried to tell him that’s not who I was, but I don’t think he understood what I was trying to say. So after a while, I just kind of smiled big and politely nodded my head until his buddy came by and took him to another booth.”

Bear Archery Enters the Arena of Legendary Bowhunters

With the most famous name in archery, the Bear Archery (www.beararchery.com) campaign to allow modern bowhunters to walk in the footsteps of the company’s legendary founder Fred Bear continues this year in Indianapolis.

After last year’s popular Agenda series of bows, Bear Archery has unveiled this year’s Arena series of compound bows that promises to balance arrow speed and shooting forgiveness. With a rock-solid back wall, a velvety smooth draw cycle thanks to the H15 Hybrid Cams, optional cable and limb stops, a variety of draw-weight and draw-length options, axle-to-axle lengths of 30 or 34 inches depending on the model, six and a half-inch brace heights, overall weight of around four-pounds and arrow speeds of up to 345 feet per second, the Arena line is one of the top options available at this year’s ATA Show.

For parents who want to buy a bow that will grow as their children do, Bear is offering the new Cruzer compound design that features a weight of 3.6 pounds, an axle-to-axle length of 32 inches, adjustable draw lengths from 12 to 30 inches, adjustable peak draw weights of five to 70 pounds and a top arrow speed of 310 feet per second.

Hoyt Archery Booth Draws Big Crowds

For the second day in a row, the lines were long and the crowds were deep at the Hoyt Archery (www.hoyt.com) booth.

Part of that was due to the ongoing autograph sessions and personal appearances of hunting experts like Chuck Adams, Randy Ulmer, Marc Smith, Fred Eichler, Travis “T-Bone” Turner, Nick Mundt, Jordan Shipley, and Ralph and Vicki Cianciarulo.

But the other part of Hoyt’s big crowd is due to the company’s new bows on display this week including the Nitrum models in the Michael Waddell inspired Bone Collector color scheme.Featuring an aluminum riser, a weight of approximately four pounds, a couple of different cam options, a Zero Torque cable guard, and an offset riser, the bow checks in with top-end speed (330 to 350 fps depending on the model) and a moderate weight that is near the four-pound mark.

PSE Archery’s Dream Season Decree Makes Statement

Anywhere you combine bowhunting legend and PSE Archery (www.pse-archery.com) founder Pete Shepley along with Outdoor Channel’s Drury brothers – Mark and Terry – there is bound to be a crowd that gathers.

But much of the reason for the crowd finding its way to the recognizable PSE Archery trailer rig at this year’s ATA Show is due to the company’s new Dream Season Decree compound bow.

Built upon a 7075 aluminum Planar Flex riser, featuring a new Inertia Cam and being offered in Mossy Oak’s new Break-Up Country camo pattern, the bow is a show hit that features a smooth draw cycle, a solid back wall and blistering arrow speeds of up to 355 feet per second.

“The new Dream Season Decree is without a doubt the finest bow I have ever shot,” said Mark Drury in the bow’s ad copy. “All you have to do is shoot it to understand why.”

TORQ VLE Off-Road Electric Vehicle Debuts

Electric vehicles aren’t necessarily a new commodity at recent ATA Shows, but this year’s unveiling of an off-road version made by TORQ VLE (Very Light Electric) has turned more than a few heads.

Made in the USA, the silent one-person vehicle features a dune buggy look, a 35-plus mile-per0-hour top speed, a large amount of torque and power and all-wheel brakes. Combined with the full-coverage roll cage with fixed side bars and a four-point safety harness, the TORQ model will get hunters from one point to another, all in a safe, speedy and silent package.

Day Two Odds and Ends

What’s the current state of the bowhunting and archery industry? Apparently pretty good considering the big crows in Indianapolis this week that continue to gather in spots like the Bowtech Archery booth.

Another indicator of how strong this year’s bowhunting industry gathering is might be the fact that there are more than 100 new first-time exhibitors at the 2015 ATA Show.

A good crowd of ATA Show attendees and industry representatives were present on Friday morning at the third annual “Target the Heart” prayer breakfast. With a theme of “filling your stomach and feeding your soul,” the event featured several inspiring stories and testimonies from speakers like Chuck McAllister, Travis Creekbaum, Billy Dawson and Brad Clay. Proceeds from the early morning event benefitted veteran bowhunter Ray Howell’s popular Kicking Bear camps that offer a no-cost introduction to archery and bowhunting each year to several thousand children.

The National Deer Alliance (NDA) continues to grow as the voice of the nation’s deer hunters, a trend evidenced by the number of people visiting the group’s booth on the 2015 ATA Show floor. Further proof of the NDA’s growing importance was a press conference led by NDA executive director Craig Dougherty that gave attention to the chorus of growing concern about the status of North American deer herds. To continue to address those concerns and potential solutions, the NDA will hold its 2015 “North American Deer Summit” this May in Louisville.

ScentBlocker’s Dead Quiet clothing series is turning heads thanks to a proprietary fabric system that features an ultra-quiet finish that is soft, supple, water resistant and allows the company’s Trinity scent control technology to shine.

There are always more than a few sets of big whitetail deer antlers to be found at the yearly ATA Show. But there may have never been a more impressive set of headbones than the 258-inch non-typical buck killed in Iowa last year by hunter Joe Franz. The buck’s stunning rack is being displayed at the Shadow Hunter booth this week.

Limbsaver continues to wow each year as the company pushes the envelope of silence in archery with the unveiling of the company’s new “Silent Quiver” this week. Featuring a low profile design, a quick attach bracket, adjustable position arrow grippers for six arrows that are tipped with either fixed or expandable broadheads, the quiver features a quiet arrow hood made with the company’s flexible NAVCOM noise dampening material…