PRODUCT REVIEW: Bohning®'s new IMPULSE™ vanes for COMPOUND Shooting

Article by: Barry O'Regan

The Bohning® Company’s newest lineup in Vane Technology has spawned what one can only be described as Man O Man!  - The Bohning® Impulse™ Vane!  While the Impulse™ vane was designed for Recurve shooters in the FITA game to compete with Mylar Vanes, the Impulse™ is the ticket for Compound Bow target and 3D Shooters as well.  The Impulse™ vane is two years plus in the making, assuring through rigorous testing that this is one Vane that will get Archers talking, and talking favourably!

After trying out the new Impulse™ vanes with my Recurve, the groups were great, the flight straight as an arrow.  While I am not a FITA Recurve shooter, I do shoot instinctively with my Hunting Recurve at local 3D shoots, and off the shelf at that! Granted my accuracy with my hunting Recurve needs improvement, but using the Impulse™ vanes gets me a little bit closer to being more proficient at the 3D Tournaments.

The Impulse™ vanes are thin, lightweight and durable with a very low profile.  They are comparable with feathers, weighing in at 5 grains for the 4” and 4 grains for the 3”.  Though not designed for hunting purposes, they do perform outstandingly for those of us who shoot Field and 3D targets out of our Recurve bows.  One can only imagine the accuracy using a FITA Recurve setup outfitted with sights, an arrow rest and stabilizers?

I decided to give the Bohning® Impulse™ vanes a try using my compound bow, a Hoyt ProElite, set at 58# draw weight. I use a drop away rest, fixed pin sights, hunting stabilizer and Tru Ball Stinger release - pretty much a typical 3D bow hunter setup.  My arrow speed is a modest 280 fps.  The arrows I chose to mate with the 4” Impulse™ vanes were the large diameter Victory X-Ringer 250s with pin nocks, weighing in at 360 grains.

I went out to the range and shot at the various distances one would shoot at a typical 3D tourney; 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 yards.  Due to time restraints after testing the Recurve bows and shooting the Impulse™ vanes, I was running out of time and had to head home, so the photos provided are the first shots made using my fixed pins and without dialing in my sights. Though at 50 yards I did have to do some dialing in of my sights as the new arrows I was using were heavier than I usually use (I normally shoot 315 grain, skinnier arrows) and the heavier arrows dropped low when using my 50 yard pin sight so I had to make a couple of adjustments to rectify it. Needless to say my arrows outfitted with the Bohning® Impulse™ vanes fired out of my bow in a straight line into the gold consistently. While my Bohning® Blazer® vanes perform equally as well, the lower profile Impulse™ vane technology clearly made a difference, evident when I heard my arrows slamming into each other. Thank God for pin nocks!

I think I had the most enjoyable time ever that day using the Impulse™ vanes, testing and firing them just felt right - the instant I released the arrow, I just knew the Impulse™ vane arrows were going into the gold with what seems to be laser-like accuracy. 

Next week the Ridgedale Rod & Gun Club in Abbotsford, BC is hosting a great 3D Tournament at their mountain range, rest assured I will be there with a dozen Bohning® Impulse™ vane equipped arrows in hand looking to have a great shoot, thanks to the Bohning® Company.   

The results speak for themselves, see photos on the right side of this review.  Note:  One arrow out of the bunch kept hitting the target low left, upon inspection it was clear that my glue in pin nock was not seated properly.

It will certainly be interesting to hear from other compound shooters their experiences using the Impulse™ vanes, I think Bohning® is on to something again!

Barry O’Regan

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