The Birth of the Cross Axis Quiver
In late September 1994 on a DIY solo hunt in Wyoming, Jeff Pippard set out with his sights on harvesting a pronghorn antelope with a conventional bow and arrow.
Already having harvested a pronghorn sitting on ambush in pit blinds, I was up to the more aggressive style of hunting, spot-n-stalk and or decoy.
I was interested in doing it on my own terms.
Early AM in late September, mainly using the spot -n-stalk technique, Belly crawling was showing to be very effective, as long as you watched out for the cactus along the route, while getting very close but couldn’t close the deal after half dozen stalks, I felt I should slim down my gear for the next final red zone stalk, the troublesome part was crawling on three limbs instead of four (holding bow in hand), it slows you down, also puts you in a high (coyote) position and was tough on the gear. I want to get low, move fast and pay little mind to my gear.
Late after noon crawling in on a shooter buck that was holding his harem at bay, the buck repeatedly chased off satellite bucks then running off for sip at the water hole with a speedy return for a fight, (I feel every living male has been in his shoes before) again forced to drop all of my gear from my spotting position and beyond, first my hat and pack, then my boots, and now I had to remove my quiver in order to stay low enough to the ground, holding one arrow with me for the final stalk, all the while watching for the cactus that just wanted to ruin my next couple days.
While crawling, I placed an arrow on my bow in the position you currently see it rigged as the” cross axis quiver” this helped me stay low to the ground and I had every thing needed to get my shot.
The final red zone crawl put me between the buck and his harem as he chased off a challenging buck for the last time of his life, on his circle back from the water hole he crossed my tracks at 8 yards, I was at full draw…double lungs! That netted me a 72” pronghorn on day one; very little cactus picking but I did get a bit of sunburn.
On the return home, out came the nuts, bolts, saws, and rasp files. September of 1994 the first prototype cross axis quiver was rigged and ready.
The next full year of shooting the cross axis quiver was surprising me, the cross axis quiver offered me more than I first expected, it was so stable and enjoyable to shoot the compact design made it easy to conceal, fast to deploy an arrow and strong as nails when you place it on the ground for a stalk, all the while it carried your arrows sight and rest in an upward position protecting them from rough terrain.
The intriguing part was the stabilizing qualities!
The cross axis quiver held and shot more accurate with the quiver full than empty, I had the feeling that it would “neutralize” the side mounted quiver problems, not really thinking the cross axis quiver design would enhance the accuracy so well. This was big!
Late September 1995 Brian Thomas and myself went to NW Colorado for an archery elk hunting trip, the new cross axis rig was ready to go, lots of planning, training and confidence behind us, Brian starts the hunt with the harvest of a nice 6×6 on day two.
If you’ve ever-hunted elk, you know hind site is 20/20 (I should have done…) so my game is “be aggressive”, go for bust when needed.
After having an amazing week letting the bulls give me a clinic “mountain moves101”, we are at Friday the last day, the evening hunt, Brian Thomas had left to get all our gear and his meat back for the plane flight early Saturday morning, I paid for the extra evening hunt with my guide Brian Nichols.
After connecting with a bull in a meadow with his cows, he bugled at our calls and followed the herd into the sunset… silence, Brian and I just sat back and talked, it was the great way to just button up the evening and a great week chasing bulls and making a new found friendship, right at the two minute warning, a satellite bull screaming on the mountain had decided to interrupt our evening conversation, he came back from that same direction the herd just disappeared to. Brian went into action, he reeled back 40 yards to my left, I rolled on my knees knocked an arrow and position myself looking at an opening in front of me, as I scanned the meadow for shooting lanes I could see antlers 100 yards off to my right cutting towards me, wind was in my face, but I noticed the field grass was to tall for a kneeling shot, so got into a squat position and came to full draw, the bull ran up and stopped behind a small island of aspens 12 yards in front of me, the bull was peaking at Brian’s calling position that gave me the one second window to adjust my height up about 5 “… double lungs!
The cross axis quiver became named “Sceamin Bull” after that rag horn elk that returned to test our wits and see if that 6-day clinic really worked for us.
