The vast majority of whitetail bowhunters are fully rigged for hunting from portable treestands and ladder stands, but they sometimes are lacking in some of the gear necessities for a ground ambush, which is the name of the game in turkey hunting. One of the products often helpful for bowhunters looking to arrow a bird is a top-notch bow stand.

When hunting deer or turkeys from the ground, I used to depend heavily on a bow stand that was stuck into the ground. The bow’s bottom limb slipped into the rubberized metal at the top of the stand, and the bow balanced in a forward-lean position. No part of the bow touched the ground. While this system worked well with older model compounds, it didn’t hold the newer models with more parallel limbs securely.

I’ve been searching for a better solution ever since. While I’ve seen the various compact bow stands that attach directly to a bow’s bottom limb, almost all of them are NOT to be shot while attached to the bow. They are spring-loaded and quickly snap onto and off a bow. In fact, they can be dangerous to leave on the bow while shooting because there’s a chance it could damage the limb, and at a minimum they change arrow impact.

Mathews Archery, however, realizes the advantage of building a bow stand that can remain attached while shooting without affecting point of impact of shooter safety, and I’m excited to give it a try this summer.

Mathews builds two models, the Engage Limb Legs ($79.99) and Engage Slim Limb Legs ($79.99). Both models are simple and silent to use, and they balance a bow without the cam or stabilizer touching the ground. The Engage Limb Legs is designed for Mathews wide limb platforms including the V3, Atlas, VXR, Vertix, Traverse, TX-5, Triax, Halon and Halon 32. The Engage Slimb Limb Legs version is designed for Mathews slim limb platforms including the Prima and Stoke.

I suggest you stock a decent supply of Engage Limb Legs in your store this late-winter and spring for those bowhunters who come into your shop looking for last-minute turkey gear, arrows or broeadheads. Set a new V3 model on display with the Mathews Engage Limb Legs so hunters can test it out for themselves. I look forward to putting one on my Mathews Triax this spring for turkey hunting, and I expect it’ll work so well that I’ll hunt with it attached to my bow during fall whitetail ground ambushes, too.