Back in the game

[Nimrod]

I'm back in the bow hunting game
picked up a new bow last week and having a blast with it.
Did a bunch of bow hunting back in the 80's with a PSE titan shooting with fingers, took a couple deer but moved on to black powder and eventually got ride of the bow.
Picked up a Diamond Carbon Cure, wow these new bows are impressive, loving the mechanical release !!
started the tuning, paper tuned in 3 shots, shooting 3" at 20m now time to work on all those other techniques I'm reading about.
to much fun.

[pin_head]

Right on man, welcome to the 21st century archery world. They really are amazing machines.

My last bow exploded in August and I've finally got one coming in the mail this week. I can't wait to get shooting again!

Enjoy your new bow,
Brad

[nicktrehearne]

Nice! Glad to see you're having fun with it

[bc sportsman]

I just got back in it again myself. Did a bit of bow hunting some 6 yrs ago. Bought a new bow (Obsession Phoenix), getting it all set up with arrows and sights etc., looking forward to the coming season.

[BiG Boar]

I haven't totally sworn off of bow hunting, but the more people I talk to, the more problems I see that seem to randomly happen on a hunt. I thought I was good because I practised regularly and these new bows were easy to shoot. I could shoot out to 100 yards on a target. So a few buddies and myself went bow hunting for grizzly. I came up with what I coined as the time, the 50 yard challenge. This is what it was. After breakfast each day we would go out and shoot 1 arrow at 50 yards, with our chosen broad head on. If you made the 10 inch circle, you were good to hunt with it that day. After all, who wants to wound an animal, let alone track a wounded grizzly. Well I will openly say that not one of us made the shot. I think one or two of us were lucky to hit the target somewhere. This and other conversations with guides put me off of bow hunting for a long time. It seems with modern bows that something can and will almost always go wrong. Dumb things too. Like, I lost/forgot my release, rangefinder, or other. This happened to the bow and now it doesn't function right. I got a twig caught in the cam and it caused a miss. This put me off for the last few years.

Lately I have gotten into 3D shooting with a recurve or longbow. I am really getting passionate about it. So much so that I am starting to imagine taking a big moose with one of mine. Possibly a spring bear too.

Here are my tips of the day. Tune your arrows to your broad heads. These new bows shoot very well. People practice a ton with field tips. But I didn't practice near enough with broadheads and I quickly learned that the broadhead acts like a sail. Shoot a bare shaft (no feathers) with your field points, and if the bare shaft isn't with your field points, your broadhead will be even further out.

I don't want to discourage, I just encourage you to shoot lots with your equipment, and with broad heads. Know your equipment.

[J_T]

^^ Good observations. And shooting that target at 50 yards is a 2 dimensional target. Predicting the flight/path of an arrow through a 3 dimensional animal increases the difficulty. I shoot both compound and traditional. But I have 1 compound and 12 trad bows. The simplicity is what attracts me. Keep your hunting yardage short. Moose is a great hunt with a traditional bow. Ask Greybark.

[greybark]

Years ago Van Isl had a Championship 3-D with first day field points and second day broadheads . The second day scores dropped dramatically , no one maintained their first day scores , most not even close .
To be fair for most of the archers this was their first experience with broadheads .
For those who may have been involved , sorry for any recalled angst and associated trauma LOL .
Cheers

[The Hermit]

Hey Big Bore... It would be interesting to see what the results would have been if your camp had taken the morning shots at 25 yards instead of 50 yards. Maybe your confidence wouldn't have been shaken so badly if you commit to keeping your shots to 30 yards!

[JasonH]

Here are my tips of the day. Tune your arrows to your broad heads.

^^ cannot stress this more

[Edge]

I will add my novice vote for practicing with your broadheads. I missed 2 broadside deer shots this year at 30 yds with my wheely bow. Now, I 've shot plenty of game with a rifle and most of it withing 100 yds over the years so I don't contribute the miss to "buck fever". I was calm before and after the shot. The first miss I chalked up to not ranging and adjusting site after I moved from 1st buck cause he was head on at 37 yds. My next candidate was broadside and I ranged it later at 30 yds but didn't adjust my 1 pin from 40 yds to 30yds....still...should not have "sailed 'over his back. the 2nd miss was @ 30 yds and arrow sailed right over him again...it was then that I checked and my100 gr broadhead was sailing. So I've swithched to 125gr broadheads and will be practicing plenty before next season....

oh...I have also added a trad since last season and am thouroughly enjoying it.......