Archery Talk

Was just washing dishes when I saw a flash out the kitchen window. A bald eagle flying about five feet off the ground down the middle of the fairway, carrying a dead cat. Sat out there for a couple of minutes eating it, then flew off with it.

 

Number of arrows per day, week or by hunting season is irrelavent. It's not about the quantity of arrows, but the quality of the shot. For a newbie, I would recommend keeping your sessions short, maybe 20-25 arrows. Focus on perfect form. We never "get" there, but it's still the focus. By focusing on perfect form the shot will take care of itself. Start of 3-5 yards from the target. Draw, anchor, sight picture, focus and.............close your eyes. Focus on squeezing the shot off and pulling thru the shot. Get used to feeling what a surprise release feels like. Might need a helper to make sure you don't wander off the target. After a few nights or maybe even a few weeks, move back to 15 yards or so. Again, focus on form. Relaxed bow hand, bow wrist, shoulder and draw arm shoulder should form a "T". And focus on each shot. A great way to do that, is to shoot one arrow. Perfect form and execution is the goal. Retrieve that arrow. Wash, rinse, repeat. Don't get caught up in group size. Yet. And most importantly, if you shoot till you're tired or muscle failure, rest assured your form started to fail before that. It's really really tough, but if you feel you can't focus on the mechanics or start to tire, put the bow down. Come back later or the next day. It's human nature to try and improve a bad shot or series of bad shots. But if your fatigued, it becomes nothing but chasing one bad arrow after another, form suffers and frustration builds. None of which is good for improving your shooting abilities.

Your endurance WILL improve. It will. As it does, increase the number of arrows and start to shoot longer distances. Nothing will show you flaws in your form like launching an arrow from 50-60+ yards.

Remember.... Perfect form, the perfect shot will follow.

There's a bunch of good guys on here that are more than happy to help.

 

Love it. This is exactly the type of info a newbie like me needs. Thank you.

 

https://www.anjrpc.org/page/HunterM...ZDh-dqaXnggwx2Kb1CoxJy0y-XBy0ZugkZ8LMSCuzygUM

 

Antlers are starting to drop here.

 

Shit that's horrible. Praying for his family.

 

About those sheds: good time to do some scouting. Find sheds and ancestral buck bedding areas are not too far away. Bucks do not range far from their bedding area during post-rut. We found seven sheds in a 200 yard radius over a period of 3-4 years. Found the first while I was pissing! I looked down and there it was. Bleached white with age, knawed by squirrels for minerals, partially buried in dirt and leaves. (Talking about the shed here.) The sheds we found (two that day) averaged slightly better than what we were killing, so we knew we were on to something. Down here you can walk faster and cover more ground due to the low temps keeping the snakes buried up reliably for a month or two. Can see farther too. Between the sheds and how far you can see you can learn a bunch before it starts to warm. Good time to hog hunt too!

Train a dog to find sheds? Now we're talkin'.

 

Here’s a few of mine.

 

Yep, I'm preachin' to the choir here...

 

Listening to y'alls advice and only shooting a couple arrows at a time.

My last range trip was.... ohhh 6 hours....
Not really sore the next day but my form and shot placement went from okay to me losing an arrow. Okay, that doesn't do me any good. (Had a blast though so)

Today, my 3rd time shooting my bow, I told myself I'd shoot 15 arrows and really focus on form. Definitely more beneficial than shooting for hours and hours.

20yds

 

uh, me thinks yer on it...

 

Damn skippy!!!

 

So I looked at three separate properties this weekend for hunting (two in VA and one in NC). My hope is to find a property that will serve three purposes, 1) hunting property for me and a good friend of mine 2) summer property for the wife and kids, and 3) evacuation property when a hurricane is bearing down on us here in coastal NC.

Im stoked to potentially have some private land to hunt that is less than 3 hours from me.. only downside is we will have to commit a decent amount of time to clearing some trails and building a cabin.. but thats fun stuff, mostly.

 

Headed out for one of my last bow hunts tomorrow. Figured it might be a good idea to wash off a little blood from my pack...

 

Put some cameras back out and found the most disappointing rub I have ever seen.

 

lil guy will be a stud one day....

 

While marking timber this past November in a neighboring county, saw and measured with my diameter 2, 8" diameter trees rubbed up like the picture above! Landowner never got out hunting due to newborn, but said a friend got a monster there. Haven't got to see any pics though.

 

This is 1 of 2 similar sized rubs where I hunted 2019 gun season in Ohio - about 50 yards from my stand in a clearcut.

 

I like and hate seeing rubs...only cuz i never get to shoot the buck that makes them

 

I like to see them, I’ve never hunted them though.