When I got home today, I immediately began practicing. Today was a day full of problems though. To start off, I had to douse myself in bug spray several times and even still I'm not sure I escaped free of new bites. I then starting shooting and everything was going well, even put all 4 arrows touching in a row (shafts not just the fletching). But I noticed that the sling was a little loose, so I went in and tightened it. I also messed with the release because it didn't feel quite right, but it was apparently still not right because I have some blisters on my lower thumb. Then I noticed some black stuff on my fletching and it was a little wavy as well. Lo and behold, my drop away rest hadn't dropped! Still not positive why this was happening, but I assumed I wasn't pulling all the way to the wall or I was letting the string forward just a little before pulling the trigger. So I tried to make sure I was releasing from the full draw and that seemed to clear up the problem, but it was still occurring sporadically. That took off a lot of the felt that was on the rest and it had also messed up those 4 arrows' fletching a bit, so I now have only 1 arrow that has good vanes on it since I ripped the one off on Sunday (not intentionally). To top things off it started to rain a bit, but I figured "Hey it's going to rain when I hunt, so why not practice in it?" Well that's great and all, but if you have the same thinking as I do just be aware that your arrows are going to go through your foam layer target (if that's indeed what you are using). With water on the shafts, the friction of the shafts against the layers of foam comes down a bit, so the arrows will either get stuck with the fletching in the target, or they will punch right through. Needless to say you will strain the fletching. The last thing I noticed today was that the top cam (an idler wheel as it's a single cam bow) was off at an angle with the string and the top limb was slightly torqued. This is because of the cable guard that pulls the cables out of the way of the arrow. I'm not sure how this is corrected or how big of an issue it is, but it definitely makes me nervous.
Overall today was a learning experience and I'm sure one of the many more hump days that I will have on my way to becoming an expert with my equipment. And to help with all of the issues I encountered today, I'm going to call the pro-shop tomorrow and discuss what they think I could do to rectify the problems. I was asked if I was discouraged by all of the drawbacks that I had today and I replied that while I was frustrated, it was not discouraging. Learning a new sport takes practice, even for someone as myself who is naturally talented at picking up new things quickly. It will take practice to actually acquire the full skill necessary to take down my first deer. And that practice is well worth it in my mind. Besides I still had fun shooting today. I probably had over 20 shots maybe even over 30 today and I don't even feel it. Already my work is paying off and I can pull the bow back every time without a struggle. I had my best draw today too, as I pulled it back I slowed down as I came to the let off and just settled right down to the full draw without a single jerk. So it wasn't all bad today (as I scratch about a half-dozen more mosquito bites).
Thanks for reading.
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