Final Prep

With hunting season almost upon us, it's time to make those last minute changes and preperations to get ready to get up at 3 in the morning.  First thing is to make sure the bow is performing in top shape.  That means using broadheads to tune, tightening everything down, and going over every inch of the bow to make sure it won't fail when that monster is downrange.  Cameras also need to be checked and any other equipment needs to be ready to go; tree stands, climbing gear, and harness among other things.

I was shooting my broad heads today and it seems the pins are a little off.  I was told i wouldn't have to change that much, but I think I may also need to check flight path.  A little paper tuning before I start moving the pins and it might just straighten itself out.  Pun intended.  I also got string wax this weekend.  I think that because I've been shooting it for so long without the wax, the string is pretty much at the end of it's life.  After hunting season is over, I will definitely be changing it.  Nobody told me that was an issue.  Better late than never, but I hope the bow will hold out.

Thanks for reading and in a week or two, I'll get some pictures from the stand and maybe even a deer up here!  Stay tuned.

Counting down the days

It is almost September and hunting season is looming large.  In light of this, practicing is pretty much an every day occurrence.  If it's 4 arrows or 40, it helps.  As I continue my strength training, I am also making sure to train my bow technique.  As with strength training though, you need a rest day every now and then.

Today was a 3 set day of arrows and everything looked great, from 15 yards to 30 yards.  The last set of the day I posted, because it was my first set where all 4 are just about within an inch of each other.  Usually I'll get 3 together and one outlier.  Today marks a good day in my progress.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned.  Also check out the photos page for my camo gear.  Everything came in last week and I finally got some good pictures of it (minus the boots).

Professional

Yesterday was my first visit to the local archery pro shop.  The gentleman there was very helpful and knowledgeable.  Fletching my arrows came out to be about what I thought it was going to cost, so that was good to know I had planned accordingly.  He put the bow in the press to see if he could eliminate some of the cam lean.  To be honest, it still looks just the same, but I thanked him for doing that.  I also asked him about how much it would be for another half a dozen arrows.  I don't know as if I'll be buying any this year, but I thought I would double check in case the worst happened.  It's good to know they will fit in the budget as well.  Apart from archery gear, I stopped off at Wally World and grabbed a few items.  It always boggles my mind how fast I end up spending money there.  Everything I got was a necessity, hunting wise, and I paid a little over $50 for the whole thing.  Now you could say that hunting gear is expensive enough that I got a great deal.  But for what I was getting, it still seemed pretty steep.  Now once my camo and harness get here on Wednesday, I'll be good to go for hunting season.  Pictures will follow.

Thanks for reading.

The long way around.

After my humbling experience yesterday, I figured I really needed to start shooting again.  Consistently and constantly or else I may not be ready for bow season.  My groups got better, ending with a solid group of 3 touching, which is on the picture page.  I have a long way to go to be anywhere close to being ready though as all this time off has not been good for me.  'Til next time.

Thanks for reading.

A little bit farther now, a little bit farther now

If you don't get the reference of the title I feel bad for you.  But as it suggests I'm moving back!  I think the top sight pin is almost exactly dialed in for 15 yards, only I don't measure out with a tape every time, so it's unfortunately approximate.  But it should be close.

I did take a round from 30 yards (32 paces or so, long legs = long strides).  I got a picture of it, but I did not upload it last night.  I'll get to it this evening.  I thought it was a pretty darn good group for being the last round after an upper body workout day.  I think with a day of rest and a few warm up shots and I can close it down a lot.  Even still the group was 3 in the 6 to 8 inch diameter circle (again I haven't measured it, but now that I think of it that's a great idea).  The first one was way off because I was using the wrong pin.  I wasn't sure if my 30 yard pin was the last one or the middle one.  Turns out it was the middle.  I was about an inch away from sending that arrow over the target.  But the fact that the others were in the 6 to 8 inch circle was great.  Not as consistent as I would like to see, but again I had already shot a few rounds and it was an upper body day.

It is good that I had a hard time yesterday, though.  I tried to focus on making sure I was against the wall and I tried to keep good form even while I was fatigued.  I think this represents a similar situation if you were hunting and had several tree stands.  If you were going up and down all day and had walked a ways to your stand, you would probably be fatigued.  As long as I keep practicing and working out, when hunting season comes I won't even have to try when drawing the bow.  Everything will be second nature and I won't have to think about anything.

Pictures will be up later.  If you are following this, here's a great blog post about keeping your form: Olympic Archer/Hunter.  It is not just about form, but some great info from some pros.  Also a good resource in general.  Thanks for reading.

Happy 4th of July

Today is the day everyone watches parades, grills burgers, and enjoys the beautiful day it hopefully is, ending the day with a firework display.  At least that's what I grew up doing.  Well I did not go see a parade and we didn't even grill today.  But I did shoot my bow, a lot.  I think I may have figured out the issues of the rest: I realized that I hadn't tightened all of the screws after all of the arrows I've shot.  So I looked at my rest and sure enough, it was loose.  But of course I didn't have the correct size allen wrench.  So I need to go out and get a dedicated set for my bow, not a bad idea in and of itself.  I think that might solve the rest issue because if I remembered to tighten it, I don't think I had a problem with it, but I had to tighten it every other shot because it was only finger tightened.  As for the cam lean still not fixed and I didn't get any pictures, but oh well.  I'll try to get some this weekend.  At this point though, my arrows are really beat up, at least the fletchings are.  I now have two that only have 2 vanes, and a few that have 2 and 1/2 vanes.  I do have 1 pristine arrow left though.  We're keeping that one until I know I've fixed the rest and it won't wreck any more arrows.  Hope everyone had a great Independence Day and have a good weekend.

Thanks for reading.

Troubleshooting

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.

It's like riding a bike...

When your parents taught you to ride a bike, hopefully it was a good experience.  Honestly, I don't remember learning to ride my first bike.  But it is true that no matter how long I go without riding a bike, getting back on one is easy.  You never forget how, hence the phrase.  But is it because riding a bike is easy?

The reason you never forget how to ride a bike is because you (usually) went through a long process to learn the balance and motions for riding a bike (except those of you freaks of nature out there).  The many repetitions that you went through, trained the motions and balance into your muscle memory.  I read somewhere (for those of you skeptics) that it takes some ridiculous number [5000] of repetitions to commit a certain motion to muscle memory.  That's where the phrase "practice makes perfect" springs from.  Now personally I like the phrase "perfect practice makes perfect" a little better because you can develop bad habits very quickly, but I digress.

So 5000 repetitions eh?  That's a lot.  How many things do you think you have done, or want to do 5000 times?

I just got my first compound hunting bow yesterday and let me tell you, it was quite the experience.  I used to shoot kids bows and small compound bows back when I was in Cub Scouts and in Boy Scouts.  My sister even got a compound bow when she was younger and we all got to use it as kids.  But that was a long time ago.  I hadn't shot a bow in years (probably over a decade), let alone drawn back a full size compound bow.  Now I consider myself a pretty fit individual.  Definitely not a bulky, strong he-man, but I grew up a farmer and I play hockey so I've got a little meat on my bones.  But this bow kicked my butt.  I shot 10 or 12 arrows in total and the placement wasn't bad for an amateur, but it's going to be a while before I'm shooting 50 in a row, let alone 2 inch groups at 20 yards.

Hunting is a great pastime.  It puts you out in nature and it is a great way to practice conservation.  I'm a hunter and I've gone hunting for deer, squirrels, woodchucks, and the like with shotguns and rifles.  Bow hunting was always another genre I wanted to get involved in for various reasons: you have to get closer to the animal, it doesn't disrupt all of nature with its noise, there is a greater challenge from the variable of the bow, and let's be honest it's badass.  Don't get me wrong, hunting is hard no matter how you skin it (get it?).  It's called hunting, not killing.  This blog will follow my journey into this newest aspect of hunting which I hope will be a large part of the rest of my life.

Thanks for joining me.