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.

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.