Swing and a miss

Last Saturday was my first time out hunting in half a decade or so.  It was great to be out at 5 in the morning.  Because shooting light wasn't until 6 something, I didn't get out into the woods until closer to 7.  Walked all morning on a piece of public land that I really had no knowledge of.  I should have scouted it earlier, I just never got around to it.

At about 7:45AM I was resting in a thicket.  I had just put my bag back on and picked up my bow, when I heard a lot of noise moving from my right to my left, probably 20 yards in front of me.  With all the brush I couldn't see anything.  Then to my right I saw what I'm pretty sure was a doe, as it circled back around.  Not 30 seconds later I saw the white flag as it moved away.  My thought is that I stumbled upon their normal morning trail and as they approached they caught a whiff of me.  I'm pretty sure there was no way I would've snuck up on them.

It was a good morning and I now know that there are definitely deer out there.  I'm going to hunt another property this weekend, but I hope to be back out on that public land in another week.  Hopefully I haven't completely run them off.  The next block of woods over is being logged, so I'm banking on them being used to humans and the smell.  Better luck next time.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for next weekend!

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.

Grizzly Adams

If you don't know who the title is speaking of click: here.  In light of the coming hunting season, I will not be shaving for the foreseen future.  Hunting is manly, eating deer meat is manly, so to make it even more manly we'll be adding facial hair.  I don't know when I'll be shaving, but it won't be for over a month.  Much to the chagrin of my significant other.  But their loss.  I'll be posting a pic half-way to the season to track progress.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more manliness.

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.

Monkey Business

When I first looked into hunting this season, I figured I'd buy the bow and some camouflage and I'd be good to go.  Hunting from the ground wouldn't be too hard if I found a good set-up and always accounted for the wind.  However when I went scouting with my friend, there were a few stands on the property we looked at.  I got to thinking if I could find a used stand for cheap that still worked, I'd grab it.  Well I found one on Sunday and I went and bought it.  $40 later I have a climbing stand that looks to be in relatively good condition.  It has at least one season left in it, if not a few.  The only thing it is missing is that the front of the seat part was cut off, so using it with a bow will probably be easier actually.  But climbing with it could prove interesting.  I am hoping to try it out in the woods behind the house this week, since I will be busy this weekend.  Pictures will be posted soon.

Thanks for reading.

Just a good stretch of the legs.

Went scouting today.  Just looking for a feel of the land and figure out some possible deer spots.  There were a good amount of tracks.  No rubs or scrapes yet, but I think it's a little early for that.  However I'm completely new to scouting for deer, so I don't have a good ground of knowledge to base that off of.  Regardless, it was a nice walk and there are some great spots that I think we're going to find some deer.

I also shot from a tree stand today.  It was a 20 yard shot and I was  trying to aim over a branch without a safety harness on.  Definitely not something I would recommend to anyone.  Especially after trying that, I would certainly have a harness the next time I'm in a stand.  Also make sure you have a shooting lane.  These are all things you learn in the bow hunter's education course and if you do some research it's pretty simple.  But it definitely makes sense when you try it yourself.

The guy that I was with was pretty knowledgeable about the land and he's bow hunted before.  He also turkey hunts the land, so it is definitely good to have all of that experience.

After today I am really looking forward to hunting season and as much effort as this is going to be, I think it will pay off great in the end.  Thanks for reading.

It has my name on it!

So yesterday was the official Bow Hunter Education Course.  8 hours of extra training on top of your Hunter's Safety Course to help in defining the extra difficulties and skills necessary in bow hunting.  The coolest part was blood trailing.  Now granted it was a set up trail, but the guy knew what he was doing and it was pretty lifelike.  The only problem was that one of the instructors was not the best orator.  His teaching consisted of 'You know?' 'It's just...' 'I mean' 'You've gotta be kidding me' but all of them ad nauseam, especially 'You know?' followed immediately by 'I mean'.  Now granted this has nothing to do with the man's knowledge and experience, but it does make it severely hard to pay attention, receive any useful information, and to even understand what he's trying to say be it another story or warning.  He's an engineer and I understand how when some of us (I am in school for the very same) get cooped up by ourselves with our research and we get older, we just do not understand how communication works anymore.  But I digress.  Anyways the class was informative and I enjoyed it.  It was also free.  And it did brush up on topics of hunting that I appreciated the small refresher on since my Hunter's Safety Course was back in '07.  At the completion of the course they give you another small card to put in your wallet/carry with you hunting along with your safety course completion card.

We also got to shoot at the end and that was informative and exciting.  However I did break another fletching (this one just ripped all the way off) due to a dead-center shot on a bag target that was a little worse for wear.  So I wasn't super happy about that, but it will be a cheap fix and in the future (probably sooner rather than later) I will need a few more arrows anyways.  I got to see other hunters' equipment as well and got to hear some first hand opinions, even though I've done quite a bit of research myself.

All in all, if you're a seasoned hunter and you want a little more of a challenge bow hunting might be for you.  It's also great for younger hunters too, as there were several there at the course and it's definitely something that you can get into early in life and enjoy for a long time.

If you have been following this and you like what you see feel free to chime in.  Or if you disagree I like a good debate.  Opinions are always welcome.  My bow is the Parker Pioneer XP with V-Force V6 Carbon arrows fletched with 3 inch, offset vanes.  Broad heads that I will be using first are the Muzzy MX-3's at 100 gr.  I bought it from Huntersfriend.com and they had great service, fast shipping, and I would definitely do business with them again.  I would also recommend them to anyone.

Thanks and 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.