[arthurw]

in reply to: New member from NJ #47312

I agree 100%. He knew I was there. By the time he came alongfrom the south the sun had moved over far enough so he wasn’t blinded by it. He caught my movement when I positioned the bow for drawing, I’m sure of it. I had planned for the sun position but only if he came from upwind, not downwind. Another reason I agree with you is he came back the next morning, again from the South, maybe an hour earlier than the previous day, and as soon as he reached a certain spot he looked directly at me even though I had repositioned to catch him coming in from that way, andhe headed East out of range the whole time. I drove home in the dark that night and he crossed the Rd in front of me. Haven’t been back since. I’ve been hunting public land.

[arthurw]

in reply to: New member from NJ #40053

The crossbow part was a joke. I’ve been gun hunting since I was old enough for a license. I decided to try out stickbows, and became addicted. I won’t take the easy way out. Two weeks ago I put myself in a setup that I thought was perfect.

Picture this if you can. Last year I was hunting a private piece, and kept seeing a very large bodied 8 pointer with a nice spread. I never got him. There was a little basket rack that was coming around, and he came within my 10 yard range, but I wanted the big boy, so I let him go. I ate my tag last year. This year that little guy grew up into a pretty nice 6. I patterned him, I thought, and finally everything came together. The trail he uses runs roughly north/South. I entered my bush blind 10 yards off the trail an hour before light, on the east side, when the sun came up he’d have to look directly into it if he looked in my direction. Wind blowing from the north. I had a clear shot at the trail and expected him to come in from the north. Around 10 am I caught movement to the south. It was him coming right up his trail like usual only in the wrong direction. I had to wait til he got behind brush and lifted bow into position. Then he got behind two trees and I drew. Literally 2 more steps Id have perfect broadside shot at 10 yards. He took one more step and very casually headed due west, leaving me with his butt and the back of his neck to shoot at! I didn’t think the shot was ethical, and let down. I watched him move along unalarmed.

[arthurw]

in reply to: New member from NJ #36992

Thanks for the welcome. I don’t know if I’ll have successes, unless we are counting successfully finding my arrows after a complete target miss. I just got back from my cold shot experiment. I was 8 inches off from my intended spot at 15 yds. I’m deadly every shot at 10 yards every session, cold shot included.

My shooting sessions go something like this. At 15 yds first shot is a miss by many inches. Next 3 arrows into the kill zone. Then my form falls apart and I continue to shoot and shoot and shoot about 2 hours per session with arrows going in random places on the target. High, low, left, right. Then my bow shoulder gives out and I finally miss the entire target. I successfully find my arrow, and go home and look at crossbows on eBay. This goes on every 2 days. I bought this recurve last year, and I’ve run a couple thousand arrows through it.

Today, I read some stuff on this forum, which is why I went and shot today. It turns out I have form consistency issues. I’m torquing left and right, not anchoring consistently, release is so bad arrows have a noticeable arcing trajectory at 15 yards. I can’t figure out why I’m deadly at 10 every shot, but I fall apart at 15. Then I settled down, rolled a smoke, and remembered what I read here this morning. Somebody said something about dropping the string shoulder. Somehow, I found a repeatable anchor, changed my bow grip a little, and dropped my string shoulder and next dozen shots were within about 2 inches from the little black dot. I adjusted foot position a little, began releasing cleanly, and suddenly the bow got quiet, the arrows flew like laser beams, and the next three shots were millimeters off the dot. Then my bow shoulder gave out and I had to find my arrow. I’m not looking for crossbows on eBay today. Going tomorrow morning for another session. Thanks guys for all the ideas.

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