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in reply to: wood arrows? #22452
Larry,
One of my favorite hobbies is woodworking, especially antique furniture restoration. As such, I love making wood arrows. Unfortunately, my 32” draw length pretty much kills any idea of me shooting broadhead-tipped wood arrows for hunting. Even if I could find them long enough to make 32+” BOP arrows that spine around 90#, they’d end up weighing a ton.
I still use wood arrows for small game hunting, mostly for cost savings reasons, and I shoot nice ones out of my selfbows when I get that itch. But for everything else, carbon really is the only material that suits my needs.
in reply to: Broadhead of choice let's hear it #22443I’ve been using 125-grain Ace Standards since 2004. They’ve worked flawlessly for me on everything from small game like bullfrogs, squirrels, rabbits, and grouse, to larger game like deer, hogs, whitetails, elk, and moose.
in reply to: DO I NEED LESSONS? #9551Don’t worry about “this degree” or “that degree;” just sharpen them the way they’re ground. The use of a protractor has never been part of my sharpening routine, and I don’t think that any of the animals I’ve killed are any less dead because of it. Sometimes, I think we tend to overcomplicate things just for sport. 😉
in reply to: How much broadhead weight on my setup? #56563LimbLover wrote: I shoot both with a 125g field point and they fly great.
If 125-grains shoots great, that’s what I’d use. Tuning is paramount, and I’d personally never de-tune an arrow just to have some arbitrary number of grains out front.
in reply to: GLOVES OR TABS??? #52046I guess I’ll be the odd man out on this one. I tried a glove for a while when I was a kid and never could get used to it. I like being able to feel my anchor with my fingertips, and I’ve never gotten nearly as clean of a release with a glove as with a tab.
I’ve lost a tab or two over the years at 3D shoots, but never while hunting. Even if I did, I always have a spare with me anyway, so it’s not really a concern.
in reply to: Who's going to Compton? #52039I’m going to try to be there Friday, but I should roll in Saturday morning at the latest. That weekend is always a great time.
in reply to: Traditional only arrows ( Three Rivers) #50634They’re relabeled Beman ICS Classics, which are the same the same thing as Beman ICS Camos, only with a wood grain finish. I’ve been shooting ICS shafts since 2001, if memory serves. They’re great shafts — tight tolerances, good durability and such.
in reply to: The "Process" of Shooting #24978I enjoyed reading the article, and think it goes to show that we are all individuals. What works for one person may work against another.
Being a baseball junkie myself, I especially liked his Willie Mays analogy. However, while athletes in general may perform at their best by going on autopilot, they didn’t get where they’re at, or maintain their abilities, by not constantly reinforcing the mechanics and fundamentals of their trade. Being able to mentally shut down and “just do it” at crunch time is the reward of hard, tedious, meticulous ongoing work. Major league pitchers who strike batters out with wicked 12-6 curveballs don’t get that way by learning it in high school and then not thinking about how to do it.
As this relates to archery and bowhunting, I spend a lot of practice time working on my shot routine and execution, step by step, piece by piece. By constantly pounding that repetition into my head on the practice range (or 3D range for that matter) I don’t have to think about it when I trade by field points for broadheads. Sure, I could still shoot on autopilot for bowhunting without all the constant “left brain” reinforcement, but the results wouldn’t be nearly as good.
in reply to: Adding weight to arrows #23100Richie,
The 10 gpp guideline is a nice middle of the road rule of thumb, but it’s certainly not carved in stone. I haven’t hunted big game with arrows weighing much more than 9 gpp in over a decade, and I haven’t had any problem putting arrows through deer, elk, moose, et cetera.
Get it tuned, get it sharp, put it where it belongs, and you should do just fine.
in reply to: 1st bow to heavy. help!!!!!!!! #16383The first thing I would suggest is picking up a used bow that you can handle. Put the 55# bow away for now. Learning to shoot when you’re overbowed is a great way to set yourself up for failure…and injury.
in reply to: Screw-in Abowyer Brown Bear #63049David Petersen wrote: Sapcut — yah, geeze, those things look like they’d cut a small deer plumb in half! Make it easier to pack out and save field dressing! :shock::D8)
According to their web site, they’re only 1 3/16″ wide, which is kind of a normal width. I thought they looked wider in the photos.
in reply to: Group sizes? #54590This has been a great thread thus far, with a lot of excellent points of view.
Personally, I find tremendous value in shooting groups, especially on indoor paper targets. Shooting groups is all about one thing: consistency. If I can hit the spot over and over again, time after time (i.e. skill versus luck), I feel a lot more confident with my shooting abilities in the hunting woods. Obviously, target proficiency and effective range on animals is not a 1-to-1 equation. Just because I can stack arrows into a group the size of a kill zone on a deer at x-number of yards, doesn’t mean I’ll shoot a deer at that distance.
Groups also allow me to diagnose certain shooting issues that I may not otherwise notice. If my groups are taller than they are wide, that tells me one thing. If they’re wider than tall, that tells me something else. Simply shooting one arrow at a time from different distances at different targets doesn’t give me the amount of data I need to fine-tune my shooting.
Chris touched on 3D targets and the lack of an aiming spot, which brings up another interesting point. What is the one main piece of advice often given about shooting animals? “Pick a spot.” Shooting paper is highly valuable, but it doesn’t teach archers to pick a spot (the spot—which is highly visible—is already picked for you). Even stump-shooting can fall short in this regard, since it’s all too easy to pick targets that stand out, such as a pinecone, the center of a flower, or a light spot on a dark stump.
3D archery forces you to get into the habit of picking a spot where one may not be apparent, and isn’t that one of the most important parts of being successful on game? Years ago I used to struggle with picking a spot on animals. After shooting a lot of 3D, picking a spot isn’t even something I have to think about anymore; it’s automatic. I can’t remember the last time I had to tell myself to pick a spot, and I also can’t remember the last time I failed to do so.
in reply to: BOW ARM TECHNIQUE QUESTION #54569Generally speaking, a slightly relaxed bow arm is better. Compound or stickbow, most of the best archers I know do not shoot with a locked bow arm. But there are exceptions. For example, Butch Johnson — arguably the best US Olympic Archer today (alongside Vic Wunderle) — shots with his bow arm nearly hyper-extended.
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