I used to post on here a lot so some of you guys may remember me. For those that don't please allow me to introduce myself. I'm 38 and have been hunting my whole life. Not just hunting but absolutely obsessed with it. It's cost me jobs, relationships, friendships... You name it. As I have gotten older I've at least somewhat learned how to tame it. I started an outfitter business 4 years ago and in that time I spent way more time with binos than I did a bow or rifle. I tried the trad game 10 or 12 years ago and just never caught on. I got frustrated and put it down. Last year 2 of my good buddies talked me into it again and loaned me a Bob Lee long bow. I got ok with it and managed to make a good shot on a doe but we were unable to recover her. That's the nasty part of bow hunting that has happened before and will likely happen again. Again I got frustrated and put it down.
This year I set my mind to it and bought my own. It's a Bob Lee BlackHawk with Cobra Limbs 60" recurve 40# @28". The bow felt like a dream in the shop. It was almost as if it picked me. I adopted sort of a hybrid style of shooting. As much as I'd love to tell you I'm full instinctive, that would be a lie. It's sort of hybrid. I basically use my point for a left right reference and let her rip. It didn't start out very pretty but much better than my previous attempts. I quickly fell in love with shooting my bow again.
I played with weights and started getting great arrow flight. Literally the only thing I know about trad shooting is the answers my two buddies give me when I call them with questions. Once I achieved good flight and started being more comfortable with the bow the groups started getting consistently tighter.
I headed up to the bow only lease in SE Oklahoma genuinely excited about opening day for the first time in quite sometime when I didn't have a "big deer" to hunt. Any deer would be a trophy for me. I was getting the jitters on the 2.5hr drive up from Fort Worth. The morning was crisp and cool and this place was really close to sight unseen. I'd spent 3 hours there helping my buddy fill feeders but was only certain that I could find 1 stand in the dark. Fortunately the wind was right for it.
It was a tank style blind and a style that I have hunted out of many times with a compound. As day broke and I could see it was pretty obvious that I was going to be severely limited with my big bow but I planning on making the best of it.
The firs opportunity very much made me feel like it was my first time in a stand. She's at 17 and I had made the comments to my buddies that I felt about 80% confident at 20 and if they're at 15 they're on the tailgate. That wasn't arrogance talking. I legit felt that comfortable with the bow. How wrong I was.
So there was a tree in the window I needed to shoot out of so I had a bit of a handicap there but it did serve as a nice blindfold. I had to shade one side of the window as I was drawing and the back of my broadhead hung the side of the window and pulled completely off of the string. She absolutely loved the way that 569gr arrow sounded when it hit the bottom of the blind. WAY TO GO ROOK!!!!
That afternoon I climbed up in a ladder stand and felt great about the set up. A group of 4 does roll in, one gets right at 18 and I absolutely shanked it. Target panic is something I have struggled with my whole life and it has cost me some incredible animals over the years. I honestly don't have any idea if I did anything right or everything right but I definitely shanked it. A few min later another one rolls in at 19 and I talked myself through the shot and actually felt really good about it until she bellied out and I caught nothing but back straps. I got pictures a couple of days later and she is alive and well.
Next morning I'm back in a different location but same type of blind as the morning before. Doe rolls in at 18 gets right, and as I release my top limb smacks the top of the blind and I could have thrown the arrow further than it went.
I'm frustrated but not dejected. I don't place blame typically but felt comfortable saying that out of the 4 opportunities I have had at this point 2 were on me and 2 were blind related. I get back to camp and decide to shoot my dull broadhead into the target for the first time ever... Yep, y'all already know... WAY TO GO ROOK!!!
It flew terribly. I screwed on some 125's and the flew better but definitely not great but that was the best I could do from the field. So I crawled into a lock on where I'd likely have a sub 10 years shot, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. 2 does roll in and one gets broad side at 6... yes sir I said SIX yards and I must have shot over her by a foot. 10min later the other one settled down at 21 and I shot under her by about the same. I was DONE!!! My red hair was definitely showing!
So I learn about bareshaft tuning on my way back home and Tuesday morning I'm sitting at Gateway Archery when they open. Great people there! They were so swamped but we're still so patient as I asked them to pull inserts, cut 1/4", re glue over and over again. In total 1 5/8" of arrow was cut off and we were throwing darts with broadheads screwed in. Pics to show bare shaft vs fletched with field tips and then a broadhead tune at 20
So these are my struggles. Some of it can be chalked up to a learning curve. The one that bothers me the most is the target panic situation. I truly don't know how to fix this other than to keep shooting at animals. It doesn't happen at all shooting targets. But when I draw on a deer the moment I hit my anchor points it's almost as if I completely lose my sight picture. Everything gets blurry and there's only moments of focus.
We'll see how it goes and I promise to update as accurately as I can until I get this monkey off of my back. I'm open to any good advice regarding target panic as well!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This year I set my mind to it and bought my own. It's a Bob Lee BlackHawk with Cobra Limbs 60" recurve 40# @28". The bow felt like a dream in the shop. It was almost as if it picked me. I adopted sort of a hybrid style of shooting. As much as I'd love to tell you I'm full instinctive, that would be a lie. It's sort of hybrid. I basically use my point for a left right reference and let her rip. It didn't start out very pretty but much better than my previous attempts. I quickly fell in love with shooting my bow again.
I played with weights and started getting great arrow flight. Literally the only thing I know about trad shooting is the answers my two buddies give me when I call them with questions. Once I achieved good flight and started being more comfortable with the bow the groups started getting consistently tighter.
I headed up to the bow only lease in SE Oklahoma genuinely excited about opening day for the first time in quite sometime when I didn't have a "big deer" to hunt. Any deer would be a trophy for me. I was getting the jitters on the 2.5hr drive up from Fort Worth. The morning was crisp and cool and this place was really close to sight unseen. I'd spent 3 hours there helping my buddy fill feeders but was only certain that I could find 1 stand in the dark. Fortunately the wind was right for it.
It was a tank style blind and a style that I have hunted out of many times with a compound. As day broke and I could see it was pretty obvious that I was going to be severely limited with my big bow but I planning on making the best of it.
The firs opportunity very much made me feel like it was my first time in a stand. She's at 17 and I had made the comments to my buddies that I felt about 80% confident at 20 and if they're at 15 they're on the tailgate. That wasn't arrogance talking. I legit felt that comfortable with the bow. How wrong I was.
So there was a tree in the window I needed to shoot out of so I had a bit of a handicap there but it did serve as a nice blindfold. I had to shade one side of the window as I was drawing and the back of my broadhead hung the side of the window and pulled completely off of the string. She absolutely loved the way that 569gr arrow sounded when it hit the bottom of the blind. WAY TO GO ROOK!!!!
That afternoon I climbed up in a ladder stand and felt great about the set up. A group of 4 does roll in, one gets right at 18 and I absolutely shanked it. Target panic is something I have struggled with my whole life and it has cost me some incredible animals over the years. I honestly don't have any idea if I did anything right or everything right but I definitely shanked it. A few min later another one rolls in at 19 and I talked myself through the shot and actually felt really good about it until she bellied out and I caught nothing but back straps. I got pictures a couple of days later and she is alive and well.
Next morning I'm back in a different location but same type of blind as the morning before. Doe rolls in at 18 gets right, and as I release my top limb smacks the top of the blind and I could have thrown the arrow further than it went.
I'm frustrated but not dejected. I don't place blame typically but felt comfortable saying that out of the 4 opportunities I have had at this point 2 were on me and 2 were blind related. I get back to camp and decide to shoot my dull broadhead into the target for the first time ever... Yep, y'all already know... WAY TO GO ROOK!!!
It flew terribly. I screwed on some 125's and the flew better but definitely not great but that was the best I could do from the field. So I crawled into a lock on where I'd likely have a sub 10 years shot, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. 2 does roll in and one gets broad side at 6... yes sir I said SIX yards and I must have shot over her by a foot. 10min later the other one settled down at 21 and I shot under her by about the same. I was DONE!!! My red hair was definitely showing!
So I learn about bareshaft tuning on my way back home and Tuesday morning I'm sitting at Gateway Archery when they open. Great people there! They were so swamped but we're still so patient as I asked them to pull inserts, cut 1/4", re glue over and over again. In total 1 5/8" of arrow was cut off and we were throwing darts with broadheads screwed in. Pics to show bare shaft vs fletched with field tips and then a broadhead tune at 20
So these are my struggles. Some of it can be chalked up to a learning curve. The one that bothers me the most is the target panic situation. I truly don't know how to fix this other than to keep shooting at animals. It doesn't happen at all shooting targets. But when I draw on a deer the moment I hit my anchor points it's almost as if I completely lose my sight picture. Everything gets blurry and there's only moments of focus.
We'll see how it goes and I promise to update as accurately as I can until I get this monkey off of my back. I'm open to any good advice regarding target panic as well!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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