Hello sports fans,

In my last post I mentioned the difficulty of finding a place to shoot locally, (outdoors and legal according to the local by-laws in this part of Canada). My experiment was a success and I have found not one but several good places for shooting at some of the home made targets that I’ve made recently, (who says archery has to be expensive to get into). So after a morning of extensive scouting with the maps that I’d printed off from the by-law website on the discharge of firearms, (including bows and crossbows), for my local area, I easily found a few good spots, out of the way of passers by and hikers, where I could set up my targets and let some arrows fly.

What a great feeling, outside on a beautiful spring day enjoying my Martin and some Easton Lightspeed 400s. I enjoyed myself so much infact that after shooting probably a couple hundred arrows, straight ahead, at 20 / 30 / 40 yards and even greater distances, up hill, down hill and even through the brush, (just to make things interesting), my shooting was ok, but I noticed that my grouping was a little loose, so I had to go back to the shop today and have my bow tuned right up to it’s maximum draw weight and installed a peep sight for better accuracy.

While in the shop doing all this, during my test shots with the new peep sight, the fellow who owns the shop noticed my left hand position wasn’t optimal, my wrist was too high. Correcting the problem, I spent some time at the indoor range at the shop and immediately noticed that my grouping was tighter and my shot placement was much better almost like magic. I’m not sure if it’s my hand position or the new peep sight, probably the combination of the two together, but my shooting just jumped up a notch today and I’m really happy about it. It never ceases to amaze me how something as simple as a trip to the pro shop once and a while, with regular practice can really improve one’s skill level. Perhaps my new archery motto should be practice, practice, pro shop. 😉

I can’t wait to get out to the forest range tomorrow, some friends are coming out with me, I’ve agreed to loan them bows so that we can all enjoy some archery outdoors for the day with me, is there any better way to spend a spring day, while on one’s way to becoming a bow hunter.

Craig

Literally.

Today as I practiced I was finally able to keep my eyes on the target as I fired. Partly by not squeezing my non-aiming eye fully closed, making it easier to watch the arrow all the way to the target.

This hardly ever happened before for me. It’s like a new portion of my form that I was finally able to bring into my shot sequence.

Literally. My groups tightened up. I resolved from that point to devote the rest of my session keeping my eyes on the arrows as they hit the target.

No, I didn’t magically turn into a threat to the 3D champions. I just found something that I’d been missing that was resulting in many, many random misses. It’s a wonder that my arrows ever hit the center. I was flinching.

I was first bitten by the archery bug when I was 14 years old. Me and my best friend both got new bows one Christmas. I received a Hoyt Raider that I loved until someone told me it was considered “Youth”  bow. The bow was great but I was not a youth I 14 years old and knew everything.  I must have shot every day, in every spare minute for three years straight. I had that little bow cranked down all the way and was getting every bit of 60 pound out of it. My accuracy was dead on up to 40 yards and I could keep a pattern so tight that even the old guys that worked at the indoor range where we shot were impressed. AS time went on I meet a girl and she was the farthest thing from a “youth” model I had ever seen. So needless to say my bow shooting days slowly faded out. I always keep an interest in archery and would go take a look at the bows every time I was at the sporting goods store and told my self “One day”. So here I am 31 years old and that day has finally come. Oh but how things have changed. Technology has really pushed the sport to new levels and the bows that have evolved are highly tuned and can be adjusted to fit anyone and any type of shooting style. Even with all the changes the one thing that remains is the feeling you get when you shoot a bow and hit your mark. The total control, the fact that what you put into the bow is what you get out. I am sure that this is the same feeling that native Americans got when they shot their bows for food or just to shoot. Its not the type of bow or how fast it shoots or weather it is a “youth” model or not, these thing can help but the feeling is all the same from the youngster at summer camp who puts one in the yellow for the first time to the professional hunter taking down wild game season after season. Once you get that feeling weather for the first time or the hundredth time you know what archery is all about and why it has stood the test of time. So you will be happy to know that I bought a new bow last week and can’t wait to get out their and start shooting all over again.

A perfect fall 2006 morning saw me out with my nephew for a whitetail hunt.  My nephew, Jake, is an accomplished bowhunter who has harvested several deer and whom I feel safe and confident being in the woods with.  It appeared to be a great morning to be out and I was nervous with anticipation.  As the morning wore on, however, my anticipation turned to frustration as the woods seemed completely dead.  Not even the pesky squirrels were out and about.  Late in the morning, I decided to give Jake a call to set up a deer drive on the other end of the property.  Just as I was ready to dial his number, I saw two deer moving toward Jake’s stand.  Within seconds I heard the release of a bowstring and the sounds of chaos as the two deer bolted.  One headed directly toward me and got within about forty yards before slowing down.  Its beautiful head started to droop before it collapsed on the forest floor.  In a matter of seconds, a frustrating hunt had turned fruitful as my nephew had collected the first doe of the season.  To make things even better, Jake’s wife Janna was within days of delivering their firstborn, a beautiful baby girl who would be named Annie.  A freezer stocked with deer meat would do their young family a world of good.

The second doe had headed off a different direction but was circling back toward Jake’s doe.  Slowly it edged up to the doe and sniffed the arrow entry wound.  Then she raised her leg and kicked the dead doe three times as if trying to wake her up.  Seeing that the doe wasn’t going to move, the second doe began wandering away but closer to my location.  Within moments she was standing quartering away in an open shooting lane thirty two yards away.  My aim and release felt perfect but I heard a loud thud as the arrow sped toward the target.  My heart sunk as I thought I must have hit a previously undetected tree limb in mid-flight.  At the sound, the doe bolted away from me eliminating any ability to get a second shot.  As I watched her I noticed that her tail was held straight down rather than flagging alarm and I began to wonder if I had hit her after all.    In a few seconds I was astonished to see her go down, only about twenty five yards from the point of impact.  My legs got weak as I began to realize that my apparent miss was indeed dead on the mark and two freezers were going to be stocked with tender nutritious doe meat.

Fast forward to pre-rut 2007, and the deer hunting had been hard and frustrating.  The weather had been very uncooperative and EHD had thinned the herd earlier in the fall.  I had done my tree time and had enjoyed it for the most part but had yet to take a shot.  In fact, I had yet to see a buck of any time when I had a bow in my hand.

It was well before dawn when Jake and I slipped into our stands.  Jake was in a permanent stand that had been a proven performer over the past several years.  I had recently changed my stand location as the old location had seen next to no activity due to the drought.  I had little idea how the new location would pan out, but I knew the change was overdue and the activity raised my hopes.

As dawn arrrived, the chill of the morning was attacking me with full force.  Toes, ears and fingers were beginning to protest their suffering when I heard movement behind me.  Turning slowly I saw a yearling doe making her way within 5 yards of my tree.  Given the lack of results my season had seen so far, I was thinking about harvesting her when I noticed that she kept looking back over her shoulder.  Hoping she was looking for a trailing buck I let her go and she slowly moved on toward Jake’s stand.  Within seconds, more noise caught my attention and I turned to see a respectable eight pointer headed my way fast along the doe’s trail.  Knowing he was on a mission and wouldn’t slow down on his own, I doe called him but he didn’t notice.  As he ran practically right under my stand, I called again, this time much louder.  Again, he made no notice of me.  Knowing he would be out of range in mere seconds, I stood up and yelled “Stop”!  He slammed on the brakes and looked around trying to identify the sound.  As I swung the bow around to take aim, he headed off again in the direction of his potential mate.  I watched him disappear into the brush as I kicked myself for not doing more to stop him sooner.  A few minutes later the cell phone rang and Jake excitedly told me that he had just taken the eight pointer, his biggest to date.  He told me that we was actually ready to take the shot on the yearling doe when the buck caught up to her and he was able to swing around and take a good shot on the buck.  Less than fifty yards later the buck piled up and Jake’s season had taken a dramatic upward turn.

I was very excited for Jake and was happy that he had connected with the biggest so far, but was also letting myself get downhearted about my season.  I love being in the woods for any reason but not seeing many deer in my honey hole was taking its toll.  I continued survey the woods around when I noticed movement behind some trees to my right.  Slowly I figured out that is was an ear flipping and out walked one of the biggest does I have ever seen.  Her body looked every bit as big as the eight pointer and her long nose and sagging belly gave her away as one of the matriarchs of the woods.  She was slowly moving along the same path as the earlier deer had and would surely pass within feet of my tree.  My plan was to wait until she passed me and then stand to try to take a quartering away shot.  It seemed perfect until she saw my breath 18 feet up in the air!  I was shocked as she started stomping and blowing, alerting the entire woods to the trespasser in the tree.  Helplessly I sat as she passed the alert on throughout the woods.  If only I could have held my breath!  Finally she had seen enough and turned to trot away.  As she did, I stood and raised my bow in hopes of getting the shot.  About thirty yards away, she slowed down and turned to look back at me.  Luckily I was ready and the shot was true,  She bolted through the brush and ran approximately one hundreds yards, dead away from where my vehicle was parked, before going down.  As I sat back down, the reality of both of us scoring on the same day in the same woods two years in a row begin to sink in. 

As it turned out, Jake’s buck ran away from the vehicle as well but after a long, hard drag back to the truck we were both still giddy.  It turns out that my doe was at least five and a half years old and field dressed at 170 pounds.  A perfect deer to take from the herd.

The rest of the season turned out to be as frustrating as the first part except for me seeing the deer of my dreams in the final week of the season.  He was big bodied with a rack that was wide, massive and had too many points to count in our short meeting.  I will spend all of the off-season trying to get to know him better and on opening day I will be in a tree along one of his travel routes with my nephew Jake in another tree close by.  You can bet the farm on it.

Hi Folks,

In order to become a better archer and bow-hunter one needs to be accurate, (practice, practice, practice comes to mind), shooting tight groups consistently from various distances under any weather conditions from any position, (sitting, standing, crouching, up-hill or down-hill), one needs to practice much and do so in an outdoor setting which mirrors the real hunting environment as closely as possible.

It’s always been a challenge for me personally to find an appropriate place to shoot like this due to the fact that I’m living in a Canadian urban area where the by-laws specifically state that one may ‘not’ discharge a firearm, (including a bow), as the discharge of firearms is disallowed in most areas within, (and around), city limits.

Recently I had a very informative discussion with a gentleman who was a local bow hunter as well as being very well versed in the local by-laws, (we started talking archery when he noticed my bow-shop hat), possibly because he is studying to become an RCMP officer as well, he really helped set me straight on the facts, which I’d like to pass along to any other new bow-hunters / archers who may also benefit from the information that he shared with me.

The tip that he shared with me was simple really, just do your homework and search the internet for the local by-laws, which I found quite easily, in particular the by-law that governs the discharge of ‘firearms’ which includes bows and crossbows. Included with the by-law that governs the discharging of ‘firearms’ in the areas surrounding the city limits is a map, which showed me the exact areas where I could, (and could not), legally set up a ad-hoc range for myself and shoot outside all summer, up hill down hill through some trees, crouching, standing etc…

I’ve since scouted the area and am going out today with my bow to do some shooting, I’ll post some pictures as soon as I’m able.

Happy shooting,

Craig

Two nights ago I went to my local range to practice for the local 3D league that will be starting this coming week. Now this isn’t a first time visit for me, as a matter of fact, I am more like a permanent fixture there on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. These two nights I leave from work and go down there to meet my friends and do some social shooting. Reason I call it social shooting is that we never keep score or do anything serious like that. It is always just for fun. Most of the time there is just as much laughing going on as there is shooting.

Now seeing that this is my local range, I know a lot of the people that come and shoot there. Like other places though there aren’t too many ranges in the area so we get quite a few people coming in from out of town to shoot as well. Especially on days when the weather is bad because there are so few indoor ranges around.

Now it is human nature not to trust people you don’t know, but I have noticed one thing about archers when it comes to meeting new people. You could call it the common denominator so to speak. It’s that string and stick that we hall around. No matter how you look at it we all use a string and stick to fling arrows. Some sticks might just be a bit more technologically advanced than others. As soon as we notice the bow case or bow that the person is bringing in with them something seems to signal to us that it’s all good and we can relax. I can’t tell you the number of times I have started up a conversation with the question, “What kind of bow you shooting?” or “Nice looking set up, how does it shoot?” and then went on talking for hours while we continued to shoot. In fact I have met some of the nicest people and very good friends just from circumstances just like these.

So the next time you are at your range or even at someone else’s, keep in mind that we all have that one thing in common. A stick and string that bind us together and make us all one big family.

Hello everyone and welcome to my boring life. I’ve decided to start this blog for a few reasons. First and formost I feel it will give me more incentive to practice more and better than I have been. I think by sharing my daily practice routines along with things i learn in that process, and any other exiting happenings in my life will help keep me motivated. Second it is my hope that this blog can and will become a portal of knowledge where I can share what I know to hopefully help others learn, while at the same time recieving feedback from others on what I’m doing so that I can learn from you as well. Third so that I can read back over my progress through out the year and use this information to keep myself moving forward. Lastly because I really just enjoy any fellowship with in the archery comunity and feel this will just be another way for me to be inviolved with all of you. So please take a minute each day to check back on my progress and share your own thought,experience, and support. THANK YOU AND WELCOME TO MY LIFE.

DAY 1 4/04/2008
I consider today to be the first day of my summer routine, fall and winter indoor leagues are over and it’s time to focus my efforts onto my 3d game. There was nothing to special about todays practice routine I mainly just spent about 2 hours getting myself familliar with shooting outdoors and on different terrain again. The first thing I had to do was change the apeture in my peep sight. I spent the whole day shooting from 20 yards because I made a few changes to my shot sequence and I need to spend some time shooting a close range so that my mind is free to focus on the new changes until I can get them ingrained mentally. The biggest change I made was in my anchor, once I got to shooting i found i’m a bit more consistant when shooting on various terrain if I use the center of my nose rather than the right tip of my nose using the center feels more preasure sensative and I can feel if I’m doing it the same everytime rather than just feeling the string is there I can feel the string pushing into my nose. My theory for this is if I can ingrain consistant preasure at this point it will help insure that my eye to peep distance remains consistant thus giving me better high/low consistency (i hope lol.)
Other than the new anchor I’m also still working on ingraining some of the new things I have been working on with my coach. Aiming is the biggest of those things when I first went to this new coach the first thing he noticed was I had trouble aiming. My mind was constantly jumping back and forth from the pin to the spot instead of staying focused on the spot, I have spent the last 2 months working on this and i can honestly say i’m 95% better right now. Even still it does take me some thought to do it right. i have to tell myself a couple times a day to just focus but the good thing is i realize when i’m doing it wrong and let down so it just keeps getting better. Although I did diagnose a new problem in my aiming today in practice, for some reason I want to quit aiming the second the release fires this is something i’m going to work on In tomorrows practice session. The last item i worked on today is maintining a strong bow arm after the shot (maybe this is why I quit aiming when the release goes off? it’s taking me quite a bit of thought to keep my arm up and strong but I’ll keep an eye one it.)

Like all things new some of this stuff is taking me a bit to get used to but I do think repitition and lots of practice will accelerate that process. I spent 2 hours outside practicing today and at the end of the day i really felt good about the progress i made. After all this is just day one I have until the second week in May before my first big tournement of the summer that gives me six good weeks to practice and perfect (or maybe even discard) some of these new ideas.

Thanks for reading and please check back tomorrow for updates and maybe new findings. Also feel free to share your thought or voice your questions I’ll do my best to respond to any and all who reply on here.

Until tomorrow
Dave

I once lived in Illinois for a short time and was so excited to get to hunt as a resident I could hardly contain myself. The Bowhunting angels were on my side THIS year.

I was lucky enough to get into Allerton Park. 2200 acres of wooded heaven that was gifted to the U of I 50 years ago and hadn’t been hunted until the prior year after 3 joggers were chased by swollen necked Casanovas looking for love in all the wrong places and one guy getting gang raped by a pack of rutting whitetails who thought his biking hot pants were indeed, very hot.

So I draw Oct 24-30th and I’m giddy as a schoolgirl getting ready for prom.

I have the spot, I have the gear, I have all my ducks in a row and this is going to be my season to smoke a P&Y world class Mega Buck. I’d seen pictures from the previous season and no less than a dozen deer over 160 were taken and 1 a beauty 16 point that scored 198 and change…I tinkled on the floor.

Oct 23 I started feeling a little sick-ish but ignored it completely. The weather was bad. Cold, rained like crazy the 22nd and 23rd and turned to ice that night. EVERYTHING had ½” sheath of ice.

Morning of I can’t remove the smile with a hammer even though I aint in the best shape. I have some serious lower bowel issues and my stomach is a turning inside out pretty regularly but I only have a week and by God I’m getting to the dream land.

I head out at a million O’clock and it’s slick. Real slick. The roads are evil even for a Michigander and there are more cars in the ditch than on the road. I spent 100% of the 35 minute trip (turned to an hour) in 4wd and 40% on the shoulder or in someone’s yard. Mostly backwards or sideways. The ice had claimed everything.

I get to my spot and park, climber, bow, headlamp, safety harness….check check check let’s get it on.

My climber is scaring me on the way up. Everything is iced like a glazed doughnut and I’m feeling increasingly like I may yak…I can shoot first and yak later.

I get to the top and get settle in to wait for dawn. Than I throw up.

I can hang. It passes and the sun starts to crawl over the ridge. I see some movement and grab the Binos….un-freakin believable. He’s a mainframe 10 that’s far and away the biggest deer I’ve ever seen in the woods. He gets to about 40 yards and my nausea returns. My mouth starts to water and swallow it away trying to wait for him to come into range.

30 yards…vitals behind a tree and one step and he’s as good as above the fireplace with a great story of fighting through the elements and sickness to trick this wary wizened monster buck to falling to my incredible hunting prowess….than I yak. It nearly hit him.
I feel like crying but can’t because I just hurled every bit of moisture left in my body but I sure as hell need to get out of here because this AINT workin’ today. I’ve blown it in the first hour of the first day.

I lower my gear and start the descent. As I sit down for a second about 4 feet into my declination to hurl again I see it as if it’s in slow motion….the bottom of my climber doesn’t quite catch…hanging in mid air by the strap that’s not knotted tight enough….it slips….and crashes to the base of the tree taking the express lane due to the 6” of ice covering every damn thing in this God forsaken woods.

I breathe deep…No problem. I’ll just bear hug the tree and slide down. Grip it real tight and nice and easy down to the bottom. I get all set and have a ferocious grip and look up at the seat of my climber…how the hell am I going to get it down?

Ahh…I’ll give it a little nudge and it’ll follow me.

I land at the base of the tree in .003 seconds and somewhere along the trip I’ve crapped my pants. I land on my butt so hard it knocks my wind out and I see stars…than I’m walloped in the head with the climber and don’t remember anything for a little while.

I wake up and my left eye glued shut in frozen blood. I’m bleeding, puking and I have soiled boxers and feeling pretty poorly at this minute. I sit up and the blood flows freely from my head.

I look around to try to get my bearings to the nearest road and quickest route to my truck and there stands that buck. Not 20 yards out just staring at me.

I swear to God I’ve never seen a deer smile before or after but this one did.

I make a snowball and whip it at his head.

I leave everything and make my way to the road…I’m relieved when I hear a car coming as I’m leaving a copious bloodtrail and I’m not sure how bad the gash on my cranium is.

The car comes around the corner and I see it’s a woman in her 50’s or so alone. I wave and our eyes meet…than she crashes off into the ditch and into a stand of young trees. I go over to help just as she throws it in reverse and backs out doing a 180 that would make Bow and Luke Duke envious…apparently I look pretty rough and she’s not taking any chances with a bloody guy in camo staggering out of the wood in the middle of nowhere.

I take the road back toward my truck and have fashioned a makeshift bandage from my knit hat…the bleeding has subsided somewhat but I’m feeling pretty weak, tired and I smell like poop. Than I yak again.

½ a mile left to get to my truck and the DNR rolls by and stops to give me a lift. He’s very concerned for me but I see the wound has almost stopped bleeding now. It looks like the top half of an egg is glued under my skin with an angry jagged red slash across the top. He kinda chuckles as he drops me off and tells me he’ll go get my gear for me. Than I yak again.

He returns my gear and makes sure I feel ok to drive and as he’s about to leave I can tell he’s trying to find words but struggling…than he asks, “ I know you’re having a hard day but I have to ask…did you **** in my truck?”

I went home and went back to bed still dreaming of that buck.

Today’s shooting was not as tight as I wish. It could be that I was just “off” or whatever.

I have recently replaced my copy of Larry Wise’s “Core Archery” and begun re-reading it. There are two people who I have read which I feel put more thought into how they do what they do than anyone else and Larry Wise is one of them (the other is James Park).

Today I followed Larry Wise’s advise about finding one’s stance. I drew my arrow, lined up my sight and closed my eyes and let time pass. When I opened them I was pretty much on the bale and target with my sights. I think I’m working with a fairly close approximation of a good stance but I’ll keep checking.

Despite my arrows being more scattered than I would have liked I have begun to batter the vanes. That’s okay, though. This set of shafts were fletched straight and I need an offset for use of broadheads later.

Since the closing of my nearest archery shop I’m going to be forced to learn to do more work on my bow and arrows. Goody! Always willing to learn.

I really love the Idea of this blog and article page.  I think it will really give all of us a chance to express our views on the subjects we cover here without to much bickering.  I definatley encourage comments and replys to posts, but archery opinions are like a**holes, everyone has one and I will be the first to admit that I definatley have my own, but I don’t think we should press them on eachother so negativley.  Hopefully I am making sence to some of you and not just rambling.  Anyway I plan on using this site quite regularly, not for the contest although that is a definite perk, but just for its atmosphere. 

Anyway I was reading the admin. anouncements and some of the sujested topics to write about and I came across the one on the best ATV and thought I would say a few words about it.  Now don’t take the following wrong as I own an ATV myself, but I really think that the best ATV is the one that you leave at camp.  Of coarse there are certain reasons that a hunter might have to use an ATV to hunt (like a disability) but the outdoors was definitley not created to hunt or really even get around on a four wheeler.  I really think, and I may be being stereotypical here, that more people need to get out on foot or even horseback and really enjoy the outdoors.  The way that they were intended to be enjoyed.  Not only will you see more game, but I guarentee that when you do get what creature your after, you will be much more pleased with yourself.  I know I feel a great sence of acomplishment, pride, honor and heritage when I take game.  My fore fathers never had ATVs and to be honest, I don’t think that they would have used them.  Anyway, get out there and enjoy the wonderful outdoors.  Even if it on an ATV, but you might try leaving it at camp sometime, you will be suprised at what you never saw before or haven’t seen in a while.

JON