am i ready?

[jayman448]

I want to hunt with a bow this year. I shoot rather well most of the time but i still have strays sometimes. Whats a good rule of thumb/test to decide weather my shooting is hunt ready?

[H Rhodes]

  Draw a 6 inch circle on your target.  Take a cold shot at it - no warm up or practice shots.  When you can hit that 6 inch circle every time at ten or twelve yards, I would say you are ready to try a hunt.  I don't know what your quarry is going to be.  I am a deer hunter and I keep my stands set up for a close range shot - most of the deer I have killed have been close like between 4 and 10 yards.  I don't know about your background with hunting - but hunting with a selfbow or a traditional bow is a close range thing.   Be completely honest with yourself about your true effective range.  Be absolutely rigid in enforcing that distance upon yourself when you are hunting and you can be successful.  Most traditional and primitive archery hunters that I know keep there shots at twenty yards or closer.  Shot placement puts meat in the freezer.  Poor shot placement ends up with no meat, or worse - an unethical shot that leaves an animal wounded or crippled.  I am no tree hugger, but that is how I see it.  Keep the wind in your face and set up close and make sure your points will shave like a razor and go get 'em!       

[jayman448]

Ok. Well i will try that. I am going after mule deer on foot. My biggest mental issue is that im afraid of those wild shots that sneek in here and there a lot of the time i can hit a dime now. But then after a few shots i inevidably will miss my mark. I also am totally insistant on good ethical kills so those off shots.really make me leery. I dont intend on shooting beyond 20 yards at all.

[H Rhodes]

You will do fine if you can pick a spot on the deer and shoot that spot.  A good friend of mine who just started hunting with a bow last season shot over a deer at a range of about seven yards on his first time out with me.  He was baffled that he had missed.  He shoots better than me on targets.   My advice to him was to quit thinking of it as a deer - pick that little spot that you want to hit and focus on that spot.  I try to let everything in the universe cease to exist except for that little tiny spot that I want to hit with my arrow.   If you shoot at the whole animal - you will almost certainly miss the whole animal.  Once you make your mind up to shoot an animal, then it is just a simple matter of picking a spot and putting an arrow through it.  Concentration and focus must be 100 percent.  On those wild shots that happen when you are practicing - I bet if you think back on them, most of the time it is caused by a nanosecond of lost concentration.  Something else entered your mind and messed with your shot sequence.   I try not to overthink it - just pick a spot and hit it.    Aim small, miss small.  Good luck this year.     

[Little John]

Yep you are ready, just know your limitations and have a great season, good luck.      Kenneth

[crooketarrow]

Just shoot then shoot somemore. I've shot few 100,000 times a years for years.. In my teens and thru my 20's use to shoot for 4 hours at mid day between hunts. 8 Hours in the off season. The last 15 years I've did most of my practice stump shooting.

If I do ,do any shooting across the back yard. It's been 1 arrow at a time 10,12 arrows quit. Shooting repleatly builds fourm and mussle memory but leads to bad habbits very quickly.

  So watch out.

   It all comes down to how bad you want it. To hunt,shoot good enough to kill a deer. Do it with a selfbow you've made. You'll belong to a very small group of hunters.

 Hope you make it.

[osage outlaw]

Limit your shot distance to what you can shoot accurately.  Stick with that limit no matter what the situation.  My hunting limit is 15 yards.

[H Rhodes]

Limit your shot distance to what you can shoot accurately.  Stick with that limit no matter what the situation.  My hunting limit is 15 yards.

Me too Clint.  Fifteen yards is about my max. 

[crooketarrow]

 SET UP CLOSE SHOOT CLOSE. I'VE KILLED 40 BUCKS LONGEST SHOT WAS 17 YARDS. MOST WERE 10 TO 12 YARDS.

 15 GOBBLERS AND  LONGEST ONE WAS 22 YARDS. With a knaped head of TEXAS CHERT.. I shot one at 26 but never found him.

 You'll  know your shooting distance after a few dozzen arrows. After that your best tatic is just go and hunt.

[Andrea S]

I agree with the "cold bore shot" technique. Usually if I have flyers (the random ones not in the group) it's because I'm getting tired and I've rushed the shot. Try forcing yourself to put a good two minutes or more between shots - after all, you won't be flinging a dozen arrows at a deer. Or at least,you shouldn't be. It's a more realistic representation of how you're going to be shooting in the field.

One of my exercises is to see how good a group I can get from multiple distances and angles, with a little time between shots. It's sort of like stump shooting, except you're moving yourself and not the target.

[Pat B]

When I get about a month out from the beginning of the season I limit my shooting to one shot a day or one in the morning and one in the evening. By doing this I really concentrate on making it a kill shot. Pick a spot and drill it!
 Change the distances and angle from your stand so each shot is totally different from any other. You never know when or where your shot will present itself...and take the first, good shot that comes along. Sometimes, waiting for a better shot is a looooooong wait...but, know your limitations.

[crooketarrow]

  Through the years, WE'VE ALL GOTTEN IN OUR OWN LITTLE CLICK WHEN IT COMES TO OUR SHOOTING. When it comes to the ways  How, when,where we practice. We've all did this through just shooting through the years we all evoled to where and how we all shoot now.

  No ones really totally right. You have to fond your own click.


  If I'd have to say that stump shootings the very best practice you can do. If you think your good across the yard where you know the distance's. Get a judio and take a walk. Way more exercise than walking 20 yards to pull your arrow's.

 You'll find out your not as good as you throught.

  Plus I just love to walk. I'm sure we can all use the exerices.

  Like I said before it comes down to how much you want it. How far your welling to take it.

  Not a lot of people have killed a buck or gobbler with there own made bow. Once I shot my first deer a 6 point with my own osage bow. I knew what trail I wanted to take. That was 23 years ago.


 

[helmet]

If you shoot good most of the time I'd say get out and hunt, you will konw when to take the shot. Hunting is the Best.

[Pat B]

I've never killed a game animal(cept a skirl or 2)with a bow or primitive arrow of my making...or anyone else either. Not that I haven't tried. It just ain't happened.

[jayman448]

so i went on a sort of dry run hunt today by accident. i was slinging a few arrows and a good size doe appears on my property. the wind was in my favor so i put on a stalk, bow in hand, keeping it as true to a real hunt as i could. low and slow moving from cover to cover i closed from seventy yards into around ten, easy peasy. i have to say that drawing that circle on my board and shooting for the kill a few times and quitting is sure making me feel better about a hunt. we will see how it goes by the time the season rolls around