Bowhunter Beginner Basics

When a person is thinking about getting into bow hunting 9 times out of 10 they're gonna start asking around from people that have been doing it for years. It only makes sense to try and get a base of knowledge from a hunter instead of going out and winging it. The problem that you might run into by doing this is the type of information you get might cause you to over look one of the most important parts of bow hunting; and that's shooting.

People that have been hunting for years just take it for granted that a person would be shooting their bow in preparation for the up coming season; but for a new hunter that's gathering information about treestand placement, scent control, deer signs and numerous other things associated with hunting, it's possible to forget to practice. Let alone they probably don't even know how to sight in or shoot a bow; and honestly you can be the king of tactics but if you can't shoot you're not going to be mounting anything on your wall. Well I'm gonna try to help out any newcomers.

This may start to turn into a tutorial but I will try to keep it as interesting as possible. For anybody that is considering getting into archery for the purpose of hunting you will first need to consider what type of hunting you might want to do. Is it treestands or ground blinds? Which should be the only two that you consider because a rookie hunter and shooter trying to pull off a spot and stalk hunt may be a little on the tough side (almost impossible). If you are planning on hunting from a treestand you're going to have a little bit more lead way on the type of bow to buy because you will have a little bit more room to draw your bow and move around. If you think that a ground blind is what you will use then you need to look for a short axle to axle bow (the overall length of the bow), you will want to keep it under 32". Don't be afraid to ask around in pro shops, those guys are working in there for a reason.

Once you decide on a bow have a pro line you up with some sights and a rest and don't forget about your release and your arrows. The fellow that helped you at the pro shop will probably set your bow up for you while your there, and I think it should be done by a pro. When he or she does, pay attention because things can go wrong and if you pay attention there's a real good chance you could fix it because problems are normally pretty simple. The last thing they will do with your bow will be paper tuning. (shoot your arrow through a piece of paper to check if everything is good to go) I think that this will work for now if you are a beginner but it doesn't mean that things are perfect with your bow.

Here is the time that you shoot as much as you can, just stand right in front of you target bag and shoot. Stand real close, close enough to shut your eyes and work on releasing the arrow and memorizing your nock point. After you get a feel for your release it's time to step back to 10 yards and start shooting. Sighting in a bow is very easy, always remember to follow your arrow; if your arrow goes higher than you were aiming then move your pin up, if it goes left then move your sights left and so on. At 10 yards you should use something smaller than the kill zone on most targets, instead use something small like the size of a golf tee to aim at. Once you get your pin set to where you are grouping close to your golf tee go ahead and move back to 20 yards and make slight adjustments to your sights; it shouldn't be too far off, if any at all, with today's bow speeds it will be minimal. Then use the next pin down to go back to 30 yards or you could set you pin increments to 15, 20, 25, really it's what ever you want or think you will be comfortable with. I use increments of 10 it just seems easier to me.

This is when we will go back and touch on the paper tuning issue that I have; you might have it now that you've gone back past 30 yards to shoot. You may have noticed that your arrows are starting to go a little left or right. This is happening because paper tuning isn't perfect for setting your rest, it still needs fine tuned. This is part of what's called walk back tuning; it's easiest if you put a piece of tape in a vertical line and aim to shoot the tape at 20,30,40 and even 50 yards. If your arrow is going left you need to move your rest ever so slightly to the right, I do mean slightly so small of a movement that you can barely tell it moved, that's sometimes all it takes to make it perfect. Once you have your pins and rest set you should be good to just start practicing.

Practice, practice and practice some more, it will never hurt to shoot a bunch. The best way to do so in my opinion is to find a local archery club that has a 3d range and start shooting their course. 3d is great practice because it makes you work on learning yardage and of course you are shooting you will also learn to deal with the pressure of making that first shot count instead of just pounding arrows into a bag. I can't emphasize shooting enough because if you do everything that you can to get that buck of a life time in front of you the last thing you want to happen is a miss because you didn't take the time to learn your bow and how to shoot the thing.

The beginning

Have you ever been so much into your hobbies that you felt like you had to stop and start writing stuff down as a desperate attempt to share your feelings? That's what brought me to start a blog. I will touch on hunting, archery, fishing, camping and of course my family throughout the course of my blogging.

I would have never guessed that I would have thought about starting a blog at any point of my life. But apparently, I have developed this new desire to start writing. It's funny the changes that you can go through in your lifetime. I was talking last night with my wife Angie about how much I hated writing in high school and that now, I feel like I can't get enough and she was the one that thought a blog may be a good idea.

What got the ball rolling on my writing was archery. I am a member of www.archerytalk.com and I stumbled across a guy asking for people to write reviews for compound bows and I bit. I sent a sample piece to them and one thing led to another and I was hooked. I really believe that those guys are on to something there at www.compoundbowchoice.com, so check them out. Now I am wanting to jump from equipment reviews into articles and see how I like it.
Basically that's all for today, I just wanted to give an introduction for why I'm on here writing. Future posts will have some more value to them along with some pictures and God willing some downed animals.