TOPIC: DeerHunting 2012

I don't know about you guys, however I'm gettin' ready for this year's bow season. Been fletching arrows, and practicing in the backyard.

I really can't wait for the season to open. Then I know that Muzzleloader season and gun season won't be far behind!

Whitjr ole Caleb is right with you man he is slinging many arrows at the target and he is nailing it good enough i think to compete in youth bow tourneys im realy proud of his practise effort now,

Billy.


Whitjr wrote:

I don't know about you guys, however I'm gettin' ready for this year's bow season. Been fletching arrows, and practicing in the backyard.

I really can't wait for the season to open. Then I know that Muzzleloader season and gun season won't be far behind!

Hey guys...

Competing in (unmarked distance) 2d or 3d type animal target bowhunter competitions is the best way to hone your bowhunting skills --- and it is a lot of fun too.

If you do enough of that, when a deer does walk up he really does not have much of a chance.

In the 80's and early 90's I competed in thousands of archery tournaments - many unmarked distance 3d bowhunter type tournaments and also NFAA (marked distance) out to as far as 80 yards.

I also killed nearly 200 deer with bow/arrow and won 11 Tennesse State Championships, I was pro shop sponsored by PSE for 4 years and a National Staff Shooter for High Country Archery for 4 more years (before I retired).

Hope you guys get your freezers full of some good deer meat this year !

TNhunter

TN Hunter- Have you tried one of the newer bows? Just curious about your opinion of the \"redesign\" that is announced on the bow maker's commercials.

I gotta find the time to sight in my long range gun as well. Mounted a new scope on it earlier this year, and havn't fired a shot thru ti since I did it!

TNhunter wrote:

Hey guys...

Competing in (unmarked distance) 2d or 3d type animal target bowhunter competitions is the best way to hone your bowhunting skills --- and it is a lot of fun too.

If you do enough of that, when a deer does walk up he really does not have much of a chance.

In the 80's and early 90's I competed in thousands of archery tournaments - many unmarked distance 3d bowhunter type tournaments and also NFAA (marked distance) out to as far as 80 yards.

I also killed nearly 200 deer with bow/arrow and won 11 Tennesse State Championships, I was pro shop sponsored by PSE for 4 years and a National Staff Shooter for High Country Archery for 4 more years (before I retired).

Hope you guys get your freezers full of some good deer meat this year !

TNhunter

And here I thought I was a big shot back in my early 20's when I could shoot a clothes pin off of a clothes line @ 10 yards. That is some impressive statistics there TNhunter!!!!!!!!!

Whitjr..

Sorry but I don't even bowhunt anymore. I think I sort of burned out on all of that and well I am just not that interested in it anymore.

Also got married, had kids, and well interest sure changed after that. It was not all about me anymore

Now when my boy Cole starts wanting to bow hunt (right now he is only doing a little squirrel and deer hunting with a .410 shotgun) I may get back into bow hunting some again, just to go with him.

I don't doubt at all that the new bows are much better than what I shot back in those days. Faster, quieter, etc..

Back in the early 90's when I retired the High Country Safari was a excellent top of the line bow for hunting, and for 3d (unmarked distance) type shooting. It was fast and flat shooting.

My 3d competition bow, I shot 70lb, and easton ace arrows that weighted 214 grains total. It was almost like dry firing the bow, but man it was quick and flat. Out to 40 yards it only dropped around 4.5\". It was very important to be fast and flat in unmarked distance shooting, because if you miss guessed the distance, you would either be high or low. How much high or low you were depended on how fast/flat the bow shot.

I built my own strings & cables, and changed strings every 2 weeks. We also had to change cam axils and I had a box of extra bow limbs that I went thru during the tournament year.

When shooting marked distance NFAA type tournaments, we used a different bow alltogether. Someting longer axil to axil and with a longer brace height. That gives you more accuracy and forgiveness in the shooting.

One of my favorite marked distance tournaments was the State Indoor round. You shot 120 arrows in the tournament. Your target had 5 dots on it. Each dot had a 3\" white center, that had a 1.5\" (x-ring) in the center. You shot from a distance of 60ft (20 yards) all 120 arrows.

You would shoot 5 arrows, 1 in each dot and then everyone would go down and score and retrieve the arrows and then go back and shoot again - until all 120 had been done.

In my class if you missed the 3\" white dot 1 time out of 120 - you should have just stayed at home.

The man that got the most of those 120 shots in the 1.5\" x-ring - would win.

I won the Tennessee State indoor championships 3 times. Best score was 117x out of 120.

There are some pro's that shoot 120 out of 120 rather frequently. I never did accomplish that. But I have shot a few half rounds (60 shots) and all 60 be in the x-ring.

Of course that was a long time ago. Now days I just shoot every now and then with my kids in the back yard with a little recurve bow.

It is still a lot of fun though !

TNhunter

PS.. I found a couple of old photo's and a hand full of state champ patches I saved from back in those days...

To cool Tn thanks for sharing that part of your life with us,plain wicked bow shooting bro.

Billy.

TN,
To really appreciate your acomplishments in archery a person has to know what it takes to have reached your level of skill. I've got back into archery this year because of my grandson. He won a tournament in Illinois and 2nd in Cullman, Alabama in the young adult classes. Bowtech has sponsered him with a new bow and Quest arrows sends him arrows and I think he has picked up a couple of more sponsers. Yes he is that good and they are only allowed 260 ft. per second but just shoot out to 35 yards. animal targets

proud grandpa,
rootman

Now that is cool rootman...

I can see me getting back into it if my boy every decides too.

Most of my 3D competition was in the Tenneessee Bowhunters Organization, and our rules provided for a open/unlimited class where you were not limited on speed or arrow weight at all. As fast as you could make it shoot, was what we shot. Some were better at handling high speed flat blows (which are definately more sensitive, and unforgiving) than the longer target bows.

My High Country Savari on 70 lbs, with the 214 grain easton ace arrow shot 360 fps.

Our maximum distance allowed on the unmarked distance targets was 55 yards. If the club set one up over 55 and you protested it, it would have to be thrown out of the tournament and all scores for that target eliminated... so they kept them to 55 or below. That is plenty for unmarked distance bowhunter type shooting anyway.

In the NFAA (marked distance) we shot distances from 10 yards up thru 80 yards... and I practiced a lot at 100 yards. The only way to make 80 easy... is to practice at 100.

One of my most memorable accomplishments was from 100 yards - shooting 5 arrors - in a 5\" group. My dad was spotting for me and calling the hits. I had a couple of friends over watching too.. It was impressive. And on a nice calm evening too. At my peak... I hardly ever missed a paper plate from 100 yards.

In the woods, with hunting equipment and broadheads, a buck at 45 yards was in big trouble. I killed a many of them at that distance.

Tell you grandson he should look into trying out a stanislawski relesae aid (if he shoots with a release).

I found a few examples on the link below...

www.obsessionarchery.com/releases-stanis...eleases-c-25_81.html

The stanie... that I shot most of the time in tournaments had no trigger. You basically set it and when you pulled the bow string back and ancored, you had to use back tensions (pulling back on the string more) to trigger it. It was always 100% suprise when it actually triggered.

That makes you focus on aiming... and not on shooting.

When you shoot (suprise shoot) and your mind and body and all effort is focused on aiming ---- well that is the secret to the perfect shot.

The best aimers win... the best shooters often fail because of someting called target panic (jerks, twitches, etc).

The stanie type release eliminated target panic and makes you simply focus on aiming.

Best of luck to him !

TNhunter

TN,
I was never that good myself but I wasn't a bad shot either, about 40 yds was about it for me. I always would shoot at different bulls eyes to keep from ruining arrows, not that I was going to hit them but just to be safe. Just too darn expensive.

Now that you mentioned the back tension release, that was going to be his next step. My son is shooting with one now.
Maybe I'll try one myself because I'm really having trouble letting go and punching the trigger.

Thank you for your advise TN. I sure would have liked to have seen you shooting back then.

rootman