While I love deer hunting no matter what type of weapon I use. I never feel quite the same exhilarating feeling as I do when I take a nice buck with a bow. Naturally, it’s much more of a challenge, but it forces me to relate back to our ancestors and the primitive skills they were forced to master just to survive.
Our fine hi-tech compound bows of today are no comparison to the bows and spears and knives that they were forced to use back in those days. They had to become true hunters in every sense of the word in order to survive. I think it’s very important that our young hunters coming along in our footsteps realize this and develop an appreciation for their ancestors and what they had to accomplish. Bow hunting also offers me the opportunity to get out into the woods with the deer before they have become skittish due to all of the surrounding gunfire. They are still calm and going about their normal activities. You can learn a great deal about the deer during this time of year.
Develop Your Skill
If you choose to take up bow hunting, you must make a commitment to develop your skill and knowledge of the bow to the absolute best of your ability. Naturally, you should strive to do this in anything you undertake, but especially in bow hunting because the quarry you seek deserves the most humane and accurate kill shot you can provide him. Since practice makes perfect, be sure and practice a great deal.
Draw Weight
Do not choose a how of too great a draw weight. If it requires too much strength to draw your bow. you will become fatigued too quickly during those times when you need to hold your draw for the buck to get in a good shot position. This is a common mistake that a lot of hunters make. You want to be able to make a smooth draw, yet for whitetail deer, you should choose a draw weight of at least 45 to 55 pounds.
Shooting Distances
If you plan to shoot longer distances, you will want a flatter trajectory shooting how or in other words, a faster how. You should be aware that a faster bow is less forgiving than one that is slower, but both bows require the development of a certain amount of skill. The faster how requires a little more skill than does the slower one.
Draw Lenght
Your draw length is another area that deserves serious consideration. The how to design itself plus your physical anatomy will determine the draw length. The design of some bows has the string closer to the riser or handle of the how than others, and some limbs are longer than others. The further you have to draw your bow to achieve a full draw, the longer your draw length. You want this draw length to fall into a comfort zone for you, and the archery representative should be able to advise you in this area.
Noise and Vibration
You should always shoot the how you intend to purchase to determine just how much noise it makes and how much vibration you get with each shot. This noise and vibration represent dispersed energy that is not going into your actual shot. In other words, the energy you put into your draw that you expect to get out of the shot is reduced by the amount of noise and vibration, because this is useless wasted energy. Do some checking in this area and rule out those that are fairly noisy and vibrate a great deal. Talk to other hunters and archery enthusiasts for their input also.
Type of Arrow Rest
There are a great many choices to make regarding your how and its various accessories. You must decide what type of bow; for example, whether to get a compound, reserve or straight how. If you get a compound, for example, what brand and style to get. Do you want a how with solid limbs or split limbs, single or double cam? You must consider the weight of the bow since you will be carrying it a great deal in the field. Will you choose to use a bow sling, and if so what type? What type of silencing measurers, what type of release, whether or not to use an overdraw. the appropriate stabilizer bar for your bow, are all important considerations.
You will also need to decide what best arrow rest reviews, broadheads, what camouflage pattern to choose, what color fletching and how many to use, what type of quiver to use, what type of sight unless you plan to learn to instinctive shoot, in which case you would prefer no sight.
Care your Bow and Repair
Learn the proper care of your bow, and how to perform some basic adjustments and/or repairs in the field. Be sure to keep the axles and bushings of your bow well lubricated. This is to prevent unnecessary wear on these parts due to friction and thus causing damage to your how. Also to reduce any unnecessary noise, these parts should be lubricated with bow oil, depending on usage, every other time or so that you use your bow. Keeping your bowstring waxed will greatly prolong its lifespan if done correctly. Be sure to rub the wax into the strings and don’t just coat the outside of them. As you are waxing the string, look closely for any worn or frayed portion, possibly requiring the replacement of the string.
Waxing your arrow shafts will make them slide across the rest more freely and offer less resistance for smoother, quieter shots. Regularly inspect the how limbs and all other parts of your bow for cracks, or wear, and either repair them yourself or if in the case of your limbs, have them repaired at a how to shop. Be sure that your limb bolts have not backed off, changing your draw weight. A good way to manage this is to scribe a mark camping trip guide across the bolt head onto the limb so you can see at a glance if the two ends of the line are mismatched.
Different Styles of Bow
There are many different styles of broadheads available on the market. Here again, do some research to determine which broad-heads you prefer to use. Your arrow shafts must be compatible with your broadheads. The grain weight of each must compliment the other. You should consider certain factors in choosing your broad-heads, such as how well will they retain their edge, and how sturdy are they from the standpoint of sustaining an impact. Will they power through that deer and offer good clean kill by slicing through veins and arteries in the process?
Arrow Flight
Your fletching offers some decisions as well. For one thing, you must select whether to use three or four vanes based on what type of rest you have chosen. You don’t want the vanes to hit your bow or rest improperly and affect your arrow flight. If you arc shooting broad-heads, depending on the style, you may want your fletching installed on your arrow shafts at a slight angle. This will cause your arrows to rotate in flight and help stabilize the effects of your broad-heads on them. The color of the vanes also should be considered. The lighter, brighter colors would naturally be easier to see when watching your arrow in flight toward a deer or spot when you are trying to find it, but it also makes them easier to spot by a deer. The brighter colors make you more conspicuous if you move them around very much.
Shooting Your Bow
It is important to establish your anchor points when you first begin shooting your bow. These are specific points that you and/or your bowstring, kisser button, or such other devices that you may have on your bow, touch each time you come to full draw. I prefer a three-point anchor method. Using a mechanical release, when I am at full dram my thumbnail hits the corner of my mouth as my forefinger, the second knuckle hits the center of my cheekbone and the string hits the center of my nose. Everyone’s anchor points will be a little different, but the more points like this you can establish, the more likely you will anchor and release the exact same way each time you shoot. Naturally, these anchor points will vary deer hunting-tips depending on whether you are using a mechanical release, tab, or fingers.
Earn to shoot from a sitting or standing position. You never know what position you may be in when you get a shot at a buck. Your anchor points should be the same, even though you may have to change the posture of your body to shoot under low lying limbs or around a tree, etc.
Shooting Lane
Be very careful not to make your draw too soon when you see a deer because the deer may hesitate and stand still for several minutes deciding whether to continue on into your shooting lane. You don’t want to have a deer close by, just out of a shooting lane when you are standing there at full draw, waiting on him, and begin to fatigue and shake. The end result will probably be that you will begin to shake from the fatigue and make enough noise to frighten off the deer without ever getting a shot at him.
Sometimes it’s hard to determine exactly when to come to full draw without either doing so too early or waiting too late, running the risk of drawing when a deer can see or hear your movement. This is simply a call you as the bow hunter must make each time the situation presents itself.
Practice Shooting Your Bow
When you practice shooting your bow (and do so a lot) always practice a great deal from an elevated position. The arrow will travel touring tips a little differently when shooting down than when you are shooting level. The arrow will actually rise slightly when shooting downward. Try to simulate actual hunting scenarios. Have an elevated.
Type of Arrow
One of your arrows could have accidentally worked loose in the quiver, or the bolt that holds the quiver to your bow might have loosened up a little. The fletching on my arrows is not being moved around as I move my bow, possibly drawing attention to myself. The only one that gets moved is the one I’ve knocked.
Transport Your Bow
Be sure to always transport your bow in some sort of case to prevent any accidental damage in transit. You don’t want to go to all the trouble to get your bow all tuned up and sight, in just perfect, only to accidentally knock the sight off in the back of your vehicle on your way to the hunting site. I would highly recommend a hard shell case for your bow.
Effects Weather
Due to the fact that in bow hunting you must be much closer to your quarry than with a rifle Or muzzle-loader, your scent, camouflage, the noise factor, and everything becomes much more critical. You must overcome all of these obstacles in order to be successful. You must be familiar with deer body language and all of their keen senses, wind directions, and downdrafts, and the effects weather changes have on their movements.
When you as a bowhunter make your release on a deer, in most cases the deer will hear the release and instinctively will drop his body several inches in his effort to bolt away. With this in mind, you may need to make some allowance for this movement when you take your shot. If his head is down feeding, or if he is preoccupied in some other way, his reaction to your release might be avoided, so try to pick the best possible time to make your release. Said Jack Mikeson of Safariors.com
Choose the right styles of bow
Sights vary a great deal to spend a lot of time deciding which one will suit your needs best. There are so many styles to choose from; for example, there are pin sights, crosshair sights, fiber optic sights, pendulum sights, lighted sights, peep sights, and others that are mostly variations of these. Discuss the advantages of each with a specialist at your favorite how to shop. Remember just because one person prefers a particular style, does not mean that it is the right style for you.
Be sure to learn the proper way to tune your bow. Just because you can shoot a tight group with field points does not mean that your bow is perfectly tuned for hunting. Broadheads will almost certainly make your shafts fly differently even though they may be the same grain weight. There are a few different methods for tuning your bow. They all are based on using shafts of the proper spine. If you have a consistently smooth release, then paper tuning your bow would probably be the most accurate method to use. Build a wooden frame about 2 or 3 feet wide and about 5 or 6 feet high and cover it with paper stretched as tight as you can. Stand about six feet away and shoot an arrow in a straight horizontal direction through the paper to a target.
Last Few Words
Note the configuration of the paper cut after the shot. If the tail of the knock is high, this indicates that the nocking point is too high. Either lower the nocking point or raise the rest slightly. If the tail of the knock is low, then do the opposite. If the tail of the knock is off to the left or right. Then move the rest to the left or right in the direction that it is off. This is for those shooters that shoot a release; finger shooters would do just the opposite.
Once you get you how tuned to where you are shooting a consistent symmetrical hole. Then move back a few feet and check it at different distances. Another method of tuning your bow would be to use a bow square.
Still hunting method Affix it to the string and lay the arm on the rest. Position the nocking point on the string. The shaft diameter distance above the plane of the rest or lower side of the shaft.
This should take care of your elevation or vertical aspect of your arrow flight. And as far as the windage or horizontal flight. Adjust your rest as necessary as in the paper method above. You must realize that bows do vary somewhat in the exact placement of the nocking point on the string. Some single cam bows may require the knocking point be slightly higher than normal, in order to get good performance. Discuss these various options with a bow technician where you purchase your bow. Get him or her to help you tune your bow the first time.