Not A Rifle

But it's what I've been shooting lately. Late archery elk season starts near the end of November. I'm hoping to get close enough to a cow elk, or a spike elk, for a shot. Am doing better with the bow than I was a few months ago. Oddly, practice seems to help!







Guy

Awesome bow . And yes practice does help. Imagine that!


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Very cool Guy.

I’ve been kinda down lately. I’ve kinda stopped archery the past 4-5 years since I was elk hunting. This year I’ve had two weeks to hunt and it has been excellent weather for it, but haven’t touched the bow yet. Need to get the old bow out and get hunting again I think. Feel like I’m missing out.

Hope you get on an elk. I’d really like to take an elk with my bow.

Nice, I’m just starting archery back up this winter. There is a few caribou hunts, moose hunts up here that are now only, so getting my practice in, get ready for next year


I have yet to begin to procrastinate

It does help clear the head.

str8meat":353vd1hc said:

It does help clear the head.

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LOL -- I'll have to differ on that one. Having grown up chasing whitetail in eastern Washington and northern Idaho with a rifle, when my wife and I moved to Peoria, IL (1989) for jobs with CAT, I quickly learned that if I wanted to continue playing with whitetail I'd better learn to hunt with a bow. Once settled in back there I promptly found a great archery shop, got outfitted with my first bow, and joined an archery club to learn to shoot. Spent about 4 months shooting at the club (and had a ball doing so) and shot enough to get fairly competent. (I also spent a fair amount of time running around on my motorcycle getting to know the area, meeting farmers, and lining up some decent places to hunt.) By the time opening morning came, I was probably more prepared for a hunt than any other time in my life, had a spot all scoped out, had my shooting lanes and distances all figured out, etc... I got to my spot a good hour before shooting light on opening morning, and settled in to wait for my trophy archery buck to wander by. While sitting there in the dark I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to draw my bow back a time or two in my spot to make sure my arm wouldn't make any noise with the surrounding brush, so proceeded to do so. While drawing the bow back I remember thinking that this test draw was a GOOD IDEA because my nerves made it feel like a little harder pull at peak draw.... and that was the last thing I remember until I woke up a couple hours later with the sun shining in my eyes. I came to a little dazed and confused, and for the life of me couldn't figure out why I had chosen to go to sleep in the middle of the woods. It took a few minutes of laying there to figure out this was not normal nor a weird dream, and after sitting up, saw a lot of blood on the ground and what was left of my bow sitting there next to me. My brain wasn't firing on all cylinders yet, so it took a few minutes of sitting there before I connected the dots and realized the shattered bow and blood on the ground was likely, somehow, related to the growing pain in my face. This was my first clue that maybe bow hunting wasn't my thing after all. After a quick self survey confirmed all my parts were still intact and functioning somewhat normally, I concluded all the damage must be confined to that area between my cheekbones and my chin (mainly because that's what hurt the most and what had to be the source of all the blood since I didn't seem to have any cuts or holes anywhere else). At that point, I gathered up what was left of my bow, threw my pack over my shoulder, and headed out to my rig to go home. The walk out did a lot to clear my head, and by the time I made it to my rig and took a peek at the mess of my face in the side mirror, had sort of pieced things together. That little extra tension I felt when drawing my bow was NOT in fact my nerves, but something gone wrong with the upper limb of the bow, which when stressed beyond a certain point apparently responds by exploding into a million pieces (which now resembled spaghetti hanging off the grip). To make matters worse, my hand, no longer encumbered by the resistance of the draw, promptly found its way to my nose and mouth, mashing my nose, pulping my lips, and loosening some teeth. I learned that this is a GREAT way to knock yourself out and in fact NOT a good way to "clear your head". (On the plus side, I was glad I had elected not to use a tree stand to hunt from, but on the negative side was cussing my decision to use a release to shoot with since it managed to open up a gash in my cheek from the corner of my mouth to my ear before it went flying off to never never land (never to be seen again). I ended up with a new bow out of the deal from warranty, but found that the new bow had a significant flinch that the previous bow never exhibited, and this new bow lacked the desire to shoot and hunt that the previous bow had.

Wow that was a helluva story Maverick! Glad you’re okay!

Yeah, that little episode lead to a pretty short bow hunting career. We did figure out why the bow failed though -- the cams on that bow each had a press-fit pin near the perimeter, and that pin had backed out far enough that it caught on limb as it rotated during the draw back. Unfortunately for me the point at which that pin rotates past the limb coincides with the peak draw point, so as I pulled thru it the cam quit rotating and it put the limb into a position/flex pattern that it wasn't designed to go to. The end result was pretty eye-opening -- wish I had taken a picture of what was left of the bow.

Maverick - and told with a wry sense of humor.

Thanks.

Guy

Guy Miner":xt66mkdj said:

Maverick - and told with a wry sense of humor.

Thanks.

Guy

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Accurate assessment. Quite the story, Maverick. Yeah, that might make me give up the bow, at least for a while.

Stories aside, I'm jealous of you bow hunters. You have opportunities for "close up" interactions with game that few of us rifle hunters ever get. (I do hope to give it another shot in the near future when I gain a little more schedule flexibility in my fall months -- I'm counting on it going a little smoother than round 1.) Good luck Guy with the your bow hunting adventures.

A severe wrist injury to my draw hand in 2013 has really hampered my archery. It was shattered so bad it took a 5" metal plate, 6 screws and 6 pins to put it back together. It took 6 months after fully healing to get started rehabbing with a bow. I used my son's Mission Craze. If you don't know this bow it is adjustable from 25 to 30" and 15-70#. I started at the lowest poundage and slowly worked my way back up. It took another 5 months to be able to even think about trying my bows. Before my injury I was shooting 100 arrows a day. I missed 3 seasons getting back into shape. Today I can't do 100 arrows, most is about 30-40 shots before I have to stop. I am back to 70# and shooting my bows(primary and back up) I am considering going to a 60# bow if and when I decide on a new rig. My bows are 9yrs old and shoot as fast or faster than most on the market today so really no need to replace them. The primary is a 2010 Elite Judge that is a hair faster than listed IBO of 347, I replaced the modular cams with draw specific cams. at 29" and 70# is sends my 385 gr hunting arrow at 320 fps. The back up is a 2011 Elite Pulse. Basically the same bow, modular cams and only slightly slower at 317 fps and set up exactly the same. I can shoot the bows interchangeably. If ever one is out of commission it would not stop a hunt. Here's a couple of pics

I also decided to get in the group and start bow hunting during college. Bought a bow, joined local club- even shot in several 3-D events. Actually was pretty good with that thing. Went to friends place opening morning of bow season here in SC. Been in tree roughly an hour and a small six meandered through at 15 yds. 4 shots and around $50 worth of broadheads and arrows later I hadn’t pulled a hair. I guess I couldn’t handle my nerves when the target had a heartbeat. I realized why I’d never seen a picture of a fat Indian and sold that thing.....

I shoot at 60yds almost every day starting around May until bow season is over. It gets tedious sometimes, but it really makes a difference come hunting season! I actually broke 2 bones in my right hand the summer of 2018 and shooting took some getting used to this past year.

highcotton":3hkug22m said:

I also decided to get in the group and start bow hunting during college. Bought a bow, joined local club- even shot in several 3-D events. Actually was pretty good with that thing. Went to friends place opening morning of bow season here in SC. Been in tree roughly an hour and a small six meandered through at 15 yds. 4 shots and around $50 worth of broadheads and arrows later I hadn’t pulled a hair. I guess I couldn’t handle my nerves when the target had a heartbeat. I realized why I’d never seen a picture of a fat Indian and sold that thing.....

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Now that's funny.