I agree with you Arthur.

I have shot both styles of setups, and still believe that judging yardage is important in any type of bowhunting. I take my little range finder (the focusing type good for 10-45 yards) in the woods with me everytime I hunt. I am pretty good at judging yardage, but I alway double check on it just to be sure. Even if you do practice judging yardage, where ever you practice, yardage in the wood can still be misleading. Here is an example. Last year I shot a deer at 27 yards. I waited for about an hour and didn't go over and check the arrow, but went back to the truck and waited for my buddy. We went back and checked the arrow and the point of impact and my buddy turned around and looked at my stand and the arrow in the dirt, and said "man that was a 35 yard shot". Now I know he is great at distances, even better than me. But the problem was that I was hunting near, but not on the bottom, of a gully and the deer was on the opposite bank. But, I knew where he was when I shot, because I had the area pre-distanced out. Now if I would have shot at him like my buddy may have I'm pretty sure that the shot may not have hit vitals, no matter what the setup was.

My advice is this, the woods can be very deceiving, even if you have practiced at various distances and consider yourself good at judging distances. Don't take yardage for granted no matter what you shoot. This includes close in shots as well.

My other advice is this, don't over glorify how flat your fast shooting, flat trajectory, bows shoot. Just know how they shoot from extensive practice, and go with how the bow actually shoots and not how they are suppose to shoot. Because to be totally honest with you all, when I shot light carbons, extremely fast, I WAS NOT ALL THAT IMPRESSED with what I thought would be a flat trajectory from the setup.

Edited by - BobCo19-65 on 09/13/2002 08:44:09