If I honestly answered this question, there'd be a half dozen yayhoos yelling 'ELITIST' at me within the next 3 minutes. [:'(]

So, just a general opinion.

We were having this same discussion one night at the club. We were taking a break from shooting arrows and were sitting around shooting the breeze instead. A few compound guys said the same thing you did, that you can have pinpoint accuracy with minimal practice. And, naturally, my point of view was, "Sure ya can, as long as you're standing flat footed, shooting at targets that just sit there waiting for your arrows. Animals are different."

After about 15 minutes, one of the guys spotted a copperhead. Everybody grabbed their bows and emptied their quivers, never once hitting the snake at only 3 yards. I got my bow off the rack, got 1 arrow out of my quiver, drew, shot and pinned the snake's head to the ground. "Any further discussion?" It was not a lucky shot, since I'd been killing some time shooting grasshoppers with blunts earlier that day.

I LIKE archery. I shoot bows because I enjoy it, not because I have to tune up and sight in before hunting season. But, because I shoot year round, I KNOW my equipment. I practice taking oddball shots, so I KNOW how to handle shots that are a bit out of the ordinary. Since I take advantage of bad weather to practice in bad conditions, I KNOW how shoot in less than ideal conditions and hit what I'm aiming at.

If you do all your tuning, sight-in and shooting on late summer, bluebird days with calm winds, how in the world do you expect to know how your arrows are going to shoot if you have to hunt in a cold drizzle with 25 mph winds? You can't know.

Frankly, I detest the word 'practice.' It implies shooting a bow is a chore. I shoot to have fun and, brother, do I ever have fun doing it. I cannot understand people that dislike shooting bows -or, at least, use every lame excuse possible to get out of shooting one- but choose to hunt with a bow anyway.