ORIGINAL: Jerry/Pa
Well if no one will say it I will. Hunters who pull there bow's out days before the season "should" examine there ethics.
If you only put that much effort into your equipment and shooting skills how much effort will you put into shot selection or tracking shills. If you misjudge the distance (which you will if you only practice a couple days a year)and make a bad hit will you only put a half a$$ effort into tracking a wounded animal? I honestly don't think a 6 in. group at your effective range is good enough for live game. Assuming it's 20 yds. Specially for someone only shooting a few days a year. What happens when you screw on broad heads. Now what size groups will you shoot? Don't you think you owe it to the game you hunt to be as effecient as possible with your equipment and shooting skills. I think you already know the answer to the question before you asked it.
Jerry, I appreciate your honest opinion on this, but I've got to jaw back at ya some here.
First, you must not have read the whole thread - people are really only seeing this "mythical" 6" circle I threw out there. Is a 6" circle the kill zone? Yes. Did I originally say "whithin"? Yes. Did I later not say that I can hit a 1" piece of tape after sitting for 9 months? Yes. Did I also say that I don't blow the dust off the case, open it and head afield on the opener? Yes. I shoot anywhere from a week to a month prior to season. This is plenty of time under any circumstances to re-string, tune, make sure sites are still on, retrain muscle, etc.. I understand that we should do everything we can to be good at our sport in order to ultimately enjoy success, but to assume that I have no tracking skills or lazy tracking skills because I don't shoot all year is a rather absurd assumption, don't you think? I can track a deer with no blood - have done it plenty of times successfuly in 24 years of hunting. Now back to shooting - shooting a compound is just flat out not hard to do. It's like a gun - the sites are on, you hit the bullseye, the sites are off, you don't. What's the big deal? I absolutely agree that shooting a bow all year long leads some to be very proficient shooters, but when I can drag the thing out of the case after not touching it for months and throw bullseye after bullseye, how does this make me any less ethical than the year-round shooter? It doesn't. Not at all. Think about our equipment these days - the speed of the bows, fancy sites, this cam or that cam, drop away rests, carbon arrows, releases and on and on.... that makes a rather deadly weapon that is extremely reliable, and really easy to use. That's what makes traditional shooting so much fun and something you have to work harder at (at least I do) - stick and a string. I know my ability and my range, which is 30 yards. Never killed a deer past 20 yards though - didn't really need to.
