You've made my point exactly. People don't know anything about the other people that make posts here on this board, but they take what they say as gospel, or worse yet, flame them when they make a statement that may not be complete.

What if I said that I can't find my hunting release, but that I shot the 1000's of arrows (that so many of you self righteous guys think that I ought to shoot before ever shooting at the righteously exalted deer) with my target release over the summer? And now this weekend I'll be brushing up with my hunting release. Would that have change things? Sure it would. But how many of you gave me the benefit of the doubt? No one. Well, I have shot a mess of arrows this summer because I got a new bow, a new Rhino release (how many are brave enough, or sure enough about their form to use that release, I wonder?), and a shorter draw length- because the last time I had a bow set up for me was in 1990 when everyone thought that you had to be stretched out like you were on a cross to shoot.

However, 2 years ago when I came back to shooting after a 12 year hiatus of not even unpacking my old Hoyt Pro Vantage with overdraw, I reluctantly picked up my bow after weeks of pressure from my pastor to get back into archery with him. After 3 shots, my remaining 18 shots were all within a 3” bulls eye at 20 and 25 yards. This was 3 days before the season. I’m so evil, I guess. I should have had to pay a 2 year penitence for such a dastardly act. I didn’t though, and that season I shot a 7 point buck through both lungs at 18 yards, hitting him where I aimed. So, Buckeyebowhunter, it would depend on who you were if I would let you do it or not. Well, actually, it would be stupid to ever let anyone do it, whether they shot 20,000 arrows all summer or 2. What was that you said about common sense?

I shot 5 years in south central PA, from 1985-1990, worked a year and a half in a pro bow shop in Hummelstown for you PA boys, and was fortunate enough to have shot with Todd Herman, a Hoyt pro Staff shooter, and Scott Schultz, now the president of Robinson scents and also a Hoyt staff member. Those men did not have to shoot 1000’s of arrows to hit a bullseye, much less to hit a deer. No, I’m not the shooter those two are, but I am in the upper middle half. I shoot 3 D’s clean, without missing the lungs- ever. I can sit my bow down today and come back in 12 years and do it again. The number of arrows shot through a bow means squat. I firmly believe everyone has a plateau that they will reach in shooting, and short of a miracle or constant professional training, they will sit there. And for some of us, it doesn’t take a thousand arrows a month to reach that plateau again. I have seen it in myself, I have seen it in the hundreds of guys that came into our shop in ‘89 and ’90, and I have seen it in my father that nearly killed himself trying to get onto the Hoyt pro team, but could never get above his plateau. He literally did shoot countless thousands of arrows, but lacked that natural gift, whatever it is, that would allow him to do everything identically shot after shot after shot. I know that I can shoot 3” groups consistently in rain, sleet, snow or 100 degree heat. I’ll never shoot 2” groups consistently, much less the ½” and ¾” groups some people claim to shoot consistently. If one of those groups a day or every other day is all it takes to claim I shoot ¾” groups, then OK, I shoot ¾” groups. Woohooo.

Was my example with the trophies a little off? Sure it was, but it went deeper than that. Fieldmouse stated the way he saw things and felt about trophies, and got flamed for it. Those of us that agreed with him got flamed by extension, because we agreed. There’s also the Montgomery Gentry video thread that showed a link of their video, “You do your thing”. Many chimed in saying how much they liked that song, but unfortunately that doesn’t apply here on this board that is populated by the most ethical hunters in the world. It’s a great slogan until someone holds a different view on how deer should be hunted. There is the example of TexasHighrack who had the balls to tell people here not to tell him how he should hunt on his Texas Ranch. Then those that flamed drives based on a TV show they saw on OLN. Then those that flame people for legally hunting over bait. Hell, it goes on and on. But, hey, You Do Your Thing, as long as it matches the way I do things.

Now, C903, you label me as 'a shooter of animals', like I am lower than dirt. Do you know that I kneel and pray and thank God (yes, I’m a Christian) over the body of my deer for the opportunity to have harvested such an animal, for the health and ability to do so, and for the opportunity to do so? Do you know that I have a church ministry in Plattsmouth Nebraska that has gotten youth and adults into bow hunting, and that we hunt together and they are ambassadors within their communities for both Christ and Bowhunters. Do you know that as a group we have gotten some farmers to open their land back up to bow hunting after refusing for years because of unethical bow hunters and the wounded deer they left behind? No, you don’t, but the accusations fly anyway. That’s fine, because I don’t measure my worth by how popular I am on a hunting board that I visit for 3 months a year. Go ahead and flame guys, and accuse others of hurting the hunting community while not looking at yourselves.