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12-14-2002 | 08:56 AM
#2
Boone & Crockett
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 15,295
Likes: 0
From: Mississippi USA
RE: beginning again
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>My question is pretty much open,you are the pro's in this field and I want to get some advice on what you would like to see me do in order to be morally correct before heading into the woods.
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>
Disclaimer--I am not a pro by any stretch of the imagination!
I will give my opinion here though. Know your limitations, and stick with them. If you are only comfortable and confident shooting 10 yds, then shoot at game at 10yds or less. Have your broadheads sharp and your arrows flying true. Respect the land, the game, your fellow hunters, and yourself. Know what you and your equipment can do before you go. If you aren't yet comfortable with it, practice until you are.
Equipment-wise, if what you have works, I don't see any reason to change. I will not use a mechanical broadhead, or any "gimick" head.
Although the equipment he uses is quite different, you might get some help from Byron Ferguson's "Become the Arrow". Lots of good information, easy to read, to the point. Skip the part about wooden arrows--lol. I shoot with a different style, but there are a lot of good hints that are usefull regardless what style you choose.
That's my 2 pennies worth.
Chad
Long Bows Rule!
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>
Disclaimer--I am not a pro by any stretch of the imagination!
I will give my opinion here though. Know your limitations, and stick with them. If you are only comfortable and confident shooting 10 yds, then shoot at game at 10yds or less. Have your broadheads sharp and your arrows flying true. Respect the land, the game, your fellow hunters, and yourself. Know what you and your equipment can do before you go. If you aren't yet comfortable with it, practice until you are.
Equipment-wise, if what you have works, I don't see any reason to change. I will not use a mechanical broadhead, or any "gimick" head.
Although the equipment he uses is quite different, you might get some help from Byron Ferguson's "Become the Arrow". Lots of good information, easy to read, to the point. Skip the part about wooden arrows--lol. I shoot with a different style, but there are a lot of good hints that are usefull regardless what style you choose.
That's my 2 pennies worth.
Chad
Long Bows Rule!
12-16-2002 | 07:09 AM
#3
Fork Horn
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 384
Likes: 0
From: Texarkana, TX/AR
RE: beginning again
12-17-2002 | 06:36 AM
#5
Giant Nontypical
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 9,175
Likes: 0
RE: beginning again
Chad is spot on with his post, but I've got a few things to add.
I was rereading 'The Witchery of Archery' last night for the first time in 10 years or so and came across this paragraph:
"A black rubber ball four inches in diameter, suspended in midair by a string fastened to a low bough of an apple-tree, makes a first rate substitute for a bird, and a small bag of straw placed on the ground and shot at, at about twenty yards, gives good hare practice. You will soon discover the great advantage gained by not using the same distance all the time. For, after all, a bowman's skill is scarcely worthy of admiration if it is confined to one range. It is when you have learned to shoot well at all distances between ten and fifty yards and betake yourself to the woods and fields, that archery becomes a truly royal sport; and not till then do you begin fairly to draw upon the varied resources compassed by the art."
The last half of that passage is the same advice I've been giving for a long time. Don't limit your shooting practice to 20 yards. Stretch it out there a good, long way. Learning how to consistently hit at longer ranges will make you a much better shot at shorter yardages.
Another suggestion that I read recently on how to determine your maximum ethical hunting shot distance is to imagine the deer you're drawing on is solid steel with a 6" circle inside the heart/lung area the only spot you can hit and not destroy your arrow; and your arrows cost a hundred dollars each. How close do you need to get before you're absolutely certain you won't have to replace that expensive arrow? THAT is your ethical maximum shooting distance on game.
I've discovered when you've got a broken bone in your ankle and can't get out to shoot, it gives you a lot of time to review old archery literature.
As for equipment, don't worry if what you use meets someone else's arbitrary idea of what is, or isn't, traditional or moral. If you're a better shot with certain equipment, if it gives you the best possible chance of making a quick, clean kill and it falls within your state's legal equipment regulations, then use it.
Some of my favorite reading material: "The Witchery of Archery" By Maurice Thompson (a classic with a lot of good advice, but really shows how bowhunting has changed over the past 125 years); "Fred Bear's Field Notes" by Fred Bear; "Become the Arrow" as has already been mentioned; J. Fred Asbell's "Instinctive Shooting", "Instinctive Shooting II" and "Stalking and Still Hunting"; Howard Hill's "Hunting the Hard Way"; "Bows on the Little Delta" by Glenn St Charles; "A Thousand Campfires" by Jay Massey; "Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans" by Jim Hamm; "Longbow: A Social and Military History" by Robert Hardy.
I was rereading 'The Witchery of Archery' last night for the first time in 10 years or so and came across this paragraph:
"A black rubber ball four inches in diameter, suspended in midair by a string fastened to a low bough of an apple-tree, makes a first rate substitute for a bird, and a small bag of straw placed on the ground and shot at, at about twenty yards, gives good hare practice. You will soon discover the great advantage gained by not using the same distance all the time. For, after all, a bowman's skill is scarcely worthy of admiration if it is confined to one range. It is when you have learned to shoot well at all distances between ten and fifty yards and betake yourself to the woods and fields, that archery becomes a truly royal sport; and not till then do you begin fairly to draw upon the varied resources compassed by the art."
The last half of that passage is the same advice I've been giving for a long time. Don't limit your shooting practice to 20 yards. Stretch it out there a good, long way. Learning how to consistently hit at longer ranges will make you a much better shot at shorter yardages.
Another suggestion that I read recently on how to determine your maximum ethical hunting shot distance is to imagine the deer you're drawing on is solid steel with a 6" circle inside the heart/lung area the only spot you can hit and not destroy your arrow; and your arrows cost a hundred dollars each. How close do you need to get before you're absolutely certain you won't have to replace that expensive arrow? THAT is your ethical maximum shooting distance on game.
I've discovered when you've got a broken bone in your ankle and can't get out to shoot, it gives you a lot of time to review old archery literature.
As for equipment, don't worry if what you use meets someone else's arbitrary idea of what is, or isn't, traditional or moral. If you're a better shot with certain equipment, if it gives you the best possible chance of making a quick, clean kill and it falls within your state's legal equipment regulations, then use it.
Some of my favorite reading material: "The Witchery of Archery" By Maurice Thompson (a classic with a lot of good advice, but really shows how bowhunting has changed over the past 125 years); "Fred Bear's Field Notes" by Fred Bear; "Become the Arrow" as has already been mentioned; J. Fred Asbell's "Instinctive Shooting", "Instinctive Shooting II" and "Stalking and Still Hunting"; Howard Hill's "Hunting the Hard Way"; "Bows on the Little Delta" by Glenn St Charles; "A Thousand Campfires" by Jay Massey; "Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans" by Jim Hamm; "Longbow: A Social and Military History" by Robert Hardy.
