[Ingo]

As a young lad I learned to shoot a bow and spent a few years shooting with my dad. I started out with one of those little red compound bows and later moved up to a 30# recurve until I stopped shooting. In Jr. High school I got a PSE hunting bow but I never really shot it. At the end of high school I started shooting it finally but I'd never used sights before. So I took the sights off and shot it bare-bow for a long time. A couple weeks ago my dad gave me his old PSE that he used for hunting for many years. It has a peep and pins setup and fits me well with my new release. It didn't take me long to sight it in and now I'm shooting really good groups at 20, 30, 40, and 50 yards. Switching from aluminum arrows to carbons was a huge step-up. I can't believe how much better they are.

Well, anyhow, is there anyone else here that is into archery/bowhunting?

 

[DrkRipper]

I was into archery a lot during high school, shooting a Fred Bear #50 recurve. Since college I've gotten out of practice (really noticeable when you shoot instinctively), but I plan to get back into it this summer. I was never accurate enough to feel good about shooting at a deer past 20-30 yards, but I did get a nice 8-point buck at 15 yards during the fall of my senior year. Have you done much bowhunting yet?

 

[Ingo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrkRipper /img/forum/go_quote.gif I was into archery a lot during high school, shooting a Fred Bear #50 recurve. Since college I've gotten out of practice (really noticeable when you shoot instinctively), but I plan to get back into it this summer. I was never accurate enough to feel good about shooting at a deer past 20-30 yards, but I did get a nice 8-point buck at 15 yards during the fall of my senior year. Have you done much bowhunting yet?

Traditional archery is awesome. I wouldn't feel comfortable taking a deer at 10 yards with a recurve or a longbow. There's such a huge difference between traditional archery and modern archery (compounds, sights, ects) that it's hard to be good at both. Once you start aiming through sights it's really hard to get your feel/instinct back.

I haven't hunted yet with my "new" bow (an 18y/o PSE compound). My junior year of high school I took a 5x6 bull elk with my old bow at 24 yards out of a ground blind. That bow was set at 60#, so it was good out to 40/50 yards. My new PSE is cranked up to 75# with a 35% let-off and shoots my carbon arrows at about 295fps. My dads bow shoots 315fps at 65# and has a 65% let-off.

Deer hunting is really rough here in Arizona. There's not much private land hunting so the small populations of deer that are here are mostly in forest/wilderness areas. In the years that I've hunted for deer with a bow I've only ever had one legitimate, good shot. It was about 35 yards and I nocked up the arrow on the wrong side of the nock point. The arrow sailed about 10 feet over the deer. Hopefully I'll have some better luck in the future.

 

[amphead]

Mmmmmm Venison! Used to do some archery targets only, but that was a very weak long bow. 50 lbs ?

 

[Professor Thump]

I finally picked my bow up after 10 years and hunted this fall in Northern Michigan. It was great to get that feeling back. I had forgotten how much fun it really is.

BTW Ingo, That was really cool that you got an elk with a bow. I have always wanted to have some elk in the freezer with a bow.

I am looking for 3D courses in the INDY area but it seems like there are a lot less courses then there were 10 years ago. I guess the insurance prices have gotten too high. Sad...

 

[Ingo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Professor Thump /img/forum/go_quote.gif I finally picked my bow up after 10 years and hunted this fall in Northern Michigan. It was great to get that feeling back. I had forgotten how much fun it really is. BTW Ingo, That was really cool that you got an elk with a bow. I have always wanted to have some elk in the freezer with a bow. I am looking for 3D courses in the INDY area but it seems like there are a lot less courses then there were 10 years ago. I guess the insurance prices have gotten too high. Sad...

If you ever decide you want to try and get an elk tag, I would try here in Arizona or over in New Mexico. We have the biggest elk in the country here. The Elk in Wyoming, Colorado, ect. just don't stack up to our elk here. I feel really fortunate that I was born and raised in a place that gives me that kind of opportunity. Someday, I'd like to get over to the midwest and hunt an Eastern Whitetail. The whitetails here are really small and very hard to get at.