The old Archery bug bit me an awfully long time ago. I’ve had a bow in my hand often over the last forty-five years; from the time I was five…. you can do the math later. And what a wonderful blessing the sport of archery has been to me! Starting out as a young archer, naturally I took to bowhunting small game around my family’s farm, like a duck takes to water. I spent many hours chasing squirrels and rabbits back then and would only score maybe once, out of every hundred shots or so.
Since then, I’ve carried my bows of far greater technology, with greater skill, in pursuit of far bigger game in all corners of our country. For the last few years I’ve scaled way back on the technology, preferring to carry an ancient wooden bow and to hunt and shoot strictly with traditional equipment. Having successfully reached all of the goals I’d set for myself with the old bow, I had been knocking around the idea of setting up another compound bow for myself.
Recently, I had the pleasure of setting up a compound for a young friend, a hand me down Browning, compound bow. It was a bit of a challenge, but with a few creative tweeks to the string and cable harness, I had the young gentleman shooting comfortably and on target before I left him. It was fun, playing with that compound and he even let me take a few shots myself with it. Soon after, I found myself wandering into Golddiggers and Gunslingers in Inverness to check out the bows adorning his wall and a Matthews Switchback XT followed me home.
I’ve set the bow up with some higher end accessories and have had a great time out on my practice range speeding arrows into my target. As bowhunters, it’s important to bring the bows out from time to time and keep not only our equipment in top shape, but to maintain the muscle memory and eye for range estimation to allow us to be ready for the hunt. Some of us will be waiting until Whitetail season opens up, but don’t overlook the porkers we can hunt at any time of the year on private lands. Regardless of which game you intend to hunt, practice is a key to success.
The best practice I’ve ever enjoyed as a bowhunter, has been to participate in 3-D archery competitions. Those events have fairly gone by the wayside with the whole shutdown due to COVID-19 edicts, but after a quick Google search, I found that a local archery club will be reopening it’s range for friendly 3-D competitions. The Drawn By Grace Archers will be hosting a shoot at the Wahoo Baptist Church, in Bushnell, this Saturday, June 13th. Practice bags will be available at 8:00am with the competition with three dimensional wildlife targets beginning at 9:ooam. I’ll be there and hope you’ll join me. After the shoot, if any of you need any adjustments or advice on your equipment, give me a shout and we’ll look into it.
If any of you would like to share a picture from your own adventures, or a story of your success on the hunt, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]. God bless and good hunting!
