12-02-2008, 07:22 PM
I still think back from time to time to all the shots I missed my target, "not many, less than you can count on one hand"
of all those times I missed I found it to have been equipment failure except once, I went back to my target and posted a flag then went back to my seat and sat and staired at the flag for an hour, then I spotted a sapling twig no bigger around than a pencil lead, I though that was so thin I never gave it any mind, I mean what are the odds of my target lining up directly behind this minute miniscule bairly noticable other when a finch lands on it bending it over. I got up walked over to the reed and examined it from top to bottom where I saw I had nicked it with my arow changing the trijectory.
ya I knew the twig was there before hand, saw many a finch landing on it. I couldnt have hit that twig if I shot at it a thousand times. Yet I sure the hellow got it that time for sure, the razor made a nice clean cut in the green bark.
I dont mean to add one more thing for you to ponder over the next week but it is worth mentioning, when arrows are noched backwards they will fly off target no matter what type of bow you are using. I am sure you didnt do this but that is a posibility...
I wouldnt pull my hair out over it, "eaiser said than done" especialy if you never see another deer you can get a shot at the rest of the season. the not knowing is the real killer of confidence.
cross bows there is only one real sure fire way to sight them in, clamp them to a bench and shoot it at a half dozen bails of hay then dial them in.
I do miss my brothers old indian recurve bow, that took a skill, more like it was an art to shot. you didnt have to wory about sites moving as I had with my compounds.
with that you had to know the ark of the arrow you were shooting and be able to be a fair judge of distance. todays hunters I have seen stands out in the woods and different collored flags at different distances away from the stand.
mind you I am not against that method, it dose mean less wounded animals in the woods. It is surprizing how much of a differance that ten feet makes when shooting a bow. and for guys with no depth perception it is a shot maker.
it is two different worlds from natural shooting and site shooting. both have its benifits, only natural shooters will be able to take targets sight shooters will miss.
when I was in my youth we used to hunt ducks and pheasnts with bow, "yep, it was leagle back then, I dont know about today"
we had arrows that were called flu-flu, the feathers were put on backwards and when the arrow flew to its enertia limit the feathers would relax and catch air and the arrow would drop to the ground many times landing standing up, especialy in the corn feilds.
no we didnt kill as many birds as we could have with a gun, but we had more targets back then, and if we did manage to hit a bird it was a kill, no wounded birds, birds with arrows stuck in them dont fly so good. ya there was a couple of them we had to run down and finish off, yep, it aint easy for a bird to run with an arrow stuck in them either..
today I doubt you could hunt birds other than on a farm ranch with a bow to have enough targets to be any good at it. it dose take pratice...
Fred Bear was a natural shooter and in his museum he had about every animal mounted that could be shot with a bow. I dont know if that museum is still standing. I was there when Fred was still alive. Yep I got to meet him, I was realy young then but was where I got the idea to hunt birds with a bow in the first place.
now rabbits with a bow, now there is some crazy hunting, zig zagging thought the grass and brush. Ya I have taken a couple sitting hossenpheppers, yet to take one on the run... At the Bear museum I saw an old film of Fred taking bunnies on the run.. now thats pretty wild..
but you know, Fred was a lot closer to an era where it was common for people to hunt with a bow for thier dinner, so they had to be good...
I guess thats enough rambling...
knowing you, I would concider only three things.
[ol][li]macanical failure, sites bummped or loose[/li][li]a un-notices obstical in the path of the arrow and the deer heard it hit that causing it to step aside.[/li][li]the deer had been shot at before and reconizes the sound of a trigger release.[/li][/ol]
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of all those times I missed I found it to have been equipment failure except once, I went back to my target and posted a flag then went back to my seat and sat and staired at the flag for an hour, then I spotted a sapling twig no bigger around than a pencil lead, I though that was so thin I never gave it any mind, I mean what are the odds of my target lining up directly behind this minute miniscule bairly noticable other when a finch lands on it bending it over. I got up walked over to the reed and examined it from top to bottom where I saw I had nicked it with my arow changing the trijectory.
ya I knew the twig was there before hand, saw many a finch landing on it. I couldnt have hit that twig if I shot at it a thousand times. Yet I sure the hellow got it that time for sure, the razor made a nice clean cut in the green bark.
I dont mean to add one more thing for you to ponder over the next week but it is worth mentioning, when arrows are noched backwards they will fly off target no matter what type of bow you are using. I am sure you didnt do this but that is a posibility...
I wouldnt pull my hair out over it, "eaiser said than done" especialy if you never see another deer you can get a shot at the rest of the season. the not knowing is the real killer of confidence.
cross bows there is only one real sure fire way to sight them in, clamp them to a bench and shoot it at a half dozen bails of hay then dial them in.
I do miss my brothers old indian recurve bow, that took a skill, more like it was an art to shot. you didnt have to wory about sites moving as I had with my compounds.
with that you had to know the ark of the arrow you were shooting and be able to be a fair judge of distance. todays hunters I have seen stands out in the woods and different collored flags at different distances away from the stand.
mind you I am not against that method, it dose mean less wounded animals in the woods. It is surprizing how much of a differance that ten feet makes when shooting a bow. and for guys with no depth perception it is a shot maker.
it is two different worlds from natural shooting and site shooting. both have its benifits, only natural shooters will be able to take targets sight shooters will miss.
when I was in my youth we used to hunt ducks and pheasnts with bow, "yep, it was leagle back then, I dont know about today"
we had arrows that were called flu-flu, the feathers were put on backwards and when the arrow flew to its enertia limit the feathers would relax and catch air and the arrow would drop to the ground many times landing standing up, especialy in the corn feilds.
no we didnt kill as many birds as we could have with a gun, but we had more targets back then, and if we did manage to hit a bird it was a kill, no wounded birds, birds with arrows stuck in them dont fly so good. ya there was a couple of them we had to run down and finish off, yep, it aint easy for a bird to run with an arrow stuck in them either..
today I doubt you could hunt birds other than on a farm ranch with a bow to have enough targets to be any good at it. it dose take pratice...
Fred Bear was a natural shooter and in his museum he had about every animal mounted that could be shot with a bow. I dont know if that museum is still standing. I was there when Fred was still alive. Yep I got to meet him, I was realy young then but was where I got the idea to hunt birds with a bow in the first place.
now rabbits with a bow, now there is some crazy hunting, zig zagging thought the grass and brush. Ya I have taken a couple sitting hossenpheppers, yet to take one on the run... At the Bear museum I saw an old film of Fred taking bunnies on the run.. now thats pretty wild..
but you know, Fred was a lot closer to an era where it was common for people to hunt with a bow for thier dinner, so they had to be good...
I guess thats enough rambling...
knowing you, I would concider only three things.
[ol][li]macanical failure, sites bummped or loose[/li][li]a un-notices obstical in the path of the arrow and the deer heard it hit that causing it to step aside.[/li][li]the deer had been shot at before and reconizes the sound of a trigger release.[/li][/ol]
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