Beckers, Bows and Arrows! Let's see your "stringed instruments" :)

[coote]

A truck? I thought you guys just threw the deer on the roof of your car, and then tied the legs together using a trucker's hitch... passing the rope through the opened windows. With those cheap tags you'll probably get more than one deer. You'd probably fit two on the Civic. Put some rope under the seat now in case you forget on opening day.

And 'on' the car is not violating the 'you're not putting a dead animal into the car' principle. And I've found that the 'forgiveness rather than permission' approach works a lot of the time. Besides, when you drive home exhausted and filthy, but grinning all over your face with a couple of deer on the roof, who would be cold-hearted enough to dampen your child-like joy with a lecture?

A couple of dents and a bit of blood spattered on the upholstery gives a car character. Your wife's and kids' friends will be envious of your hunter-gatherer-providor role. Your dog will love riding in a wagon with the refreshing 'game' fragrance wafting from the carpets and seats.

And a freezer is a good thing to have. I'd get the biggest one that can fit in the available space. We have a fairly small upright freezer with drawers... which would be fine for most of the year if only game meat was allowed in it. However we can have bread, icecream and a variety of concoctions in plastic bags and pottles which cramp my style somewhat. Mind you, the more I have to give away or consume quickly... the more I can go out hunting. And I mostly take all the meat off the bones before freezing. That way there is less volume, and it packs better into the square draws. I don't know how big your deer are, but I've been surprised at how little space I've needed for some boned-out animals.

Maybe you have a neighbor nearby with a freezer that is only partially filled.

I suppose you've thought of it already... but are glasses a steadier option for hunting?

I can imagine the thrill of having that first deer at your feet. Then there is the smell of the deer.... and the fresh venison as you cut it up. It is something that we as a race have participated in for tens of thousands of years.

 

[granitestateofmind]

A truck? I thought you guys just threw the deer on the roof of your car, and then tied the legs together using a trucker's hitch... passing the rope through the opened windows. With those cheap tags you'll probably get more than one deer. You'd probably fit two on the Civic. Put some rope under the seat now in case you forget on opening day.

And 'on' the car is not violating the 'you're not putting a dead animal into the car' principle. And I've found that the 'forgiveness rather than permission' approach works a lot of the time. Besides, when you drive home exhausted and filthy, but grinning all over your face with a couple of deer on the roof, who would be cold-hearted enough to dampen your child-like joy with a lecture?

A couple of dents and a bit of blood spattered on the upholstery gives a car character. Your wife's and kids' friends will be envious of your hunter-gatherer-providor role. Your dog will love riding in a wagon with the refreshing 'game' fragrance wafting from the carpets and seats.

And a freezer is a good thing to have. I'd get the biggest one that can fit in the available space. We have a fairly small upright freezer with drawers... which would be fine for most of the year if only game meat was allowed in it. However we can have bread, icecream and a variety of concoctions in plastic bags and pottles which cramp my style somewhat. Mind you, the more I have to give away or consume quickly... the more I can go out hunting. And I mostly take all the meat off the bones before freezing. That way there is less volume, and it packs better into the square draws. I don't know how big your deer are, but I've been surprised at how little space I've needed for some boned-out animals.

Maybe you have a neighbor nearby with a freezer that is only partially filled.

I suppose you've thought of it already... but are glasses a steadier option for hunting?

I can imagine the thrill of having that first deer at your feet. Then there is the smell of the deer.... and the fresh venison as you cut it up. It is something that we as a race have participated in for tens of thousands of years.

LOL - seriously, I laughed out loud....BUT - you have quite obviously never met my wife. I....yah, I'm not gonna trot out examples, but "sharp tongued" doesn't even scratch the surface.

I don't know if glasses will work, but I doubt it. My Rx is serious enough that if I'm not looking through the center of the lens, things are pretty distorted - and I don't think I can turn my head far enough to look through the peep sight. I know I can't shoot with sunglasses, because there's not enough peripheral vision. I can try and see what happens, I reckon.....

 

[cold one]

Here's my stringed instruments.
A #40 Sage Samick recurve take-down.

and an Excalibur Phoenix.

 

[Warriors Meadow]

Good afternoon everyone,

My Samick Sage setup @ 45#'s. I repurposed an old cycling hydration pack and used the tubes from my hip quiver. Holds everything you see here plus 3l of water, sun glasses, sun screen and snack. I currently have the fast flight string and I'm going to tune my bow for sound and add "balls". I've recently taught myself to shoot while holding two arrows. I figure if Im hunting and need/can take a second shot I'll be ready.

Currently been going to the range behind the science centre in Toronto. My grouping @ 20 yards.

I can hit the target @ 30 but @ 40 I'm doing more yard saleing than shooting.

My Beckers

W.M.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

[Warriors Meadow]

Here's my stringed instruments.
A #40 Sage Samick recurve take-down.

and an Excalibur Phoenix.

I'm just curious what broadheads are you using on the Sage?

Thanks,
W.M.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

[cold one]

I'm just curious what broadheads are you using on the Sage?

Thanks,
W.M.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

Zwickey broadheads, wanted something primitive looking but still modern. Haven't hunted with them yet but they fly straight.
The broadheads are screw-in because the arrows are carbon with a wood finish.

 

[Warriors Meadow]

Zwickey broadheads, wanted something primitive looking but still modern. Haven't hunted with them yet but they fly straight.
The broadheads are screw-in because the arrows are carbon with a wood finish.

Thanks for the quick reply.

How do they fly compared to your field points? What grain of each are you using?

W.M.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

[cold one]

Thanks for the quick reply.

How do they fly compared to your field points? What grain of each are you using?

W.M.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

They fly close enough to my field points for me to be happy with, can reliably hit a fake deer in the yard at 20-25 yards. My field point are 125 grain (it's what I shoot with my crossbow too) and the Zwickey Eskilite are 135 grain and are made for carbon arrows.

 

[granitestateofmind]

My best group ever at 30 yds., I believe:

The shot from above reveals a need to work on a steady elevation and consistent anchor - I seem to have the the azimuth part down (leastways on this one particular end)

I do wish I had someone more knowledgeable than me (probably anyone, since I'm almost completely self taught) to shoot with. Today I picked up the tuning issue of Bowhunter and saw some articles that made me think a little more about some form issues. Seems to have helped - a bit. Still can't see very well, so I've just been using the old contacts as the right one gives me better vision; can't really see the pins or the target at 30 yards with the new set, even tho they are the same prescription ad lens brands. If they weren't so expensive I'd open up a couple more packages and look for a good one....but I'd surely die a slow death at the hands of my optometrist wife if I started asking for more lenses in such short order.....makes me want to get lasik more than ever. I'll still be shooting righty with my (very) non-dominant eye, but at least the wrong eye would have consistent vison. Anyone here tried shooting with glasses or maybe right hand setup with their left eye? Curious minds, you know.....

 

[coote]

Excellent grouping. Your venison prospects look good.

 

[zzyzzogeton]

My best group ever at 30 yds., I believe:

The shot from above reveals a need to work on a steady elevation and consistent anchor - I seem to have the the azimuth part down (leastways on this one particular end)

I do wish I had someone more knowledgeable than me (probably anyone, since I'm almost completely self taught) to shoot with. Today I picked up the tuning issue of Bowhunter and saw some articles that made me think a little more about some form issues. Seems to have helped - a bit. Still can't see very well, so I've just been using the old contacts as the right one gives me better vision; can't really see the pins or the target at 30 yards with the new set, even tho they are the same prescription ad lens brands. If they weren't so expensive I'd open up a couple more packages and look for a good one....but I'd surely die a slow death at the hands of my optometrist wife if I started asking for more lenses in such short order.....makes me want to get lasik more than ever. I'll still be shooting righty with my (very) non-dominant eye, but at least the wrong eye would have consistent vison. Anyone here tried shooting with glasses or maybe right hand setup with their left eye? Curious minds, you know.....

I'm a righty with a dominant left eye. However, I shoot bows and rifles left handed using my dominant eye, so that doesn't help you much. However, I only shoot with glasses. I have only tried to wear contacts 1x for about a month and my eyes just could never get comfortable with them, so back to glasses I went. Your issue with glasses and shooting MAY be due to using your non-dominant eye.

I know that back in the day before I knew about left and right eyedness, I knew that I couldn't hit shit right handed/right eyed. So I tried lefty/lefty and all of a sudden I could hit a 2" circle at 50 yards and 3" at 100 yards from the git-go using open iron sights. Never went back to right handed shooting, even when military range masters tried to make me shoot right handed. I just told them they had 2 choices - I could hit what I was supposed to or I could shoot right handed. Their choice, but I didn't want to hear any BS about my scores. There was more than 1 reason I went Navy.

 

[granitestateofmind]

Excellent grouping. Your venison prospects look good.

Thanks, friend. I'm hopeful....a deer is a lot bigger target than a 5" circle. But I know how "buck fever" happens. With luck I will remain calm and pick my spot.

I'm a righty with a dominant left eye. However, I shoot bows and rifles left handed using my dominant eye, so that doesn't help you much. However, I only shoot with glasses. I have only tried to wear contacts 1x for about a month and my eyes just could never get comfortable with them, so back to glasses I went. Your issue with glasses and shooting MAY be due to using your non-dominant eye.

I know that back in the day before I knew about left and right eyedness, I knew that I couldn't hit shit right handed/right eyed. So I tried lefty/lefty and all of a sudden I could hit a 2" circle at 50 yards and 3" at 100 yards from the git-go using open iron sights. Never went back to right handed shooting, even when military range masters tried to make me shoot right handed. I just told them they had 2 choices - I could hit what I was supposed to or I could shoot right handed. Their choice, but I didn't want to hear any BS about my scores. There was more than 1 reason I went Navy.

I can shoot a rifle (well, at least an air rifle either/or....even what my dad (who's a lefty) calls "Kentucky windage" - putting your chin over the barrel and shooting righty with your left eye (although for him it was shooting lefty with his right eye....). Unfortunately, the bow setup is, as you know, NOT ambidextrous. I am, sadly, chronically right handed for archery. The problem I have with glasses is my head won't turn far enough to get my right eye in the optimum lens range. I don't think I've even seen a pro archer shooting with regular sunglasses (if they shoot with them, they use "shield" type glasses - continuous lens), much less corrective glasses. My prescription, unfortunately, causes a lot of distortion unless I'm looking directly through the middle of the lens. With my head turned, looking through the edge of the lens, is even worse than a poorly seated contact. FWIW, my right eye is somewhere in the 20/200 range uncorrected - about a -5.0 (quite nearsighted) with a serious amount of astigmatism....plus the amblyopia. Oh, well...it is what it is. At least I can see out of my right eye - if I close the left one.

Surprised the crap out of myself with this today, as the target and pins were pretty blurry. I was trying to work on technique, but it sure would be nice to see. Might've been blind luck, but this was the best end I had this evening:

This gut was parked a few feet in front of the target when I went out.....I shot anyway, and it didn't seem fazed by the arrows whizzing a foot or two over it's head. Dumbunny.

This was when I went to pull arrows, and it finally decided to skedaddle....or so I thought. Halfway through the next end he popped back out from behind the rhododendron....and then took off for good when I went down to retrieve arrows.

 

[granitestateofmind]

Really trying hard to work on technique and change some bad habits. Today was nothing special as I took my bow in to get the peep rotated a bit - and ended up with a new peep - and a new D-loop (wore mine out a bit after 6 months of regular shooting). Yesterday, I was briefly on fire (@30 yds.):

A different end:

So, this is my setup: A Mission Riot at 60# and a 29" draw, a QAD fallaway rest, A TruGlo (XS?, IDK - the name has escaped me) sight (micro-adjustable and lighted), a Trophy Ridge 8" stabilizer and a T.R.U.Ball Max Hunter Pro 4 release. Cheap but excellent "The Decimator XV" CF arrows (Dick's house brand, IIRC) with 100 grain points in a Bohning 6 arrow quiver. Love this bow - and it wasn't that pricey as far as bows go. Oh, yeah....also some LimbSaver dampeners and Monkey Tail string dampeners. Easy & smooth draw cycle, plenty of speed....now I just have to adjust the shooter.

Now all I need to do is get myself into the woods this fall and bring home some venison.

 

[coote]

With a sixty pound bow and grouping like that, the deer will not be safe. And the rabbit is dicing with danger.

Just wondering.... have you tried shooting at targets without a printed bullseye? I'm thinking that is a good idea to get used to nominating a 'spot' on a big blank target (or deer) and then shooting for it. Do you shoot with both eyes open? I'm definitely not a Fred Bear or Howard Hill, but I like to keep both eyes open.

 

[granitestateofmind]

With a sixty pound bow and grouping like that, the deer will not be safe. And the rabbit is dicing with danger.

Just wondering.... have you tried shooting at targets without a printed bullseye? I'm thinking that is a good idea to get used to nominating a 'spot' on a big blank target (or deer) and then shooting for it. Do you shoot with both eyes open? I'm definitely not a Fred Bear or Howard Hill, but I like to keep both eyes open.

The other side of that green target is a deer target - though it does have vitals printed on it. I just shot it so much that arrows were falling out, so I turned it around. I have a second one waiting in the wings for when it gets closer to the season. As for keeping both eyes open, that isn't possible for me - well, it's possible, but I will miss the target 100% of the time that way. I have amblyopia (some call it lazy eye, which is not correct) and my right eye is my "weak" eye, so I shouldn't be shooting righty at all. 40+ years tho....pretty hard to change, and expensive. Basically amblyopia is (for me, there are other forms) a brain malfunction - when one is very young, we have monocular vision cells in the brain, which then develops binocular vision cells. If you have a mechanical deficiency in one eye that goes uncorrected, your binocular vision develops lopsided, favoring the good eye (that's as short an explanation that I can make ATM). For me, this means that my brain basically ignores visual info from my right eye - unless it can't see out of the left one. It affects me in that I have limited depth perception if there aren't other visual cues (think fly balls and soccer balls coming out of the sky), vision tests that isolate the eyes - i.e. driver's license exam: out of three columns, I can read the left and center ones, but the right one doesn't appear until I close my left eye. It doesn't affect me for short reaction time things (I think my brain is processing the visual info at a more subliminal level); I was a hockey goaltender and any shot from the top of the circles in I'd likely stop, even took quite a few out of the air with the skinny end of my stick....but slapshots from the blue line were a bit of a problem. What it means for me and archery is that I really can't see my sights with my left eye open (well, I see them with my left eye, which is NOT helpful), for which I caught some ribbing when I used to shoot league nights at the range. I'm tragically right handed, though. It is what it is....I still enjoy shooting and I've learned some coping methods....but for sure laser surgery would be awesome, in that contact lens fit is difficult with my Rx. It's more of a "close enough" because they're not made in my exact Rx - whereas Lasik would be dead on since they basically ablate your lens one cell at a time.

Anyway, long post and explanation and I'm in need of sleep.....but I'll look into a blank target. I really would like to get one of the standing 3D deer targets, and I just may. My technique still needs work, though, so in the meanwhile, I'll just try and shoot lots (twist on a famous quote from the great cyclist Eddy Merckx).

 

[coote]

Oh. That amblyopia is a bummer. However... your results show that you've adapted pretty well. And you still have about ten weeks until deer season.

 

[granitestateofmind]

Oh. That amblyopia is a bummer. However... your results show that you've adapted pretty well. And you still have about ten weeks until deer season.

Yeah, bummer.....oh, well. Been like that my whole life (that I can remember, anyway)....got glasses when I was six. And a patch - to try and get the right eye up to snuff. I hated that thing; I loved to read and it was hard as hell using only my right eye. It was a little too late, and the brain had already developed a bias. So....I DO have about ten weeks to deer season, now that you mention it....today was fun. Limited time, shot only 20 yards....relaxing. Except for the mozzies, but I sprayed myself after a couple rounds. Getting comfortable with this bow, though I might get it re-strung before hunting season (with a little break in time). Something I never considered: the shooting string is good quality, but the cables and yokes are Dacron - which stretches. Gonna spring for the whole set next time and get no-stretch Kevlar cables and string. Worth it to not keep constantly readjusting my peep sight, IMO. And thanks for the props, Stephen. Means a lot to me coming from you. I was thinking about you when I drew on a rabbit in my neighbor's yard just to see if I could see him at ~35 yards, and hold the pin there....didn't let the arrow go, but it's starting to gel that I could.

Tonight's better ends:

 

[coote]

Dang, that is almost Olympic grade archery.

I made one or two archery targets when I was really keen, but seeing I only had my hunting broadheads I soon cut them into pieces. When I practice, I use just one or two arrows specially reserved for the purpose so that I don't wreck all my hunting arrows. A lot of my practice has been shooting at items of fruit on a bank of reasonably soft earth (I guess if I were a vegan that's how I'd hunt all the time). I thought it was interesting how most of my shots would go really close to the lemon, or apple or whatever, but generally not hit it directly even if the shafts were just about touching the fruit. I think part of that problem might have been caused by my failure to pick a small spot within the fruit rather than just shooting at the whole object. It has been a while since I've done any serious shooting.

Where I live now, we have very close neighbors ... a lot of concrete paving.... and no sloping ground. So it isn't really safe to shoot my arrows in the yard. All my arrows are 'home brew' and I don't have any high-tech interchangable points. So unless I make some with target points, I just have to make do with my second-grade broadheads. So there is a great need to account for all my arrows if I practice in some place like a park, because a child might be the one to find my lost broadhead if it goes astray (I find my arrows like to tunnel under the grass).

I'd be really pleased if I got results like you are getting.

 

[granitestateofmind]

Dang, that is almost Olympic grade archery.

I made one or two archery targets when I was really keen, but seeing I only had my hunting broadheads I soon cut them into pieces. When I practice, I use just one or two arrows specially reserved for the purpose so that I don't wreck all my hunting arrows. A lot of my practice has been shooting at items of fruit on a bank of reasonably soft earth (I guess if I were a vegan that's how I'd hunt all the time). I thought it was interesting how most of my shots would go really close to the lemon, or apple or whatever, but generally not hit it directly even if the shafts were just about touching the fruit. I think part of that problem might have been caused by my failure to pick a small spot within the fruit rather than just shooting at the whole object. It has been a while since I've done any serious shooting.

Where I live now, we have very close neighbors ... a lot of concrete paving.... and no sloping ground. So it isn't really safe to shoot my arrows in the yard. All my arrows are 'home brew' and I don't have any high-tech interchangable points. So unless I make some with target points, I just have to make do with my second-grade broadheads. So there is a great need to account for all my arrows if I practice in some place like a park, because a child might be the one to find my lost broadhead if it goes astray (I find my arrows like to tunnel under the grass).

I'd be really pleased if I got results like you are getting.

OK, that cracked me up. Thanks for the compliments, friend. I will say that a modern compound with reasonably consistent carbon arrows certainly makes accuracy easier and more repeatable.....but it won't correct for crappy technique. All things being unequal, tho....I doubt I could shoot this good at even 10 yds. with a stick bow and homemade arrows. Actually, I know I could not, even with practice. Took my recurve to league nights for one "season" (about 8 weeks) and my scores dropped off to about 40% of what they were with my (first) compound. When I got the target specific compound, those same recurve scores were about 30% of my average. So, yeah....I've got a great deal of respect for anyone who takes game with a stick bow, especially small game. Which means, of course, that I have a LOT of people to respect over the 10,000 (+/-) year history of bows and arrows.

 

[cut it out]

From my stand last winter http://[URL=http://s655.photobucket.com/user/RUTTINGBULL/media/Mobile%20Uploads/E1A2FBBB-D8FA-45F0-A448-FC6BDC068629.jpg.html][/URL]