The point in this article is for me to introduce myself to the gang, and, most of all, hopefully help a few of the new trad shooters. The following is my experences, and what I believe i've learned by shooting a tradional setup. Some of the things I say may not be right, and a lot of you may disagree with some of them, but I simply am stating what I think works, because it seems to have worked for me. Feel free to voice your opinions about some of the things I say, and let me know if you think im wrong, because hey, I could be, and im always willing to learn. First off, my history. I've always hunted. For as long as I was able to weild a gun with any sort of accuracy, i've been shooting at critters. Gun hunting was becoming to easy, and boring. I've always been one of those people who figures, the harder somthing is, the more rewarding. I've always wanted to do amazing things. Enter the bow and arrow. I've always wanted to bowhunt, but with the price of a modern compound, it took me a while to break into the sport. I did a TON of research, and eventually settled on a popular brand compound, expensive arrows, arrow rest, sights, stab's etc etc. I loved the technology. Everyone had told me to be a good archer was hard. Everyone lied. I practiced in my backyard for a year. EVERY< SINGLE< DAY>. Hours a day.I got my compound in the winter. I practiced in snow. I practiced in rain. I practiced in high wind. I practied in the cold with a short sleeve shirt on. I shot at targets, I shot from tree's, I shot at 3d targets, I shot at blank bales. I used trigger releases, back tension releases. I did it all. I did everything I could think of to make it to where when hunting season rolled around, NOTHING could rattle me. I would be ready. I would be able to shoot perfectly under any conditions nature, the woods, or my equpitment could hurl at me. I even practiced shooting fingers a little bit, in case I ever forgot my release (Which I carried 2 of in the woods). In that year before hunting season I had became an archery machine. The first time I scored myself I shot a 300 (Which was nearly a year into my shooting). I was good. In that year I had 6 robin hoods hanging on one of my deer heads, and I only shot 2 arrows at a time (To make sure I shot slow instead of rushing to shoot off a dozen). I wanted to be the best archer ever. I wanted to make my dad and the rest of my family I hunted with proud. I wanted them to say that I was the greatest archer they had ever seen. Most of all, I wanted to stick a deer. By the time hunting season rolled around, I was cocky as could be. I had already picked up a sponsorship (Yeah, believe it or not, in my first year of shooting) from a top archery company which I wont name here. I hit the woods, and suddenly things didnt seem so easy. I was aware now of just how hard this was going to be. There were so many obsticles. Tree's, bushes, branches, grass, everything was in my way. My first hunt I saw nothing. Then came my second hunt.Three deer walked out behind my tree about 20 yards. They were in this cover but I keep my eyes on them. My bow was ready. My back tension release was in hand (I switched exclusivly to a BT release even for hunting because I had developed target panic and I was to lazy to beat it the right way). The 3 deer stepped out, and I stayed calm, patient. Picked the biggest one and waited. When it hit a small clearing a couple feet wide, I drew my bow, took aim, pulled through my release and nailed it perfectly. The EXACT spot I aimed at. Comoplete passthrough, the deer went 40 yards. It was awesome. I was a little dissappointed at how easy it had come together. My first year, 2nd hunt. But I still enjoyed it. Later that day a friend of my dads called and told us he killed a monster. We went and checked it out, and here he is with his monster buck, he tells us he shot at 40 yards. He also had not bowhunted in several years, and never broke his bow out until a couple weeks before season. I saw this over, and over and over. And it started to make me mad. Someone who never practices, and only shoots a couple times a year could come out and be more successful then me, who spent every single day in the cold practicing, every single moment checking equiptment. Doing everything to perfection. Then some guy just comes along and does it without any work. Eventually I got tired of shooting everyday. I had gotten so good that shooting was no longer fun. Every shot was a bullseye, so what was the point? I knew the result of every shot before I loosed the arrow. I dropped my sponsorship (For various other reasons) and gave up shooting for several months. Thats when I finnally descided to try shooting trad. Which i'd always wanted to do, but I always feared wounding an animal. I traded one of my many compounds i'd bought that year, for a custom built longbow and some arrows. I toyed around with it for a couple months, then noticed it had a crack in it. I loved that bow, but it was done for. I got pretty descent with it to. Then I struggle with the question, longbow, or recurve. Recurves were beautiful, but longbows were more primative, and I loved them. But my longbow was shot and christmas was coming up. My dad got me a Hoyt Gamemaster II, since he knew I wanted to try a recurve. (I wanted a more traditional wood one, but he didnt know that). Well, I figured i'd shoot it instinctive, so what did it matter (Aside from the fact that some snobs say that my bow isnt REALLY a recuve). Everyone told me a recurve was easier. So I figured hey, I was good with a longbow for how little i'd shot, so I should be fred bear with a recurve. I was dead wrong. First off, I couldnt hit anything with it. 2nd, the bow was to heavy (55lbs) but I thought I was tough since I could shoot 80lb compounds. Oh yeah, and remember that target panic I cheated to get around with my compound? It was back, and with a vengence. I couldnt hit anything. I couldnt find an arrow that would fly right. I didnt do all the research i'd done with my compound so I didnt know how to tune it. I couldnt relese clean, I was plucking. I couldnt get myself to bring the string all the way to anchor before i'd let go (The target panic). It was hell. And that above all else is the message I want to send to the other new shooters here, DO NOT GIVE UP! I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to give up. I bought hundreds, and hundreds of dollars worth of different arrows to try and get somthing that would fly right! When all along, it was ME, and not the arrows. I had fun when I was doing alright, but then i'd have a bad day of shooting and put my recurve in the closet and pull out my compound. After all, thats what I was good with, I figured, to hell with that freakcurve. But no matter how frustrated I would get, I kept pulling it back out of the closet. Eventually I started shooting with other shooters. Other trad shooters. We shot beside compounders and we always seemed to have more fun. Then I noticed somthing about them. Even the ones with 5 or 6 bows with them, and hand crafted back quivers and all the custom gear, I noticed, hey, they suck too! lol. So I got the point. It wasnt about being good it was about having fun. And thats what we did. We couldnt hit anything but we had a damned good time. And I will swear to you to this day, i've yet to find anything as enjoyable as watching yes, watching, (Somthing you dont do with a compound) your arrow spiral perfectly to the target and then sink into the bullseye. Eventually I learned to tune my bow. Then I learned to PULL through the release with propper back tension intstead of plucking it. That was probley the single greatest improvment in accuraccy I made by far. Then, I attacked the target panic. I would just simply draw my bow, bring it back all the way and hold, then let down. I would mix my actual shots with letting down and not firing. And that solved it. The last thing I had trouble with was arrow flight. Now, I dont know if its because of my bow, but try and try as I might I just could not no matter what, get good clean arrow flight shooting split fingers. I tried everything, I even tried completly relaxing, or pointing at the target with my top finger once at full draw. I just could not do it. The final piece to the puzzle was shooting 3 under. Which feels weird at first, but is what I believe the best release for clean arrow flight. So for you other new shooters, I strongly suggest not wasting money on tons of different types of arrows until you develope a clean release, and a good solid form. Also, I improved arrow flight when I stopped gripping my recurve like my compound. With my compound I gripped the bow with a 45 degree angle, and just my first two fingers touching the riser. But for some reason, my recurve shoots a lot cleaner when I leave the fingers completly open. I also noticed I shot a lot better shooting at blank targets, then at a bullseye. My biggest tips I can offer any new shooter, is just try and shoot groups at a blank target, work on form, form, form and then do some more work on form. Because as much as I thought form had to do with shooting a compound (And I had spectacular compound form) it is nothing compared to the perfection in form you have to develope when shooting a trad bow instinctivly. You would not believe the kind of form it takes to get perfect arrow flight, and good solid accuracy. I would also suggest any new shooter try shooting 3 under. Its in my opinion much easier for a new shooter to learn. My other suggestion is learn to shoot at all distances. I noticed that while I had gotten good at 20 yards, I couldnt hit anything at 5, and 10. So now when I shoot I move around the yard at different angles, distances, and evelvations. (Shooting down is still a bit tricky for me). I've got a year until hunting season. And its cold as hell outside right now. But im back to the backyard. Back to the cold , rain, snow and heat of the outdoors to perfect my form and shooting skill for the coming hunt. Which I cant wait for. Unfortunatly though most compound shooters give trad shooting a try, i'd say 9 out of 10 of them go back to their compound bow in a matter of months, after discovering just how had trad shooting is. However, it is my promise to you, from one new shooter to another, that if you stick in there, if you grit it out and if you can take all the hard times with the good, in the end, when your able to consistantly shoot good, you will have more fun, by a 100 fold shooting your traditional bow instinctivly, then you will ever have shooting your compound, decked out with all the bells and whistles. And while hunting with a compound bow is no easy task, nor is hunting with a gun easy in my opinion, there is to me, no greatest challenge then chasing whitetails with traditional tackle. Good luck, either road you take, and good hunting.
Topic: Experences Of A New Trad Shooter. Tips For You Newbee's (Read 1359 times)
