Any bowhunters/archers?

[Dubya D]

I purchased a my second bow in '07 after laying off archery for about 12yrs.
I did my research and knew exactly what I wanted...a Mathews Switchback XT. Drove down to Performance Archery in San Diego to try it out.
From the first shot I knew this was the bow for me...brought it home and have been shooting 3 or 4 times a week ever since.

Archery has become a passion for me. I find myself reading as many archery/bowhunting magazines and books I can get my hands on trying to learn as much as I can about it.
I'm at the point now where I can do my own bow tuning and build arrows. I get a lot of satisfaction out of it and try to share my passion and knowledge of the sport with anyone who will listen.

Since it's something you can do while smoking cigars, I'm curious, are there any compound or traditional shooters out there?



This is a pic of my bow with 5 robin hooded arrows. 1 @ 20yrds, 2 @ 30yrds, 1 @ 40yrds and 1 @ 50yrds
It gets expensive but a lot of fun!

 

[Jam1173]

I shoot a bowtech allegiance that i picked up a couple of years ago for deer hunting.

I do not shoot it as much as I would like to in the off season, but The wife and I are buying a home so maybe now that I have my own yard I will be able to practice more.

 

[Hillbilly Steaks]

I haven't in years, but when I was in high school I was addicted. At some point I will definitely get another bow and start shooting again.

 

[Wurm]

Started shooting at the age of 6, was a member of JOAD as a young teen all the way up to Highschool Graduation.

My bow at that time was a Yamaha YTD2 recurve with a 35 pound draw weight.

A few years back I purchased a Bowtech Compound bow and have it set to a 50 pound draw. Since bow hunting is illegal in Germany I decided to go with a low weight for target shooting, no need to be worn out at the end of the day. It still was clocked at over 300 fps which is enough for all deer.

Here you go, and yes I'm a lefty

Shawn

*edit* :laugh: and :thumbs: at the robin hood arrows, I've shot my fair share of those as well, I started to on purposely try to shift my aim a tad with every shot, because at 20 dollars plus per olympic class arrow, it goes deep into your pockets really quickly

I shot every single day back then, wish I had the time for now.

 

[bigwhiteash]

I hunt with a Bowtech Guardian, ('07) 70# with a Trophy Ridge Matrix sight, custom Bucknasty string/cable, and Carbon Express Maxima 350's with Slick Trik Magnum 100 gr. heads

Also shoot a Custom Shooting Systems (CSS, recently bought out by Horton Archery) Encore at 60#, mostly at foam.

Archery is one of my serious hobbies, whether sitting in a tree, shooting at foam blocks, or 3-D targets. I just LOVE it.
Also build and fletch my own arrows...

 

[Dubya D]

I hunt with a Bowtech Guardian, ('07) 70# with a Trophy Ridge Matrix sight, custom Bucknasty string/cable, and Carbon Express Maxima 350's with Slick Trik Magnum 100 gr. heads

Also shoot a Custom Shooting Systems (CSS, recently bought out by Horton Archery) Encore at 60#, mostly at foam.

Archery is one of my serious hobbies, whether sitting in a tree, shooting at foam blocks, or 3-D targets. I just LOVE it.
Also build and fletch my own arrows...

I have the same sight, Bucknasty strings/cables (freakin' awesome by the way) and shoot 350 CE Maxima hunters. My broadheads are 100gr Tight Point Shuttle T-Locks


edit (added text): Just saw the pics you loaded...nice rig!

 

[Wurm]

BWA, how do you like that wisker bisket? I have a Infiniti drop away that I'm very happy with but the wisker biskets have always interested me.

 

[Dubya D]

BWA, how do you like that wisker bisket? I have a Infiniti drop away that I'm very happy with but the wisker biskets have always interested me.

I love the WB. Hunting in the West is mostly spot and stalk. Knowing that my arrow won't fall out of the rest is one thing I dont have to worry about.


edit (added text): Just saw the pics...looks good.

 

[Wurm]

BWA, how do you like that wisker bisket? I have a Infiniti drop away that I'm very happy with but the wisker biskets have always interested me.

I love the WB. Hunting in the West is mostly spot and stalk. Knowing that my arrow won't fall out of the rest is one thing I dont have to worry about.

I use a pull past clip, with a leather patch to stop the "click". Since I can't hunt over here its a moot point, but I might look into getting one to try. Am I correct that the bristles wear out and you have to replace them every once in a while?

Look like all three of us have the same brand sight though I love my Trophy Ridge! :thumbs:

 

[wanlail]

I wanna try, any advice ? I'm a lefty so i'm assuming I have to get a left handed setup? Theres a place behind my house with an indoor range, but its open weird hours. If you shoot in say your backyard, no problems?

 

[Wurm]

I wanna try, any advice ? I'm a lefty so I'm assuming I have to get a left handed setup? There's a place behind my house with an indoor range, but its open weird hours. If you shoot in say your backyard, no problems?

Left handed bows are easy to find, I suggest you go to that place you mentioned and talk to them, most archers love to share their favorite sport and will help you get started. As far as shooting in the backyard, normally its fine, just make sure you either set up an arrow trap or have some other good solid LARGE back-drop to place the target in front of.

Be warned, that it is an expensive sport / past time in the beginning.

 

[bigwhiteash]

I wanna try, any advice ? I'm a lefty so i'm assuming I have to get a left handed setup? Theres a place behind my house with an indoor range, but its open weird hours. If you shoot in say your backyard, no problems?

If you look closely at my rig... you may notice it's a lefty!
I'm actually right handed, but left-eye dominant.
Left handed bows and accessories are just slightly harder to find, but they're out there.

The WB works fine for hunting, I use a trophy taker shakey hunter drop away for target shooting, but since I'm fairly new to bowhunting, I get pretty damn nervous when I see horns! ???

 

[Dubya D]

Am I correct that the bristles wear out and you have to replace them every once in a while?

Look like all three of us have the same brand sight though I love my Trophy Ridge! :thumbs:

The bristles do wear out, actually, they get bent. Just clip the bent ones off and your good to go. I did swap out the original bisquit on this bow once. Not for wearing out though. I was working on my bow and it fell off the table...snapped right off.

Gotta love Trophy Ridge...take a look at their new sights. http://www.trophyridge.com/sights/V5/ That Crazy Eight may be my next sight.

 

[Wurm]

That makes 3 left handers

He probably couldn't tell that your bow was a lefty, until you've held a bow its hard to understand how the riser works. Being a Lefty myself I was surprised when I saw your bow, in my JOAD shooting club I was one of only two leftys out of around 75 archers.

 

[wanlail]

Its okay, it can't be much worse than cigar smoking and shooting firearms. I'm assuming a beginner setup doesn't cost more than 200-300 ?

 

[Dubya D]

Its okay, it can't be much worse than cigar smoking and shooting firearms. I'm assuming a beginner setup doesn't cost more than 200-300 ?

Your best bet would be to visit an archery shop and shoot as many bows you can in your price range. look for a bow that is easy to draw, quiet and low vibration. Good luck!

 

[LongDraw]

Awesome bows guys. I really enjoy shooting mine around the yard. I have never hunted ( don't think I will ). I have a browning backdraft 80 and a PSE nova. It sure is a lot fun.

 

[AndrewGBob]

Bowhunting has been a huge passion of mine for the past 4 years or so. I don't get out nearly enough, but everytime I do it is a great experience. Whether I see anything or not doens't even really matter, I just love being in the outdoors.

I shoot a Fred Bear Element that I purchased a couple years ago. Before I got this I was shooting an old school Bear from the 80's. Needless to say, this was a huge upgrade for me. It shoots true and has never let me down.

You can kind of notice that the fletching on the arrow closest to my bow is a little dirty. That is the arrow that I harvested my first animal, which was a South Texas hog, with. I will be holding on to that forever! Sorry for the crappy picture. All I had was my Blackberry.

 

[{tpc}]

I have a old compound I haven't shot in a few years. The string broke, but my dad just replaced it for me the other day. I used to shoot with him in a league, and even now I know if I picked it up I could be dead on at 20 yards.

I still have yet to "robin-hood" an arrow but I've shot the knocks off quite a bit. In the league I used to stick a pencil in the top of the target and then after everyone was done shooting I'd take an old arrow and try to shoot the pencil in half. That was fun! I think I was about 50% on those shots, but its hard to remember now.

My dads new toy is a crossbow. I've yet to try it but he says its pretty cool and super accurate! Damn..makes me want to go get a target and take some shots now hehe.

 

[i8tokyo2]