Want To Be One Of You! New To Archery

groc426

FNG
Joined
Mar 27, 2013
Messages
54
Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum, but think I've found a group of people of the same mindset as me. I've already spent countless hours rummaging through this forum and attempting to retain all the information I come across. This is now my goto place when web surfing and I just wanted to say thanks for sharing all your knowledge and experience. It's extremely helpful.

Now that I've greased the wheel a little bit, I have a few very new, ignorant-like questions that I hope you all could give me some insight on. Hope you all don't mind me telling a little about myself first, to put things into perspective. I've grown up in SE Idaho my whole life (practically). I was priveleged to have a father who loved being outdoors. Unfortunately, when I was old enough to bag my first deer my dad lost interest in hunting and turned to other hobbies. Fast forward to today, I have now 'settled' down with a house, career, and started my own wonderful family (in SE Idaho). I finally, have the time and opportunity to pick up where I left off long ago. Since my dad was essentially always a road hunter (shhh!), I've sought the internet as a means to really learn to hunt. I hope to make up for lost time and enjoy the whole gammit of hunting opportunities that Idaho has to offer (deer, moose, elk, bear, pronghorn...) and some day hope to pass on the tradition to my children when they are old enough.

With all that being said, I've purchased a rifle and some good hunting boots to begin this journey. What I'm really interested in though, is to learn to hunt with a bow. The problem is, I've never done archery before (Boy Scouts count?). I know I already have a large learning curve ahead of me, but I thrive on challenges. That's one reason this forum feels like such a great fit to me. While I don't have the budget to get into archery for some time (still need to fnd some decent hunting clothes), I figure now is the time to start learning.

So I've been reading and will continue to read the information here, in the meantime though I do have a couple of questions that might get me started in the right direction. I hope they aren't too vague or subjective. So here are my quetsions:

With consistent practice, how long before a person would be ready to properly hunt with a bow?
Before ever purchasing a bow it would be nice to try one out. Do any places rent bows?
What's one of the most difficult aspects of archery?
Can most maintenence on a bow be done by an owner (adjusting draw weight, sights, so forth) or should it be done by a "professional" with proper equipment?
Any great resources for somone new to dive into?


Thank you all again for sharing your knowledge with people like me. Every possible moment I'm out there trying to gain experience so that maybe one day I will have something to share with all of you.
 

Scottiem

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 7, 2012
Messages
113
First off, welcome aboard! I'll try to help with some of your questions. You can go to just about anywhere that sells bows to try one out. I recently got a buddy into archery and we took him to bass pro to get set up. You just pick a bow and they will set everything up and let you shoot it. If you go to a pro shop they usually offer lessons also. As far as how long till your ready to hunt....that's up to you and how often you practice. I shot my antelope after one year of owning my first bow. We took one of my buddies on an archery hog hunt in Texas and he had only been shooting for three months. The difference was that he limited himself to shots within 30 yards where I was able to take my antelope at 60 yards because of the extra practice. Bow maintenance is something you can do on your own. Everything you would need to learn can be learned on forums such as this or archery talk. To me shooting a bow accurately is a lot like a golf swing. It takes lots of practice to prefect your form and make consistent shots. Believe it or not, you can learn a lot by watching you tube videos (although personal instruction would be best). Anyways I don't have much time (have to go to work) so I'll leave it to other guys and gals to chime in. Hope this helps a little.
 

2rocky

WKR
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
Messages
1,144
Location
Nor Cal
+1 on finding a Pro shop you trust. in a good proshop you can shoot any bow you are interested in.

You don't need the latest greatest fastest coolest model. There are some priced more competitively, and sold in kits that can get you ready to hunt pretty quick. For a compound bow you will need in addition to the bow: Sight, quiver, rest, stabilizer, release, dozen arrows to practice with field tips, 6 arrows with broadheads, a broadhead/fieldpoint target or access to one of each.

find a 3d club to shoot with and shoot as much as you can in the backyard.

Find your confident range.
That is the range you can put all 6 arrows in a row in an 8 inch circle. (really it is the first arrow that is the most important)
Limit yourself to shots under that distance.

You will amaze yourself how quickly you can improve your accuracy. It is a journey. and better performance through aggressive spending is usually disappointing.

Along the way you will pick up some maintenance tips. It comes with time. kinda like cars or reloading...
 

theedz

WKR
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
529
Location
Missouri River, South Dakota
Welcome to the forum Groc! This is a great place and lots of people that are about helping others learn from our/their mistakes and their experiences. As far as your quesitons are concerned:
With consistent practice, how long before a person would be ready to properly hunt with a bow? This really depends on the amount of practice that an individual puts in to get accurate and have the confidence in himself. As Scottiem mentioned it can be relativly quick if limiting length shot distance.

Before ever purchasing a bow it would be nice to try one out. Do any places rent bows? I don't know of anyone that rents bows, but a good proshop will allow you to shoot a few shots through a few bows, helping you to find a bow that "fits" you and feels "comfortable". There are a ton of good bows out, really isn't a "bad" bow, the biggest key is finding one that fits you and feels good to you, not anyone else.

What's one of the most difficult aspects of archery? This probably will be different for every person, but for me it is 2 thing: First is Patience because it seems you need failure before success (atleast in hunting). And the 2nd difficulty is that just a very litte, minor adjustment, whether form, grip, release, can make a big difference in results.

Can most maintenence on a bow be done by an owner (adjusting draw weight, sights, so forth) or should it be done by a "professional" with proper equipment? This can depend on the bow that you end up with as far as draw weight goes (draw length should be set for you and always consistant). A majority of archeyr maintanence can be done by the owner.

Any great resources for somone new to dive into? Lots of good material out there to learn from, but just as with everything on the internet there is some bad/false information out there too. Acherytalk has probably more information that any single place, but need to be careful there, a lot of personalities and salesmen. As has been eluded to on a couple threads on this forum, the "Nuts & Bolts" of Archery on Archerytalk is probably the best, most complete set of instructions, information that can ever be made. I would suggest to print that off, study it some and then get some of books about archery to build the Archery Drive. I do have to warn you though, once to start you will get hooked and just keep wanting to better yourself :) Good luck and the worse thing you could do is to NOT ask questions. Absorb all the experience and expertise that so many other have on this forum.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2012
Messages
328
Location
Colorado
I recommend doing some research on proper form and anchor point location. Nuts and bolts tuning guide has some very good pictures of good and bad form. Taking a class and learning to do it right from the beginning will pay you dividends the in long run. You may want to think about checking out some releases and getting one so you have it to test bows with.
 
OP
G

groc426

FNG
Joined
Mar 27, 2013
Messages
54
Some very solid answers and advice. Thanks fella's. I know of one pro shop here so I'll have to stop by and see what they have available. As I said, I'm in no hurry as I can't afford it this year, but hopefully I can in a couple of years. It will allow me to get used to the hunting areas around me and give me plenty of time to study up.
 
Joined
Dec 20, 2012
Messages
958
Location
Yerington,Nv.
Welcome to rokslide. +1 on the pro shop and then shoot shoot shoot. At our club most are willing to help you if you ask. Good luck
 

Brent1321

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
Messages
100
Location
Colorado Springs, CO
Welcome to the addiction....I have archery hunted 3 seasons, still nothing, i want it so bad!

Search "Sootballs" on Archerytalk. I have one of his presses, really nice for the money, works very well! Now there was some patent infringement stuff going on with another press maker, so tread lightly. not sure they are being made any longer.

Lots of good Youtube videos on bow setup. Do a few and you will learn it is very easy, and a lot of fun.

Good luck,
Brent
 

Maxhunter

WKR
Joined
Mar 31, 2012
Messages
302
Location
Wyoming
Welcome to RokSlide. Like stated find a good pro-shop not an archery shop there's a difference. They'll get you set-up properly. If there's an archery club near-by join. Bowhunting is great but can be frustrating at times. With bowhunting you have to change your mindset from rifle hunting and slow-down and have patience. I'd also recommend taking the first legal animal that presents an opportunity. You'll get a lot of experience from those harvest.

If you have any questions please ask!
 
Joined
Feb 26, 2012
Messages
1,100
Location
Annapolis, MD
groc,

There is a lot of good information here about your shooting, which is good. Definitely go somewhere that you can shoot a variety of bows so you can figure out what characteristics you like the best and more importantly shoot the best; long vs. short axle-to-axle length, what kind of arrow rest you prefer, fingers vs. release style A vs. release style B, etc. Once you know what you want in a bow then you can pick the bow you want to buy.

Having said that, what you haven't seen here (at least not yet) is that you need to understand that you are BOWhunting and not GUN hunting. There is a big difference. Bowhunting is a much more intimate/close range method of hunting than gun hunting is, 30 yards vs. 300 yards. Also, shot placement with a bow is different from with a gun, you need to put a razor sharp broadhead where it will release the most blood possible from the circulatory system and that will be in the heart/lung area. With a gun you might normally shoot for the chest/shoulder area to knock down your quarry, if you do that with a bow you will have a lost animal.

I would definitely suggest that you take the bowhunter education course offered by your ID DNR, it is similar to the hunter safety course they offer but it focuses on the how bowhunting is different from gunhunting and how to do it.

Also, broadheads and field points do NOT necessarily fly the same or have the same point of impact, so you will need to figure that out.

Larry
 
OP
G

groc426

FNG
Joined
Mar 27, 2013
Messages
54
Come to Caldwell and I'll loan you my stuff and help you out.

I wish I lived a little closer, I would take you up on that offer. Thank you very much though!!! That is seriously a nice offer!

Thanks again everyone. I know I'll have more simple questions as I go along. At the moment I'm going through "Nuts & Bolts".
 

Whisky

WKR
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Messages
1,419
My advice is don't over complicate shit in the beginning. I have a bad habit of doing that. Take it slow, work on fundamentals and form first and foremost. Crawl before you walk. Fling lots of arrows before you even worry about getting sighted in, tuned, etc.... Nuts and Bolts is a good place to start on form. Also, I recommend getting the book "Idiot Proof Archery". It really is a great read.
 
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