Hey folks! New to bowhunting and just wanted to get some advice. No question in particular but what advice would you have wanted when you started bowhunting that would have helped you that could now help me?
What broad heads are you planning on shooting? Do you have a tree stand or are you hunting from the ground? are you hunting on private or public land? How long have you been shooting your bow?
I have rage broadheads, a summit climber, public land, and have been shooting a couple times a week for a few months now.
Be werry werry quiet... and hunt the wind! Don't climb any higher than you are willing to fall! Aim low! Hunt Hard! Have Fun!
Get a divorce or loose the girlfriend. They wont understand the obsession. Lol. But seriously its addictive and she may tolerate it. Mine is trying to.
This is my 2nd season hunting, and the hardest thing for me to learn was patience, and how to sit still and quiet for hours and hours. Another big thing I learned is that more expensive does not always equal better. I got pretty lucky, my wife decided rather than fighting me about hunting she's joining me. We will be hunting a double treestand this season. I've learned so much just from trial and error and I treat this forum like a pro shop, not all of the guys on here know what they are talking about, and most are trying to sell you something, but if you have a good bs filter you can really learn alot from these guys.
Be prepared to deal with the animal when you kill it. I went out completely unprepared and thankfully it was not a successful hunt. Wasn't aware of how much work it took until my first kill. I have a lot of new toys on the shopping list before next season to make it easier. I was glad I took my first deer on family land so close to the house. Made cleaning and butchering a lot easier and showed me that I would have been screwed if away from the house.
Be patient--- wait for the right time to draw. I can't tell you how many white flagging tails I saw early in my hunting career because of rushing my draw. Any movement you make while you can see their eyes is one they will pickup on, that is unless your really high in a tree. Me--- I don't like the nose bleed seats.
Just me Mike... the only deer I ever lost was from a high hit with an arrow from a tree stand. Consequently, I always aim low now (in case the deer 'loads' while the arrow is arriving). I was literally sick after shooting that deer. He was a solid 140 big-bodied buck. We searched the entire mountain side for 2 days looking for him... but never found him. Even called 'Dog Search'... but they didn't come because they said we 'contaminated' the area looking for the deer. I'd rather miss altogether than to hit one and have it get away.
...this made me laugh!...As for advice, be patient, be quiet, be patient, don't rush shots, don't move when you can see the deers eyes, they have alot more periferal vision then humans do. practice shooting alot to were you will be confident in a hunting situation. You can never practice enough. You can use this forum for alot of opinions on different things. Don't be afraid to ask questions!
thanks for the responses so far! went scouting last night and saw about 10 bucks. 2 of them pretty good size. cant wait for october 1st!
What I have learned in my short time ... Be quiet and play the wind. You're in their woods and they know it. Practice, Practice, Practice. You will hate yourself if you take a shot you can't make(Well, you should). Humans have been hunting since forever, trust your instincts. The events that follow a good shot and recovery can't be explained here. You just have to do it. I advise shooting the first doe you see. You gotta break that cherry before you start chasing bucks. I could be wrong, I often am.
To elaborate on what gltomp said... When shooting at a slightly alert deer (meaning its head is up and looking and not down feeding) the deer will hear the bow before the arrow gets there and start to squat down to "load" its legs in preparation for a jump or run. If you aim normally and are far enough away - the deer can seem to duck your arrow. This is called "jumping the string". They heard your bow and moved before the arrow got there. To remedy the above problem - you aim low on the deer depending on your range. The deer drops and falls right into the path of your arrow (hopefully) for a kill shot. Alternatively, just wait until the deer is not alert and avoid the problem all together. Also, when shooting from a treestand you want to aim low. Your want to judge the horizontal distance from your tree on the ground to the deer, not the sloped distance. Gravity has less of an effect on the arrow's trajectory on a sloped shot so your trajectory will be shallower and your shot will end up hitting high if you aim normally. Its easy to just hold low on the target. This site gives more info on this issue: http://www.backcountrybowhunting.com/articles/aiming.php (the site references up and downhill but downhill = treestand.) Hope that helps!
If you don't know how to ask just give us that dumb expression and we'll start bringing up diagrams...as a matter of fact give me a few minutes.....*off to create diagrams.
Best advice... get down... go home... or go somewhere for several hours after hitting your first deer unless you see it go down. They almost always lay down within a short distance until bumped and if it dies quickly, it isn't going to come back to life before you return. Way too many deer are lost because someone gets too excited to wait and bumps them. And if it starts raining before you can start tracking... don't rush the job unless you are certain that you made a great hit. Usually you wiill know... it will be head down... all out straight run through things it should be going around and blood everywhere. If the deer trots off and the blood says the deer you are tracking is following a well used trail... that deer was still thinking... dying deer don't think clearly... go slowly, it needs more time to lay down and die.
