Just in the Nick of Time!!!!
It has been a tough year getting ready for bow season. Up through last season all I've ever hunted with was either a recurve or longbow, but that all changed when I hurt my back this past spring. I was going to have to shot something a lot easier to draw and hold so my only option was a compound. I decided to go with an Oneida bow and continue to shoot it with finger tips and instinctive.
I was able to get an older AeroForce that was within my budget in June and the doctor said I could try shooting. The bow is a 60-80 pound draw range and was set at 62.5 and I found that was very comfortable to shoot. I started my practice a 10yds and all went very well until I moved back to 20yds where my first shot was always high. The first shot is what counts in hunting and with only a few months to go I decided to put sights on the bow. I did this not because I didn't think I'd finally start putting my first shot on target, but that when that deer was in front of me I'd revert back to my old ways and shoot high.
Well by putting the sights on the bow I started the complete sprial down to the dark side. It didn't take me long to get a release and put a Whisker Biscuit on the bow as well and in fact it seems like all I've done over the past couple of months is play with my AF to get everything ready for hunting season. Well we are just four days away from the opener and thanks to a lot of help from the folks at Monsterbows.com I think I'm ready.
It all came together this past weekend as I was looking for the right combination of draw weight, arrow size and broadhead type. I had been through a lot of different combos and even though I had two different combos that were working pretty good, I wasn't happy. The first was a Gold Tip 7595 @ 27" with 4" Quickspins and with 125gr fieldtips these grouped so tight that I couldn't shoot at the same target twice. However when I replaced the fieldtips with 125gr Magnus Snuffer my groups opened up to 5" at 20yds. Not too bad and I've seen worse with broadheads but it wasn't as good as I wanted.
So I built a set of Gold Tip 5575 @ 27" with 2" Blazers and with 100gr fieldtips and these were screamers, plus they were pin point accurate at 20yds. I put 100gr Montecs on them and hoped for the best, but was again disappointed when my groups opened up to about 4".
Thinking that there might be something not right with my bow's tuning I went over everything on it with a fine toothed comb, but didn't find anything. I played around with the lighter arrows and found three arrows that shot better with the broadheads then the rest of the dozen, and I was now really close as I could hold a 3" group with these three arrows.
Then everything changed Saturday morning when I got a wild hair and put one of the big Snuffers on the lighter arrows. Man now I can say I have field tip accuracy. It doesn't matter which arrow they are on I am cutting almost hole for hole at 20yds and at 30yds the groups are only 1.5 to 2".
So with only 4 days before the opener I am very ready and very confident in my setup. Oh and by the way I'm not done as I start setting up my son's Oneida Strike Eagle today, but I'll be ahead of the game with his with all I've learned on mine. He decide he liked my bow so much he had to have an Oneida of his own. He doesn't plan on hunting the first couple of weeks of the season, but up on my property it's bow hunting only unless there is no meat in the ole freezer come the last week of gun.
I hope everyone has the same confidence in their rigs and good luck and striaght shooting to all.
Derek
Last edited by bountyhunter; 09-25-2007 at 08:56 AM..
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