2007 back yard season

[stilllearning]

Well Eastern and I could not wait any longer and had to get out in the snow and all and fling a few arrows. We had a blast. We started out with the compounds ......



We made some flu flus out of some Turkey feathers that Eastern got last year and man did we then have some searous fun. My first real shooting with a recurve. That is thanks to BT by the way.



Eastern didn't do to bad either. notice the arrow as it looks like it is just to the left of the target going through the air. Neet photo.

[bigskyscott]

Stilllearning ~
Cool pic's !! Man, does that recurve look familar. I own an old #30 Root Kadet that looks just like that bow. I got it for Christmas when I was 9 years old... that's 48 years ago. The darn thing still looks to be in really good shape.... no nicks or any separations or gaps in the laminate anywhere. I remember having the arrow rest fall off on me somewhere in the woods and I lost it , so I carved a piece of old cork and taped it to the bow with white medical adhesive tape that I swiped from my Dad's First Aid box. I was 10 then and It's still on the bow! I have hung on to that bow all these years dragging around with me almost from coast to coast two times !
I would really like to get a new string made for it plus a set of arrows and try it out again after all those years ... if I can safely string it ! Maybe Hoos or Slap have some suggestions .

Thanx again for the post and sorry I was so long with this, but seeing that bow brought back very fond memories.

[stilllearning]

Go ahead and post some of those memories. I would love to hear them and photos if you have them. ;D

[bigskyscott]

stilllearning said:

Go ahead and post some of those memories. I would love to hear them and photos if you have them. ;D

I'll have to contact my cousin. My Aunt used to take all the Christmas photos when we were kids... My cousin might have some up in his attic somewhere.
Was that a Root you guys were shooting?
I also had a recurve bow that was made from a solid piece of aluminum. I have no idea who manufactured it. I do know it somehow ended up being used by my Mom as pocker stick for our burning barrel !

[stilllearning]

[quote author=bigskyscott board=odds thread=1176073900 post=1176253326 I do know it somehow ended up being used by my Mom as pocker stick for our burning barrel ! [/quote]


LOL I love it. makes you wonder somtimes doesn't it.

What were they thinking.

[bigskyscott]

I know ! She also put my 1956 PRR Lionel train in the trash !
Do you think maybe she did it cause I used to lay all my straight sections of track out in a long line on her hardwood floor in the dining room, with it ramped up and running the train full-speed down the track and off the ramp ? I used to give my little pet green turtle one heck of a ride !! ;D

[stilllearning]

Now paints quite a mental picture ;D ;D

[jerseyhunter]

Great pics nice shooting

[hunter243]

sweet! nice pics. getcha in the mood doesn't it? ;D ;D

[stilllearning]

I was all set to have a bunch over for a shoot on Tuesday and it looks like more snow first of the week. This is April Right?

[hunter243]

umm.....i think so...................

[stilllearning]

:(Was shooting that little baby again this weekend and had just put my best shot out of it and was so close to cutting the bullseye ring that it was not funny. Drew it back for the next shot and let it fly. CRACK I looked at eastern as he was shooting with me and said What was that. after carfull examination........ yup she was cracked upwords along the limb.
It was fun while it lasted though.

[stilllearning]

Well the snow is gone and we got out for another shoot and had some fun training a rookie on the fine art of archery.

Here is wanabehunter out for his two rounds of shooting. Wanted to go play so he only stayed for a short time.


Here is the rookie getting some instruction from easternhunter.


Eastern taking a shot.

Myself shooting. I see I have to work on my shoulder to get that arm up just a bit more.



Here is the rookie again.


Not a bad group for a newbie. He is not sure what he is doing.



here is a shot of the group from today. I don't know if you can see it or not but if you can notice the arrows in the leg of the deer? Well the rookie got the name of Leggy as that seemed like his favorite spot to hit the deer. ;D ;D


All in all a great day out doors and notice no winter coats.

[stilllearning]

Well I remembered to take the camera out with me last night and you know what it is hard to take photos of yourself shooting. OH well I stunk again last night so no lose.

The newbie was back and we had some fun as we gave pointers out on a regular basses.


Not that it helped and now you know why we call him Crazy Legs McCarthy.
;D


He got the idea to change the rest and tech up the bow and we mentioned that it may throw off more things than he thought. He kinda sounds like me when he says it can't hurt to try it.


Here he learned how it can. Notice him looking for an arrow while another one sticks out of the base of the ear. ;D ;D



He never lost his good attitude toward shooting and took all the ribbing we could dish out. He is a very good sport and he will do well once we get things tuned in better for him.

[4pointer]

Now all them pic's bring's back when I lived in Mt.Holly,
Had a big ole back yard & at lease 4 times a week we all would set up & shoot.....Sometimes 6 or more shooters.......
Had a Ball back than,,, Where I live now there no plac to shoot close by...
Thanks for Sharin
~Larry~

[stilllearning]

We had some fun tonight. A gentleman that I got to know from Pennsylvania from another hunting site was back in town visiting relatives here in New Brunswick Canada. So over he came and did some shooting with Eastern and myself.

I even got a chance to shoot the new bow.


Lined up on Bambi and shot 4 arrows and for the first time in my life I put a group of Three in the outline of the heart. Why I did not take a picture I DON'T KNOW.

ow well you believe me don't you.

We did some shooting


This is Jim from State side.



We could hear this noise that sounded like it was out front of my house. I forgot some one was coming to level up a piece of my back yard. HEHEHEHE

made it interesting having this thing roar in your ear while you took a shot.


All in all a great night.
We will be helping a group of kids on Wednesday get there introduction to the world of archery as well.
I will have to remember to bring the camera.

[stilllearning]

Well Eastern was over and we took a look at the bow while supper was cooking. We noticed it was real easy to change the modules on this bow so we went at it. fist we took out the #5 mod and put in the #4. The draw length felt better buttttt.......
After drawing and looking things over Eastern thought we should try the #3 mod. lets give it a try. Again it felt even better than the last change and draw length was looking pretty good ......... Buttttttttttttt Yup lets go one more down and see what she looks like then as the mods are very easy to change on this gift from God bow. Wow does it feel good now. Yup down from the 5 mod to the 2 mod. can you believe that. change the kisser button and the peep around and came out looking like this.



And shooting like this. I admit shooting at 10 yards to get started but still wow.





I have shot the bow so much in the last 2 days that I tired very quickly and the 20 yard shots were not great so I did not play with the bow to much as I was a little wavy. still hit one 9 ring though.

All in all a great night but lets hear it folks how does it look now. Any and all advice welcome.

[4pointer]

Looks like your ready, Great pic's.

[stilllearning]

I was out today and my shooting realy stunk. I did get a few good shots in at 20 yards. But it still needs a lot of work. It will come though. I will be shooting again with Eastern on the weekend and I think if I am smart I will give my shoulders a rest as I am not used to shooting every day plus racking the back yard for a lawn, and seeding it, and then rolling it, and then sanding a shelf down and then priming it and then putting a coat of paint on it. Usualy I push a mouse around a desk every day. ;D ;D ;D ;D

Here is the pic for 20 yard shots




OOOPPPSSS kinda looks like I through one thier. but it is comming.
Then I did try 30 yard and hit the bag at least. Gotta lot of work on that distance.


The realy weird part was my shots at 20 yards on the bag were worse than the 20 yard shots on the deer. Not sure why but I do know the bow was weeving around do to sore shoulder issues. Still fun though. A bad day on the range is still better than a great day at work. ;D

[stilllearning]

The fun was back in the shooting tonight.

Here is everyone including a new fellow that should be getting his new bow next week and may be shooting as early as next Tuesday.
A little bit of chating and tech work going on here.



and some plain Oh fun here.



No pics of me tonight as I was doing all the camera work. Notice the new lawn going in. To bad the seed won't start growing for some reason.

I did not change much tonight and tried a few shots out to 40 yards and even got it hitting the target fairly regularly. Caught a limb (tree limb)with one shot trying to go out to 40 yards and then put 2 at the 30 yard bag and they said they were way right and barly on the bag. I could not believe it as I was so sure they were better than that. Just goes to show you how easy it is to think you got that perfect shot on an animal and can not figure out how it got away. To say the least I was shocked.
shook it off and then tried the come to full draw and someone calls out a target that you have to move to and shoot as quick as you can on. No big winner tonight but I think Eastern squeeked out the win. ;D

We are going to work hard with the two fellows that were here tonight to get them ready for the bow course in the fall as they both think they want to be ready for the fall hunt. first advice to them was practice practice practice and come out with us as much as possible.

[4pointer]

Great Advice,,, practice ,practice and more practice

[stilllearning]

With some help from Eastern tonight I realized alot.
First off I have been way to uptight while shooting. I needed to relax and enjoy myself. I need to look at the targets and see an area instead of a bullseye like I look at when I look at the 3D deer.

Next Eastern mentioned it looked like I was struggling when I would knock and arrow. Sure enough that flying arrow was so tight on the string I was actually loosing energy when it pulled itself off the string. Filed and knocks and came up with these two groups.




Much better than I was doing before and I was pretty tired at this point of the night.

I fired one arrow in one of the last groups and it hit the dirt. Arms hurting and struggling to draw the bow I knew I should quit but had to shoot that one more group. Got the arrow out of the dirt and thought I had better check it over. Flexed it and thought I heard something. Flexed some more and thought no I don't think I did. But ran my hand up and down the arrow to see if I could feel anything. Sure enough I felt a bump. I flexed again and sure enough eastern heard it that time too. A very small pop at every other flex. I don't know if you can see it in the pic but that arrow is now in the garbage and I feel very lucky that I did not get hurt shooting this arrow as I am not sure that earlier in the evening before filing the knocks it hit the wood on one of the targets.


I feel very fortunate that we found it before I got hurt.

[stilllearning]

While we were shooting on Thursday of last week my wife decided that some weedeating needed done. I could not help but laugh when I took this one as she works we play. ;D ;D ;D




And she was OK with that. ;D

[stilllearning]

Well I took all that stuff that people have been telling me and put together a good night of shooting.

Were my shots perfect ............. nope.....



Were they OK .......... Yup.........



Did I have some better rounds then I have had in a while ......... Yes sir.....................



Even got some cool pics...........

of myself



and of Hopesman


Eastern was even there but didn't shoot just coached.

All in all a good night and yes the new arrows seemed to fly very nice thank you.

[stilllearning]

pics from last night.[][]
First is just a shot at the 20 yard bag.[] the two down low were because I was in shock of the first two in the bull.[:0] Go figure.[]


this one is the broad head late in the shooting. I am pointing at the broad head and if you can see it just up from there and a little more to the left is an X cut in the paper. That was the first broad head. the other holes are field points for reference. Keep in mind also that the broadhead is 125 grain (all I have right now) and the field points are 100 grain.

Hopesman found one of my group on the deer. Remember these are with the 100 grain field points like BT suggested.[]

[stilllearning]

I was not sure what a friend was looking for at the time of the shoot but I lucked out and got the info he wanted. He has been a very patient man that is for sure and now he says we are ready to go. First group at 20 using the 20 yard pin. [?]



Next group at 30 yards using the 20 yard pin. [?]


Now I was all over the place so I took these shots but I don't think they will help you at all. [?] Also I tried to use the 30 yard pin and I think I went looking to see were they were hitting.





I say that I went looking for the arrow because I later did this group. []
Then out of no where :ocame one of the guys that shot with us 2 years ago. [] He says he did not hunt with bow last year so he wanted to get back into it. So this is him shooting and the rest of the guys minus me behind he camera. []


The most we have had for a while. [][] Yahoo.
We all seemed to have our off times and then turn around and have a great group. go figure. Just one of those nights I guess. []

[stilllearning]

Well to keep you all updated it was another night of good shooting and some fine tuning for some.

Eastern continued to watch me shoot at first round and then said "I think we should try the last module on your bow just to see what happens." He continued "I think that you may be stretching just a little bit to anchor. I am not sure so were it only takes a couple of minutes and no press to change that module lets try it and we can always go back if you don't like it."

I remembered BT and Eastern both thinking I might be able to go to the last module a while back but we all kinda forgot about it. So I agreed lets try it.
Well I have to admit I think he was right. before I was hitting to the left as I was over stretching just a bit to get to the wall that BT had suggested I get to so I could settle the bow down. I was not quite getting there with the other module. Well I can get there now and BT you were right if you pull into the wall it settles things down for you. HOWEVER if you get to excited about this new found steadiness and start looking for the arrows on the target before they hit the bag......... ...... Your groups don't improve much but they do do a little better.
Eastern noticed an improvement right away and It does feel more comfortable. I would have to say I like it.

We moved to elevated shooting tonight.
Eastern would shoot and then I would and then go look at what we got.



We even tried the old run to the truck and run back here go down on one knee and shoot the 30 yard bag. Stand here while I bug you with some blades of grass and shoot 40 yard. run up the stairs and shoot Bambi.
By the end of 4 arrows your breathing was up and so was the heart rate so you could feel your heart in your chest.
Great practice for sure we even through in some sitting shooting as well.
I think what we will do from now on one night a week we will do exercises like this and one night we work on form, breathing and relaxing while shooting. Got to be on our game for the season and we find out about the doe draw tomorrow.

I am not going to be happy if I don't get one but all is good either way. I will be out there with bells on .. OK maybe not bells on but I will be out there during the first week of October seeing if I can't fill my tags and then hunt birds with my daughter for the rest of the year. I will carry the bow and she can carry the shot gun.

I can't wait.