Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Too many guys hang on too many gadgets!

Now I don't look on this topic at all but thought I would give you bow hunters a little heads up. I have been back for a couple of weeks from Alaska and was able to converse with other clients of my guides. Two came to shoot their moose with bows. They both failed due to equipment malfunctions. I looked at both bows and they had on some pretty impressive looking hardware which I cannot identify to you.

Hunter #1 had shots at 64 and 69 yards. He felt comfortable with that yardage he said but both arrows went over the back of the big bull. An arrow at 90 yards hit the bull in the hoof. 90 yards? Are these distances the new normal?
He did tag the bull using the guides rifle which is legal.

Hunter #2 had quite a few chances which I lost count.
In the end he discovered his sighting system had come lose and his peep moved. He would have to re-sight. He too filled his tag at the end using the same rifle.

My guide told me they had two earlier bow/sheep hunters that had equipment malfunctions as well and didn't harvest a sheep.
The guide said that guys are coming up there with equipment that gets "destroyed" by the elements and terrain. Some get damaged by packing in, ATVs and watercraft. A hardshell case is too cumbersome in the field.

The moral of the story is not to flame the bowhunters but to use this to your advantage. Walking to your tree stand in the upper midewest is a far cry from a bouncing 10 mile ride on an ATV through alders, devils club and mud. The less you rely on "gadgets" the better off you are. Simple, basic and tough systems will survive better. Peeps and kissers move or fall off. Releases get lost or damaged. Yes a spare will alleviate that. The guide advises this but he still sees too much gadgetry that breaks down.

Just fyi.

intelligent bowhunters check their gear constantly and have references and spares.... I'd never go without at least 2 releases AND the ability to shoot with fingers... its really no brainer to do the same... especially with a peep on the string... Heck we used to know how to shoot our right hand bows left handed up close in case game came on the other side of the stand....

And it really only takes a small laminated card with some measured notes about setup.

But yes.... too much of the stuff is gadgety... the more you have, the more can go wrong....

A guy at work had his drop away rest fall off Friday... season started yesterdya... it was held on with .......4/40 bolts... IE toothpicks basically.... what crap.

As to distance of shots.... anyone that practiced and had a perfectly tuned bow could hit way out there 30 years ago. About 28 years ago I had a bow set up with pins to 90 yards. I could hit EVERY shot in 9 inch pie plate at 90.... assuming no bad cross winds and I could get into a good position to shoot from.... the problem back then was no good rangefinders... those setups were slow and loopy trajectory.... miss the yardage 1-2 yards and you miss.

As with everything these days folks move forward... but you have to pay attention that you are not using weaker links as you move forward......

BTW any archer, IMHO that doesn't shoot while in the field every morning and evening is not being fair to the game.... you have to continually verify.

I guess bottom line thats why I took my recurve to AK to fly in. Never found a big enough bull close enough so finally on the 2nd to last day took my bull with my guides 338(that I did the load work for and zero'd and happened to be one of my old 4H shooting kids.....) at 802 with the gun.

Now if you want me on a soapbox... all that crap they put on AR15s..... lets just say give me a good gun and good irons and you don't want my popping caps at you anywhere this side of 1000.....

I agree.

take the crossbow avantage. no release needed,i can set my treestands up with shooting rails for xbow and gun,much easier.
i don't need to practice as much. then there is the fact that my bad back doesn't realy allow me hold a regular bow for very long . i still have placed a 40yd limit on my shooting distance.

I wouldn't shoot 40 with a crossbow but again we have edgy deer... Even with speed a crossbow is a NOISY sob and its noise that ruins shots.

IMHO folks shoot better than they hit at 40 yards on animals... and thats because speed of sound is appx 1100 fps and no bow made is going to do that. So the deer will hear it and move.

See topic on jumping strings. IMHO if folks hunted the deer we do 15 yards and under would be the max.

Nothin' like the whishhh...SMACK of a wooden arrow hitting a ribcage at about 150 fps.

especially out of my brack recurve!

Amen Brother,

I understand it takes more work to get closer and a lot more practice to keep sharp but twice I have messed up shots inside 20 yards and was able to shoot a second time and take the animal because of the quiet shot of my recurves.

It is hard to leave ones hand at the lodge in the morning. Break a string, no sweat, I carry one preset in my backpack, can swap out in minutes. Bow presses are hard to come by above the tree line.

Simple beats mechanical when the trail gets rough IMHO.

Range limits are matter of practice. Fred Bear and others have shot big game animals at ranges that would seem impossible for a large number of compound shooters, repeatedly. My personal best is a whitetail doe at 46 yards. She did not even look up at the release and fell within sight because the arrow hit where it was aimed.
Quiet beats speed hands down. Until a compound/crossbow breaks the speed of sound that will always be the case.

If there is one thing that the majority of bowhunters don't understand, that is it.

This is why I still shoot fingers with a flipper rest!

Same here,fingers and a flipper rest. KISS!!

There is a difference between gadgets and equipment. I shoot a Mathews Z-7 bow with sights and release. I always take a second release, not because I am afraid of a breakdown, but if I lose or misplace it.

Recurve bows and traditional long bows are fine, but you are limited with them as well. I prefer my Z-7 or I would use a wooden bow. I can shoot to 60 yards with good accuracy, my arrows will completely penetrate the biggest elk or moose unless I hit bone.

I have guided plenty of people and put less blame on equipment and more on the individual that is using it. Most people that are guided are neophites and wanna be's and leave much to be desired in the way of experience. Don't blame the equipment when the idiot using it has little or no experience.

With fingers and tab I can shoot out to 60-yards. I will give you this though, a release is easier and requires less practice. I do not shoot at game that far though. I did shoot my elk at 50-yards this year though and he turned slightly after the release, I got lucky it worked out, but like 30-yards better!

Take that scenerio to Alaska and see how many more people screw that shot up. This is again an example of knowing your equipment and not just getting out into the field and taking the first shot you have. Experience trumps equipment every time...

Good points all. I should have qualified the "quite factor" comments by stating that it is most important when hunting wary game. Some game won't jump the string in any case.

Stick the release in your pocket and put a spare in your case. Put loctite on all your screws and you should have no issues with stuff falling off your bow.

Back in the 90s I shot a lot of 3D matches. I used my hunting bow and my setup was tough as nails. The other shooters would very gently lean their bows against something to retrieve their arrows, I'd literally throw mine on the ground. They thought I was nuts. I'd tell them, hey that's a hunting bow, if somethings going to break I'd much rather see it break now than when I accidentally dropped it from a stand or down a shale-slide. That old razorback killed a lot of animals and won me a pile of 3D trophies.

To an extent, regardless of how quiet, sound always gets there first... But I'll take quiet every time. You can't buy enough speed to make up for....
One thing I won't use is feathers... used to watch the deer flinch/duck everytime a bluejay swooped by..... then I listened on the target end feathers vs vanes..... feathers sound just like the Jays......

I too can shoot "targets" out to 80 yards with complete confidence with my compound and am prety comfortable shooting deer sized game out to @ 50 yards with the recurve. But shooting targets that do not move and animals that do are two completely different things. A lot can happen once an arrow is launched and the impact with game at ranges over 40 yards, not much of it is good. So yes, I can hit what I aim at at that range, but I choose not to take the chance. IMO it is not worth the risk of a marginal hit and a long faint blood trail and possible loss. I owe that to the game I hunt.