Archery - As a Hobby

The one time I used hay bales pretty sure the ant hills inside did more to stop arrows than the bales which get loose pretty quick.

Amen to that, my only complaint so far coming to Florida is the fucking fire ants

And have multiple targets at the same range so you aren’t trying to stack arrows and destroying them that way as well.

Ordered a Mathews VXR. Want to get inti hunting and liked the VXR when I shot it at the store. This will be my first bow, a lot of stuff to learn

Matthews makes good bows obviously I had two of them probably 15 years ago when parallell limb design came out. Don't do like a friend did, backed his limb bow out and the limb came off the riser. Lot of energy suddenly released. I wasn't there. I would have liked to hear it.

Bows themselvs are a relatively simple thing. It's all the extra stuff we bolt onto to them they can rapidly make them more complicated.

That's why I got away from Matthews bows and others. I prefer a longer ATA bow. Reason longer ATA bows are used for target shooting. They're much more stable. I've always hunted on the ground so I really didn't need the ultra compact bow some people claim for shooting out of a tree. A lot of times I stood up bow hunting most of the day and would sit on a stool if I got tired. Of course out west and when I went to Canda hunting caribou it was all spot and stalk. Not that big of a weight difference in bows for the length, at least then.

I've only had a few 3d targets. Mostly shot a bag target. If I wanted to shoot a 3d target I went to the 3D range about 15 minutes away and spent the afternoon shooting their targets of all kinds and distances on a trail through the woods.

Now that I mention it, best 3d target is probably someone elses 3d target They have ones with a removable core I guess if you shoot at it a lot or shoot broadheads a few times you can change it out. Once you get the hang of it start shooting a different dot on the target for each shot or you'll rapidly strip off vanes on the arrows or bust up the arrow themselves. Assuming you don't do a bunch of robinhoods

Fealorn said:

Agreed, longer ATA is much better for target and some hunting applications. Where I live its mainly treestand and blind hunting so the 31.5 suits my needs well. I have no interest in target competitions.

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Several years ago saw a pic someone had made of two limbs attached to either and basically no riser lol. For a while things really got out of hand getting bows shorter and shorter. That kind of got to a point they stayed near the same. I think my Hoyt is 32" and my Martin shoot through is 38". I used to like going to some of the 3d shoots just to watch. Supposidly they were practicing for hunting shooting 3d targets and realistic situations. Some guys had 3 foot or longer stabilizers on their bow.

At least overdraws died off, or maybe all the guys that had an arrow through the arm died off lol.

I've done a number of dumb things. In college I had a second story deck and we would shoot off of it into the pasture. Someone would chunk a golf ball and we would shoot at it and see who could judge the distance. Being taller than the pasture most times they would stick in the dirt or skip off to be picked up. Damn if one time stuck the golf ball and ruined a brand new ACC.

You can learn if you get a jig and whatnot. They make sleeves now you can heat shrink I think that are 3 vanes on one deal so you don't have to glue each vane. Never used them so don't know. Strip the arrow and apply the deal and done super quick. You'll rapidly learn to shoot at different points of impact or you will go through a ton of broken arrows, ripped fletching and all each time you hit another arrow.

$14 a pop is pretty high. I used to pay about $10 each fletched and cut to length with insert for ACE arrows which were pretty high dollar, arbon around a thin aluminum shaft. Super light.

Like everything else you can make it super simple or put a ton more work and money into it. I have an arrow cutoff and a fletching jig. It's a lot of work. It's not as simple as it looks to get it as quick and done as good as someone that has fletched thousands and thousands of arrows. Takes time to get it down.

In all honestly for hunting I've had as much luck with old xx75 aluminum arrows and then carbon and then ACE. I got more speed as I went but dead was dead.

Then after you get fletching down you can try all kinds of arrows quickly to compare them. Easton, then Carbon Express, then Beeman (if they still even make those) the list goes on and on and on and on.