Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics. They'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is cutting the distance. In my opinion, there really
Speaker 1: is nothing better in the hunting world than hunting with
Speaker 1: a bow. The vast majority of my hunts are done
Speaker 1: with the bow. It's challenging, but the reward is really
Speaker 1: hard to beat. I know, if I had to pick
Speaker 1: one thing to hunt with for the rest of my life,
Speaker 1: I picked the bow every single time. Now, I've got
Speaker 1: a lot of questions from people about getting into archery,
Speaker 1: and most are new hunters, but a lot of lifelong
Speaker 1: hunters as well, And I think it's because the leap
Speaker 1: and the learning curve into archery just seems so steep
Speaker 1: that people kind of want to know where to get started.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna be breaking down bow hunt over the
Speaker 1: next four episodes, from getting started all the way through
Speaker 1: advanced tactics to being consistently successful. So no matter your
Speaker 1: knowledge level, your skill level, from beginner through expert, I
Speaker 1: really think that you're going to enjoy this series. On
Speaker 1: today's podcast, we're gonna open it up with what I
Speaker 1: would call Archery one oh one, covering the basics of
Speaker 1: what you need to get started, the different types of
Speaker 1: Bose gear, finding the right fit, as well as jumping
Speaker 1: into aero selection. But before we do that, I really
Speaker 1: want to share my personal journey into archery. It's somewhat
Speaker 1: laughable now, but you just don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 1: I really wish that I had had this podcast when
Speaker 1: I was starting out. I really didn't know a single
Speaker 1: person that shot a boat or archery hunted, but I
Speaker 1: knew that I really wanted to get into it. I
Speaker 1: would say that my introduction to archery actually came from
Speaker 1: watching In and Outdoors on the weekend. What that was
Speaker 1: is on every Saturday morning, Tienna Network would play hunting
Speaker 1: shows on essentially like cable. Now, that seems like you
Speaker 1: can get hunting content wherever, Instagram, YouTube, you can even
Speaker 1: find it on Netflix or multiple networks dedicated to hunting,
Speaker 1: But back then it was just ten and Outdoors Saturday morning.
Speaker 1: I remember watching various real tree shows and they would
Speaker 1: archery hunt for white tails, and I thought, wow, that
Speaker 1: looks really cool. And then there was a guy that
Speaker 1: would come on and his name was Byron Ferguson, and
Speaker 1: he was kind of like a traditional archer trick shooter,
Speaker 1: and you'd throw things up and shoot him, and I
Speaker 1: thought that looks awesome. Now my parents had got me one.
Speaker 1: I would say, like a kid's long be like kind
Speaker 1: of like a fiberglass longbow. I would shoot it like
Speaker 1: boy scouts or whatever, the kind of the same kind
Speaker 1: of things you'd see around. And I got high had
Speaker 1: one of those, and I didn't really have anybody to
Speaker 1: show me how to shoot it, so I just kind
Speaker 1: of would watch this trick shooter and his advice was
Speaker 1: always be the arrow, b the arrow. So I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: as long as I'm being the arrow, I should be
Speaker 1: able to shoot this thing. What essentially he is talking
Speaker 1: about is shooting instinctive shooting, so learning to shoot through
Speaker 1: knowing the trajectory of the arrow and not really thinking
Speaker 1: too much of it, but just becoming that shot. My
Speaker 1: practice involved having a ball tied to a string in
Speaker 1: the backyard, like a softball, and I would swing the
Speaker 1: thing back and forth and just think, be the arrow,
Speaker 1: b the arrow, and try to shoot the softball, shoot
Speaker 1: balloons on targets. I had a little hay bales in
Speaker 1: the backyard that I would shoot at, and I got
Speaker 1: pretty decent with that essentially youth fiber glass longbow. I
Speaker 1: then kind of graduated to a youth model compound boat.
Speaker 1: Had tiny wheels. I would say the wheels are probably
Speaker 1: two inches in diameter. Pretty weak. It wasn't something you
Speaker 1: can hunt big game with or whatever. But I got
Speaker 1: that bow, and I knew nothing about sites or anything.
Speaker 1: There wasn't even a place to put sites. It was
Speaker 1: just a little bit more powerful than my fiberglass long bow,
Speaker 1: and I shot at the same way be the arrow, instinctive,
Speaker 1: shooting with my fingers. I could shoot a fair distance,
Speaker 1: but not real far. I mean twenty yards would be
Speaker 1: clearly the max of this bow. I took it hunting
Speaker 1: just in places for small game, very small game. I
Speaker 1: shot between that bow and the other bow, rabbits, quail, ducks,
Speaker 1: maybe a goose, and I thought, this is this is
Speaker 1: pretty cool. But you know, to graduate from that to
Speaker 1: going into big game hunting, um, I wasn't even old
Speaker 1: enough at the time to hunt big game, but I
Speaker 1: knew that it was something that I wanted to eventually
Speaker 1: do so, as I got older, I progressed with the bow,
Speaker 1: just using those same skills of be the arrow, look
Speaker 1: at what I'm shooting at, and let the arrow fly
Speaker 1: and let it hit the target. Now, when it got
Speaker 1: a little bit older, I thought, okay, I wanted to
Speaker 1: get into archery hunting. I wanted to start hunting deer.
Speaker 1: So I got like a what would be my first
Speaker 1: hunting bow, my first real compound bow. And then again
Speaker 1: I knew nothing about the boat. We went to a
Speaker 1: local sporting good shop. I picked out a bow that
Speaker 1: would be strong enough to kill a deer, grabbed a
Speaker 1: dozen arrows. They were all Eastern aluminum arrows, and just
Speaker 1: they were full length. I knew nothing about spine weights.
Speaker 1: I knew nothing about cutting arrows. I knew nothing about nothing.
Speaker 1: So I and I got a site on this bow.
Speaker 1: I thought, okay, this is cool, it's got a site.
Speaker 1: My site was a square, like a square site housing.
Speaker 1: It had a wire that ran down vertically and then
Speaker 1: multiple horizontal wires, so it was like having a cross hair.
Speaker 1: I actually don't think I had a peep site on it.
Speaker 1: And I got that site, I shot with my fingers
Speaker 1: using that site. I remember going out to the hay
Speaker 1: Bill and I got this nice new bow. I thought,
Speaker 1: this is awesome, got my compound bow. I got my
Speaker 1: site like they've got on TV. I'm gonna be super accurate,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't hit anything with it, so it was frustrating.
Speaker 1: I would try to site it in. I was shoot
Speaker 1: high and I moved the site and nothing was working right.
Speaker 1: It's seemed like it was all backwards. So I just
Speaker 1: took the site off and started shooting that same bow
Speaker 1: open sites like I shot everything else, and thought, okay,
Speaker 1: this will be good enough. Then as it got closer,
Speaker 1: I got a little bit older. I was about to
Speaker 1: venture out on my first archery hunt, and I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: I want to for deer, and I thought, I want
Speaker 1: to really get the site thing figured out because people
Speaker 1: are shooting things further. And I just was, you know,
Speaker 1: thinking it was open country, mule deer hunting spot and stock.
Speaker 1: I had nobody I could talk to you about bow hunting.
Speaker 1: I there was very little information that I could get
Speaker 1: about it at the time, and so I just was
Speaker 1: self teaching myself how to bow hunt from things I
Speaker 1: saw on TV and just stuff that I learned on
Speaker 1: my own. So I was in a sporting and shop
Speaker 1: one day and I saw, oh, here's some accessories for
Speaker 1: the bow. So I got it arrest and I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: this will be good because I up until that point,
Speaker 1: I was just shooting the arrows off the shelf of
Speaker 1: my compound bow. Now. If you're shoot a bow now
Speaker 1: and you think that's pretty funny because you know you're
Speaker 1: supposed to have a rest to put the air on.
Speaker 1: I knew nothing of this, but I saw it. I
Speaker 1: was like, okay. It was in a clearance bin. It
Speaker 1: was like half off, half off of the half off it.
Speaker 1: I think I don't even remember. It was like what
Speaker 1: would be the original Dick Sporting because just kind of
Speaker 1: an all sports store. I think it was that. I
Speaker 1: can't remember the name of it, but something like that,
Speaker 1: kind of like a Big five type store where they
Speaker 1: just had some leftover archery stuff and they're practically giving
Speaker 1: it away. So I thought, okay, I'll get this, and
Speaker 1: I got that, and I had my other site and
Speaker 1: I was in the checkout line and a guy behind
Speaker 1: me was like, oh, are you a bow hunter? And
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I have a bow. I shoot
Speaker 1: small game, but I'm wanting to deer hunt. He goes, oh, cool,
Speaker 1: and he looks at the rest and he says, oh,
Speaker 1: what kind of release do you have? Release? What's your release?
Speaker 1: It's like, well, it goes on your wrist and you
Speaker 1: can't use that kind of rest without a release. I
Speaker 1: had no clue about the release or any of this,
Speaker 1: and so this guy in the line at the sporting
Speaker 1: goods store was just telling me all the things that
Speaker 1: I needed that I had no clue. I need, oh,
Speaker 1: a peep site. And then I'm like, I was talking, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't have a site because when I was moving it,
Speaker 1: I just couldn't get to be accurate. So I just
Speaker 1: took the site off and I just shoot it off
Speaker 1: the shelf with my fingers. He's like, oh, well, that's
Speaker 1: because when you site in it's opposite you follow the arrow,
Speaker 1: not like you're sighting in a rifle scope. You've got
Speaker 1: to move things opposite. And then it dawned on me, Oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that makes sense, that's pretty much what it was doing.
Speaker 1: But in the moment, I didn't even spend enough time
Speaker 1: to try to figure that out. I had no one
Speaker 1: to tell me, no way that I could look it up,
Speaker 1: so I didn't even understand how to site the bow in.
Speaker 1: But with this little bit of knowledge that I got
Speaker 1: from the guy and the line in the random sporting
Speaker 1: this store, I went back, I found a few items
Speaker 1: that were cheaper, I re checked out, and now I
Speaker 1: was on my way to going on my first archery hunt. Definitely,
Speaker 1: over the years, I have learned a lot about bow hunting,
Speaker 1: but most of my knowledge comes from a lot of
Speaker 1: trial and error. If I think about my journey in archery,
Speaker 1: I didn't have anybody that showed me how to shoot,
Speaker 1: so I had to figure things out the hard way.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that I wasn't very successful, and that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that I didn't have a high level of
Speaker 1: skill in bow hunting. Is just that I had to
Speaker 1: figure things out myself. And so I think that a
Speaker 1: podcast like this is really going to help cut the
Speaker 1: learning curve for a lot of people, not only in
Speaker 1: how to start out, but when it comes to shooting
Speaker 1: as well, because I know the mistakes that I've made
Speaker 1: in the past, and I know ways that make things
Speaker 1: a lot easier because I've tried so many different things.
Speaker 1: So I think that that's a good basis for starting
Speaker 1: out before we jump into the tips and the how
Speaker 1: twos for this archery one on one. To get into archery,
Speaker 1: I think the first major hurdle is understanding how do
Speaker 1: I get a One of the questions that I get
Speaker 1: asked more than anything probably comes down to what's the
Speaker 1: great beginner bow? What bow should I start with? How
Speaker 1: do I get into archery? And so I think the
Speaker 1: first step is, obviously it seems very simple, but you
Speaker 1: need a bow now. If you don't understand or don't know,
Speaker 1: it can be very daunting because there's so many choices,
Speaker 1: there's so many things, there's so many opinions archery just
Speaker 1: like every other little niche of every type of thing
Speaker 1: that people do, there's so many different opinions. Everybody's got
Speaker 1: their own expert opinion. Certain people like certain things, bad
Speaker 1: mouth other things, and you know, when it comes down
Speaker 1: to the brass tacks of it, I think that everybody
Speaker 1: it's it's great to have different opinions, different things that
Speaker 1: you like. I personally love shooting all kinds of bows.
Speaker 1: I I like traditional bows, I like shooting a long bow.
Speaker 1: I like shooting a recurve. I love shooting a compound bow. Um.
Speaker 1: The first step is just understanding bows. So let's just
Speaker 1: go through a little history of and maybe the types
Speaker 1: of bows. So the simplest bow a bow, but it's
Speaker 1: simplest for him. Obviously, everybody knows what a bow is.
Speaker 1: It's got a string, it's got limbs, a rise or
Speaker 1: something you hold onto, you draw it back, and you
Speaker 1: shoot an arrow forward. The most primitive, I would say,
Speaker 1: probably the most primitive form of a bow would be
Speaker 1: what was called a self bow. Of actually looking at
Speaker 1: mine right here, what a self bow is is. It's
Speaker 1: just a bow made out of a single stick. There's
Speaker 1: no lamination of limbs, there's no it's just essentially like
Speaker 1: what you would think of an original bow. Somebody took
Speaker 1: a stick, they made it bend, they put a string
Speaker 1: on it, and they shoot an arrow. Pretty simple, not
Speaker 1: a lot to it, not super complicated, but also not
Speaker 1: super accurate, not a lot of power. You have to
Speaker 1: be quite close, um, compared to other bows. So now
Speaker 1: let's let's step up one more notch. We're gonna go
Speaker 1: to a long bow. So through history there's been so
Speaker 1: many different changes in bows, and different regions have different
Speaker 1: types of bows. But you know, the long bow is
Speaker 1: essentially like a self bow, but it's got more laminated limbs,
Speaker 1: a little bit more power to it, maybe a shelf
Speaker 1: on it to rest an arrow, maybe a leather grip,
Speaker 1: but very very basic, very very simple, a string, a bow,
Speaker 1: and arrow. Then you go to the recurve. The recurve
Speaker 1: is that bow that looks like if it was destrung.
Speaker 1: The tips curve back away from the direction that you pull,
Speaker 1: so as you draw back, those limbs actually are curved forward.
Speaker 1: I would say, just kind of give you a mental
Speaker 1: picture of it, which generates a little bit more power.
Speaker 1: So it's a step up from the long bow, but
Speaker 1: still also very basic. Now with the recurve, you could
Speaker 1: also add sites. These are more traditional bows. They're shot
Speaker 1: with fingers, so you use your fingers, you use a
Speaker 1: tab or something else like that. Then we're gonna kind
Speaker 1: of step up to the next level of bows, which
Speaker 1: will be considered a compound bow. These are bows that
Speaker 1: have the wheels on them. Those wheels generate a lot
Speaker 1: higher velocities and a lot more accuracy than your traditional
Speaker 1: type gear. I would say that the compound boat is
Speaker 1: probably one of the better bows. Well, I'm in two
Speaker 1: camps here. It's a great boat to start hunting with
Speaker 1: because you're going to advance and become more accurate a
Speaker 1: lot faster, But you also need a lot more equipment
Speaker 1: to get those bows going. There's a little bit more
Speaker 1: technicality to them. Um, it's not as simple as just
Speaker 1: grabbing it and starting to shoot. It can be, but there's,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of things that you need to
Speaker 1: understand when it comes to purchasing the right bow. I
Speaker 1: think when you're thinking about getting into bow hunting, you
Speaker 1: first just gotta say, Okay, what kind of archery hunting
Speaker 1: do I want to get into? You know, I personally
Speaker 1: started shooting a simple traditional boat, and it's a great
Speaker 1: way to start bow hunting or start getting into archery
Speaker 1: at probably a lower price point with a lot less
Speaker 1: gear needed. However, you need a lot more skill to
Speaker 1: be efficient. So you can kind of jump into the
Speaker 1: game with a compound bow a lot sooner and be
Speaker 1: a lot more efficient than possibly with a traditional bow,
Speaker 1: But you also need more equipment, You need more things,
Speaker 1: you know, with anything, it's a little bit more complicated.
Speaker 1: So I think you first got to decide what kind
Speaker 1: of bow do you want to shoot? Now let's go
Speaker 1: into when it comes to getting a bow archery. I
Speaker 1: like to think of it like this, like if somebody's
Speaker 1: brand new to archery and then they don't know anything
Speaker 1: about a bow. You know, they go, oh, let me
Speaker 1: shoot your bow. I want to see if I want
Speaker 1: to bow hunt, can I shoot your bow? And the
Speaker 1: answer is probably not why because every bow needs to
Speaker 1: fit the shooter. I can't give my bow to my
Speaker 1: friends to shoot. Do you even see if they like it?
Speaker 1: Because it won't fit them. Every bow is pretty much
Speaker 1: custom fit to the shooter, especially when it comes to
Speaker 1: compound bows. So I'm gonna be now kind of going
Speaker 1: down this path of compound bows, and we're going to
Speaker 1: kind of break out some of the things you need
Speaker 1: when it comes to getting a bow. So the first
Speaker 1: thing is going to be understanding sizing. Bows are sold
Speaker 1: by a couple of combinations of things. So you've got
Speaker 1: your draw length, which is the length of essentially your
Speaker 1: arms drawing back to put that arrow at full draw,
Speaker 1: and then the weight of the bow, so that's the
Speaker 1: amount of poundage that you're pulling back. I guess a
Speaker 1: really good question would be will what weight and what
Speaker 1: draw length should I shoot, and it really just depends
Speaker 1: on the individual. A very popular draw weight for people
Speaker 1: that shoot a lot is around seventy pounds for men
Speaker 1: and probably fifty five pounds on the high end for women.
Speaker 1: You know, the draw weight really just depends on your strength.
Speaker 1: But also people just getting started are not going to
Speaker 1: have the necessary muscles to draw back seventy pounds, is
Speaker 1: my guess. I've had a lot of friends over the
Speaker 1: years that like, I want to get into our tree,
Speaker 1: let me draw your bow back. And these are people
Speaker 1: that are fit and then we'll really good shape. Yet
Speaker 1: it's very difficult for them to draw seventy pounds back,
Speaker 1: while I could do it with my feet up in
Speaker 1: a chair, like no feet on the ground, um, in
Speaker 1: an awkward angle in my sleep, you know, because you
Speaker 1: develop certain muscles for it. So the trouble is when
Speaker 1: you buy a new bow, there isn't a lot of
Speaker 1: options for it to grow. But you can also back
Speaker 1: the weight off on um whatever the maximum draw weight is.
Speaker 1: So if you get a seventy pound bow, you might
Speaker 1: be able to back that out to sixty pounds and
Speaker 1: get started if you're you know, in decent shape, pretty strong. Um,
Speaker 1: you should be able to work up to it pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: But it's just good to keep in mind that bows
Speaker 1: are sold on weight and draw length. So the first
Speaker 1: thing we're gonna do is decide, Okay, how do I
Speaker 1: understand what draw length I'm going to be looking at,
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of people getting into it
Speaker 1: start to think, um, well, i'll buy a used bow,
Speaker 1: or I'll look online or oh they find a bow
Speaker 1: that's a good price, and then they buy it and
Speaker 1: then they quickly realize that that bow doesn't fit them.
Speaker 1: So a good starting place and this is by no
Speaker 1: means accurate, and you'll kind of find out why here
Speaker 1: in a little bit. But um, what I do is
Speaker 1: you put your arms out. So we've got to measure
Speaker 1: our wingspan first to kind of get a starting point
Speaker 1: for a drawings. So a great way to do this
Speaker 1: put your fingertips in the corner of a wall, stretch
Speaker 1: your arms out. You don't want to like overstretched, like
Speaker 1: you're really reaching, just natural open wing tip to wing
Speaker 1: tip distance, and then divide that by two point five.
Speaker 1: That should be a great starting place to understand where
Speaker 1: your draw length is. Now to get a really accurate
Speaker 1: understanding of your draw length. You're gonna also probably want
Speaker 1: to go to a bowshop, draw a bow back that
Speaker 1: has some kind of measurement on it, and get to
Speaker 1: where you can anchor and it feels comfortable and go
Speaker 1: from there. But it's a good starting point, I think
Speaker 1: for people out there. You know, using that rough measurement
Speaker 1: dividing by the two point five should give you an
Speaker 1: idea of what your draw length can be. Now, what's
Speaker 1: comfortable for you to shoot. You might have to fine
Speaker 1: tune and adjust that draw length over time where you
Speaker 1: find things are more comfortable or not. My draw length
Speaker 1: is thirty inches, but I've found over the time that
Speaker 1: I actually shoot a twenty nine and a half in
Speaker 1: straw boat a little bit better. I personally like a
Speaker 1: lot of bend in my elbow. I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: just how I like to shoot, and I shoot better
Speaker 1: that way. So I've shot everything from twenty eight and
Speaker 1: a half to thirty and a half in straw lengths,
Speaker 1: and I find that that twenty nine and a half
Speaker 1: is better for me. But you know, it just depends
Speaker 1: on the boat too. So sometimes I've got bows there
Speaker 1: a little longer to axle to axle and I like
Speaker 1: the longer draw with those, but when they get a
Speaker 1: little bit shorter axel to axel, I don't like the
Speaker 1: angle of the string for that draw length, so I
Speaker 1: kind of end up going with a shorter draw length
Speaker 1: as the bows get shorter. That's just me personally. I
Speaker 1: don't think that that's a hard and faster rule. I'm
Speaker 1: sure everybody is different, but you know, I just want
Speaker 1: to say that to say that, you know, things can
Speaker 1: vary a little bit between individual shooters and where you're
Speaker 1: getting started, but that's a good place to just kind
Speaker 1: of set your baseline, say this is my draw length,
Speaker 1: and then it just from there. So now let's jump
Speaker 1: into all the stuff you need on your bow, because
Speaker 1: there's a lot of different items that are needed to
Speaker 1: make this whole archery thing a successful venture. And I
Speaker 1: think it's a great place to start is just understanding
Speaker 1: what you're gonna need. So once you understand, okay, I've
Speaker 1: got this is my draw length, You've measured your arms,
Speaker 1: you know your draw length, and then you've got an
Speaker 1: idea of probably your size and strength and your draw weights.
Speaker 1: So for most adult males, you're gonna be start. I
Speaker 1: think personally, you're gonna want probably to get a seventy
Speaker 1: pound bow and back it off to round sixty pounds,
Speaker 1: especially because a lot of the new bows, the pull
Speaker 1: weight might be heavy, but you know the hold weight
Speaker 1: isn't as much because you've got what's called let off.
Speaker 1: So a compound bow has What happens is you you
Speaker 1: draw back and you're pulling back the draw weight, but
Speaker 1: once you get a full draw, when you're anchored before
Speaker 1: you shoot, it's a percentage. You're only holding a percentage
Speaker 1: of the way that you're drawing back. Whereas a traditional
Speaker 1: bow like a long bow er recurve, you're holding of
Speaker 1: the weight of the bow at full draw. So you
Speaker 1: might see a bow that says let off. What that
Speaker 1: means is of the weight of that poll is let off.
Speaker 1: While you're holding the boss. You're really only holding of
Speaker 1: the weight that you're pulling back. So that's why you
Speaker 1: can hold a compound bow back longer. Being able to
Speaker 1: hold it back longer means that you're able to focus
Speaker 1: in longer. Focusing in longer means that you're going to
Speaker 1: be more accurate, and they're faster as well. But you're
Speaker 1: gonna be more accurate over distance and probably getting started out.
Speaker 1: So the things you're gonna need for compound bow are
Speaker 1: going to be arrows. Obviously you need something shoot and
Speaker 1: with those arrows you're gonna need tips, practice tips, and
Speaker 1: then later on hunting tips. On the bow. Standard bow
Speaker 1: is set up with arrest, which is something that holds
Speaker 1: the arrow, a site which is just like it sounds,
Speaker 1: a site. It's mounted that you look through a name
Speaker 1: gonna have a peep site, so this helps you align
Speaker 1: your eye with the site and allows you to look
Speaker 1: through the string. Then you're gonna need what's called the
Speaker 1: release aiate of some kind. There's many different kinds of
Speaker 1: release as. So these are mechanical device that holds the
Speaker 1: string or actually holds what you call your D loop,
Speaker 1: So you don't actually have your release on the string itself,
Speaker 1: but you have it on a loop of string comes
Speaker 1: off of the string that just protects your string and
Speaker 1: can be a little bit more accurate that way, so
Speaker 1: what that wears out as opposed to your bowstring wearing out.
Speaker 1: So then you've got your D loop, and there's multiple
Speaker 1: kinds of releases. There's a wrist strap release which has
Speaker 1: a strap around your wrist and then something that comes
Speaker 1: out with a trigger on it, so it's more of
Speaker 1: a post type thing that comes from the wrist and
Speaker 1: then as a trigger. That's what I use. I find
Speaker 1: it really good for hunting purposes. Some people that end
Speaker 1: up developing target panic with those kind of releases because
Speaker 1: the end of your finger is extremely sensitive. You have
Speaker 1: a lot of nerve endings on your finger, and jen
Speaker 1: really most target panic, if you hear the word target panic,
Speaker 1: comes in because your brains reacting to knowing that something
Speaker 1: is going off and then makes a quick move or
Speaker 1: an adverse reaction to that and causes you to shoot poorly.
Speaker 1: So there's other releases on the market that try to
Speaker 1: limit that, which are more back tension style releases. What
Speaker 1: that means is you're pulling straight back and the tension
Speaker 1: of your pull allows the boat to go off. There's
Speaker 1: ones that have thumb buttons where you're kind of pulling
Speaker 1: and the tension against that string cause it to go off.
Speaker 1: And then there's pure back tension, which essentially releases itself
Speaker 1: when a certain amount of weight is applied to the release.
Speaker 1: Those are really good for target archery. Um A lot
Speaker 1: of people hunt not so with back tension, but with
Speaker 1: the thumb release kind they kind of look like a
Speaker 1: brass knuckle and you you kind of put your hand
Speaker 1: in it. Some of them have straps on them or whatever,
Speaker 1: but it's more held in your hand. There's other kinds
Speaker 1: of releases, hinge releases and other things. I would say,
Speaker 1: starting out, you know, everybody you talked to fifty differ
Speaker 1: and archers, they've got fifty different opinions. I really think
Speaker 1: that the wrist strap is a good way to go
Speaker 1: for hunting because you can allow it to go off
Speaker 1: at any point, But I also understand that it can
Speaker 1: be not so great for starting out because you can
Speaker 1: develop bad habits. So I'd say the second best one
Speaker 1: would be a thumb triggered release, like a back tension
Speaker 1: style thumb triggered release. That's another great option to get
Speaker 1: into starting out. So once you've got your release, you've
Speaker 1: got your bow, you've got your site, you've got your rest.
Speaker 1: Now you're ready to start shooting. But before you get
Speaker 1: to that point, you're gonna have to buy some arrows. Now.
Speaker 1: Just like choosing a bow is very specific to your
Speaker 1: draw length, your draw weight, and everything, arrow selection is
Speaker 1: extremely important as well. There's specific arrows that you need
Speaker 1: for your specific bow. It's kind of like thinking about
Speaker 1: buying a gun for if you're a firearm hunter, you
Speaker 1: would never put uh to seventy round in why it's
Speaker 1: just not gonna work. You know, there's specific ammunition made
Speaker 1: for specific guns, and arrows are sort of like that
Speaker 1: in a way. That one, you need the arrow to
Speaker 1: fly accurately, so it has to be the right what's
Speaker 1: called spine, so the right stiffness for that bow to
Speaker 1: shoot it correctly. You also need it for safety reasons
Speaker 1: because a bow that's severely underspined or flexes too much
Speaker 1: for the amount of draw length and weight of the
Speaker 1: bow could actually snap. So you have to pick the
Speaker 1: right arrow based on the right bow. I've seen people
Speaker 1: that get into archery, and this is the kind of
Speaker 1: the confusing party. They find a bow online, they buy
Speaker 1: a bow, they don't understand sizing, so they get something
Speaker 1: that doesn't really work for them, and then they just
Speaker 1: go and buy the cheapest arrows they can find, which
Speaker 1: could be severely underspined, could be the wrong kind of
Speaker 1: arrow for the type of bow that they're shooting, and
Speaker 1: could be dangerous as well. So when you go to
Speaker 1: buy arrows, you need to find an arrow that's that's
Speaker 1: right for your bow. Almost every manufacturer has arrow charts
Speaker 1: out there, and what it is is it'll give you
Speaker 1: your draw length, your draw weight, and then it'll suggest
Speaker 1: the spine for your bow. And this is a really
Speaker 1: good starting point. So what an arrow does is as
Speaker 1: the arrow gets shot, it flexes. It's being pushed from
Speaker 1: the back through the knock and propelled forward. When that happens,
Speaker 1: that arrow is moving and you want a certain amount
Speaker 1: of flex, not too much, not too little. So you think, oh, well,
Speaker 1: I'll just get the stiffest arrow. But a lighter bow
Speaker 1: shooting like a like a really stiff arrow that's too stiff,
Speaker 1: it's over spined, is going to cause it to not
Speaker 1: be as accurate as a bow that's shooting the correct spine. Now,
Speaker 1: you're also going to have to factor in the weight
Speaker 1: of your tips. So just starting out, if you're shooting,
Speaker 1: I would say in that fifty two seventy pound range
Speaker 1: of weight for bow, you're probably gonna want to shoot
Speaker 1: hunter grain tips. Now, hunter grain seems to be the
Speaker 1: most standard. It's like the gold standard of tip weight
Speaker 1: is a little bit heavier. Some guys with higher poundage
Speaker 1: bows will shoot those, or guys that want a little
Speaker 1: bit more weight forward will shoot those. And then really
Speaker 1: light bows, like if you're a kid or um female
Speaker 1: or you just have a lighter bow, you could go
Speaker 1: sub hundred grain. But I think hunter grain is the
Speaker 1: easiest to find, and so I kind of suggest shooting that.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a standard for a lot of different bows.
Speaker 1: So if you're just getting started, that's probably the one
Speaker 1: you're gonna be looking for, and then you'll find your
Speaker 1: arrow spine dependent on your draw length and your draw
Speaker 1: weight for your specific bow. Now, the length of your
Speaker 1: arrow is important as well. Just getting started, you could
Speaker 1: always if you if you wanted to shoot a full
Speaker 1: length arrow, but you're gonna have a little bit more
Speaker 1: weight out there, but you're also um gonna lose speed.
Speaker 1: So when it comes to selecting an arrow without getting
Speaker 1: I mean you could there's guys that just are all
Speaker 1: about arrows selection. They talk about wait, forward, front of center,
Speaker 1: all this stuff. The way that I think about choosing
Speaker 1: arrows is me personally, I like a good arrow for hunting.
Speaker 1: That's my main purpose. So guys that shoot targets a lot.
Speaker 1: If if all you want to do is to get
Speaker 1: into our tree to shoot targets, I would say go
Speaker 1: with a real lighter arrow because it'll be faster, it's
Speaker 1: gonna drop less, but you also lose kinetic energy for
Speaker 1: impacting the target. To shoot foam, you don't need a
Speaker 1: lot of energy out there. Um. I've found that heavier arrows,
Speaker 1: while they might go slower, they have more mass. That
Speaker 1: more mass has more energy, so it actually you get
Speaker 1: deeper penetration. You can maybe hit the shoulder and it
Speaker 1: goes through the shoulder and makes a clean kill as
Speaker 1: opposed to getting stuck in the shoulder. I learned that
Speaker 1: the hard way when the whole rage was using faster arrows,
Speaker 1: faster bows, faster this. So I lightened my arrow up
Speaker 1: by you know, it was still spined correctly, so it
Speaker 1: flecks the right amount from my boat is accurate. But
Speaker 1: the man wasn't fast, and because it was fast, I
Speaker 1: had a lot less drop or less pin gaps. So
Speaker 1: the difference between shooting twenty and thirty yards was smaller.
Speaker 1: And the difference you know, from twenty to fifty yards
Speaker 1: was smaller than a heavy arrow. And it was all
Speaker 1: well and good until I got out in the field
Speaker 1: and made a great stock on an animal and shot
Speaker 1: and hit it in the shoulder, and the arrow went
Speaker 1: in about two inches, and the animal ran off and
Speaker 1: didn't kill it. It just hit it in the shoulder.
Speaker 1: And later on the arrow fell out, and I saw
Speaker 1: that animal walking around the next day or two days later,
Speaker 1: just going back to his daily routine. But I knew
Speaker 1: that years prior, if I had hit an animal in
Speaker 1: that same exact place with that same bow, with that
Speaker 1: heavy arrow, it was all over. I would have been
Speaker 1: punching a tag and packing out backstraps as opposed to
Speaker 1: having to re stock that dear a few more times.
Speaker 1: So understanding that I prefer a little bit heavier arrow
Speaker 1: than a light faster because my intentions are all hunting based.
Speaker 1: Later on, when it comes to broadheads, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: hunting with. So you're gonna start out when you're just
Speaker 1: getting started, you're gonna want field tips. These are just
Speaker 1: tips that go into a target. Now, obviously you're gonna
Speaker 1: need a target or somewhere to shoot, and then as
Speaker 1: you progress and get into hunting, then we're gonna kind
Speaker 1: of switch that tip into a broadhead, which will be
Speaker 1: your hunting type. Tip. One of the questions that I
Speaker 1: get asked a lot is what's a good bow for
Speaker 1: a beginner? And in some ways I have a good answer.
Speaker 1: In some ways I don't really know, because the bows
Speaker 1: that I use are always based on really high performance.
Speaker 1: I haven't shot a lot of what I would consider
Speaker 1: beginner bows because I haven't needed to. Um. I moved
Speaker 1: through that stage pretty young in life, and so I
Speaker 1: kind of moved with through beginner bows as a teenager,
Speaker 1: as a kid. Um. But I will say that, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, here's some really good things to look for.
Speaker 1: Many of the major bow manufacturers have what would be
Speaker 1: like a an underlying brand, so they've got their their
Speaker 1: main brand, Like Prime bow that I shoot has an
Speaker 1: underlying brand called Quests, so it's more of just an
Speaker 1: entry level bow, and they're they're still high quality. Matthews
Speaker 1: has I think their line is called Mission bow Tech
Speaker 1: has a Diamond. So a lot of these major bow
Speaker 1: companies have these lines that are a little bit better
Speaker 1: price point. Um, there's still really good bows, but they
Speaker 1: just maybe don't have all the bells and whistles, maybe
Speaker 1: not as you know, demanding on skill or you know,
Speaker 1: a lot cheaper price point than some of their higher
Speaker 1: end like mainline bows. Also a really good thing to
Speaker 1: look into is, you know, you go to some of
Speaker 1: these stores and you see what I would consider a
Speaker 1: kit bow. It's got a bow that has completely set
Speaker 1: up with a site arrest and you know everything you
Speaker 1: need a quiver. I forgot to add quiver to um
Speaker 1: the other stuff. You need something to hold your arrows in.
Speaker 1: UM a quiver and they're kind of set up. They've
Speaker 1: got all the bells and whistles, they got everything you
Speaker 1: that's a great way to get into it. Another great
Speaker 1: way is there's a lot of people that just love
Speaker 1: to have guys that are really into bow hunting that
Speaker 1: want a new bow every year, and so you can
Speaker 1: once you understand your draw length and in a good
Speaker 1: draw weight, you can start looking for those used bows.
Speaker 1: That's another great way to get into a really good
Speaker 1: bow or a more advanced bow, a faster bow, maybe
Speaker 1: a bow that you can progress with better at a
Speaker 1: better price. And then there's the other school of thought
Speaker 1: where it's like, hey, I'm the type of person generally
Speaker 1: when I get into something, I just go all out.
Speaker 1: So it might not be a bad idea to just
Speaker 1: get the bow that you want two years down the
Speaker 1: line now, something that you're going to progress into, um
Speaker 1: and really dedicate to you and maybe just get you know,
Speaker 1: higher end bow. It's just like anything, you kind of
Speaker 1: get what you pay for. In some aspects um the
Speaker 1: main bow companies, I think a new bow set up,
Speaker 1: it can be very expensive. In thousands of thousand dollars
Speaker 1: plus with the whole everything is not uncommon, So I understand,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're trying it out, just getting into it,
Speaker 1: maybe look for a better price bow, maybe a kit bow,
Speaker 1: maybe a used bow. That's a great way to kind
Speaker 1: of get started. Now. One thing that I will say
Speaker 1: is that as bow hunters, bow shops are needed in
Speaker 1: a very integral part of the archery experience. So just
Speaker 1: kind of like anything that's very custom, having a bow
Speaker 1: shop or somebody that's an expert in setting it up
Speaker 1: and getting you started is just a part of the experience.
Speaker 1: I remember the first really good bow that I got, UM,
Speaker 1: I got from a local bow shop. He set it up,
Speaker 1: we ordered it, you know, we measured my draw length.
Speaker 1: He put in the peep site. Because to work on
Speaker 1: a bow, you need a bow price. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of things that you're gonna need to know that starting out. One,
Speaker 1: most people don't have the equipment and to most people
Speaker 1: don't have the knowledge. That's a very common thing. So
Speaker 1: I suggest you know, when you're thinking about purchasing something,
Speaker 1: it's always better to spend a little bit more, but
Speaker 1: go to a bow shop where you're going to have
Speaker 1: the help getting it set up. If you just buy
Speaker 1: a bow off of a guy on e Bay, you're
Speaker 1: gonna need someone to set it up for you. And uh,
Speaker 1: I think that it often gets overlooked how integral bowshops
Speaker 1: are to the sport of archery and to getting people
Speaker 1: into archery as well as people that are very experienced.
Speaker 1: I don't have a lot of the equipment to even
Speaker 1: work on my own bows. I've got friends that have
Speaker 1: the stuff, so I can go over and use it
Speaker 1: or whatever. But you know, having a bowshop that knows
Speaker 1: what they're doing and can set things up for you
Speaker 1: is really part of the archery experience as well. And
Speaker 1: I know kind of COVID slowed some of that stuff down,
Speaker 1: but it's a great way to find a bowshop near you,
Speaker 1: maybe one that has a range a league other things,
Speaker 1: because that's a really good way to get in and
Speaker 1: make sure you're getting the right stuff, getting the right knowledge.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of those people are very apt
Speaker 1: to seeing a lot of people that maybe just getting
Speaker 1: into archery and know nothing about it. So I think
Speaker 1: that that's a really good place to start. Just understanding
Speaker 1: the basics of archery and what you're gonna need to
Speaker 1: get into it. I think puts you leaps and bounds ahead,
Speaker 1: or at least gets you pointed in the right direction.
Speaker 1: I know for a lot of people that reach out,
Speaker 1: sometimes all you need is a nudge in the right direction.
Speaker 1: And so I hope that this kind of breakdown. This
Speaker 1: is just the simplest, most basic, but it gets your
Speaker 1: mind thinking, and it's really something anybody can do. Getting
Speaker 1: into archery is not hard. It's just there's kind of
Speaker 1: this barrier of understanding all the nuances, understanding what you
Speaker 1: might need, an understanding where you might go to get
Speaker 1: into it. But I think that the first step is
Speaker 1: just understanding this is something that I want to do.
Speaker 1: It's not hard to get into. I mean I got
Speaker 1: into it as a child by myself, with no one
Speaker 1: to show me anything, and look at me now, Mom,
Speaker 1: the top of the world. No. Um, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: hunting and and doing it and I figured it out.
Speaker 1: But I think that if you do it the right
Speaker 1: way and take some of this advice and just kind
Speaker 1: of really put your mind and your focus on this
Speaker 1: is something I want to get into. I think that's
Speaker 1: the first step, and then going out and acquiring what
Speaker 1: you need, and then we're gonna go over over the
Speaker 1: course of the next few weeks how to kind of
Speaker 1: build that skill and go from this stage of wanting
Speaker 1: to get into it to being consistently successful. Next week
Speaker 1: is going to be archery one oh two. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be covering everything for shooting. This is great advice for
Speaker 1: anyone starting out in archery, or really just any archer
Speaker 1: in general. We're gonna be covering things like repeatable consistency,
Speaker 1: the difference between accuracy and precision, and then some of
Speaker 1: the nuances when it comes to maintaining a bow, like
Speaker 1: tuning your bow. That's all gonna be next week. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be getting into the nitty gritty and really the
Speaker 1: fun stuff of taking that bow out shooting being better
Speaker 1: so when you go out into the field, you have
Speaker 1: the right kind of practice and the knowledge to make
Speaker 1: a perfect shot. I also really wanted to just congratulate
Speaker 1: all the winners for my Christmas giveaway. I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that I could contact everyone and everybody's replied.
Speaker 1: I got things sent out, but before I announced them,
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure everyone was contacted, because
Speaker 1: otherwise I was gonna pick alternate winners. So congratulations on
Speaker 1: our mug winners, Justin, Andrew, Mike, Ernest, Dakota, Seawan, just
Speaker 1: to name a few. And then we've got our our
Speaker 1: bino winner for that Looking Forward photo contest was p
Speaker 1: J Great Photo, and I did I picked quite I
Speaker 1: picked about fifteen and my favorites and then did a
Speaker 1: random draw on that. So he's getting sent a new
Speaker 1: pair of Vortex binos. And their knife winner was Andrew.
Speaker 1: I went back found a good knife post Um pick.
Speaker 1: He actually got to design a custom Grauber knife. Turned
Speaker 1: out awesome. I'm stoked on that, so that'll be he'll
Speaker 1: have that shortly. Thank you all of you guys for listening,
Speaker 1: for playing the game. I appreciate it. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. Um So until next week, get that
Speaker 1: bow and get ready to live life. At full draw,
Speaker 1: Catch you guys later.