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am i ready?

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jayman448:
I want to hunt with a bow this year. I shoot rather well most of the time but i still have strays sometimes. Whats a good rule of thumb/test to decide weather my shooting is hunt ready?

H Rhodes:
  Draw a 6 inch circle on your target.  Take a cold shot at it - no warm up or practice shots.  When you can hit that 6 inch circle every time at ten or twelve yards, I would say you are ready to try a hunt.  I don't know what your quarry is going to be.  I am a deer hunter and I keep my stands set up for a close range shot - most of the deer I have killed have been close like between 4 and 10 yards.  I don't know about your background with hunting - but hunting with a selfbow or a traditional bow is a close range thing.   Be completely honest with yourself about your true effective range.  Be absolutely rigid in enforcing that distance upon yourself when you are hunting and you can be successful.  Most traditional and primitive archery hunters that I know keep there shots at twenty yards or closer.  Shot placement puts meat in the freezer.  Poor shot placement ends up with no meat, or worse - an unethical shot that leaves an animal wounded or crippled.  I am no tree hugger, but that is how I see it.  Keep the wind in your face and set up close and make sure your points will shave like a razor and go get 'em!       

jayman448:
Ok. Well i will try that. I am going after mule deer on foot. My biggest mental issue is that im afraid of those wild shots that sneek in here and there a lot of the time i can hit a dime now. But then after a few shots i inevidably will miss my mark. I also am totally insistant on good ethical kills so those off shots.really make me leery. I dont intend on shooting beyond 20 yards at all.

H Rhodes:
You will do fine if you can pick a spot on the deer and shoot that spot.  A good friend of mine who just started hunting with a bow last season shot over a deer at a range of about seven yards on his first time out with me.  He was baffled that he had missed.  He shoots better than me on targets.   My advice to him was to quit thinking of it as a deer - pick that little spot that you want to hit and focus on that spot.  I try to let everything in the universe cease to exist except for that little tiny spot that I want to hit with my arrow.   If you shoot at the whole animal - you will almost certainly miss the whole animal.  Once you make your mind up to shoot an animal, then it is just a simple matter of picking a spot and putting an arrow through it.  Concentration and focus must be 100 percent.  On those wild shots that happen when you are practicing - I bet if you think back on them, most of the time it is caused by a nanosecond of lost concentration.  Something else entered your mind and messed with your shot sequence.   I try not to overthink it - just pick a spot and hit it.    Aim small, miss small.  Good luck this year.     

Little John:
Yep you are ready, just know your limitations and have a great season, good luck.      Kenneth

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