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Time to admit what happened...

ztrumble

ztrumble

Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2018
Messages
87
Okay it's time to admit it. Been putting it off since the season ended back in December.

I missed six times this year and made two really bad hits. All with my bow.

I have a range set up in my basement and backyard. Most days rain or shine throughout the year I shoot. I love to shoot. I shoot short-range and long-range.

I have followed a lot of school of nock lessons and learned a lot from the ranch fairy this past year.

I love this hobby and I spend so much time tinkering with gear adjusting gear and just plain shooting.

I love the whole sport, not just the hunting.

And I have never had that many misses!

Some of these were absolute chip shots. Small doe coming in right at 15 yards under my ladder stand completely unaware. Total flinger over-the-shoulder. Reload, shoot again, complete miss again

I did connect with my largest bow buck to date, but it was a total gut shot and if I hadn't had a ranch fairy special loaded I'm not sure I would have recovered him. Had to give him 12 hrs + and the coyotes ate him before I got back to him.

This was my first year actually hunting with heavy ranch fairy arrows. Things were shooting good at targets. All of my tuning went well. I was very happy with arrow flight.

Previous years I tend to be pretty solid on the One-Shot kill. Last year I made a perfect heart shot on my largest buck up until that point.

I have never missed completely so many times.

Any thoughts as to where I should start? Something is amiss. Either I'm experiencing way more Buck Fever than I ever thought I had, or something is really off with my form/equipment.

I did accidentally dry fired bow last summer, and had to rebuild it. I do feel like it makes a little more noise than it used to. Seems like maybe the cam has a little rattle.

Could that much extra noise be causing all of these dear to jump me that bad? Maybe that in combination with a much heavier Arrow this year?

On nights when I missed I would come back to the range in my yard and fire a perfect shot at equal distance into a target. It was a frustrating season.
 
What were the misses? High/low/left/right?

If you think it’s punchy, jumpy buck fever I highly suggest to start practicing with a tension/resistance style release until you are comfortable again.
 
Yea if you are hitting high. You are probably not bending at the waist and your form is breaking down. Definitely need to practice at height and aim for where you want the arrow to exit not where you want the arrow to enter.
 
When you practiced, did you typically use field points or your new broadheads?
 
Misses were high. All of them.

No I did not do much practice at height.

It's got to be form on the down angle.

That seems obvious enough...

I did do some practicing at height with targets out around 30 yards. However most of my misses were within the 15-yard range so it's probably those steep angles.
 
Plebe said:
When you practiced, did you typically use field points or your new broadheads?
Click to expand...
I did shoot with the broadheads. I switched over to using Magnus heads this year which seemed to shoot spot on with field points.
 
ztrumble said:
I did shoot with the broadheads. I switched over to using Magnus heads this year which seemed to shoot spot on with field points.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Thought maybe you could have a broadhead tune issue. Seems you didn't have issues with elevated shooting prior to this year and the one thing you've changed (other than the dry fire...but issues there should have showed up during your range time) that can result in different field and range results.

On a positive note, if you are getting closer shots than in the past and thats been the issue with your shooting, you're hunting better and as you make the adjustments you should enjoy a ton of success.
 
fbwguy said:
Do you practice at elevation? Have you shot the bow/ arrow combination with a steep angle approach other than the hunting shots?
Click to expand...
This is a good question..I started using a bow case last year and I tweaked my sight in the 3rd axis. I didn't know until i came to some steep uphill shots at the 3d shoot and i zinged one arrow right over a target at 20 yds. The next steep uphill shot i held low and still hit high. I do bend at the waist,so it wasn't that. And on level shots everything was fine.
 
I’ve suffered what sounds like the same thing. Miss and come home and recreate the shot and dead on. I had developed target panic on deer. Target, no problem. If it was alive, torque on the shot. It was so frustrating.
 
ztrumble said:
Okay it's time to admit it. Been putting it off since the season ended back in December.

I missed six times this year and made two really bad hits. All with my bow.

I have a range set up in my basement and backyard. Most days rain or shine throughout the year I shoot. I love to shoot. I shoot short-range and long-range.

I have followed a lot of school of nock lessons and learned a lot from the ranch fairy this past year.

I love this hobby and I spend so much time tinkering with gear adjusting gear and just plain shooting.

I love the whole sport, not just the hunting.

And I have never had that many misses!

Some of these were absolute chip shots. Small doe coming in right at 15 yards under my ladder stand completely unaware. Total flinger over-the-shoulder. Reload, shoot again, complete miss again

I did connect with my largest bow buck to date, but it was a total gut shot and if I hadn't had a ranch fairy special loaded I'm not sure I would have recovered him. Had to give him 12 hrs + and the coyotes ate him before I got back to him.

This was my first year actually hunting with heavy ranch fairy arrows. Things were shooting good at targets. All of my tuning went well. I was very happy with arrow flight.

Previous years I tend to be pretty solid on the One-Shot kill. Last year I made a perfect heart shot on my largest buck up until that point.

I have never missed completely so many times.

Any thoughts as to where I should start? Something is amiss. Either I'm experiencing way more Buck Fever than I ever thought I had, or something is really off with my form/equipment.

I did accidentally dry fired bow last summer, and had to rebuild it. I do feel like it makes a little more noise than it used to. Seems like maybe the cam has a little rattle.

Could that much extra noise be causing all of these dear to jump me that bad? Maybe that in combination with a much heavier Arrow this year?

On nights when I missed I would come back to the range in my yard and fire a perfect shot at equal distance into a target. It was a frustrating season.
Click to expand...
Not sure I have any constructive advice to add, but I have three targets that I set out at different ranges and shot positions from a tree, climb it, and get some practice shots from the saddle. It helps to have a friend with you to retrieve arrows to save you going up and down the tree so often.

Kudos for asking for advice, that's a tough one!
 
That's a tough situation.

My bow hunting partner has had a similar thing going on. Just don't give up.
 
This spring I would just take a 3D target to your actual hunting spot and start flinging arrows at it. Recreate your shot and see if it happens again at height. Maybe check the FPS on your bow at the bow shop with those same arrows and see if there might be a speed issue too. That dry firing raises some questions too as you mentioned.
 
MattMan81 said:
Are you bumping something with your saddle set up? A rope? Loop? Something interfering with the shot? Can you take some of those shots at home with your set up? See if you can re-create what happened?
Click to expand...
Thats what I was thinking, a rope bump can throw a shot wayyy off.
 
Sorry if I missed reading it, but I would consider a 1 pin sight (HHA slider, etc) or at most 2 pins.

With a slower arrow, it is more important to shoot the horizontal distance to the animal rather than straight line. Not doing that makes you hit high.

When I am experiencing buck fever, I keep my finger behind the trigger and actually push against the back of the trigger with my fingers. My main rule before anything else is that I do not move my finger from behind the trigger until the pin is on the animal where I wanted to aim and I am ready to begin executing the shot. This gives you some time to settle down.
 
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