The wind is out of the southeast and your stand placement is perfect. You did the proper pre-season scouting and found the hardwoods that were producing hard-masts early. A nice 8-pointer walks under your stand and you freeze.
“How far away is he?” you ask yourself. “Do I shoot my 20-yard pin or my 30?”
With less than a month to go before bow season begins, now is the time to get your equipment ready for opening day. Many of you may have already started setting your pins and fine-tuning your equipment, but for those who haven’t, here are a few tips to ensure that you will be ready for opening day:
* Be sure that your bow is properly tuned. If you haven’t had your bow tuned within the last year, then it is a good idea to take it to an archery shop to have it tuned up before you start shooting. Some places that tune bows in the area are Mossy Oak in West Point and the Bass Shop in Starkville.
* When you get ready to start shooting, you need to have an idea of what kind of hunting you will be doing.
Will you be hunting from a ground-blind or from a stand? Will you be shooting uphill or downhill? If you are going to be hunting from the ground, then you need to try to practice shooting on the same type of terrain that you will be hunting on.
If you prefer hunting from a stand, then you need to shoot from an elevated platform to sight in
your bow. If you don’t have a platform to shoot from and you will be hunting from an elevated area, sight your bow approximately three inches low. That will compensate for the elevated shot.
* If you have trouble deciding on which pin to shoot when a shot presents itself, then try shooting with only one pin on your sight. This is a good way to keep things simple and will increase the chances of you killing a deer by eliminating doubt in your mind. When doing this, make sure you shoot at different distances and become comfortable with your judgement of distances.
* Are spot-targets or 3-D targets better? The truth is that shooting at both types of targets will make you a better hunter. Spot targets are better for sighting your bow because you can see how far you need to move your pin. 3-D targets allow you to shoot at a life-like deer; this will allow you to practice shooting a deer in the kill zone. So the more you shoot at each type of target, the better off you will be. (Remember to “move it where you shoot it” when sighting in your pin or pins. If you are shooting your arrows high and to the right, then move your pin high and to the right.)
* The most important thing to remember when getting ready for bow season is to concentrate. Don’t waste your time practicing if you are not going to be serious about it. It is a good idea to shoot with a friend. Make a competition out of it, but pretend you are in a hunting situation. Put a little bet on the table, that will make your concentration level go up in a hurry.
Pretend that every shot will be that 8-pointer that walked under your stand, but make sure that you know the distance this time.