My bow buying experience.

[creepworm]

Let me start this by saying I am a complete newbie when it comes to archery, and by that I mean I have never even shot a bow before walking into the bow shop yesterday.

Anyway, I decided to go to an actual archery shop rather than a Scheels or Cabelas with the hope of getting great service seeing I had no clue what I was doing. Seeing I was back home visiting my parents I decided to check out Minnesota Archery in Litchfield. I have to say I was extremely impressed with the service there. They set up many bows for me to test shoot and once I made a choice as to which one I was going to buy they spent a lot of time making sure it was set up exactly right. Not only did they help with the bow set up and making sure that was right, but they spent a lot of time working with me on my form and giving me shooting pointers. I was hoping for great service and was still blown away by how I was treated while I was there.

I guess there are a few reasons I created this thread:

1. People always seem to mention bad service, and fail to mention the good. The service I received was extremely good. I basically took up an entire day of a sales persons time.

2. If any of you have any tips for a newbie I would love to hear them.

3. After shooting quite a few bows, I ended up buying a Diamond Carbon Cure. If anyone has a review for a Carbon Cure or Diamond bows in general, I would also love to hear them.

[eyeguy 54]

congrats on a fun new hobby! practice practice practice. then practice some more cuz even then things can go strange if you bowhunt. after bowhunting 45 years I am still addicted. many great memories and a few I want to redo. the guys in here will offer many tips. It's a great place.

[Scoot]

The best piece of advice I can offer is to join an archery league. This will get you around a bunch of guys who know a lot about archery, archery-related gear, and bowhunting. There are good guys at every archery club who will help you out when you need it or ask for it.

[eyehead]

I was in the same boat as you about a month ago Creep. Had never even shot one until I bought it. Sent an arrow into the basement wall the first night I had it home on my little 15 yd range, somehow managed to hit the release about half draw Wife was thrilled!!

Biggest things ive been working on are my form, breathing and just trying to repeat my shot everytime....and not sending any more arrows thru the wall Lots of fun to see the improvments a guy makes with some practice!

Thanks to all the bow guys on here too! Been reading alot of good info you guys have provided on the forums over the years...deer hunting during Slug and Muzzleloader season just isnt enough time. Cant wait for September to roll around!

[Meat-Run]

Thanks for sharing some positives!!! Archery is fun and if you want to speed up your learning curve leagues are good way to see what everyone else has and how they shoot etc. I'll second someone elses comment that this is a fun archery forum with experienced hunters/shooters that are NOT bias to one brand etc. So feel free to fire away any "stupid questions" because we'll never laugh at you, well not that you can see!!

Seriously welcome to the archery family!

MR

[DonBo]

Sent an arrow into the basement wall the first night...

Here's a tip we all learned the hard way: Keep your finger BEHIND the release trigger until you're ready to start the squeeze.

[Scoot]

Here's a tip we all learned the hard way...

Yep, we've all done that a time or two!

[leechlake]

tip-

practice shooting at targets from deer stand height. Depending on how you shoot you may shoot high due to the angle of your front arm which would be different than when you are shooting at a target on level ground. At least that's what happens to me. I was told once that if I bent at the waist to shoot from the stand that would solve it. I don't do that so I sight in my bow standing on a retaining wall in my backyard which is about 12 feet higher than the target.

You don't get a lot of shots at deer so may as well make them count. The greatest things about bowhunting to me is that it makes the season so much longer, privacy compared to gun season, all the little places you can discover to hunt. You've mad a great choice.

[sticknstring]

Matt's a good dude - glad to hear you had a positive experience. Keep shooting and keep asking questions. There's no turning back now!

[mnguy152]

Matts a great guy. Shoot often as you can and look into shooting 3d this summer breaks up to practice boredom with some life like hunting shots plus lot of fun and meet new people too.

[MUSKY18]

Welcome to the addiction!! All I can say is listen to what these fine gentlemen (I use that word loosely ) above me have posted. They are great, great sources of information and have helped me a ton. I like to shoot off the roof of my house when it gets closer to season to simulate tree stand, but whether you do that or not, just shoot. The more comfortable you are, the better muscle memory you have, the more accurate and second nature it will be to drop the hammer! GOOD LUCK!!!

[traveler]

I don't think I've ever posted to the archery forum before, but your post caught my eye.

I've been shooting since high school (I'm 55), and have some shoulder issue now so I haven't shot much the last year. But the best thing I ever did for my shooting was put in a couple years shooting league about a decade ago.

It wasn't always exciting, and shooting outside at the the

Mckenzie, shooting from the stand, etc...is certainly a great idea, but those couple years of literally thousands of shots in league(lots of sat. practices in there too....I'm kind of competitive:) made all the difference.

Muscle memory, breathing technique, shooting form...now it's like riding a bike.

And although I always liked to shoot, thru more than 2 decades I never really made the commitment to my bow that I did for those couple of years:)

[creepworm]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

The week after purchasing my bow an indoor range opened about a mile away from my house. I became a member and have been practicing quite a bit. I feel I am shooting at an adequate level for hunting out to 40 yards but every once in a while I will have a shot that leaves me scratching my head. Hopefully more practice solves that, but I think it may just be a lack of concentration.

I purchased a new sight for my bow after about a week and between that, dues for the archery range, and everything else this archery thing is getting expensive, but I am really enjoying it. I love shooting my bow, and with many states cutting the number of rifle tags available, I think I made the right choice to extend my deer hunting season.

[vister]

The best part of bow hunting, has hands down got to be early season deer. They are incredibly relaxed, until u spook them a time or two. I consider myself a pretty good shot. However, it seems like I get at least one arrow at each practice session where I'll scratch my head wondering what I did wrong.

I'll say this. Once you establish a repetitive routine in your bow shooting, you will get much better at tightening up your groups. If you have one of them days where your arrows just don't seem to hit their mark, just put the bow away!! Try again later