If you want to increase your bowhunting proficiency, then you have to practice like you mean it.
By FeraDyne Staff
It’s the September morning every elk hunter dreams about. The vapors of your breath fill the cool morning air illuminated under your headlamp’s beam as you tip-toe through the aspens, their leaves gently quaking in the slight breeze. You kill your headlamp the moment a bull bugles several hundred yards up the mountain. Daybreak arrives, and you cut the distance to 250 yards.
Reaching a suitable calling location, you offer a cow call, then another. The bull responds. The back-and-forth exchange between man and beast continues for several minutes when, suddenly, a stick breaks to your left. You scan to identify the subject and realize that a dandy satellite bull has silently slipped in from an unexpected direction. You raise your bow and hit full draw, but the bull catches your movement and bolts. You’re quick on the mouth call, and he pauses for a second look. It’s now or never.
Thwack! You shoot over the bull and connect with an aspen. “I should have done this,” or “I should have done that,” you mumble to verbally salt the wounds of the heartbreaking outcome.
Bowhunting is difficult enough for those who prepare tirelessly all year round for that one fleeting shot opportunity that they didn’t see coming, and the difficulty compounds for those who’re unprepared. Don’t let that be you. Challenge yourself by making your backyard practice better with the following five tips.
1. Wear Your Camo
Quarterbacks don’t practice throwing footballs solely in shorts and a T-shirt because that isn’t what they’ll be wearing on game day. Leaving out impediments like pads and a helmet during practice isn’t sufficient game preparation. Likewise, practicing with your bow while wearing non-hunting clothing makes your practice inadequate. You don’t have to wear the camo apparel that you’ll be hunting in every single time you practice, but failure to do it at all could lead to problems when you get a hard-earned shot at a buck or bull.
How? Well, in many instances, camo is bulkier than everyday clothing, and that could mean that your bowstring slaps your coat sleeve upon release. Or, the coat collar could impede your ability to reach your established anchor point. Perhaps the camo bunches up at the elbows and restricts your motion, making it difficult or impossible to reach full draw. There are tons of different variables with camo apparel, so practice with your bow while wearing it to identify any problems or potential problems before they rob your success.
2. Create Realistic Shot Challenges
Realistic bowhunting practice begins with a lifelike 3D target. You won’t be shooting at a bag target while hunting, so don’t solely practice shooting at one. Consider Shooter 3D Archery Targets’ affordable target line. Next, create shot scenarios that truly challenge your proficiency. Yes, it’s awesome to see tight groups in the target after you shoot from 20-40 yards on flat ground, but that doesn’t mirror actual bowhunting.
If you have trees in your yard and you’re a treestand hunter, then you need to set up a treestand (wear your safety harness) and shoot from it. Set your 3D target at various distances and position it at different angles. You have to become accustomed to keeping your shooting form consistent and bending at the waist to acquire the target, and you have to become comfortable with drawing your bow and shooting while elevated. Failure to do this before you hunt is like asking to miss or hit an animal marginally.
If you spot and stalk critters out west, create a mock stalk. Set your target somewhere, then crawl on your hands and knees or your belly. Then, when you’re a suitable distance from the target, practice raising up and drawing your bow in one fluid motion and placing your shot. Shoot both while kneeling and standing.
If you hunt from a ground blind, practice shooting from your ground blind. If you hunt in varied terrain, set up incline and decline shots if it’s possible where you practice. Create shot challenges along the lines of what you might encounter based on how and where you hunt. You never know what type of opportunity you’ll get when you hunt, so practice every imaginable scenario.
3. Shoot From Unknown and Odd Yardages
Many shot opportunities in the fields and timber are now or never, which makes ranging the animal very risky. Either the animal will pass through your shooting lane, or it will catch your movement and bolt. This means that your only fighting chance at putting an arrow behind the shoulder is to estimate the yardage and take your shot immediately. Estimating yardage on the fly during an intense moment is often quite difficult, especially if you have not practiced yardage estimation.
Walk to random distances from your 3D target, guess the yardage and then check your accuracy with a rangefinder. Or, guess the yardage and take your shot, which comes with the consequence of a possible miss and a broken or lost arrow. This will cause you to really focus and be as precise as humanly possible.
When practicing from rangefinder-confirmed distances, one of the best things you can do is shoot from random yardages. When your bow is all sighted in, don’t continue shooting from 20, 30 and 40 yards. Purposely shoot from 23, 27, 32, 35, 39 and 44 yards. Deer, elk and antelope rarely offer a rounded-distance shot opportunity. Most often it will be a random yardage, and it will be easier to make that shot when you’ve practiced for it.
4. Shoot Your Broadheads
Broadhead practice is among the most critical of steps for a bowhunter to practice, especially if you plan to shoot out to longer distances. There can be subtle discrepancies between one arrow/broadhead and the next one in your quiver. The longer the shot, the more the flight difference will be magnified. Practice with every arrow-and-broadhead combination in your quiver. If one flies differently to the point that it’s outside of or even nearly outside of the kill zone, and most likely one or two will, replace it with an arrow and broadhead combo that flies true.
Broadhead practice is most critical for those who shoot fixed-blade broadheads, and the reason for that is that the exposed blade surfaces make the broadhead less aerodynamic than a field point. Most mechanical broadheads, such as Rage’s Hypodermic NC, feature a low in-flight profile similar to a field point, which is a more aerodynamic design that flies truer. Still, it’s wise to shoot your mechanical broadheads for, if nothing else, peace of mind and confidence.
5. Add Some Adrenaline
Finally, bowhunting practice isn’t bowhunting practice at all if you shoot without elevating your heart rate and getting an adrenaline rush. You can increase your heart rate through aerobic exercises before picking up your bow and shooting it. Getting your blood pumping and breathing heavily will make it more challenging to steady your sight pin and make a great shot.
A way to add adrenaline to the mix without aerobic activities is to shoot in front of someone else. If someone watching over your shoulder or standing next to you doesn’t give you a dose of fight or flight, then consider entering into archery tournaments that cause you to shoot in front of multiple people for cash prizes. That gives most folks an adrenaline rush.
Better Practice = Better Bowhunting
Even though missing is a reality that almost every bowhunter faces at one time or another, you can make it the exception, not the norm, by becoming deadly. And the only way to do that is to practice like you hunt. Employ these five tips, and you’ll be on the road to better backyard bowhunting practice.