Thumbing through back issues of Deer & Deer Hunting, I find myself stumbling over terminology related to archery, bowhunting, and rifle hunting – all words I need to start familiarizing myself with for my future goal (and also so I sound like I know what I’m talking about). Considering that I didn’t grow up within a hunting family, it’s all new to me. Luckily, my husband has been hunting since childhood and is one of the most valuable resources I have.
My Complete Compound Bow Package
Not knowing what I wanted to use or what I actually needed with regard to bow accessories made the 2014 Hoyt Ignite Compound Bow a great choice because it already comes with a few attached: the FUSE ProFire 3 Pin Sight, FUSE Vector 4 Arrow Quiver, and Whisker Biscuit Arrow Rest. I know that there will be other bow accessories I’ll eventually want to add, but aside from some carbon arrows, a quiver and a T.R.U. Ball Stinger release, I’ve been able to practice daily and seem to be improve daily, too!
The Archer’s Dictionary: Learning New Archery Terms
The Whisker Biscuit I mentioned above and the term “dry fire” were two terms in particular that we discussed during my first archery lesson. While the archery (and hunting) vocabulary covers a lot of ground, here are a few terms that I’m familiarizing myself with:
Dry Fire: the release of a bow string at full draw without an arrow. Letting that bow string fly without an arrow could permanently damage my new bow.
Whisker Biscuit: the arrow rest incorporated into my 2014 Hoyt Ignite Compound Bow. This type of rest anchors the arrow while new archers like myself concentrate on hearing that audible CLICK as the arrow snaps onto the bow string, ensuring that it is ready and loaded.
Chasing the Arrow: following where the arrow is impacting the target and adjusting the sight in order to shoot straight and accurately. For me, this took several adjustments while at the archery dealership as well as a few fine tune adjustments made at home. After the final home adjustments, I was able to hit the bullseye instead of three inches to the left of it.
Bow stabilizers: can be screwed into a compound or recurve bow in the front in order to remove all vibrations from the bow. It comes in a variety of weights, sizes and materials and the one you pick may differ depending on whether you are using it for bowhunting or 3D archery tournaments. I do not have one attached to my bow yet.
Targets: come in a range of sizes and materials. For bowhunting purposes, a 3D buck target is the way to go, but a fresh target face stapled to a standard archery block is also good for shooting practice. I’m looking forward to setting up a simple outdoor range in my backyard in the next few weeks.
One thing I’ve noticed while beginning this journey is that fellow bowhunters and archers want to offer guidance and assistance. By asking questions and stepping into the role of student, I’m learning a lot that will hopefully stay with me during this adventure.
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im not crazy about names and brands myself what i go for is a full capture rest which should be a term more focused on great thing about the biscuit is its a garentee no fail rest. moving rest have a chance of fail however small still a chance. hopefully your biscuit has a square post to keep it from moving the cheaper biscuit with a round post over repeated shooting will start to move and make you loose your mind.
after your “20th shot” (or a little more depending on how much you shoot) if your moving your pins its pointless your muscles start to be come fatigued and you will be chasing the arrow all day just this mans opinion.
Okay article, the only problem is hunting and harvesting a animal has nothing to do with all the fancy equipment. The hunting industry has gotten caught up in the bottom dollar of greed that has taken over most companys!! New comers to the sport of hunting are caught up in how fast an arrow flies, how far their rifle shoots, the fancy colors of their bows, etc. Shed hunting this year I came across \that I found personally\ 21 deer, that I found to have been wounded and never found. Thus they were left to rot! I found another eleven that I could not identify how they died. Eight of the deer came from a new public walkin area near my home that was opened to public hunting two yrs ago, and I can almost bet they were shot with modern equipment which should increase the killing of the animal 100%! I grew up hunting this area with I’d say around twenty other hunters and shed hunted it all my life. I never found a carcass that was left to rot do to being wounded in all the years up to the opening to the public! I do remember one year when a group of us got togeather to help another hunter look for his buck that he had wounded. We looked for that deer for four days by means of tracking, blood trailing, following excape routes that animals use, checking water holes daily, sitings of grows circling, etc. We found his buck!! granted coyotes had also found it, but the knowledge we all gained and the feeling of accomplishment in finding the deer was what hunting is about!! \NOT\ how fancy are weapons are, and that you can walk out of a sport sop and shoot a bullseye in a half an hour!! Geeze!! I hope you would be able to with all the new technology! Problem is!! That’s not hunting!! Practice is hunting! Learning to shoot is part of hunting! Walk out of a bowshop after a half hour with a recurve an see how many bulsleye you hit!! A friend of mine has a 22 rifle with a stationary front site. The rifle shoots holding dead on at twentyfive yards, four and a half inches to five oclock as we say. He’s deadly out to 150 yds with this rifle!!! Myself and a few others are fairly accurate with it out to 100 yds! He owns it we don’t! Point is were no fancy marksman with fancy words and fancy rifles. We practice shooting!!! and figuring out how that rifle shot cost myself a lot of dimes and laughs but made me one heck of a marksmen, and more then once I have thought back to my youth 50 yrs ago when I,ve seen my bullet impact drift do to wind and said to myself,,,Okay this isn’t any different then that old 22 of Dicks!! When we shot our bows we practiced in the woods!! We’d hit our bullseye by arking are arrow over a limb or threw a bush. Always picking a spot!!! and if we ever wounded an animal that didn’t drop from our arrow in the first 400 yards we’d look until we found it!!!!! That’s Hunting!!!!!!! Don’t get me wrong!! I’ve lost 3 deer in my time. All with my recurve, and I think about those three deer every deer season. I feel I made good shots on them, cant say if they lived or not. I hope an feel they did, I’ll never know. I shoot a compound now,,kinda makes me feel like im instopable with it. Im deadly accurate with it. Have all the fancy stuff on it! Kinda miss shooting over a limb because it shoots so darn flat! But like I said! I still think about those three deer I lost, which makes me continually strive to improve my shooting and learning the sport of hunting.