Okay already, first order of business in this here 253rd Uncle Ted summertime 2018 NugeBlog is to admit I am utilizing and repeating my dear old dad’s old-fashioned and undeniably true saying, God rest his all-American soul, that indeed, practice does make perfect!
You know it, I know it, everybody who puts their heart and soul into being the best that we can be knows it, that dedication and indefatigable hard work is the only path to genuine gratification in any endeavor worth pursuing.
And take from a guy who has struggled my entire near 70-year American Dream life to celebrate my two favorite extremely difficult tasks of guitar playing and archery, that dad was right as usual.
Though I am the first to admit that true perfection is never achievable by us mere mortals, surely the properly focused and gungho pursuit thereof will get us close enough to feel pretty damn good about our accomplishments.
Based on the killer music created by my bandmates and me, the lifetime sweat equity I’ve put into my beloved guitar dreams has payed off in immeasurable and measurable dividends for an over-joyous 60-year run.
And like the inspiring noise I milk daily out of my Gibsons, so too are the miles of smiles brought straight into my heart from my ever-increasing mystical flight of the arrow accuracy over all these exciting bowhunting years through constant practice.
And since I never accept any degree of accomplishment as good enough, my daily practice routines with guitars and bows continues to produce tangible and gratifying results, sometimes slow and minimal, but always beneficial.
Just this week I discovered yet two new small, heretofore unknown systems that produced immediate upgrades in my arrow groups, and at longer and longer ranges by the day.
Last season I felt like the pumpstation sniper with beautiful arrow after beautiful arrow on consistent kill after kill.
The giddy happiness derived from such field condition accuracy and the backstrap rewards produced a dreamy euphoria that to my way of thinking is the essence of happiness itself.
At first I attributed it to a lifetime of lessons learned, the constant experimenting and tweaking of equipment and hardcore shot sequence discipline, and there is no doubt that all of that was at play.
But when I got home to Texas and sighted in my brand-new Mathews Triax bow and reveled in the unprecedented shootability of Matt McPhearson’s latest amazing archery creation, something strange happened.
In good daylight shooting conditions I continued and actually improved upon the accuracy upgrades I had been celebrating all season in Michigan, but when on stand under less than ideal field conditions, my accuracy consistency took a plunge, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out.
To say it was frustrating is a drastic understatement.
I struggled for a while, but long story short, it all came down to the new sights I had put on my Triax that had ever so slightly smaller pins.
Joy of joys when I put back on my larger sight pins and VIOLA’! Deadnuts Nuge was back in backstrap business!
It had all boiled down to aging eyeballs working harder and with more difficulty in readily seeing those pins in typical hunting light conditions.
System upgrade number two is another never thought of maneuver that also brought dramatic accuracy upgrade for this old backstrapper.
Raised on aim small miss small rifle marksmanship by dad with an old Remington TargetMaster single-shot bolt-action .22, we were taught to get that tiny little front bead as tight as we could into the V of the rear buckhorn sight.
With serious breathing control and steady aim, we learned exactly when that glass-smooth target trigger broke in order to put a .22 short into the eyeball of the squirrel or groundhog for the pot.
Even in my old age, I still shoot and hunt with that old Remington, and am constantly reminded how critical that sight picture must be when the gun goes off if I expect to hit an eyeball out there at varying ranges.
Shooting that old rifle a lot lately gave me a serious wakeup call when I went directly from rifle to my bow.
I found myself being much more precise in my archery sight picture control just like I had minutes before with that old gun.
Touching off that arrow is exactly like touching off a round from my target rifle, and when I executed my arrow shot with the same demanding discipline of my aim small miss small eyeball .22 round, I am here to tell you that my arrows were the best arrows of my life!
And that’s really saying something!
So as summer throttles on and I celebrate my musical dreams across America yet again, take the time to be sure the sights on your bow are large and visible enough for instant acquisition, and whip out that old iron sight squirrel gun and refine the sight picture control of both projectile management disciplines.
There is a real-world pragmatic parallel twixt both firearm and archery that will enhance both.
Practice does make perfect and in preparation for a perfect hunting season, now is the time to practice like you mean it.
With more than 40 million albums sold, rock legend Ted Nugent is equally well known as the nation’s most outspoken proponent of our 1st and 2nd Amendment rights, conducting thousands of pro-gun, pro-freedom, pro-American interviews in major media worldwide. Nugent is a New York Times best-selling author whose works include Ted, White & Blue —The Nugent Manifesto; God, Guns & Rock ‘n’ Roll and Kill It & Grill It.This year, his award-winning Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild TV show celebrates its 500th episode! For all things Nuge, visit www.tednugent.com
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