Tactical archery training

Nugent: Tactical Archery Training

Tactical archery training

Ah yes! Let us celebrate that effervescent mystical flight of the arrow like we mean it, shall we!

Lucky me, born in the perfect year of 1948, I was beyond fortunate to thrive in the glow of the great Fred Bear’s brilliantly thought out aggressive and unprecedented promotion of bowhunting from birth, and nearly 70 years later I remained thrilled by my projectile management life.

I certainly wasn’t alone back then, for back in those post-WWII days of America’s over the top positive spirit and celebratory defeat of evil and the positive force of the industrial revolution where God, family and country guided our American Dream on course, every kid across the country, no matter where you lived, had a Whammo or Wrist-Rocket slingshot, a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun and a bow and arrow set of some sort or another.

Returning home from his heroic stint with the US Army, my dad was already a follower of Fred Bear and loved his soul cleansing bowhunting in Fred’s and our homestate of Michigan.

My earliest and fondest memories are alive with romping and stomping the wildlife rich wilds of my Detroit neighborhood Rouge River sanctuary, stalking the critters in the mythical Skunk Hollow wilderness with my little bow and arrow.

Wrapping up the most wonderful hunting season of my life in 2017 69 years later, I am incapable of adequately expressing how excited I am looking forward to my magical fall 2018 for my 70th Spirit of the Wild year.

No matter where my adventurous life may take me, not a day goes by that I would ever deny myself the joys of flinging a few arrows either at my Morell targets or some sort of legal critter.

I live for this stuff. I got it so good I got it so bad.

Now, I used the word fling to mistakenly describe my archery fun, but I must sound the alert that casually flinging arrows could end up really getting us into trouble.

Precise archery is such an exacting procedure, that in order to make clean, ethical kills on game and bullseyes on the range, a properly released arrow better darn well be executed with way more effort and discipline than any happenstance flinging!

Knowing and watching ace archers like Levi Morgan, Randy Ulmer, Jim Burnworth and so many other master arrow-snipers will drive home the critical importance of proper archery form and a demanding shot sequence for every arrow!

I missed two turkeys this past weekend in the target rich Texas Hill Country, and both were a direct result of archery form gone akimbo.

Hunting out of an elevated deerblind, I was forced to stretch and squat in order to avoid hitting the blind window sill, an oft repeated bowhunting malady that has resulted in most Texas blinds having an arrow wound on the bottom sill.

My distorted body language severely compromised my form and both arrows flew less than accurately.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!

But it is true.

Unless we dedicate ourselves to serious and precise archery for every arrow we shoot, inconsistent form will most always result in a less than accurate arrow, especially in real bowhunting world field conditions where leaning, stretching, squatting, contorting and twisting is more often than not the norm.

When son Rocco joined Shemane and I at the range yesterday, we were able to watch each other shoot and offer constructive critique on each others form and shot sequence. Even the slightest variation in form and release brought about an arrow impact correlation, and remember, this is under zero pressure at a totally controllable outdoor range setting.

The best advice I can offer is to control the upper body to the best of our ability when shooting from a treestand or blind, so that the bow is in a constant relationship with our anchor and grip. This is what I would call the archery form triad; right hand, left hand, head position.

When practicing throughout the year with an eye on the upcoming hunting season, that locked-in form must be a subconscious, out of body muscle-spirit memory so that no thought whatsoever needs to take place when the magical time arrives when we are drawing down on game.

Archery should always be fun and mostly care-free, but when the moment of truth comes and we are ready to release our pumpstation-seeking missile, too many minds is not our friend.

Have ultra-fun everytime at the range but do be careful not to fling that arrow! With maximum dedication to the purest archery we can muster, we can indeed become the very path of our mystical flight of the arrow.

Aim small miss small and be one with the arrow my Spirit of the Wild backstrap BloodBrothers! Now is the time of year for tactical archery training for the glorious fall 2018. It won’t be long!


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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