Practice
So yesterday after I ate the leftovers from my Mellow Mushroom calzone for dinner, I started getting my bowhunting gear out to do a little backyard practice from the treestand. Well, no sooner had I started getting my gear together than it started to rain. I was mumbling something about not getting to practice since it was raining when Courtney said, “Wouldn’t you hunt in the rain?”
“Umm…yeah, if it’s not lightning.”
“Then don’t you need to practice in it? You’re not made out of sugar, so you won’t melt.”
By golly she was right. If we hunters are going to hunt in adverse conditions, we need to practice in those conditions. When it’s raining, you get wet…your clothes get wet…your bow gets wet…your stand gets wet…your peep sight gets water in it. All these things conspire together to make shooting arrows in the rain nothing at all like shooting arrows on a bright, sunny day. Not practicing in adverse conditions can lead to missed shots, or worse, wounded animals that aren’t recovered.
So I grabbed my rain jacket, put it on over my Muddy Outdoors safety harness, and went outside. As soon as I got to the tree and clipped my bow to the rope attached to my stand, it started raining a little harder. By the time I had climbed into the tree and clipped in, it was raining harder still, but I wasn’t going to let a little rain stop me from practicing. I managed to get two broadhead-tipped arrows into the 3-D target before I heard the first rumble of thunder. NOW it was time to stop practicing!
I snapped a few quick pics of the results of my abbreviated practice session. The first shot was right on the money (don’t pay attention to the markings on the target insert. It’s in backwards for the direction from which I’m shooting…besides, whoever put those markings on there needs a lesson in deer anatomy). The second was a little forward, but probably still would have missed the leg bone. Either one is a lethal shot.
As you can see, the broadheads penetrated all the way through the target. While we want that on our deer, we don’t want that on our targets. This is not optimal. These were the first broadheads I’ve shot into this target, so it’s not even worn out yet. It’s had maybe a dozen field points shot into it. Broadhead-tipped arrows will probably zip right through it in just a few weeks. This is the Field Logic GlenDel Buck target, in case you’re wondering.
I’ll be practicing (hopefully every day) almost exclusively from the treestand in my backyard from now until the week before the season starts. Then I’ll have to take my stand down to go hang it in my opening morning spot!
This morning I ran 2 miles at an 11:35 pace. I’m currently training for a half marathon in Atlanta on Thanksgiving Day. It sure will be nice to run in some cool weather then! This humidity is killing me. Even when it’s not incredibly hot outside (so basically any time between 2 AM and 8 AM), the humidity is still oppressive. Tomorrow morning will be a full-body gym workout, and then I’ll run 5 more miles on Thursday.
