Gone Vertical

As Damin mentioned in a previous post, I have begun shooting a compound bow, upgrading, if you will, from the crossbow I have shot for four years. I must say, I was really quite nervous making the switch simply because I wasn’t even sure if I could be able to draw the bow back effectively. Baseball and weightlifting haven’t exactly been kind to my shoulder, so I wasn’t even sure I could draw back.

Fortunately, I surprised myself when I drew back my new BowTech Tomkat for the first time. Granted, it was only set at 50 lbs. it was a moral victory in its own right and I was ready to rock and roll in the vertical world of archery.
I’d like to take this post to just give a little information about my new rig, the transition from being a “wider rider” to a “vertical bird” and my goals regarding archery for the upcoming season.

First, as mentioned, I shoot a Bowtech Tomkat, which was originally Damin’s and I was fortunate enough to buy it from him for an envious price. My draw length is 29.5 inches and right now the poundage is set at 55 (tomorrow I will hopefully have it cranked up to 60, the max poundage for this bow). I, like Damin, shoot Gold Tip XT Shafts with 100 grain heads and 2” Rayzr feathers (pretty sweet looking arrow, I might add). Once hunting season rolls around I’ll switch to broadheads, of course, and continue to shoot 100 grain G5 Strikers. Tomorrow I will actually have my bow restrung, with Winner’s Choice String, and will have a new peep sight (G5 Meta Peep, ¼”) installed. So, while my bow is three years old, I’m essentially starting from scratch in terms of its equipment which is a great feeling.

Now I’d like to speak a little bit about the transition from shooting a crossbow to shooting a compound. When I first bought a crossbow back in 2005, I did so to buy myself more time in the woods and introduce myself to archery so down the road I could switch to a compound. While there are many crossbow skeptics out there, I must say that thus far shooting a crossbow has eased the learning curve in shooting a compound. Sure, drawing the bow back is completely new, but the elementary concepts I learned from crossbow shooting have proved beneficial. For example, I am already confident in my ability to range my target, know the importance of a consistent follow through and realize how important a smooth trigger pull is to tight groups. While I am certainly not an Olympic archer, I have surprised myself a bit this winter and early spring at my ability to tighten my groups out to 30 yards and am excited to experience some more improvement over the summer when warmer and longer days allow for more practice time.

My goals for this upcoming season with my new bow, simply harvest a whitetail. I am burning up with anticipation as to what it will feel like to draw back on my first deer; it is going to be a great feeling. We are going to up our doe harvest this year so the first whitetail to fall victim to this new archer may be an old matriarch, or I may be lucky enough to harvest on of the 130”+ Titans we’ll have running around this fall. Either way, I am ready “live life at full draw!”

I’d also like to send out thanks to Damin for all the help, advice and info. he has shared with me along the way. His knowledge and know how in the archery world is far superior to mine and I owe a big thanks to him for not only introducing me to compound bows, but for the practice session advice, tuning, fletching and cutting my arrows, basically teaching me how to shoot vertically, I know all his wisdom will pay off!