Archery - As a Hobby

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The_Black_Log Foler

Stock Pals Senior Vice President
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Make sure you have lots of ant poison. They'll build up in those bales in a hurry.
FUCK. Well nevermind then maybe. My 18 acres has quite the amount of fire ants... I've tried to treat the fuckers but it's impossible unless you literally do granular treatment on every square inch of property... 😑
 

Borzak

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The one time I used hay bales pretty sure the ant hills inside did more to stop arrows than the bales which get loose pretty quick.
 
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Fogel

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Amen to that, my only complaint so far coming to Florida is the fucking fire ants
 
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The_Black_Log Foler

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Just had my first lesson. Holy hell its fun. My bow is being build atm. It's a galaxy with 28 lbs pull weight.

Decided gonna keep the targets on the ground and skip the backstop for now. Too much work.
 

Fealorn

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Building the target stand wasn't too bad, if you stick with archery its a good investment.

I kept buying more and more types of targets as time went on so that I wasn't always shooting the same thing.
 
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Leadsalad

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And have multiple targets at the same range so you aren’t trying to stack arrows and destroying them that way as well.
 

Duskoy

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Ordered a Mathews VXR. Want to get inti hunting and liked the VXR when I shot it at the store. This will be my first bow, a lot of stuff to learn
 

Borzak

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Matthews makes good bows obviously I had two of them probably 15 years ago when parallell limb design came out. Don't do like a friend did, backed his limb bow out and the limb came off the riser. Lot of energy suddenly released. I wasn't there. I would have liked to hear it.

Bows themselvs are a relatively simple thing. It's all the extra stuff we bolt onto to them they can rapidly make them more complicated.
 

The_Black_Log Foler

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Good brand of fake animal targets? Most seem to have shit reviews.
 

Fealorn

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I have a 31.5 VXR in green, its a really good bow. Did you go with the 28 or 31.5? I leave the limb bolts maxed out, you can change the module out if you want to different draw weights.

For 3d targets the best on the market bar none are Rinehart, they are not cheap but you can leave them outside 24/7 and they last. Even in Canada with our winters the targets hold up great.

Here is my turkey target with a scorpion one in the background.

20200728_124316.jpg
 

Borzak

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That's why I got away from Matthews bows and others. I prefer a longer ATA bow. Reason longer ATA bows are used for target shooting. They're much more stable. I've always hunted on the ground so I really didn't need the ultra compact bow some people claim for shooting out of a tree. A lot of times I stood up bow hunting most of the day and would sit on a stool if I got tired. Of course out west and when I went to Canda hunting caribou it was all spot and stalk. Not that big of a weight difference in bows for the length, at least then.

I've only had a few 3d targets. Mostly shot a bag target. If I wanted to shoot a 3d target I went to the 3D range about 15 minutes away and spent the afternoon shooting their targets of all kinds and distances on a trail through the woods.
 

Fealorn

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Agreed, longer ATA is much better for target and some hunting applications. Where I live its mainly treestand and blind hunting so the 31.5 suits my needs well. I have no interest in target competitions.
 

Borzak

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Now that I mention it, best 3d target is probably someone elses 3d target :) They have ones with a removable core I guess if you shoot at it a lot or shoot broadheads a few times you can change it out. Once you get the hang of it start shooting a different dot on the target for each shot or you'll rapidly strip off vanes on the arrows or bust up the arrow themselves. Assuming you don't do a bunch of robinhoods:)
 

Borzak

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Agreed, longer ATA is much better for target and some hunting applications. Where I live its mainly treestand and blind hunting so the 31.5 suits my needs well. I have no interest in target competitions.

Several years ago saw a pic someone had made of two limbs attached to either and basically no riser lol. For a while things really got out of hand getting bows shorter and shorter. That kind of got to a point they stayed near the same. I think my Hoyt is 32" and my Martin shoot through is 38". I used to like going to some of the 3d shoots just to watch. Supposidly they were practicing for hunting shooting 3d targets and realistic situations. Some guys had 3 foot or longer stabilizers on their bow.

At least overdraws died off, or maybe all the guys that had an arrow through the arm died off lol.

I've done a number of dumb things. In college I had a second story deck and we would shoot off of it into the pasture. Someone would chunk a golf ball and we would shoot at it and see who could judge the distance. Being taller than the pasture most times they would stick in the dirt or skip off to be picked up. Damn if one time stuck the golf ball and ruined a brand new ACC.
 

Fealorn

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So this happened to me this afternoon. Broke nock and fletch....my bow shop fixes my arrows for free thankfully.
20201009_160347.jpg
 
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The_Black_Log Foler

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Should i get a soft or hard case for my recurve? I'm not really ever fully taking it down or traveling with it. Just need something to store it in when I'm not shooting. Any recommendations on something specific?
 

The_Black_Log Foler

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Should I learn to fletch my own arrows? Shop owner will teach me. To have them fletch custom arrows for me it's about $14 a pop. It didn't seem too difficult although it looks like they did cut these arrows down.
 

Borzak

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You can learn if you get a jig and whatnot. They make sleeves now you can heat shrink I think that are 3 vanes on one deal so you don't have to glue each vane. Never used them so don't know. Strip the arrow and apply the deal and done super quick. You'll rapidly learn to shoot at different points of impact or you will go through a ton of broken arrows, ripped fletching and all each time you hit another arrow.

$14 a pop is pretty high. I used to pay about $10 each fletched and cut to length with insert for ACE arrows which were pretty high dollar, arbon around a thin aluminum shaft. Super light.

Like everything else you can make it super simple or put a ton more work and money into it. I have an arrow cutoff and a fletching jig. It's a lot of work. It's not as simple as it looks to get it as quick and done as good as someone that has fletched thousands and thousands of arrows. Takes time to get it down.

In all honestly for hunting I've had as much luck with old xx75 aluminum arrows and then carbon and then ACE. I got more speed as I went but dead was dead.

Then after you get fletching down you can try all kinds of arrows quickly to compare them. Easton, then Carbon Express, then Beeman (if they still even make those) the list goes on and on and on and on.
 
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