Thread: I shot a bow the other day......

Hi team,

I shot a bow the other day, first time ever. I had never thaught to put time into flinging pointy sticks at anything since being able to pull the trigger on pesky dastardly bits of paper with circles or squares on them.

It seems the skill level to get enjoyment out of archery is lower than I thaught, that statement is not ment to take anything away from any practiced archers. I have a mental barrier to doing anything that I'm not "good" at, which is something to work on, so when my pale/weakling/spindly nephew bought a compound bow along to our tabletop war gaming get-together i was definitely hesitant, even more so when he assured me that a 300mm dia target would be big enough for me to hit at 20 yards.....

My nephew showed me how the bow functioned, and all appropriate (I hope) safe practice tips. So straight in at 20 yards. All 5 missed. Shooting knowledge helped me here, my 5 arrows landed in a 400mm group to the left of target, shots dont group for no reason, so arrows shouldn't? Next 5, same (ish) place, this made me believe I was doing something wrong. After my somehow very knowledgeable nephew assessed my actions we discovered I wasn't looking through the little hole thing on the string.

Next 5.......... 4/5 hits!!!!

Next 5 had me suffering new shooter things like shot anticipation and hesitation, but 3/5 was not bad.

So then we did the only logical thing, stepped up to a 400mm target at 40 yards, 2 strings of 5, 3 hits each.

60 yards...... 3/5 and 2/5. Not bad, the bow had little pins for 20/40/60 yards which made it easier.

I have little want to do much more than shooting (how do you call this????) targets with my partner, but I see one big opportunity for a bow, gathering bait. For the fishos out there we know fresh is best. But the big schools on the surface often won't touch lures etc, we resort to throwing trebble hooks at them with a good success rate, but it is slow, a hook into fish skin has bugger all hold, slow retrieval is necessary. I decent string on an arrow could be a solution? It would definitely be more precise.

Big questions for you archers,

1, what do you call "shooting" a bow (im sure I know but im blank on this)

2, is shooting arrows at fish on the surface a thing?

3, what is a setup likely to set me back? Ideally I would like to trade a tikka 30-06 with bits or a ruger in .450 bushmaster with bits for a ready to go setup, us this realistic? I only have the yellow site to go off, and I have no idea what I'm looking at.

4, anyone up north have spare time for a newbie? I can supply a place and rifles/ammo and a 200m/130m/100/50 and less.

All and any advice and tips greatly appreciated.

Thanks Lars