Archery – The Ultimate Tension Reliever
Stress is something that hits all of us. While I haven’t been stressed or even felt remotely tense this last week, I did get sick with a cold for a few days and didn’t make it to the gym. I was bummed because I have stuck with my plan of keeping the weight off, but I hate feeling sick and drained and decided to take a few days to recuperate.
Once I felt better, I was back in the gym, but I knew the scale in my bathroom was going to be rough with me. What better way to relieve that tension than to fling some arrows!
My new string and cable from Eddy at Piranha Custom Bowstrings came in last week and I had Connor over at Archery Outpost install them. The string on my PSE Bow Madness was the original string and while it was shooting fine, I knew that it needed to be replaced. What I didn’t know was how much having that new string was going to improve my set up.
With my new strings and the peep adjusted, I was off to zing some arrows into the target. I cannot tell you how good it felt to start letting narrow pieces of carbon and aluminum fly. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Therapy at its best! It was awesome. The bow felt like it was brand new! After 30 shots, the peep stayed put and I was satisfied. We locked it down and I was done. Thank yous go out to Eddy and Connor for setting me up right!
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| Not too shabby for my first group at 20 yards. A bit left, but tight! |
Sunday came and my hunting partner and I decided to hit the outdoor range at El Dorado Park. It would be the last opportunity we’d have before the deer season, so we took full advantage of the afternoon.
Instead of starting in close to the target, we jumped right out to 50 yards. Thwack! Thwack! This was awesome! Thwack! Thwack!
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| First group at 50 yards. Shooting for the far right, second dot up. A bit low. |
Michael and I stayed at the range for two hours. We shot at the bag target, the 3D hog and I also attached a tennis ball to a string. The tennis ball was a major challenge from 50 yards! We both hit either side of the ball, but not once did we pin it to the bale. Not as good as we thought! Well, we both knew it’d be tough to hit at 50 yards, but we wanted to try anyway. I think we did pretty well. The 3D hog was so much fun. It’s the smallest of the hog targets on the market and we like it because your window is much smaller.
We moved out to 60 and then 70 yards and it was great until we felt fatigued. That’s when we took a much-needed break and then went back to shooting the hog at 40 yards.
As you can see from the photos, I shot the Easton Full-Metal Jackets. I sighted in my bow with them and I feel very comfortable shooting them. While I like the Carbon Express Aramid-KVs, I like the way the FMJs fly better. Plus, these have a narrower shaft, more solid build and stand a lesser chance of breaking. The other difference I feel I should note is that I fletched the FMJs with the AAE Max Hunter vanes and the Aramid-KVs come pre-fletched with Blazers. The Blazers are noisier in flight, so I’ll be sticking with the FMJs this season.
We had a great time just talking, busting chops, and talking about deer season coming up. This will be our first year hunting together and we are confident in our abilities. Now we just have to go find the deer!
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