The long wait is finally over and early archery deer season is only weeks away here in AZ. Many of you have been prepping for months: fine tuning your archery equipment, shooting your bow on a regular basis, and maybe even getting in some weekend scouting trips. Some of you are just now breaking the bows out of the back of the closet in preparation for season and that’s ok too. We are here to help with some last minute tips before we start chasing Velvet Bucks in the warm weather.
Check Your Equipment
While it is tempting to just pull your bow out and start flinging arrows, we recommend giving your equipment a thorough visual inspection if you haven’t shot it for a while. Your strings and cables are under constant tension even when your bow is in storage and not being shot. Strings stretch over time and can cause your bow to come out of tune and serving separation can occur (especially where the string rolls over the cams). A tell tale sign of this is if your peep was straight before you put it away and now it is twisted at rest. If you are not comfortable doing this or don’t know what your looking for, we offer a free bow inspection at both of our valley locations. If you end up needing or wanting new strings on your bow, keep in mind it can take up to three weeks to get them built shipped and installed if we don’t have them in stock so bring your bows in ASAP.
Shoot Random Yardages
We often make the mistake of only shooting the “perfect yardages” when practicing, for example, starting at 30 yards and then shooting 40, 50, 60 etc. This is extremely valuable for sighting in your pins, however, in my experience it is rare that you get a perfect even distance yardage when shooting at an animal. It is important to practice some random yardages like 37, 45, 58, 65 etc. so that when the moment of truth comes and you range the buck of a lifetime at 54 yards you aren’t rattled because he isn’t standing at 50 or 60 yards. It is important to know how to aim with your pins at these random yardages, some people like myself aim a little high or low with the closest pin to the distance while others are able to gap shoot where you look between the pins and pick your target. It is important to know what’s works best for you before you get your hard earned opportunity.
Test Your Broadheads
It is extremely important that you test your broadheads before you go out hunting, when you screw on a broadhead the physics of that arrow are changed in some way. There is no way around this despite almost every broadhead on the market claiming field point accuracy. Yes, many of them are tested for their aerodynamics and fly extremely well. However, having your bow tuned is critical at this stage and screwing on a broadhead will expose an untuned bow very quickly.
An untuned bow will still group field points at closer yardages so many hunters assume they are good to go, they screw on their untested broadheads and hit the field. We have heard many horror stories over the years of people making this mistake and then missing or making a bad shot when their time came. You will step into the field with extreme confidence when you know your broadheads are flying like darts. If you are struggling with this, please call us or stop in the shop as we are more than happy to help. Here are the broadheads we have had good luck with in the field and sell in our stores.
Best of Luck
We truly enjoy this time of year when we get to help everyone make their final preparations for early archery season, the shops are buzzing with excitement and we look forward to hitting the field with our family and friends. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us and if you have success, please send a picture to service@rossoutdoors.com so we can share to our social media pages. Seeing your success makes what we do worth it. Best of luck and shoot straight this season!
Josiah Richards
Ross Outdoors Owner
