Now, off to the range. First, make sure all your practice broadheads are balanced with the arrow. Put them on the arrow shaft and spin them. If they don’t easily spin or produce a noticeable wobble, you may need to adjust the threaded insert so it doesn’t. The only way to do this is to heat up the glue and spin the entire broadhead inside the threaded insert till there is no more wobble. Move it a little, spin, look, move it a little, spin, look. Keep doing this till there isn’t any more wobble. Now, you want to do a centershot adjustment. It’s complicated, but the idea is to get the arrow launched from a central position for consistent flight. Your bow shop can help set you up with a good starting point. Next, you’ll want to fire the arrows through some paper in a “paper test.” You can build a simple frame and shoot through newspaper, wrapping paper, etc. to see how your arrows are cutting it. What you’re looking for is one clean hole. A hole with a noticeable tear occurs when the tip of the arrow and the rear of the arrow aren’t flying in the same line – in other words, it’s wobbling. If the paper shows that the fletching hole is high or low in reference to the broadhead hole, it means that the nock point needs adjusted. If the fletching hole is to one side or the other, it means the rest needs adjusted, or that your arrow fletching is hitting the rest. Once you get these lined up at say, 20 yards, try them at 30, 40 on out to your max range. This is of course assuming your pins are close enough to get the arrow through the paper. You definitely want to practice and adjust your pins till you can get the arrow through the paper frame. The rule in adjusting your pins is to move the pin to where the arrow impacts. If the arrow is high, move the pin up. If the arrow is left, move the pin out to the left. Follow the shot. One problem I’ve seen several bowhunters have is that their sight pins are sitting at the very bottom or very top of the sight bracket. This is due to improper anchoring point when they draw the bowstring back. You must move the peep sight until the pins are centered in the sight pin bracket. This will correct your anchoring point. Once your bow is paper tuned, it’s all about practice.
Practice is very important, but it is all about technique. Know the precise range your pins are sighted in at either by paces or a rangefinder. This way, you’ll know without question where to hold on a whitetail. Practice on “in-between ranges” those which you don’t have a sight pin for. Practice elevated positions, crouching positions and so on – you never know which position you’re going to have to shoot from. Also practice with all your gear on. Make sure that camo jacket or hat isn’t interfering with your bow, otherwise you may pay for it, if not with a bad shot but perhaps a bad bruise. Don’t burn yourself out with shooting. Early on in your practice it’s fine to shoot dozens and dozens of times to build your muscles. But, as the season closes in, try shooting only a few arrows at every range. One shot should equal one kill. Good luck! |
