Years ago, I went hunting down south with a friend. He asked if I wanted to ride with him, he had a new truck and wanted to take it. I agreed and so we left about 4 AM to make the hour and a half drive down to the Management Area. There was this stretch of mature and very thick pines that we both hunted, his spot was about 300 yards from mine but both on the same side of the road.
The road ran on the ridge top so this meant that we were hunting downhill from the road. I had never been to his spot nor he to mine but we both knew the general area of the other. He shot a compound with all of the bells and whistles with of course, a release. We had been friends for a pretty good while. He had bought a Blackwidow recurve off of his brother-n-law but wasn't anywhere ready to commit to it.
So, in the dark, I got out with my things, turned on my headlamp and started down while he moved on down towards his spot. Now neither one of us had actual trails marked or cut but we knew how to find our stands. I simply made my way down to a more open area in the timber that had some rubs and scrapes. My spot allowed for about a maybe 15 yard shot in places but at least I could see a little ways.
I was in my stand soon enough and simply waiting for daylight. There was a small creek about fifty yards below me but it was a terrible mess around it. I had called this spot the Fitness Center because of the sheer number of rubs, they were everywhere and most likely made by a younger buck or bucks.
So as the dark woods slowly begin to lighten up, I can make out the rubs around me. I am pretty excited because in this management area, it is hard to find places like this. The timber is in various growth from the sections being cut (clear cut) and replanted all in pine. Yeah, the hardwood was quickly disappearing. It was a slow morning, just crows mainly but I did see a few squirrels moving around. It was maybe 8:30 when I began to hear something moving behind me and off to the side.
My first thought was hogs tearing up the place but soon I realized that it had to be a human. Now I am thinking that someone is either trying to scout now or is lost. I sit there quietly as this person keeps going thru the saw briars and blackberries as noisily as possible. I catch a glimpse every so often of a person in camo but I am sure that they don't have a bow. I can tell that he stops every so often to stare or search around. Now I am sure that he is scouting and he is about to stumble right in on top of me. But then I see his face and I know exactly who it is, the guy I rode with here. So I whistle and this stops him so I whistle again and here he comes. Now I am thinking that he shot a monster and needs my help tracking or dragging. Bill makes his way over to me as I began climbing down. Bill looks around and says, "Wow, great spot." Then he looks at me and tells me that he had lost his release on the walk to his stand. He tells me how he had searched hard up and down to the truck and back to his stand but couldn't find it.
And now he says, "Uh, I can't hunt no more so I am going home. Translation, do you want to ride back with me or walk? I quietly nod okay and off we go. I had asked him before why he clipped his release to his bow string all the time and he had told me several times how secure it was and would never come off. I use a glove and even if I lost it, I am still hunting because I can still shoot and pretty good with or without it. Yeah, it was quite a while before I rode with him again.
Hard to shoot without a release, tab, or a glove, even with a trad bow, although I could manage a shot or two in a hunting situation. Impossible, I would imagine, if you were hunting with a compound, unless the compound had long enough limbs to be set up for fingers.
Tells you a lot about a person who would ruin your hunt just because he couldn't hunt for some reason. There's always things to experience and see in the woods, particularly if you have binoculars. I don't imagine I would be hunting with him again either!
Experienced something similar in a 3D tournament one day, when I reached down for my tab and the hook it is supposed to hang on was empty! Never did find it, but fortunately someone else had an extra. Didn't shoot very well with a borrowed tab, but at least I finished the match. Ever since, I carry an extra of the type I like securely fastened to my quiver. Believe it or not, recently I was able to pay the favor forward when someone else I was shooting with lost his tab, and I loaned him my extra one.
Actually I shot a 50 pound Indian Hawkeye recurve so much bowfishing bare fingered that I got pretty good like that. I can still shoot bare fingered just not a lot. Bill had to order a new release and went ahead and got two of them. a few years later he had switched to trad for several years. Me, I pretty much went by myself or was the one driving after that. I would have just sat in my stand even if I couldn't hunt so that I wouldn't mess up the other person.
I always carry an extra armguard and several tabs. It seems natural to carry extras since it is very easy to misplace these items. I also carry extra camo gloves and face cover. I learned this the hard way.
Years ago, My good friend, and Tradgang Brother "adkmountainken" would have an "Adirondack Attack"
at his Mom's place in Rockwood NY. A bunch of us would get together for a weekend of hunting, and just roaming the mountain. We loaded our gear in a few vehicles and drove to the parking area where the road/trail heads up the mountain. All of the boys headed up the mountain in the dark. Now I have hunted the Adirondack mountains for years. (with a rifle) Sometimes MILES back in. I have never attempted navigate the woods at night, and have spent more than a few nights in the woods because it got dark before I could get out.
My reason...?? I have NEVER broke a leg "back in" and I never plan to....
So, long story short... I hike up the mountain. I sit my spot on a rock ledge for a few hours. Wander around the top for a couple more. Go back to the rock ledge to sit untill it starts to get dark. The sun was getting low, when I started to slowly still hunt my way down the mountain. Just before dusk, a young Black Bear come down off the bank of the old log road, crossed the road and up the other bank. From the top of the other bank, he stopped, and looked at me... I had gotten an arrow on the string, and was starting to draw....
Huh....?? I had forgotten my glove!!! Hunted the entire day, and never noticed.
Moral of the story...?? NEVER, let a missing piece of gear, ruin a great hunt!!! :archer:
yeah, the school of hard knocks is usually one that you don't forget. Like extra batteries or even another light. A lot of guys never think of having an extra already broken in ready to go right now bow string but it can be a hunt saver. A guy asked me if I had a toilet problem because I always had a couple rolls of TP in my pack. I explained that it was also a tracking aid.
I will go ya one better. I rode with a guy that once left the truck and climbed his tree and realized he left his bow on the hood of the car. He climbed the tree before he realized it wasn't attached. SMH
Had a friend do something similar when I lived in Wisconsin. He was using a Compound at the time. We went out for a morning sit on his farm. When we met back at the house for breakfast he was mad as he had left his release on the table. He had a Pope & Young class buck come in and work a scrap near his stand. He missed him twice with fingers.
I wiggled my fingers at him and said "I never leave these at home". He switched to trad shortly after.
Try to remember to put an AL glove in my haversack, have an extra tab carabiner'd to the strap and one on my hand. If these all fail an nylon camo glove works fine.
:campfire: :coffee: :archer2: :campfire:
A little off the subject, but I have a friend I've been mentoring in traditional archery. I gave him one of my old Black Widow tabs, which he's been using since he got started. The Black Widow tab he's using is getting worn out, and he mentioned to me that he would be ordering another one soon. I took the occasion to let him borrow my spare Safari Tuff tab that I keep on my quiver, in case he liked that better. He did, so he planned to order that instead, only to find out that they're selling for $60 now! Can you imagine? I guess I'll have to start locking my tab in my safe at night, and decide which one of my children I want to will it to 😁
$45 plus shipping from safarituff, McDave.
That would suck to ruin a hunt like that!
Quote from: varmint101 on August 23, 2022, 12:27:35 PM
$45 plus shipping from safarituff, McDave.
Thanks for the tip! Exactly as you said. Should have gone directly to the source from the get go. $45 is $10 more than I originally paid for the tab when it first came out, but I'm not shocked to pay $10 more these days. Paying almost twice as much is shocking. In this period of high inflation, I see many instances of wild price variations from place to place, and now more than ever, it pays to shop around.
My first couple of compound bows had long axle to axle length and I always practiced with fingers even after I went to a release. First archery deer I shot with fingers from a compound. Todays short bows make it very difficult to do so.
Still, I've left my glove at camp once a had a backup. It was a tab but useable for short range.
Equipment issues happen. Had a Tall Tines limb fold in a shot at a deer.
However interrupting a buddy's hunt cause you screwed up is just bad form.
I had a couple of compounds back in the 80's but I always shot fingers. I tried a release once but I didn't like it.
I used a glove in those days but I wouldn't want to be without my glove when I got a shot at a deer.
What's a "release"?
JMC
Quote from: John Cholin on September 01, 2022, 12:58:22 PM
What's a "release"?
JMC
"A release" (noun) is any of a number of mechanical gadgets the shooter can hold in his hand that hooks on the string and has some kind of trigger that the shooter actuates in order to fire the arrow. These are primarily used by compound shooters. The release is a link in the chain of force used to draw the bow, starting with the back muscles and ending with whatever kind of hook the device uses to hold the string.
"To release" (verb) primarily applies to shooters who hold the string in their fingers, and is the act of letting go of the string to fire the arrow. Most traditional shooters hold the string in their fingers, but some compound shooters do also. A very few traditional shooters use a mechanical release.
I never head out without double checking my pack and I don't mind carrying extra items as well. I might lose a tab but I'm positive I have one in the pack as well. One time I forgot my armguard, ended up using some electrical tape to keep my sleeve tight to my arm.
Gee, I thought a release was that thing I do very poorly when shooting a bow.
When I first got into archery hunting I used a compound bow, and started by using fingers with a glove. But....The compound bows were much longer in those days. but even still ....pulling 65-70# is a bit tough on the fingers. After the first years I went up in draw weight to 80, 90, and even 100# draw weights, and a release aid was pretty much mandatory to draw that much weight without tearing up your finger. I chose a mechanical trigger release for hunting.
Release aids are as old as archery itself. So you can't say they are not traditional. Thumb rings made from ivory, or even just a simple leather strap or cords were used centuries ago for heavy draw weight bows.
Getting back to the original post here.... I not only forgot my release one time, but left both my back up release aids at home in a small equipment pack, and had travelled far into the mountains for a week long trip before realizing it.
At the time I was using an 84# bow, and using fingers alone was not an option at all. This bow had a double prong rest and was shooting completely center shot. You could not draw the bow with fingers without pulling the arrow off the rest.
So here I setting in my hunting camp 4 -5 hours drive from civilization, scratching my head and basically cussing my stupidity. But I refused to give up and go back. So I improvised.... I cut a piece of leather from an old belt I had with me for a wrist strap, and used extra boot laces to fashion a rope release.
For those of you not familiar with a rope release aid, its simply a loop of rope , or small cord that wraps around the bow string and comes back to a hook or just held with your thumb and fingers. These rope release aids are very popular for target competitors and used with back tension for very consistent results.
But the one I built in hunting camp was rather crude by comparison, but I could shoot accurately with it and went on to harvest a small bull elk using it 3 days into my hunt.
Improvisation is the Mother of necessity..... Kirk
Anyone who is very serious should be practicing with gear and doing the same practice without gear,,, i chucked the armguard years ago because i forgot it once and now thats not a worry anymore but i practice with a glove on and without s glove,,,, i know that im good out to 25yds with my glove but if i forget it then i set my stand up for a 15yd shot or wait for a 15yd shot...
ive soaked my fletching in water and shot my arrows soaking wet and im bareshaft tuned but they drop faster i know i need to look 4" high at 25yds! I change my strings but wrap up the old string and that gets attached to my quiver its matched to that bow with a nock and silencers in case i nick the string on my bow....
I try to come up with any scenario that can ruin my hunt,,, like load my truck the night before i go,,,,,,, i once drove 127 miles from mass to New Hampshire only to realize I forgot my bow!!!! Because i was scrambling with everything else,,, now i make sure i have that bow..
Kirk, that's what I'm talking about.
I keep a bunch of stuff in my truck to hopefully overcome most challenges I may encounter while out.
Never had any equipment issues but my best friend I took on an elk hunt lost it he said he didn't want to hunt the third day of a 10 day hunt I came back around noon camp was packed up he was sitting in the truck said he was done. I could see he wasn't doing well loaded my gear drove 13 hours home. He didn't talked to me for three years because he thought he let me down, he was suffering for PTSD he was a Vietnam vet we hunted a lot after that hunt he never hunted again. I tried to get him to go.
On the hunt to Sofala I had a situation one morning where I was told to be ready at 7am. About 6:15 I was told to load up. Got to the blind and realized my glove was on my rack. Just happened to be the blind and morning the wildebeest showed up.
I made the shot bare fingered although not perfect it was adequate.
I was hunting the national forest down state and my hunting buddy noticed his string was done. He didn't have a spare and I didn't have string makings with me. We spent the better part of a hunting day trying to find a string for his longbow. Oh, we were in his car and we couldn't charge our phones. These were old flip phone with no internet or anything. With my last ruminants of a charge I was calling my wife at home and she was calling around looking for a string. We ended up driving to Louisville, KY Cabela's.
Oh my, how we forget...boy scouts moto.
"Be Prepared"!!!
A hunting check list can save a lot of grief and let downs and help us forgetful hunters.
I have used bare fingers before and was able to take a young Buck that night. I couldn't shoot all the time like that but one or two shots should not be to hard to do. This was out of necessity but it's doable.