Archery Tips

Get a Grip

Published

2 years ago

April 11, 2020

Over the years I have become much more serious and informed on the sport of bowhunting. A bow is a piece of precision shooting equipment that must be well maintained and cared for. Shooting a bow is not as simple as just pulling back a string and letting go. Several pieces must come together for a shot to be taken consistently. The bow must be drawn in the same fashion and come to the same spot on the face, you must aim through your peep sight the same way each time, your grip must be consistent and your release should go unnoticed to you as your arrow flies.

I have always shot a Mathews bow because they have felt most comfortable to me when comparing bows at an archery shop. However, one thing I didn’t notice about Mathews until recently was, in my opinion, their poorly designed grips. Although the grip feels great in your hand, they are very large and almost make the archer torque the bow. After reading an article by Randy Ulmer about shooting off the riser, I decided to rip my grip off my bow and shoot the bow gripless. I instantly noticed that the bow was easier to shoot and my groups actually tightened up because now I had a consistent grip.Torque can be described like this. Say you have a stubborn screw that just won’t come out of this old piece of wood. You have two screw drivers to choose from one with a big fat handle and one that had the handle broken off so its just the shaft. Obviously you would choose the one with the big handle because it would allow you to apply the most force to the screw to get it out of the wood. The shaft would be hard for you to grip and put any pressure on the screw so it wouldn’t do a good job of applying any force to the screw. The reason you want a large handle on your screw driver to take the stubborn screw out is the same reason you don’t want a large grip on your bow.

That being said you have a few options. You can take your old grip off and shoot off the riser, you can take your factory grip off and wrap the riser with an insulating tape (just make sure its smooth and not rubbery otherwise it will stick to your hand and create more torque), or you can purchase an aftermarket grip. I went with the latter and have an aftermarket grip on all of my bows.

Torque Less Custom Bow Grips makes some of the best aftermarket grips for bows such as Mathews and Bowtech. The grips come in a variety of colors and styles along with custom engravings. The grips come in three different wrist positions – low, medium, and high. The medium grip is similar to a standard Mathews grip, but I went with the low wrist to mimic shooting off the riser. The nose of the grip can also come in the standard length or competition style which is longer and rests on top of your hand like a shelf. I chose the competition style nose because it allows the grip to settle into the same spot of my hand each time. After shooting a few arrows with your new group you should notice a slight tightening of your arrows. The further out you go the more noticeable the difference of your new grip will be.

If you’re having some trouble keeping your groups tight at long distances, try taking the grip off of your bow and shooting off the riser. If that works for you then you might want to consider purchasing an aftermarket grip.

Archery Tips

Keep Your Bowhunting Skills Sharp with 3D Shooting

Published

2 years ago

April 11, 2020

NYBowhunter

Over the last few weekends we’ve been headed over to Blue Mountain Sportsman Center to shoot 3D. The course has been a lot of fun to shoot. There’s several targets to shoot at including deer, turkey, bear, and fox. The terrain makes it very realistic practice for hunting with shots at inclines and declines to simulate actual hunting scenarios.

One thing I like to do is shoot from the furthest stakes and guess the yardage. Then after we all shoot we range the target to see how close we were to guessing the distance. This really helps me to learn how to judge distance in the field and is a valuable tool for when an animal catches you off guard in the field. Shooting from the furthest stakes also make the closer shots seem easier.

If you haven’t been out shooting 3D this summer then you better hurry up and get out there because hunting season will be here before you know it. Blue Mountain Sportsman Center is open Thursday – Sunday and holidays. Shooting a round of 3D costs $12 with a county park pass and is $15 without a park pass.

Archery Tips

Indoor Archery Leagues at Extreme Archery

Published

2 years ago

April 11, 2020

NYBowhunter

Team NYB will be joining the Hunter League at Extreme Archery set to begin on September 3rd. The Hunter League will be held on Fridays for 6 weeks and feature various animal targets.

We’re looking forward to participating in the league and sharpening our skills for the upcoming season. The indoor league is a great way to meet fellow archers and practice shooting under a little bit of pressure!

Here are the details on the Indoor Archery Leagues at Extreme Archery:

Kids League ($70, 8 weeks)
– begins Saturday, September 4th @ 10:00am

300 Target League ($90, 7 weeks)
– begins Wednesday, September 1st @ 6:30pm

Hunter League ($90, 6 weeks)
– begins Friday, September 3rd @ 6:30pm

Traditional League (TBD)
– call to find out more

To sign up for any of the Indoor Archery Leagues call Extreme Archery at 914-777-7500.

Extreme Archery is located at 801 East Boston Post Rd, Mamaroneck, NY 10543.

Archery Tips

How to Set the Perfect Treestand

Published

2 years ago

April 11, 2020

NYBowhunter

This is something new I’m adding to my arsenal of tricks this season to help me set the perfect stand (works for trail cams too)! It’s called the Photographer’s Ephemeris, a tool designed to help landscape photographers take the perfect picture at sunrise or sunset.

The tool allows you to pick a location, date and time to see exactly where the sun and moon will be. This allows you to follow the path of the sun and moon on any given date and at any given time.

So how does this help the hunter? Simple. It allows the hunter to find a stand location on the map and then see how the sun will rise and set during the hunting season so that the sun is never in the hunter’s eyes.

I entered the location of our lease in the program and changed the date to opening day. Where we have our stands situated is in the perfect spot with the sun rising to our right and circling behind us before setting to our left. That means if the deer are out in the hunting plot where we hope to shoot them we will have the sun behind us which will make it much harder for the deer to pick us out of the tree.

This is a great tool I will be playing around with more and more this season as I hang some tree stands over the next few weeks. Below is a video on how it works: