Spring is in the air and the arrows should be also.  Ladies and gentlemen, winter has released its cold grip on us and now is the perfect time to start strengthening up your bow muscles, and extending your max range.



 During the first part of this spring I would suggest that you shoot a lot of arrows and get your muscles back to peak pulling strength also.  If you can’t go out and practice then just do this exercise.

 Take a round weight that corresponds or is at least close to the same weight of your bow or the weight that you want to be pulling at the end of the year.      

Use the round weight and take a strong rope with a handle or tie the end of the rope to form a handle. Insert the rope through the circular weight. Next, hold the end of the rope with the handle and drape the weight over a sturdy structure at chest height. Once you are set up use the handle and pretend to draw your bow.  The weight hanging over the structure will act as the draw weight of the bow; this will simulate drawing back and can be a good way to strengthen your bow muscles.  Once, the feeling in your arm is back to normal it’s time to extend your max range.

 What I like to do to accomplish this is take a normal size paper plate and tape it to your target. The reason I do this is because that plate is about the size of a deer’s vitals. Pace yourself back about twenty yards and take three to five arrows then begin to shoot at the plate.  Once your hitting the plate with all arrows step back five yards. Continue at this exercise until you begin to miss.  This will give you your maximum range.  You should be responsible and not take a shot past this range while hunting. As the year and time moves and spring begins to turn to fall practice often.  Consider every shot a kill shot at a live animal. Ten to fifteen arrows should suffice for a days practice.



You should be ready to head to the woods after this spring training. Heed these tips and you will see increases in your draw strength and your accuracy. also like gordy explained in the vid its often helpfull to practice from elivation this will help get you shooting the right angles from a tree stand.

Good Hunting and God bless
Ryan

Stick and String Sunday   
  This week on stick and string Sunday we will be discussing a part of your bow that you may think isn’t worth its weight, your stabilizer.  I’m here to tell you that it is. If you’ve ever watched a 3-d shooting competition then no doubt you’ve noticed the huge stabilizer bars sticking out of so many places on their bows.  They look like porcupines.

    

 Now while this is great for 3-d shooters it’s neither necessary nor practical for the weekend warrior in pursuit of whitetail or turkey.  However a small stabilizer is defiantly a good idea for a couple of reasons: first of all it reduces vibrations making the bow far less forgiving and also much louder.   These days’ people use many kinds of accessories to accomplish this task and sure they work but nothing will give you as good of results as a nice stabilizer.

    

     If you’re just getting into archery my best advice is to watch someone with good form.  One of the things you should notice is that after the shot the bow tilts forward.   The archers that have this effect aren’t specifically due to the stabilizer, the sights and rest also adds to the weight on the front of the bow.   The stabilizer is a big cause for this tilt.  If your bow is balanced you should never feel it tip back into your body instead it should go forward with the top cam pointing to the target. This will also insure that you don’t move to quick after the shot.  Remember these aren’t guns, even today’s bows lob arrows very slow compared to a gun.  Any movement directly following the shot can cause poor arrow flight. Weighting for your top limb to point to the target before resetting is very important.



Well ya'll, I hope this has showed you the importance of a stabilizer in the woods and in competition

Good Shooting and God bless

Ryan

           
How to Blood Trailing 101

 

Losing a wounded game animal is the most heart wrenching part of this sport we love. It can bring the most seasoned hunter to a weeks’ worth of restless nights.

 

 One way to keep these tragedies from accruing is to become the best blood tracker in the woods. After losing my first potential bow kills and after two days of frantic searching, the trail ran cold. As ashamed as I am to admit it, that experience pushed me to spend time lost in the woods and buried in books. Books such as the Beniote’s Family Hunting, these books are tailored to deer trailing not necessary blood trailing, tracking in general.

 

 Now to the meat of this post: learning to recognize the signs left by game animals especially white tails.

 

The first thing you should know is that the blood you see can tell you a lot about your shot placement. If you see dark pure blood the odds are good your shot hit the heart and the deer will go down soon. If the blood has partials in it than it was probably a gut shot.  This is bad news; give the deer a day if the weather permits then take up the trail.

 

 If the blood is dark and oily then you struck the liver, again a day’s wait is the best approach to finding the deer. If blood is bright red and has bubbles in it then it’s a good shot that means you got the lungs. So, give it a couple of hours depending on the trail then go find your deer.

 

Start by:  mentally marking the last place you saw the deer, odds are that mark will be the first place you see blood. Something important to remember is to not just keep your focus on the ground, keep looking around and look for the path of least resistance, Also the hunter staring at his boots the whole time will never see his wounded deer hop up and walk away.  Blood signs are also left in other places rather than the ground such as trees, low shrubs and other things that the deer might have brushed up against in his escape.

 

Not much blood no worries. Use the tracks, look for slides this means the deer was on a full sprint, and may have run for a while.   Your arrow can also tell you a lot about where you hit the dear.  Hydrogen peroxide? Yes hydrogen peroxide can be used to help blood trail your game. By using an old Windex bottle full of the product you can spray it on the blood.  It will begin to bubble and you’ll be able to determine what is blood and what is just the red fall leaves. Well I hope this helps eliminate the heartache caused by losing your prize game,

 As always

Good Hunting and God Bless,

Ryan

 

     

how to make deer jerky

Deer season just ended and if you were fortunate enough to tag one, be it a large buck or small doe, this recipe will work wonders and impress all who taste it. Of course I'm talking about deer jerky a favorite snack amongst outdoors men and women. This is one of my favorite recipes in my entire jerky making arsenal and I'm sure you and your family will love it.





Sweet Island bbq Jerky



First take your venison beef or even turkey out of the freezer and let it thaw until most of ice is gone. If it remains somewhat frozen it will be easier to cut.


Cut the jerky into 3 to 4 inch strips about a 1/4 an inch thick. The thicker the meat the longer the dehydrating process will be. Remember 3 pounds of meat will only make a pound and a half of jerky.


Begin the marinade by combining 1 cup worcestershire sauce and a half a cup of soy sauce into a large bowl.


Next mix a half cup of bbq sauce in with your mixture, Sweet Baby Rays works great.


Now this is where the recipe got its name. Take a cup of pineapple juice and pineapple chunks and add them into the bowl.


Cut a sweet onion in half and dice one half of it into the mix.

If your eyes are watering too much to be able to see then give the cutting a break why lose a finger?
Stir in 2 table spoons of brown sugar.

(At this point if your house doesn't smell amazing you have really bad allergies)


Add 1 table spoon of minced garlic to the mix along with a dash of dry mustard.


You don't want this to be a scorching spicy hot recipe however if you like some heat then stir in 1 teaspoonful of chili powder. (Optional)


If you have a smoker you can go that route, however; I find Collagen’s liquid smoke works well. Just add a couple dashes to the mix then whiff the marinade, how much smoke you use is really a preference thing.


Throw in 2 dashes of burger seasoning, Famous Dave's is good stuff, and add paprika and cayenne to taste


This is a fairly long recipe but I guarantee you will never think about store bought jerky the same again once you've let the jerky marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator place the strips of meat on the dehydrator trays and let it sit for 8 to 12 hours.

Some people swear that eating the meat straight off the dehydrator is fine after 12 hours but I prefer to dehydrate it for 8 hours and then pop into the oven for a short stay, (10-15 mon.) on 200 degrees. It has a better texture.


We’ll ya’ll hope you enjoy the jerky if you try the recepe send me a comment and let me know what you thought as always

Good hunting and God bless,

Ryan